Past News Items

The Potawatomi Indians of Kansas now have a tribal constitution. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson gave formal approval February 19 to the document ratified in an election by the tribe on February 2.

The tribe has been without any form of tribal government since 1972 - and without an effective government for even longer. The new constitution provides for the prompt election of a tribal council and officers and is expected to meet the needs of the tribe for a sound governmental system.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the Department of the Interior disbursed, or paid out, $12.15 billion in revenue generated from energy production on public lands and offshore areas in Fiscal Year 2012 – a $1 billion increase over the previous year, and in line with increased production taking place across the country. The revenues were distributed to state, federal, and tribal accounts, providing important funding and supporting critical reclamation, conservation and preservation projects.

The President's 1987 budget request of $923.7 million in appropriations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) puts new emphasis on the concepts of Indian self-determination and tribal self-government through the introduction of a new line item category for tribal/agency operations, putting almost one-third of the total BIA budget under more direct control of the tribes.

The Department of the Interior has approved a contract between three New Mexico Pueblos and the Pojoaque Valley Irrigation District to operate and maintain a proposed dam and reservoir in northern New Mexico, Marvin L Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, announced today.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced today a policy addressing the ability of members of federally recognized Indian tribes to possess or use eagle feathers, an issue of great cultural significance to many tribes and their members. Attorney General Eric Holder signed the new policy after extensive department consultation with tribal leaders and tribal groups. The policy covers all federally protected birds, bird feathers and bird parts.

Reduced Federal participation in Indian affairs was established as the goal of national policy and progress toward this objective was achieved along many lines during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1953, according to annual report of Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay released today.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton in a statement issued today urged support of legislation to restore the terminated Menominee Indians of Wisconsin to Federal status as Indians.

Marvin Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary for Indian Affairs, testified today before the Indian Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs in support of H.R. 7421, the Menominee Restoration Act.

The text of Secretary Morton's statement follows:

Portland, Ore. — The fifth and final in a series of listening sessions will be held on the morning of Tuesday, August 28, 2012. The Obama Administration recognizes that the protection of sacred sites on federal lands is integral to traditional religious practices, tribal identities and emblematic of sovereign tribal nations.

The aim of the present Administration in the field of Indian affairs is not to "detribalize" the Indian or deprive him of his identity but to give him a wider range of choice and a greater opportunity for fulfilling his own potentialities than he has previously enjoyed, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay emphasized today in making public a letter he wrote November 30 to Oliver La Farge, president of the Association on American Indian Affairs, Inc.

Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today made public his remarks to Mrs. Robert Jim on the passing of her husband Robert Jim, Chairman of the Yakima Indian Tribe, Washington, member of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, and the National Tribal Chairman’s Association.