Past News Items

Black Hills Ditching Company, Inc., has been awarded a $46,370 contract for improvements to sewerage systems at the Indian Bureau's Northern Cheyenne Agency in Lame Deer, Montana, and at Tongue River School in Busby, Montana, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The Black Hills bid was the lowest of seven received for the work. Other bids ranged from $46,700 to $67,585.76.

There are approximately 245 Indian children enrolled in the Tongue River School.

On February 20, 2003, the Department of the Interior received amendments to a Class III gaming compact executed by the Forest County Potawatomi Community and the State of Wisconsin. Under the terms of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the Secretary may approve or disapprove the compact before the date that is 45 days after receipt of the compact. If the Secretary does not approve or disapprove the compact by that date, the compact is considered to have been approved, but only to the extent that its terms comply with the requirements of IGRA.

Award of two contracts for construction of 77 flood control structures in the Schuk Toak, Gu Achi and Sif Oidak Districts of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

One contract, covering 47 structures, goes to Clyde Jones and Sons, Indio, Calif., who bid $64,705. The other ten bids on this job ranged from $65,625 to $142,000.

The second contract, for 30 structures, was awarded to Don L. Riggs of Phoenix, Ariz., with a bid of $27,550. The other 14 bids ranged from $32,025 to $77,000.

(Washington, DC)--The U.S. Department of the Interiors Office of Indian Affairs headed by Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will be hosting a National Indian Energy Summit “Indian Energy Resources, Helping to Fuel America’s Needs” at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado on December 6 and 7, 2001.

The Federal regulations governing the United States credit program for Indian tribes are being broadened to permit loans of funds which the tribes can use for the purpose of attracting industry to the vicinity of reservations, the Department of the Interior announced today.

(CHICHILTAH, N.M.) – With the click of a mouse by Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb, the Chichiltah/Jones Ranch Community School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs facility located in Chichiltah, N.M., today officially opened its portal to the Internet. His action also successfully completed the BIA’s four-year effort to bring all of its schools online.

Indian forest land owners would for the first time have a right of appeal from Indian Bureau decisions on their timber sale contracts under a proposed revision of Federal Regulations announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The proposal include many changes. They would permit any legally interested party to appeal on sale contracts to the Secretary of the Interior. The existing regulations do not specify such an appeal procedure.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said the revisions also include these five other major changes:

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush has proposed a $2.2 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Fiscal Year 2002 that includes an increase of $65.9 million over the FY2001 appropriation. The increase will strengthen the commitment to replace, maintain and operate Indian schools, reform trust management, and ensure public safety in Indian Country. In addition, the request calls for increases in spending on Indian water and land claims settlements.

Award of a $36,309 contract for construction of a new water system to serve the Indian school on the Papago Reservation at Chuichu, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Chuichu School has an enrollment of 60 pupils, and the present water system includes a small pond and pump with a 3,500-gallon elevated tank. The new system to be installed under the contract will include a drilled well, pump house, new pump, water distribution system, and a 15,000-gallon elevated storage tank.

Twenty-eight Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in four states will officially become on-ramps to the information superhighway this Saturday, May 16, 1998. Access Native America Net Day will officially move Indian schools in Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Mississippi on-line and provide the students of these schools with access to the Internet through the Department of the Interior's network.