Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced a landmark agreement to allow construction on the Animas-La Plata water project in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the endangered fish species in the San Juan Basin will be protected by the water releases from the Navajo Reservoir. In addition, there will be a recovery program for the endangered fish species.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13--A group of Native American leaders, brought together through the National American Indian Council, today announced their plans to purchase the historic Willard Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue from its New York owners for $7 million.

The building will become national headquarters for NAIC an umbrella organization representing 800,000 American Indians through 1,500 local and regional groups. Other Native American groups also will have offices there.

Washington, D.C. - OMB Director Richard Darman and Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that, effective immediately, all adjustments associated with the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) accounting and financial management system must be reviewed by a special management team established by the Department of the Interior (DOI). Further, Darman and Lujan announced the establishment of a plan to improve management at the BIA.

Nominations for members of a special committee to advise the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on administration of Indian trust responsibilities are now being accepted, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The Advisory Committee on Trust Responsibilities will render advice with respect to water rights, real property rights of every kind and nature, and personal property rights wherein the United States has a trust responsibility to an Indian tribe, band, or community.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs John Tahsuda today announced his approval of land leasing codes for 10 tribes in seven states. Today’s action brings to 39 the number of federally recognized tribes whose land leasing regulations have been approved by the Department of the Interior in accordance with the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (HEARTH) Act.

Washington, DC--Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that President Bush intends to nominate Frank A. Bracken as Under Secretary of the Interior Department. Currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ball-InCon Glass Packaging Corporation in Muncie, Indiana, Bracken will assume his post at Interior upon confirmation by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Van A. Peters as Superintendent of the Stewart Indian School, Stewart, Nevada.

Peters, a member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada, has been a school principal in Elko County, Nevada since 1972. He was previously a teacher and athletic director in Reedsport, Oregon.

A United States Army veteran, Peters earned both his B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Nevada.

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke applauded the efforts of a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) K-9 Police Officer who recently took more than 17 pounds of deadly drugs off the streets. The BIA officer was monitoring vehicle traffic on Interstate 25 on the San Felipe Pueblo Indian Reservation when he conducted a traffic stop resulting in the arrest of an individual, and the seizure of approximately 15.9 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.25 pounds of heroin.

Interior Secretary James Watt approved on April 4 a coal mining agreement between the Crow Indian Tribe of Montana and the Shell Oil Company.

Under the agreement Shell will begin mining an estimated 210 million tons of coal from a 2,560 acre tract in the Youngs Creek area of the Crow reservation.

Jack R. Ridley, a Washoe-Shoshone Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Tribal Resources Development in Washington, D.C., Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today

Ridley has served as Director of the Center for Native American Development at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho since 1977.