Past News Items

PHOENIX, Arizona – As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and create clean energy jobs, on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will make several major announcements related to energy development on tribal lands. The announcement will be held at the Heard Native American Museum at 1:00 pm MST.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today that he has authorized Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Offices to enter into contract negotiations with 25 Indian tribes for the fiscal year 1972 Tribal Affairs Management Program. The Tribal affairs Management Program assists in the development of managerial skills for those tribes that cannot finance full-time effective tribal management.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today announced the award of a $721,670 contract for further construction on the east-west road now being cut through the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona.

The construction will open up to tourist traffic the 1.5 mile stretch of the old Geronimo Trail which leads through rock-bound Barlow Pass into the pine flats. The flats are the site of the Tribe's projected Point of Pines recreational development.

WASHINGTON, DC – In another step to fulfill President Obama’s commitment to strengthen Indian communities, the U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program) has sent purchase offers to nearly 16,000 individual landowners with fractionated interests in parcels on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

“The machinery we now have for carrying out our trusteeship responsibilities to Indians is inadequate," Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton told a Senate subcommittee today. He urged prompt action on a bill that would establish an Indian Trust Counsel Authority.

In line with President Johnson’s war on waste in Government administration, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has consolidated responsibility for fiscal and management analysis under the Deputy Commissioner and a special assistant. The announcement was made today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn, speaking on behalf of the entire Department of the Interior, today issued the following statement on the passing of Forrest J. Gerard, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana and the first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs who served from Oct. 13, 1977 to Jan. 19, 1980:

David L. Baldwin, 38, an Osage Indian and Superintendent of the Yankton Agency, Wagner, S. Dak.., Bureau of Indian Affairs since 1969, was today named Superintendent of the Osage Agency of the Bureau 'whose headquarters are at Pawhuska, Okla. His appointment will take effect July 25.

He replaces John Pappan, Superintendent for three years, who passed away this spring.

Baldwin, Born in Ponca City, Okla., received his B.A. from Washburn University, Topeka, Kans., in 1956. Before joining the Bureau he taught in Kansas Public Schools for three years.

The first Job Corps Conservation Center in the Southwest--and the second in the entire country-·-will be dedicated at Winslow, Arizona, March 12 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

On the periphery of Navajo lands in Arizona, Winslow Center formerly was an Air Force Radar Base. The property is now administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Another camp organized in cooperation with the Department of the Interior was dedicated at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, two weeks ago. It is administered by the Interior Department's National Park Service.

DURANT, Okla. – As part of the Obama Administration's commitment to strengthen the government-to-government relationship with tribal nations and fulfill federal trust obligations, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will join Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby and Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton on Tuesday, October 6, to announce a historic settlement regarding the U.S. government's management of funds and resources it holds in trust for these tribal nations.