Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has taken steps to address the change in accreditation status of the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), a Bureau of Indian Education post secondary institution of higher learning in Albuquerque, N.M., by its accrediting organization, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has named new superintendents for the Blackfeet Agency in Montana and the Uintah/Ouray Agency in Utah, Acting Deputy Commissioner Sidney Mills announced today.

Michael A. Fairbanks, superintendent at the Michigan Agency, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, will be the new agency head at the 950,000 acre Blackfeet Reservation headquartered at Browning, Montana. Fairbanks, age 43, an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewas, attended Bemidji State and North Dakota State majoring in social sciences.

The Miccosukee Indians of Florida and the Red Lake Chippewas of Minnesota soon will have new agency heads, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash has announced.

Reginald C. Miller, the first superintendent of the four-year-old Miccosukee Indian Agency in Florida, leaves that post this month for a new assignment as superintendent of the Red Lake Chippewa Reservation.

Lawrence J. Kozlowski will succeed Miller at Miccosukee Agency headquarters in Homestead, Florida. Kozlowski formerly was assistant superintendent of the Great Lakes Indian Agency at Ashland, Wisconsin.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED), is soliciting proposals from tribes. The grants will be funded through IEED’s Energy and Mineral Development Program (EMDP) that enables tribes to assess, evaluate and promote the development of tribal energy and mineral resources. A formal solicitation was published in the Federal Register on April 27, 2010, by the Department of the Interior.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been recruiting to fill 45 clerical and professional positions in its Central Office of Indian Education in Washington, D.C., Director Earl Barlow announced today.

Barlow said that the openings have been created by a reshaping and strengthening of the BIA's central education office to meet current education needs of Indians and Alaska Natives.

Eight vacancy announcements for positions of GS-11to GS-15 levels were issued July 9 and the remaining 37 are expected to be issued before the end of the month.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of three bills affecting Indians now before Congress. One bill would- increase the appropriation authorization for Indian adult vocational education programs and the other two would permit tribes to issue long-term land leases for industrial and commercial development of reservation properties.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary Ken Salazar today announced the Interior Department’s plan of actions, as directed by President Obama in his memorandum dated November 5, 2009, to implement Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments, which directs Executive Branch departments and agencies to develop policies on tribal consultation and cooperation.

A score of Indian leaders, representing the national Indian community, met in Albuquerque May 3-4 with Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard and staff to be briefed about Gerard's management improvement program for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Department of the Interior has recommended that Congress amend certain provisions of "the Act of March 1, 1933, which added lands in southern Utah to the Navajo Indian Reservation.

The act provides that 37.5 percent of net royalties from tribal oil and gas leases on these lands be paid to the State of Utah. The State, in turn, is required to spend the money for “tuition of Indian children in white schools" and for road construction.

As of May 18, 1966 the special fund totaled more than $5 million.

WASHINGTON -- As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to Native Americans, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today named five prominent American Indians to a national commission that will undertake a forward-looking, comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s trust management of nearly $4 billion in Native American trust funds.