Past News Items

The largest oil and gas mining lease sale ever made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be offered prospective bidders at a sale to be held at Window Rock, Arizona, April 21, May 1, May 12, and May 22, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has received petitions from forty Indian groups seeking to be acknowledged by the Federal Government as Indian tribes. A list of the forty groups, from 21 states, is being published in the Federal Register as required by regulations made effective October 2, 1978. These regulations establish the procedures for establishing that an American Indian group exists as an American Indian Tribe.

WASHINGTON – The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform will hold its next public meeting on April 29, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee. An online component of the meeting will be available for those who are unable to attend.

Transfer of Frell M. Owl on January 26 from the position of superintendent of the Northern Idaho Indian Agency, Lapwai, Idaho, to the same position at the Fort Hall Agency near Pocatello was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Laura Bergt, a noted Eskimo leader, has been appointed as one of the five Commissioners of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe announced today.

WASHINGTON – As part of President Obama’s commitment to honoring a nation-to-nation relationship with Indian Country, four cabinet-level departments today joined the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in releasing an action plan to strengthen the protection of Indian sacred sites and provide greater tribal access to these heritage areas.

A $3,000,000 program of public school expansion to accommodate nearly 3,000 Navajo Indian children by September 1955, in communities of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado bordering the Navajo Reservation was announced today by Acting Secretary of the Interior Fred G. Aandahl.

Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe has directed the State Director of the Bureau of Land Management's Alaska Office to reserve rights-of-way for the transportation of Federally-owned energy, fuel and other natural resources across lands being transferred to Alaska Natives and Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Under the Act, more than 40 million acres of Federal land will be conveyed to Alaska Natives and Native corporations.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that, starting on December 14, 2012, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) will begin its “Don’t Shatter the Dream” campaign throughout Indian Country to prevent impaired driving during this holiday season. The campaign is being conducted by BIA and tribal law enforcement agencies through January 1, 2013.

Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel today announced an FY 1989 budget for the Department that maintains funding levels for the Department's key operating programs, improves management of the Nation's water resources and adds funds to help eliminate hazardous wastes and contaminants affecting Interior activities.