Past News Items

"New Mexico's economy is going to be especially hard hit by the U.S. Senate's proposed budget cuts for Indian programs," said Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, yesterday. New Mexico, because it is home to most of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' central office operations, in addition to being the site of two area offices and seven agency offices, will bear a major share of the cuts. Additionally, there are twenty-three tribes in New Mexico, each of which are slated for a 32 percent cut in tribal program funds.

Four Northwest Indian Tribes will receive in-lieu fishing sites on the Columbia River, which they are entitled to through treaty rights, thanks to a memorandum of understanding signed today by the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Army.

A meeting with senior Clinton Administration officials and 106 tribal leaders on April 28 marked the one-year anniversary of the historic meeting with tribal leaders and President Clinton. This year's meeting focused on progress and accomplishments being made department-by-department in Indian affairs.

"The approval of these compacts helps bring to a close a long and difficult phase in the implementation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. For twelve years the Tribal governments of California have diligently moved forward, through some extremely difficult and trying times to secure their rights of self-determination through Tribal government gaming. Today, they have redeemed their rights.

"The resolution of this issue demonstrates that the political process works when people of foresight, and good will resolve themselves to finding a solution.

The proposed $31-million decrease in education funds in the FY 1996 Senate Appropriations Bill will result in school closures and will severely curtail school operations in the remaining Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary and secondary schools. Currently the Bureau is responsible for providing educational and residential services to approximately 49,000 Indian students in 187 schools in 23 states.

--First of all, I don't think I have to tell you that there has literally been an explosion in Indian gaming during the last one to two years. No one -- not Congress, Interior, BIA, the Indian people, or anyone else anticipated this tremendous growth. The 1988 legislation did not provide for a time period after it became law for all the safeguards and rules and regulations to be put into place. Neither did it provide time for anyone to hire the necessary expertise to monitor all the things for which we were given the responsibility.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today signed agreements to complete final action on implementation of the Fort McDowell Indian Community Water Rights Act of 1990.

Clinton Pattea, President of the Fort McDowell Indian Community, joined Secretary Babbitt in signing the agreements at a ceremony held at the Interior Department. Also attending the ceremony was Ada Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service today announced that it will reimburse the Shoshone and Arapaho Indian Tribes a total of $130,000 during Fiscal Year 1994, for auditing costs for participating in the MMS Cooperative Audit Program.

The addition of the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes, which are located on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming, brings the number of participating tribes to six, including the Navajo Nation, the Ute, the Southern Ute and the Ute Mountain Ute.

The Department of the Interior today released a revised list of Alaska Native tribes that are eligible to receive services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and which have the immunities and privileges available to other federally recognized Indian tribes in the contiguous 48 States. The list will be published in the Federal Register next week.

The Interior Department today released a legal opinion that two California Indian tribes are entitled to enough Klamath-Trinity basin salmon to support a moderate living standard, or 50 percent of the harvest, whichever is less.

The opinion, signed by Interior Solicitor John D. Leshy, notes that when the Hoopa Valley and Yurek Reservations were created, the U.S. government reserved a federally protected fishing right for the two tribes.