Past News Items

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown said today the President's fiscal year 1992 budget request of $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) builds upon the foundation established last year by President Bush and Secretary Lujan to reform the deli very of key social, financial, and natural resources programs to American Indians.

A public hearing to receive comments on the environmental impact of proposed uranium mining on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in Montezuma County, Colorado, has been scheduled for April 30. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' agency conference room in Towaoc, Colorado.

Notice of the availability of a draft environmental impact statement, prepared by the Department of the Interior, was published in the Federal Register March 28. Notice of the hearing was published March 31.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) is proud to announce that Christopher Harrington, a member of the Comanche Nation in Oklahoma and a SIPI staff member, has been selected to receive a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship grant to Pakistan. Harrington is the chairperson of the Department of Liberal Arts and Business Education. He was selected by the presidentially appointed 12-member J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has reached an agreement with Dr. Gerald Gipp, President of Haskell Indian Junior College which resolves the BIA inquiry into allegations against Dr. Gipp.

Final regulations governing the administration of the Indian Loan Guaranty and Insurance fund have been published in the Federal Register by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON– Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke directed all Department of the Interior bureaus, superintendents, and land managers at all levels to adopt more aggressive practices, using the full authority of the Department, to prevent and combat the spread of catastrophic wildfires through robust fuels reduction and pre-suppression techniques.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Ken Smith, and Federal Highway Administrator Ray A. Barnhart today signed a working agreement on the use of $375 million of Federal highway funds for Indian reservations.

The agreement outlines procedures for the approval of projects, provision of technical assistance, application of Indian preference in hiring, certification standards and other details.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerrard, said today that the Department has initiated action to establish order in the administration and government of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in Northern California. Gerard said that long-standing disagreements about the unity of the reservation and the persons entitled to the use and benefit of the reservation had created an "unfortunate situation which is detrimental to both the Hoopa and Yurok Indians and has severely impeded the proper management of government of the reservation."

TO: Indian Country Reporters
FROM: U.S. Dept. of the Interior Communications Office
DATE: December 2016
RE: U.S. Department of the Interior Tribal Nations Accomplishments

Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will begin a nationwide tour to highlight the progress the nation has made over the last eight years on public lands, waters and wildlife management and restoring nation-to-nation relationships with Native Americans.

Cuts in federal funding for Indian education programs cannot be allowed to affect the quality of education being provided to young people, Kenneth L. Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said today.

Addressing the National Indian Education Association conference in Portland, Oregon, Smith said budget reductions are coming and Indian education would have to shoulder its share.