Past News Items

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith today approved a joint venture agreement for the development of oil and gas on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.

The contract between the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the reservation and the U.S. Energy corporation was the first contract approved under the new Indian Minerals Development Act of 1982, signed by President Reagan last December.

Donald A. McCabe, former president of the Navajo Community College, has been appointed President of the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute at Albuquerque, New Mexico, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, today announced new leadership for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Weldon ‘Bruce’ Loudermilk will succeed Michael S. Black as Director of the BIA and Tony Dearman will be the new Director of the BIE.

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith has appointed Carl Shaw, a Cherokee Indian, as his special assistant and director of public affairs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Smith said that Shaw would be the principal counselor to the Assistant Secretary and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations on all matters of public affairs nature.

Final regulations governing the procedures by which an Indian group would be acknowledged to be an Indian tribe are being published in the Federal Register Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The increased number of Indian groups requesting that the Secretary of the Interior officially acknowledge them as Indian tribes has necessitated the development of uniform procedures to be followed.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of the Interior today launched a new data portal that raises the bar on transparency of natural resource revenue by offering the public a one-stop shop to access revenues paid for developing energy and mineral resources on public lands and waters at the company and commodity level for the first time.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith has appointed Jacob Lestenkof, an Aleut from St. George Island, Alaska, as the Bureau of Indian Affairs' area director for Alaska. The BIA's Alaska area office is in Juneau.

Lestenkof's appointment is Smith's first official action as Assistant Secretary, since being sworn into office May 15.

Smith said Lestenkof's "extensive experience with both Alaska Native organizations and the government demonstrated his qualifications for this position of critical importance to the Alaska Natives."

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today he will review the Department's policy requiring five years' occupancy before land can be withdrawn under the 1906 Alaska Native Allotment Act.

Action on such withdrawals will be suspended pending the review, the Secretary said. A notice of the review and suspension was published in the Federal Register July 11, 1978

WASHINGTON, DC – As part of President Obama’s commitment to working with Indian Country leaders to promote strong, prosperous and resilient tribal economies and communities, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that more than $9.4 million has been awarded to 46 tribal projects to assist in developing energy and mineral resources. The grants were awarded as part of the Energy and Mineral Development Program administered by the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett announced today a policy, pursuant to the Anti-Deficiency Act, to assure that the Bureau of Indian Affairs does not spend more than Congress entitles it to spend.

The policy prohibits all area directors and program directors from obligating funds in excess of Congressional appropriations, on penalty of “appropriate administrative discipline, including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay, or removal from office.”