Past News Items

Interior Department Solicitor Leo M. Krulitz announced today that on June 29 the Department made a final recommendation to the Justice Department to bring actions on behalf of three Indian tribes to recover lands in New York State. The Justice Department has agreed to bring the suits. Two claims were first referred to Justice in 1975 and the third was initially referred in 1976.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced today that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools will participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) Challenge inspired by the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative and commemorating the Let’s Move! one year anniversary. PALA is a six-week long physical fitness challenge managed by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports, & Nutrition (PCFSN) and is part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.

The 1977 calendar of Indian fairs, exhibits, ceremonials, dances, feasts and other celebrations is now available, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Most of the events in the state-by-state listings occur in the summer or fall months and are open to tourists and other visitors. The pocket-size booklet lists more than 500 items, giving the nature of the activity, dates and locations.

The booklet also contains some summary information about Indians in the United States and the addresses of Bureau of Indian Affairs' field offices.

Washington, D.C. – The Department of the Interior today launched a new effort to develop a Department-wide policy on tribal consultation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced today. The new consultation policy will be developed with input from the nation’s 564 federally recognized tribes.

Jack N. Rumsey has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Agency at Wewoka, Oklahoma, Acting Commissioner Raymond V. Butler announced today.

Rumsey, a Creek Indian, succeeds Buford Morrison who retired. The Wewoka Agency, located east of Oklahoma City, is one of six agencies under the Muskogee Area Office of BIA.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk issued the following statement today on the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy:

Donald Dodge, a member of the Navajo Tribe, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Navajo Area, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ben Reifel announced today.

One of 12 BIA regional jurisdictions, the Navajo Area serves only the one tribe, by far the Nation's largest, and one reservation of some 14 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Dodge has been the Superintendent of the Fort Defiance Agency on the reservation since 1972. He was earlier the Administrative Manager at Fort Defiance and the Tribal Operations Officer in the Area Office.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today lauded the Senate’s approval of Larry Echo Hawk, a law professor and former Idaho Attorney General and state legislator, as Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The President had nominated Echo Hawk on April 20, 2009.

The awarding of four contracts totaling more than $5 million for construction projects on the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson.

A contract for $4,215,636 was awarded to the Lembe Construction Co., Albuquerque, N.H., for the construction of additional school facilities at Santa Rosa, Ariz.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today issued a proposed finding not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, (Petitioner #84A) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, Calif., has 1,640 members.