Past News Items

The Department of the Interior said today a petition from the combined tribal councils of the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Indian Tribes that the Bureau of Indian Affairs split up the Consolidated Ute Agency at Ignacio, Colo., into the Ute Mountain Agency, Towaoc, Colo., and the Southern Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., has been approved.

No additional funds or employees will be needed to accomplish the changes. The division into two separate agencies will give both of the Ute tribes better service, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said. The change was made effective December 29.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) in collaboration with the United States Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office District of Montana, and the Montana Department of Justice will hold the third of its 2014 tribal court trial advocacy training sessions for tribal court personnel on May 19-22 in Helena, Montana.

The award of a $397,375 contract for the construction of a 200-man Job Corps Conservation Center on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It will be one of nine such centers to be operated on Indian reservations as part of the massive program of job training and education for unemployed youth being conducted under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that his office will hold the next set of Listening Sessions on the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Guidelines for State Courts on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, at the National Indian Child Welfare Association annual conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and on Thursday, April 24, via teleconference.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior today advised that Indians who are eligible to share in the 1961 Cherokee judgment award must file their claims by October 9, 1965.

The net amount to be distributed to the 41,935 tribal members on the Cherokee tribal roll is $11,741,800, under an award granted September 14, 1961 by the Indian Claims Commission. The per capita payment amounts to $280. The award represents additional recompense to the Cherokee Nation for lands in Oklahoma ceded by the Indians to the United States in the past century.

WASHINGTON, DC – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today approved a request by the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria to acquire 626 acres in trust in Butte County, California, near the City of Chico for gaming purposes.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress proposed legislation for disposition of nearly $5 million in judgment funds held in the United States Treasury for the Miami Indians of Oklahoma and Indiana. Three different awards are involved, resulting from decisions by the Indian Claims Commission.

SHAWNEE, Okla. – On Monday, November 25, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn will visit Oklahoma to participate in a signing ceremony with Chairman John Barrett of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, approving the tribe’s leasing regulations in accordance with the HEARTH Act. The law restores the authority of federally recognized American Indian tribes to control the leasing of their trust lands, thereby promoting self-determination and economic development.

The Department of the Interior has proposed regulations to simplify and standardize procedures for compiling Indian tribal rolls and disposing of enrollment appeals.

The new enrollment regulations would eliminate the need to issue and publish in the Federal Register procedures governing preparation of rolls each time the Secretary of the Interior is directed by Congress to prepare an Indian tribal roll. However, qualifications for enrollment would not be standardized under the proposed regulations.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) awarded more than $1.5 million to 10 federally recognized tribes for projects expanding their capacity to develop and regulate energy projects on tribal lands.

“Tribal self-governance goes hand-in-hand with economic development,” Washburn said. “These capacity grants help tribes develop rules and regulatory regimes for energy development and for protection of their own energy assets.”