Past News Items

A $261,176 contract has been awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a road improvement project on the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho. The reservation is the home of about 1,770 Shoshone and Bannock Indians.

Contract specifications call for crushed rock base and bituminous plant-mix surfacing of slightly over 12 miles of the Ross Fork and Lone Pine roads, located one mile east of the Fort Hall Indian Agency.

This project is part of the Bureau’s long- term program to improve transportation on Indian reservations through better roads.

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Departments of Justice, Interior and Agriculture applauded the bipartisan House passage of the Claims Settlement Act. The Act, which recently passed the Senate, will provide long-awaited funding for the agreements reached in the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American farmers; the Cobell lawsuit, brought by Native Americans over the management of Indian trust accounts and resources; and four separate water rights suits made by Native American tribes. President Obama has said that he will sign the legislation into law.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the appointments of Everett Prince as Superintendent of the Bethel, Alaska agency and Irving Billy as Superintendent of the Western Navajo agency at Tuba City, Arizona. Both appointments were effective November 4.

Responsibility for the administration of the Federal Water Pollution Control program was transferred today to the Department of the Interior from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall began immediately to exercise his new authority by issuing guidelines to the States for the setting of water quality standards on the Nation's interstate waters.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced today that a groundbreaking ceremony will take place at the St. Francis Indian School in South Dakota on Monday, September 27, 2010. This ceremony marks the Department of the Interior’s 4,000th American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) project, a $7.2 million school improvement project at a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) school.

Regulations implementing the provisions of Public Law 95-471, the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978, are being published in the Federal Register, Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary Rick Lavis said today.

The regulations prescribe procedures for providing financial and technical assistance to Indian community colleges and, in a separate part, to the Navajo Community College.

WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHES ESTABLISH PRIMITIVE AREA

The White Mountain Apache Tribal Council has voted to set aside a 7,400-acre tract on its Arizona reservation as a primitive area for the next five years. The area, which includes Mount Baldy on the east boundary of the reservation, will not be subject to any development, timber cutting, or vehicular traffic, except as needed for fire or insect control operations. It will remain under tribal control and-is not part of the National Wilderness Preservation system.

WASHINGTON – Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs George T. Skibine on June 13, 2010, issued a final determination that affirms the proposed finding of December 15, 2009, to acknowledge the Shinnecock Indian Nation (Petitioner #4) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in Southampton, Suffolk County, N.Y., has 1,292 members.

Regulations to establish rules and procedures for the conduct of an election of an interim Yurok Tribal governing committee are being published in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

Gerard said the action is in accord with his November 20, 1978 message to the Hoopa Valley and Yurok people and is intended as one of the first steps leading to participation by the Yurok Tribe in the management of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation.

A bill to provide a means of settling claims of Alaska Natives to lands in that state is being submitted to Congress today, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has announced.

The problem of Native Land Claims, in Alaska has been unsettled ever since an Act of May 17, 1894 provided that the Natives "shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use and occupation or now claimed by them, but the terms ono conditions under which such persons may acquire title to such lands is reserved for future legislation by Congress."