Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to empower tribal nations, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, on behalf of the United States, today signed an historic agreement at the Department of the Interior guaranteeing water rights for the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona. The agreement will also provide funding for infrastructure to deliver clean drinking water to the Reservation, as well as water security for the City of Phoenix and other downstream water users.

Glenn L. Emmons, Gallup, New Mexico, today nominated by President Eisenhower to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs, is 570 He was born at Atmore, Alabama in 1895. His family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he attended public school and the University of New Mexico, leaving the University in 1917 for military service. He was a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.

Discharged from the Army in 1929, he went to Gallup, New Mexico, to enter the banking business in which he has continued until now.

Proposed regulations governing the assignment by regional corporations of future interests in the Alaska Native Fund were published March 2 in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The regulations are designed to implement Section 31 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as amended November 1!5, 1977, which gives the Secretary of the Interior the authority to recognize validly executed assignments made by Regional Corporations of their rights to receive payments from the Alaska Native Fund.

WASHINGTON – For the first time in their histories, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services will co-host a special exhibit of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial during the 2013 National Police Week. The special exhibit will be located in the Museum’s Potomac Atrium from May 13 through 17.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, located in southeastern California, just north of Yuma, Arizona, will be transferred on January 1 from the jurisdiction of the Indian Bureau office at Sacramento, California, to the area office at Phoenix, Ariz.

The move is being made primarily because of specialties which the Fort Yuma Indians have with other Indian groups on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointments of two members of the Flathead Indian Tribe as BIA Agency

Superintendents.

Stephen A. Lozar, 50, has been named Superintendent of the Crow Agency in Montana and Wyman J. McDonald appointed Superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency in Idaho.

WASHINGTON – The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform will hold its next public meeting Feb. 12-13, 2013, Seattle, Wash. The meeting will be preceded by a public youth-outreach session the evening of Feb. 11.

“The Department of the Interior has a very important role to play in administering the federal trust responsibility, and the Commission is looking forward to discussing with the public how we can work together on ways to improve the Department’s management of Indian trust lands and assets,” said Commission Chair Fawn Sharp.

Substantial progress in the Department's program to provide educational facilities for 22,000 Navajo children during this school year is being made, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

As of October 15 about 19,000 children are enrolled in public, Federal and mission schools, both on and off the reservation.

Expansion of reservation schools scheduled for completion in November will accommodate another 1,500 children.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has announced the appointment of Joe M. Parker, a Chickasaw Indian, as Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tahlequah, Oklahoma Agency. Parker, who has been Acting Superintendent at the Agency since January 12, replaces Joe Ragsdale who has retired.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that Wendi Cole, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and student at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, has been named a 2013 New Century Scholar and selected for the All-USA Community College Academic Team.