Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has published in the Federal Register a notice providing guidance and direction to the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) to address recurring administrative and technical problems related to the processing of petitions under the Federal Acknowledgment Process (FAP). The notice does not amend the acknowledgment regulations at 25 CFR Part 83, Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has published final regulations in the Federal Register implementing Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA). IGRA contains a general prohibition against gaming on land acquired after October 17, 1988, the date the act was signed, which may be overcome if the land meets certain exceptions. The final rule incorporates suggestions received by the BIA through public comment and the tribal consultation process.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Jerold L. “Jerry” Gidner today announced that he has named Dale Morris as Regional Director of the BIA’s Pacific Regional Office in Sacramento, Calif. Morris, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, had been serving as chief of the regional office’s natural resources division since 2004. His new appointment became effective on April 27, 2008. The Pacific Regional Office oversees four agencies serving the 102 federally recognized tribes located within the State of California.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced today that Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Carl Artman will be leaving the Department of the Interior effective May 23, 2008.

"Throughout your tenure, I have appreciated your able insight as we have worked to address important issues in Indian Country," Kempthorne said in a letter to Artman. "The Indian Modernization Initiative, developed and launched under Carl's leadership, has upgraded communications between tribal leaders and the Department on a number of priority issues."

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman and South Dakota Senator John Thune yesterday unveiled their joint proposal for a South Dakota Indian and Tribal Business Incubator Project to help accelerate economic development throughout the state’s nine federal Indian reservations. The project will target the Cheyenne River Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux, Flandreau Santee Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Rosebud Sioux, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Standing Rock Sioux and Yankton Sioux tribes.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Carl Artman today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Great Plains Regional office will host the 10th Annual Great Plains Tribal Economic Development Summit April 15-16, 2008, in Sioux Falls, S.D. The theme for this year’s summit, “Contemporary Economic Resources for Great Plains Tribes,” reflects a renewed commitment to the Bureau’s overall emphasis on modernization.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today issued a Final Determination to decline acknowledgment of the Federal Acknowledgment Process petitioner known as the Steilacoom Tribe of Indians (STI), located in Steilacoom, Wash., as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The petitioner has 612 members.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced that the Interior Department has published final regulations in the Federal Register implementing Title V of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58) regarding Tribal Energy Resource Agreements (TERAs) under the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act. The regulations will become effective on April 9, 2008.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman, Seminole Tribe of Florida Vice-Chairman Richard Bowers and Mashantucket Pequot Vice-Chairman Kenneth Reels have signed a partnership agreement that will utilize the tribes’ purchasing power to promote Indian Country business development under DOI’s intertribal economic consortium initiative.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will host the Interior Department’s kick-off event for its intertribal economic consortium initiative, which will take place on Monday, February 11, 2008 with a signing ceremony between the Department, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut and the Seminole Tribe of Florida to honor the memorandum of understanding that formalizes the two tribes’ cooperative economic relationship.