Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Jan. 31., 2013, the Department of the Interior will hold the first of three tribal consultation sessions on its Initial Implementation Plan outlining how Interior will carry out the land consolidation component of the historic Cobell Settlement. The first meeting will take place in Prior Lake, Minn., with the remaining sessions to be held Feb. 6 in Rapid City, S.D., and Feb. 14 in Seattle, Wash.

Appointment of Peru Farver, a veteran of 44 years' service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to head the Bureau's work in tribal affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Farver, a Choctaw Indian, first entered the Bureau service in 1910 as a teacher at Union Agency, Muskogee, Okla., and has been superintendent at Fort Hall Agency, Fort Hall, Idaho, since August 1953. In the years between he held a variety of assignments and was superintendent at Tomah Agency, S. Dak.; Red Lake, Minn.; Cheyenne River, S. Dak., and Belcourt, N. Dak.

In remarks at the dedication of Block I of the Navajo Irrigation Project in Farmington, New Mexico, today Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe hailed the opportunities the project will provide for the Indian people.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to promote and sustain prosperous and resilient Native American tribal governments, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the appointment of Harwood Keaton, Okmulgee, Oklahoma, effective July 18, as assistant area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Plans for the use of funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commission to the Barnish and Swinomish tribes of Indians are being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The Samish Indians were awarded $5,754 and the Swinomish $29,000 as additional compensation for land taken as a result of the Point Elliot Treaty ratified in 1859. Both tribes were located in the Western Washington area.

PAGE, Ariz. – On Monday, November 19, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will join Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor to trigger the first “high-flow experimental release” at Glen Canyon Dam since 2008.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs on or before June 15 will conduct a poll by mail among members of the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma in order to have an expression of their views regarding the selection of a principal chief. The term of the present principal chief expires June 30.

A $2.5 million supplemental appropriation for the Bureau of Indian Affairs will make it possible for some 3,000 Indian youth to receive scholarship grants enabling them to begin or continue their education in 1973 at the college level.

In making the announcement, Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton said the additional funds will enable the Bureau to meet the needs of all eligible Indian applicants. The 3,000 youths are in addition to the record high of 11,009 students already receiving higher education assistance under the Bureau's regular appropriation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In keeping with its mission to establish responsive, accountable, transparent, and customer-friendly management of Indian trust funds and assets, the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform reached out to Indian Country at its fifth public meeting of the year in Bismarck, N.D. All five Commission members – Chair Fawn Sharp, Tex G. “Red Tipped Arrow” Hall, Stacy Leeds, Dr. Peterson Zah, and Robert Anderson – participated in the September 13-14, 2012, conference.