Past News Items

The first step in a "pilot" operation to test the feasibility of contracting for food service in Indian Bureau schools will begin at Cherokee Agency, Cherokee, N. C., on January 17 when Cleaves Food Service, Washington, D. C., takes over the job of providing noonday lunches at the five schools under the agency, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Anson A. Baker, an enrolled member of the Mandan-Hidatsa Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Blackfeet Agency at Browning, Montana, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Baker has been Superintendent the past three years at the Fort Berthold Agency in North Dakota. He was previously Superintendent of the Crow and Fort Peck agencies in Montana.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the American Indian College Fund has been selected to administer the student Scholarship Fund authorized by the Cobell Settlement, with a fifth of the annual scholarships to be awarded by the American Indian Graduate Center. Secretary Salazar is also seeking nominations for two of the members who will serve on the Board of Trustees that oversees the educational fund.

Promotion of Harry L. Stevens from the position of superintendent, Papago Indian Agency, Sells, Arizona, to assistant area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Phoenix, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Albert M. Hawley, reservation principal at San Carlos Agency, San Carlos, Ariz., succeeds Stevens at Papago.

William G. Demmert will be Director of Indian Education Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Demmert, who is part Tlingit and part Oglala Sioux, is well known in the Indian community as a top administrator of Indian education programs in the Department of Health, education, and Welfare. He is the first Deputy Commissioner of Indian education in the United States Office of education (USOE), a position created in 1972 by the Indian education Act (P.L. 92-318).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today issued the following statement on the passing of United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye:

“Senator Inouye was a remarkable man who served his country at a time of its greatest peril during World War II and later as a distinguished member of Congress. His endurance of racial prejudice made him a champion of human rights and dignity – a hallmark of his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will make a further study of the hospitalization of Indians of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming next September if the Bureau is then still responsible for the Indian health program. Under the provisions of H.R. 303, now under active consideration by Congress, responsibilities for Indian health protection would be transferred from the Bureau to the United States Public Health Service.

Appointment of a four member Ad Hoc Hearings and Appeals Board to decide appeals as to qualifications of Village Corporations and other matters under appeals as to qualifications of Village Corporations and other matters under Interior Rogers C. B. Morton.

Chairman of the Board, which will be headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, will be Judith M. Brady, 32, of Anchorage; Alaska. Mrs. Brady has been editor of the Alaska Native Management Report published by the Alaska Native Foundation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs will be holding tribal consultation sessions on Oct. 29 and 30 and Nov. 1 and 9, 2012, to seek comments and suggestions from tribal leaders in preparation for the Interior Department’s 2013 American Indian Population and Labor Force Report. The sessions will provide an opportunity for tribal leaders to provide their views on the report’s scope, data, and methodology. Four consultation sessions will take place: three in person and one via a national teleconference.

Clyde W. Pensoneau, a member of the Indian Bureau staff at the Colorado River Agency, Parker, Arizona, will become superintendent of the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Arizona, on May 23, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.