Past News Items

Award of a $76,714 contract for the construction of approximately 36 earth filled detention dams on the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project is part of the over-all Papago Development Program for the social and economic development of the Papago people.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover spoke Thursday, March 19, about critical American Indian issues and his vision for Tribal America during a University of South Dakota School of Law symposium on "Indian Nations on the Eve of 21st Century: Sovereignty, Self-Government, Water Rights, Land Rights." The speech was taped by C-SPAN for later broadcast.

Award of three contracts totaling $1,024,915.10 for road improvement work on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and in Utah near the "Four Corners" area, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Thanks to a newly developed process that streamlines the planning, design, and construction of Indian schools, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will be able to complete new schools in half the time or less. This means that the current seven to eight years that it has taken to build or renovate a school 'will now require only three years or less.

Award of a $624,782 road construction contract that will provide an all-weather bus route to enlarged school facilities at Kayenta, Arizona, on the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract, which was awarded to Lyle Price of Flagstaff, covers construction and bituminous surfacing of a 19.2-mile section of road in northern Arizona between Kayenta and Utah State Highway 47 at the Utah Line.

On April 25, 1996, President Clinton approved leg1siation extending the date that a Final Rule for the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (P.L. 93-638) be published in the Federal Register. The date required by the Indian Self-Determination Act Amendments of 1994 (P.L. 103-413) was April 25, 1996. This legislation provides for a 60-day extension and sets a new publication date of June 25, 1996 for a rule, Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs announced.

Award of an $85,400 contract for the improvement of the Heart Butte Short Cut Road on the Blackfeet Reservation at Browning, Montana, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project covers the grading and graveling of 7.637 miles of road from the bridge over Two Medicine River to Badger Creek. It is the center section of a route known locally as the Heart Butte Short Cut Road. It is the main traffic route from the all-Indian community of Heart Butte to the agency and serves several public schools in the vicinity of Two Medicine River.

A meeting of area directors of the two principal federal agencies providing services to American Indians and Alaska Natives will take place October 19-20 at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Properties of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, including the 694,000-acre tribal forest, have been appraised at a "realization value" of $121,659,618, Under Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson said today.

In a letter to Thomas B. Watters of Klamath Falls, management specialist supervising the Klamath termination program under the act of August 13, 1954, Under Secretary Chilson authorized Mr. Watters to proceed immediately with arrangements for a tribal election as provided in the termination statute.

Notices to vacate the premises within 10 days will be sent on April 15, 1992, to persons without valid leases on spaces in the Havasu Landing Mobile home Park on the Chemehuevi Indian reservation in California

The Department of the Interior's Field Solicitor in Phoenix reported today that approximately 400 people have not signed valid leases. Those who do not reach agreement with the tribe before April 15 will receive the notices.