Past News Items

WASHINGTON - Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, joined Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy to announce the transfer of 24,959 acres previously acquired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of the Garrison Dam project to the Department of the Interior, which will hold the land in trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

Forty miles northwest of Fairbanks, in the interior of Alaska, the town of New Minto is under construction, to be occupied by 160 Minto Indians. New Minto is a replacement for old Minto Village, 25 miles away, which has suffered severe damage from spring thaws.

High bonus bids totaling nearly one and a third million dollars for oil and gas leases on Indian-owned lands of the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services respects the rights of tribes and citizens to express their views in a peaceful and lawful manner. The presence of additional BIA law enforcements officers at Standing Rock was provided at the request of tribal leadership. The responsibility of BIA law enforcement officers is to protect the peace and provide for the safety and well-being of the citizens of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and individuals within the territory of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation."

-DOI-

During a return visit to England King Charles I asked William Penn how he was going to gain possession of the Indian lands. Penn replied, "I will buy them."

"But how can you," asked the king, "When you have already bought them from me?"

Penn answered simply, "I bought them from you, but not because they were yours.... "

Today, almost two centuries later we are celebrating the extension of Penn's insight and belief that the land and heritage of the new world belonged to the Indians -- the first Americans.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced a new Departmental order which will require bidders on all Interior building construction work throughout the Nation to list with their bids the names and addresses of their subcontractors. This new policy supersedes experimental procedures which had been in effect since December 1963, but which were limited to Interior construction projects in Arizona and New Mexico and 'parts of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Utah and Colorado.

WASHINGTON — As part of the Obama Administration’s effort to prepare communities nationwide for the impacts of a changing climate, acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts today announced that Indian Affairs will provide nearly $6.5 million to fund tribal projects that promote climate change adaptation and ocean and coastal management planning.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton is in Alaska for an 8-day inspection of areas upon which he soon will make far-reaching decisions.

His itinerary includes visits to the Wrangell Mountains in the southeast; Mount McKinley in central Alaska; the Yukon Flats and Walker Lake areas to the north and west; and the King Sabnon area in Alaska's southwest before returning to the "lower 48."

On-the-job training for 480 American Indians is set to begin under contracts recently completed with nine industries, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash announced today. The companies are located in New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Montana, and Oklahoma.

Under Bureau agreements negotiated during the current fiscal year, a total of 717 Indian workers will receive on-the-job training--an increase of 10 percent over the total for the entire preceding year. Six contracts in Oklahoma, Minnesota and North Dakota were announced last month.

Washington, D.C. — Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced an extension of the comment deadline on the proposed rule to accept applications to place land into trust in Alaska, in response to several requests for extension. The public may provide written comment through July 31, 2014. The proposed rule was announced earlier this year as part of President Obama’s commitment to upholding the nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indian and Alaska Natives.