Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is one of several major sponsors of “RES 2005,” the 19th Annual National Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair, which will be held Feb. 7-10, 2005, at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nev. The BIA also will host one of four conference tracks and Anderson will be the keynote speaker at the RES 2005 Indian Business Achievement Awards Luncheon on Feb. 10.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced that a $3 million contract has been let to Nielson's, Inc. of Dolores, Colo. for construction of nearly 15.5 miles of bituminous paved highway beginning near Whitehorse, N. Mex., and extending north and east to, Pueblo Pintado, N. Mex.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians (CB) from Dudley, Mass.

The Office of the Secretary previously announced that it will conduct a listening session on the status of implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations. The purpose of the session is to meet with Indian tribes to discuss progress to date and receive feedback. Indian landowners may also attend to provide input. This notice corrects the previously published notice to provide RSVP and testimony information and an agenda.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will speak on April 20, 2004 at the Baca/Dlo’ay azhi Community School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs operated day school located in Prewitt, N.M., on the Navajo Nation reservation, at a ceremony celebrating the school’s designation as both the first Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEEDTM) building in the state and the first BIA school to be a “green” certified building. The certification was issued by the U.S.

SELLS, Ariz. – Today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney reopened the Santa Rosa Ranch School (SRRS), located on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation. The school provides education for grades K-8 and serves approximately 66 students. The school had been closed since December 13, 2018, when the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) leadership and safety personnel identified several high priority deficiencies during a campus walk-through.

WASHINGTON – The Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform will hold its final meeting on December 16th and 17th at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, task force members will provide closing comments and review their work over the past 11 months that has been aimed to improve trust management systems and processes to better serve American Indian and Alaska Native tribal and individual trust account beneficiaries.

WASHINGTON – President Trump today proposed a $1.9 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget for Indian Affairs, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the awarding of a $460,518 grant to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, to support the Tribes’ efforts to enter the oil refining business by building a Clean Fuels Petroleum Refinery (CFPR) on its reservation. “With the right help, tribes can find innovative ways of developing and using their natural resources to build a strong economic base and provide jobs for their people,” McCaleb said.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced today a new internal policy governing how the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) processes tribal applications under the “Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act of 2012” (HEARTH Act).