Past News Items

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior will continue to process eligible pending applications for gaming on Indian lands while it consults and collaborates with tribal leaders in a comprehensive review of federal Indian gaming policy, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk said today.

Interior Solicitor Leo M. Krulitz announced today that a tentative agreement has been reached on a proposed legislative settlement which would give the Cayuga Indian Nation a 548l-acre reservation and an $8 million trust fund in return for extinguishment of the Nation's claim to 64,000 acres in Seneca and Cayuga Counties New York.

"I am delighted to report that all parties to the negotiations--the Cayuga Nation, the State of New York and the Departments of Agriculture and 1nterior--have worked out an agreement on the Cayuga claim," said Krulitz.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today petitioned the Federal Power Commission for leave to intervene in the pending application by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Montana, to compel the Montana Power Company to maintain proper amortization reserves at its Kerr Project on the Flathead River in Montana.

Secretary Udall said the Tribes have charged the Company is failing to maintain amortization reserves in the manner required by the Federal Power Act and the license.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk expressed their deepest condolences to the family and friends of Wilma Mankiller, the former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, who passed away today, praising her as a dynamic and visionary leader dedicated to the wellbeing and betterment of her tribal community.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will establish a new Office of Technical Assistance and Training at Brigham City, Utah, on the campus of the BIA ­operated Intermountain Indian School.

Sixty-seven Indian children found adoptive homes in 1966 through the Indian Adoption Project of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America. It was a record year for the project, which is conducted by the two agencies in cooperation with State and local welfare services and voluntary agencies.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today took action on two tribal gaming applications from tribes in Michigan and New York.

The Assistant Secretary approved a proposed gaming facility in Marquette County, Mich., determining it would be in the best interest of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has appointed Bernard W. Topash as the field representative for the Siletz Indian Tribe, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The position is a newly created office to serve the Oregon Indians who were accorded federally-recognized tribal status by legislation passed November 18, 1977.

Topash, a Snohomish and Potawatomi Indian, has been Administrative Manager of the BIA's Fort Hall Agency in Idaho.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the recent reassignment of three officials to posts in its field installations.

Fred H. Massey, Assistant Commissioner in the Bureau's Washington, D.C., central office, has been temporarily assigned as acting area director for the Bureau's Anadarko, Okla., area office. He will fill the post left vacant by the assignment of Leslie P. Towle, former area director, to the Portland, Ore., area office. The assignment, which is for an indefinite period, became effective January 29.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Michael S. Black today announced that he has named Sharon A. Pinto as regional director of the BIA’s Navajo Regional Office in Gallup, N.M. Pinto, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, had been serving as the regional deputy director since October 28, 2007, and as the acting regional director since May 4, 2011.