Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel announced today the creation of a pilot training program for Indian policemen. Training will take place at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Roswell Employment Training Center, operated by the Thiokol Chemical Corp., at Roswell, N.M.

"This program will improve the basic skills of policemen serving Indian areas and thereby increase protection given Indian citizens. It also will help improve efficiency in the wide range of public service activities traditionally performed by police officers," Hickel said.

WASHINGTON – This week, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney issued two separate decisions taking lands into trust for the Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria and the Catawba Indian Nation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced that President Bush’s Special Assistant for Domestic Policy, Aquiles F. Suarez, and Jennifer Farley, the White House Associate Director for Inter-Governmental Affairs, will join Interior Secretary Gale Norton in leading a host of Federal speakers at the National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies to be held September 16-19, 2002 in Phoenix, Ariz. Also representing the Department will be Assistant Secretary McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Finance Nina Hatfield.

Almost a year has elapsed since I last visited Alaska and met with many of you. It has been an eventful one during which you have made some notable progress.

While I welcome the opportunity to be with you, I regret that there must be a vacant chair at the head table because of the passing of Dr. Henry S. Forbes.

Originally Published by: The Cherokee Phoenix

By: Tara Katuk Sweeney, U.S. Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs

WASHINGTON - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced that he has signed a reconsidered final determination which declines to acknowledge the Chinook Indian Tribe / Chinook Nation (formerly the Chinook Indian Tribe, Inc.) of Chinook, Washington, as an Indian tribe for federal purposes. This decision concludes that the Chinook petitioner did not demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria to be acknowledged as a tribe with a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported today that 119 Indian children were placed for adoption during 1967 through the Indian Adoption Project. The program is sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America.

The number of children placed in 1967 almost doubled that of the previous year and compares with a total of 400 children placed during the nine years of the cooperative project program.

WASHINGTON - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his selection of Jeanette Hanna, currently Director of Planning, Budget and Management Support for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as his choice to be the new director of the Bureau's Eastern Oklahoma Regional Office located in Muscogee, Okla. The appointment is effectively immediately.

­A test group of young teacher interns -- most of them Indians and all of them undergraduates -- is breaking new ground to find ways that will motivate Indian pupils to stay in school and learn more.

In the process, the.20 interns are developing ideas that may stimulate more young people like themselves to stay in college, complete their teacher training, and go out and teach more Indian children,

What they and their professional mentors learn as they go along may prove to be valuable to disadvantaged non-Indians facing similar problems.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has received $2.1 billion in funding for FY2001, a 15% increase over FY2000, the largest increase in several years. The BIA administers programs for and provides services to federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and individuals. BIA programs receiving significant increases include new school construction, trust fund management and law enforcement.