Past News Items

ALBUQUERQUE – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson says the planned construction of the new National Indian Programs Training Center here is part of an ongoing effort to improve the delivery of federal services to Indian country. Assistant Secretary Anderson joined New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility and a separate dedication of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices on the Albuquerque site as the Pete V. Domenici Indian Affairs Building.

John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945, has been named to receive the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor the Department of the Interior can bestow. The award will be presented by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash, acting as the personal emissary of Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, in a ceremony at Mr. Collier's home in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, on May 4, his 80th birthday.

Historic strides have been taken in Federal Indian policy in the last five years.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will join Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and local inner-city youth as they participate in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 14th Annual Kids Fishing Day being held June 5 starting at 9:00 a.m. (CDT) at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington, Minn. The event at Minnesota Valley NWR, which has been extremely popular for 13 years, kicks off National Fishing Week and promotes outdoor recreation, national wildlife refuges and the sport of fishing.

OLSON APPOINTED UNITED PUEBLOS AGENCY SUPERINTENDENT IN NEW MEXICO Appointment of Walter O. Olson as superintendent of the United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, N. M., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He succeeds Guy C. Williams, a Federal career employee, who is retiring.

The Department of the Interior today announced ,approval of a contract for $67,303.30 between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Aslett Construction Company, Twin Falls, Idaho, for construction of five miles of road on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation near Pocatello.

The contract calls for grading and bituminous surfacing of 4.985 miles of road on the reservation. The road will be used for farm to market access school bus and mail routes. When completed the road will be turned over to Power County, Idaho, for maintenance under an agreement between that county and BIA.

SALEM, Ore. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson shared his message of hope and the philosophies he credits for the personal and business successes in his life at a visit today with the students, faculty and staff of Chemawa Indian School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated boarding school for grades 9-12 located just outside of the city of Salem. This was the new assistant secretary’s first visit to the school since his swearing-in last month.

The results of a cultural exchange of high school students as far apart as Alaska and Arizona, have turned out to be a happy success.

At the suggestion of a group of Navajo Indian high school students, selected student volunteer from Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska, High School exchanged classes at the beginning of the school year with their opposite numbers from two Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools in Arizona. The three schools are boarding schools to serve children from isolated homes in Alaska and in Navajo land.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Wingate Elementary School Dormitory located in Ft. Wingate, N.M.

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, November 26, 2002, Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will be joined by The Honorable R. Perry Beaver, Principal Chief, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in dedicating the new headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Eastern Oklahoma Regional Office in Muskogee, Okla. The BIA will be the sole tenant of the two-story facility, which was built, and is owned, by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma.