Past News Items

“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.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today the appointment of Morris Thompson, an Alaska Native, as the new Alaska Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Thompson's appointment was effective February 7, 1971.

"I am most happy to be announcing this appointment, “Commissioner Bruce said, “because Thompson is the first Alaska Native to be Alaska Area Director. The Alaska Natives have long wanted this. “

At 31, Thompson is also the youngest man in BIA history to be named as an area director.

The Northern Cheyenne Indians of Lame Deer, Mont., recently launched a small industry on their reservation that is beginning to bring dividends with the Yule season. The firm, called Northern Cheyenne Originals, manufactures Christmas trees, wreaths, costume jewelry and other novelty items for decorations from pine cones collected on the reservation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services and the Tulalip Tribes of Washington will co-host a VAWA Tribal Trial Advocacy Skills Training session September 2-4, 2015, for tribal court judges, prosecutors and criminal defenders covering basic trial advocacy skills and the use of special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction (SDVCJ) authority granted federally recognized tribes by the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 (VAWA). The training will take place on the Tulalip Reservation.

Fifty American Indian students in Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools carne to Washington, D. C. last week and discussed "What is being done to preserve nature?", "How can smoke from sawmills and paper mills be prevented?" and "How can natural resources be used without creating pollution?"