Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced a new Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS) program to assist federally recognized tribal social services agencies seeking to place children in safe homes.

During the many years I have worked in the Bureau of Indian Affairs I have witnessed many phases and much progress in service to Indian people. I believe that no era is as exciting or potentially beneficial to Indians as that of the "70's".

Timber harvest and sales on Indian reservations set records in the fiscal year which ended June 30, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Annual receipts from stumpage sales totaled $14.3 million, nearly $2 million over the previous fiscal year. The volume harvested was approximately 848 million board-feet, an increase of 100 million board-feet over fiscal 1965, the Bureau said.

An additional 100 million board-feet was cut by Indians under free permits for fuel and home and farm use.

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service has proposed to modify the regulation governing the gathering of plants in national parks. The rule would allow members of federally recognized Indian tribes with traditional associations to areas within specific units of the National Park System to gather and remove plants or plant parts for traditional purposes.

For Alaskans--- and for the millions of Americans throughout the 50 states who have been frustrated over the years in trying to do something positive, progressive and fair for America’s first citizens, this should be considered a great victory.

Will Rogers, Jr. will join the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a consu1tanton-call, Commissioner Robert L. Bennett announced today.

The actor, who is part Cherokee Indian and a native of Oklahoma, now resides in Beverly Hills, Calif., and calls Tubac, Ariz. his second home. He served one term in the U. S. House of Representatives from the Beverly Hills district in 1942-44.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request for Indian Affairs, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), is $2.9 billion – a $323.5 million, or 12 percent increase from the FY2015 enacted level.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today addressed a group of 21 teachers of Indians from 14 states who were attending a workshop in environmental education at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington D. C., and Catoctin National Park Maryland.

LOWER BRULE INDIANS TO BE TRAINED--The CalDak Electronics Corporation of Pierre, S. D., recently negotiated a $6,950 contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide on-the-job training for a group of South Dakota Indians. The trainees, 16 Sioux from the Lower Brule Reservation, will learn to assemble electronics components while employed in the company's plant on their reservation. The opportunity to learn while earning is a part of the Bureau's employment assistance program aimed at expanding job opportunities for reservation Indians.

The Indian Health Service and the Department of the Interior will hold ten tribal listening sessions across Indian Country to seek input on how the agencies can most effectively work within American Indian and Alaska Native communities to prevent suicide. American Indians and Alaska Natives have a suicide rate 72 percent higher than the general U.S. population.

“We are very concerned by the ongoing tragedy of suicide in Indian Country,” said IHS Director Yvette Roubideaux, M.D., M.P.H. “We know the consequences of suicide are devastating to our families and tribal communities.”