Past News Items

A new "exemplary" Indian school, set up to pioneer new teaching techniques; will open this fall at Concho, Okla., Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.

The 256 pupil boarding school, to be operated.in a new $2.5 million building complex, will be used to develop new educational method's' to overcome the cultural and linguistic differences which often handicap Indian children in a traditional learning experience, Bennett said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will celebrate its 175th Anniversary tomorrow, Friday, September 8, 2000, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) at the U.S. Department of the Interior headquarters, 1849 ‘C’ Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the Sydney R. Yates Auditorium with the theme “Reconciling the Past, Trusting the Future: A Renewed Commitment to Indian Tribes for the 21st Century.” The program will include a discussion on the BIA’s past, present, and future.

The internationally famous exhibition of American Indian arts and crafts which was shown in Europe at International Festivals of the Arts in both Edinburgh, Scotland and Berlin, West Germany, is to have a Latin-American tour, starting this spring.

The exhibit has also been shown in London, England; Ankara, Turkey; Santa Fe, N.M.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Alaska, during last year's centennial there.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announces that the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians of Dudley, Massachusetts does not exist as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. This notice is based on a determination that the petitioner does not satisfy criteria 83.7(a), 83.7(b), and 83.7(c) of 25 CFR Part 83 and therefore, does not meet the requirements for government-to-government relationship with the United States. Criterion Part 83.7(a) requires that the petitioner have been identified as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will prepare a roll of Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin who are entitled to share in the distribution of over $1 million in judgment funds awarded these Emigrant New York Indians by the Indian Claims Commission, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Emigrant New York Indians are those Indians who voluntarily left the New York area for Wisconsin in the 1800's. They include the Oneida Tribe and the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Community of Wisconsin.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs received a prestigious Government Information Technology Agency Award from Government Computer News for the development of the Trust Assets Accounting Management System, or TAAMS. Government Computer News, a trade magazine for the Information Technology industry dealing with the United States Government issues awards annually for excellence in information resources management to federal agency organizations in the application of information technology to improve service delivery.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that, in keeping with a Congressional directive, a proposed bill to end Federal supervision over the Seneca Nation of Indians of New York has been sent to the Congress.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today thanked both Congress and President Clinton for approving a land claims settlement act that awards approximately $70 million to five Ottawa and Chippewa tribes of Michigan.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced appointment of George W. Hubley, Jr., Director of the Maryland Department of Economic Development, to the post of Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

I am sad to announce that Mr. Thomas Richard Tippeconnic passed away on April 7, 1997 at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. He was an Assistant Area Director for the Navajo Area Office, before retiring from the Bureau of Indian Affairs after 35 years of service. He spent most of his adult life working on the Navajo reservation.

He was born on February 10, 1937 in Phoenix, Arizona and was a member of the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma. Mr. Tippeconnic earned a bachelors degree in Range Management from Oklahoma State University.