Past News Items

Award of a $1,998,581 contract for the construction of school facilities to provide for 360 additional pupils at Aneth, Utah, on the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of two 192-pupil dormitories, a 14-classroom instruction building, a kitchen and dining hall, a storage and maintenance building, employees living quarters and garages.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today announced an encompassing decision on the controversy involving leases and exploratory permits for coal development on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation in Montana.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe petitioned the Secretary in January 1974 to withdraw the Department’s approval of leases and exploratory permits for strip mining of coal on about 214,000 acres of the 433,740-acre reservation.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director W. Patrick Ragsdale toured the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Reservation yesterday to view the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and to meet with Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin and tribal officials on the Bureau’s continuing relief efforts in the area.

Appointment of Clyde W. Pensoneau as superintendent of the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Arizona, was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash. The assignment is a recall for Pensoneau, who served as superintendent at Hopi from 1954 to 1956. Increasing economic development and education activities on the Hopi Reservation "demand a superintendent with intimate knowledge of Hopi affairs," Nash said.

The new appointee will take over January 3, 1965, succeeding Herman O'Harra, "who is retiring after 33 years of Federal service.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of George A. Laverdure, 58, enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Tribe, to the post of Superintendent of the Crow Agency, Mont., of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He has been serving in that post in an acting capacity since June 1973. His appointment was effective March 31.

Anson Baker, former Crow Agency Superintendent, has been transferred to the Fort Berthold Agency, New Town, N. Dak., as Superintendent.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason today announced that Captain John Herrington, an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and the first American Indian astronaut to serve with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will provide the keynote address this morning at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) FACE and Baby FACE National Training Conference in Pearl River, Miss. The event is scheduled for March 8-10 at the Silver Star and Golden Moon Resort on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reservation.

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a $2,131,000 contract to construct a dormitory facility which will enable 152 children from remote portions of Alaska to attend the State Regional High School built by the State of Alaska at Nome.

An agreement between the State of Alaska and Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs provided that the State would build the instructional facility and the Bureau would provide a dormitory. It is expected that later the state will add a second dormitory and expand the instructional space.

Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe today hailed the new spirit of determination and confidence among Indian leaders. In remarks to 200 leaders of the American Indian community at a White House meeting, Secretary Kleppe said: "Whether young or old, the Indian leaders today have a new spirit --perhaps it is revival of a very old spirit-- of determination and of confidence."

WASHINGTON – Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the foundation established by Congress to support Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) education programs has been renamed the National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education (NFEAIE) in a bill signed by President Bush on July 2, 2004. The foundation, designated the American Indian Education Foundation in its original legislation, felt the change was needed in order to avoid confusion with organizations having similar names.

The Department of the Interior today approved four road construction contracts Which are expected to improve economic and educational opportunities for Indians on four reservations in South Dakota.

Totaling $708,346, the contracts will make possible better school bus service, better marketing of farm and ranch products, and better access for tourists, and new jobs for Indian workmen during the coming year, Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs said.