Past News Items

The State of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the U.S. Department of the Interior finalized a major water rights agreement for the Snake River today. The settlement resolves a number of water rights issues as part of the Snake River Basin Adjudication (SRBA).

Awards of contracts totaling $6,950,700 for the construction of school facilities at Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, and Chuska, New Mexico, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, were announced today by the Department of the Interior. In both cases, the successful low bidder was Bateson-Cheves Construction Company of Mesa, Arizona.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of two Superintendents of Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies in the Pacific Northwest - the Umatilla, Western Washington Agencies --and one Assistant Superintendent -- within the Yakima Agency.

WASHINGTON - Combatting a methamphetamine crisis in Indian Country and promoting higher academic achievement in Indian schools are key initiatives in President Bush's FY2008 budget for the Department of the Interior, Secretary Kempthorne said today.

Appointment of Don Y. Jensen to the post of superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Agency, Cherokee, North Carolina, effective August 3, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Jensen, superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Mont., for the past six years, succeeds Darrell T. Fleming, who is transferring to the Gallup area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as assistant area director. A successor for Jensen at Lame Deer has not yet been selected.

Theodore C. Krenzke, 44, Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Cherokee Agency, North Carolina, for eight years, has been named Director of Indian Services of the entire Bureau, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today. He will assume his duties in early June.

Krenzke's post is the third of five directorships - top jobs within the Bureau of Indian Affairs - to be filled.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that he has named Christopher B. Chaney as Deputy Bureau Director of the BIA’s Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES). Chaney, an enrolled member of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, had previously served as Associate Solicitor for the Division of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The appointment became effective August 7.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today described as "welcome news" the plan to establish a $500,000 plastics molding plant at Durant, Okla., which will provide jobs for upwards of 100 Indian men and women. The new installation is being built by a subsidiary of Strombecker Corp., a Chicago manufacturer.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that he has called a special meeting of the Cherokee Delaware Tribe's general council to convene at 10:00 a.m., September 11, in the old high school gymnasium in Dewey, Oklahoma to consider removal of certain of its officers.

Secretary Gale Norton:
"Convinced Indian Country is Better Off Because You Served"
Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason
to Temporarily Assume Responsibilities of Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs

(WASHINGTON) - Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Dave Anderson today announced his decision to resign, effective February 12, 2005.