Past News Items

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation that will eliminate numerous administrative problems that have been encountered in the sale of timber from Indian lands, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today announced two top Indian Affairs appointments in the Department of the Interior.

George Vincent Goodwin, Jr., a member of the White Earth Chippewa Tribe now a Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director at Minneapolis, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, and Thomas w. Fredericks, a member of the Mandan-Hidatsa Tribe, was appointed Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation (Petitioner #84A) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., has 1,940 members.

The Department of the Interior today recommended enactment of legislation for construction of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama Project.

In a report to Congress, the Department supported R.R. 2352 and R.R. 2494, identical bills authorizing construction and maintenance of the two projects as participating projects of the Colorado River Storage Project.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus and Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Wayne Ducheneaux jointly announced today that the Department of the Interior has agreed to adopt environmental regulations enacted by the tribe to govern mineral development and oil and gas leasing activities on tribal and allotted land within the tribe's reservation in South Dakota.

Washington, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the schedule for the month of December for the Interior Department’s series of tribal consultation meetings to develop a Department-wide tribal consultation policy.

The December schedule of tribal consultation meetings is as follows (all times are local time):

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Times: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon/1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Hilton-Anchorage, 500 W 3rd Ave., Anchorage, Alaska, 99501 907-272-7411

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today that he has extended the period for review and comment on proposed regulations governing the adoption of tribal water codes on Indian reservations published in the Federal Register March 17. The deadline has been extended from April 18 to June 2, 1977.

The regulations establish standards which tribal water codes must meet to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Tribal water codes deal with the use on reservations of water subject to tribal control.

Washington, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has approved a realignment of his office’s organizational and reporting structure. The realignment is contained in an order he signed on September 11, 2009, effective immediately. The action to reorganize the Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs (OAS-IA) was taken in order to strengthen the management and administration for Indian Affairs’ bureaus, offices and programs.

James F. Canan, career employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, will take over as new area director for the Bureau at Billings, Montana, June 24, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Canan has been assistant area director in charge of resources at Gallup, New Mexico, since last December. At Billings he succeeds Percy E. Melis who retired last March.

The United States Department of Justice informed a Federal Court February 28 that it intended to follow a modified Interior Department recommendation to pursue Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian claims to millions of acres of land in the State of Maine.

Interior's recommendation updates a draft litigation report sent to the Justice Department in January. The February 25 report, signed by Frederick N. Ferguson, Acting Deputy Solicitor for Interior, still asks for the return of land as well as trespass damages. It includes, however, two changes agreed to by the tribes.