Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced his support of the Iroquois League and the Onondaga Nation of New York State in their efforts to have the sacred wampum belts returned to their proper place and preserved in the tribes' possession.

The Commissioner pledged his support following a meeting in his office with a 12-member delegation of Iroquois tribal leaders. The wampums, sacred belts of historic religious importance to the Iroquois League of New York, have been kept in the New York State Museum at Albany since they were taken from the tribes in 1898.

Federal supervision over the Indians of Greenville Rancheria in Plumas County, Calif., has been terminated with their consent, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today. Notice is being published in the Federal Register.

Greenville is the 31st rancheria in California to be removed from Federal trust supervision in accordance with the 1958 Rancheria Act (72 Stat. 619, as amended). More than 100 Indian rancherias -- small tracts of land under Federal trust -- are affected by the law.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In keeping with President Obama’s commitment to empowering tribal nations and strengthening their economies, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that he has approved land leasing regulations from the Makah Indian Tribe and the Squaxin Island Tribe in Washington State pursuant to the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (or HEARTH) Act.

Doyee L. Waldrip, 47, Superintendent, Warm Springs Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Warm Springs, Ore, will become assistant area director for administration of the Portland Area office of the Bureau June 27, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today. He will replace James E. Sayers, who was retired.

Paul W. Hand, Special Assistant at Palm Springs, Calif., to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Director for the Sacramento Area, has been appointed superintendent of the BIA agency at Chinle, Ariz., on the Navajo Indian Reservation. He fills the position vacated by Paul A. Krause, who transferred to the superintendency of the Bureau's Bemidji, Minn., agency last July. The new assignment became effective September 11, 1966.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Advancing President Obama’s ongoing commitment to work with tribal leaders to build strong economies, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today released final regulations that will ensure tribal communities receive all the royalties they are owed from oil production on their lands, reduce administrative costs and provide greater predictability to the oil industry.

Commissioner Louis R. Bruce announced today that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded a $200,000 contract to the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., to operate an Indian post-correctional rehabilitation program for Indian prison parolees.

NEW SUPERINTENDENT AT MESCALERO APACHE RESERVATION--Paul H. Clements, assistant superintendent at the Pima Agency in Arizona since 1964, has been named superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico. He fills a post vacated by the transfer last May of Kenneth L. Payton to head the United Pueblos Agency. The new assignment became effective June 26. Clements, a native of Port Townsend, Wash., has since 1948 held various BIA administrative posts -- at the Yakima Agency in Washington; the Umatilla Agency in Oregon; and the Flathead Agency in Montana.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

I have called this news conference today to announce a series of actions relating to Indian water rights, contracts, roads, self-government, and legislative programs.

My purpose in taking these initiatives towards Indian self-government is setting a course for the Bureau of Indian Affairs designed to protect Indian Resources and effectively with the roads of Indian dissatisfaction poverty unemployment and inadequate educational background in my opinion to advance the cause of the Indian people of this nation.

First, water rights.