Past News Items

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $120,788.86 contract for the construction of a municipal center on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation at Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

The contract provides for the construction of a concrete masonry building to serve a multiple use in the Indian community. The building will contain offices for a judge, jail administration space, quarters for incarceration of prisoners, and a large room which will serve as a library and be used for community gatherings, as well as for a courtroom.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced the Department has submitted to Congress proposed legislation that would advance the date for Federal purchase of the 15,000-acre marsh on the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon.

Under existing law the marsh is scheduled to be purchased on April 1, 1961, and set aside as a National Wildlife Refuge. The Department's proposed legislation would provide for the purchase to take place on the earliest date after September 30, 1959, that duck stamp money is available to pay the purchase price.

The Department of the Interior favors legislation that would authorize transferring to the Navajo Indian Tribe full title and responsibility for all irrigation projects on the 15,000,000-acre reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today.

Under its terms, the Navajos would permanently assume all operation and maintenance costs, estimated at $200,000 a year. They have borne this cost since January 1, 1958.

The Department of the Interior announced today it has submitted to Congress two legislative requests providing for distribution of judgment funds resulting from awards by the Indian Claims Commission to three Indian groups.

The groups affected are the Quapaws of Oklahoma with a fund of about $820,000; the Citizen Band of Potawatomis of Oklahoma with a fund of $168,735.40 plus accrued interest; and the Prairie Band of Potawatomie of Kansas with a fund of $79,624.86 plus accrued interest. The last two groups are covered by one proposal.

The Department of the Interior today announced a proposed revision of Federal regulations to remove restrictions against road construction that have applied for more than 20 years on 2,935,000 acres of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and Utah.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that Paul Jones, Tribal Chairman of the Navajo Indians, has agreed to enter into negotiation looking toward the exchange of nearly 300,000 acres of tribal land surrounding Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Utah for public domain lands.

Secretary Udall said: “The acreage lying south and west of Navajo Mountain comprises one of the magnificent scenic areas outside the National Park System." Rainbow Bridge has long been the focal point of interest in this fantastically eroded red sandstone country.

The Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, will be the first Indian Tribe to develop low-rent public housing since the local- federal program began nearly 25 years ago, Public Housing Commissioner Marie C. McGuire announced today.

Interest expressed by this tribe in the early weeks of the Kennedy Administration will shortly lead to the signing of a preliminary loan contract with PHA and the Local Housing Authority established by the Indians.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel, on behalf of President Nixon, today announced the nomination of Louis R. Bruce, 6,3, of Richfield Springs, New York, as Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Bruce, a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe of South Dakota, was praised by the Secretary as "a man of unparalleled qualifications, with the leadership skills and the desire necessary to carry out the Administration's pledge to bring dignity, education and economic progress to all of our American Indian, Eskimo and Aleut citizens.

Award of four contracts totaling $269,949.50 for surfacing work on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservation roads in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

FARGO, ND - Today, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recognized Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) - Turtle Mountain Agency Law Enforcement Officers Stacey Larocque and Michael Slater and BIA-Standing Rock Agency Law Enforcement Officers Wayland Bad Hand and Gary Sandland with the Secretary’s Commendation Award for their quick and heroic actions to save the lives of individuals who overdosed on deadly, synthetic opioid drugs.