Past News Items

Edwin L. Demery, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been named Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Minneapolis area Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

In his new position, Demery is the BIA's top official in the four states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa.

A native of Fort Yates, North Dakota, Demery has been since 1970 Superintendent of the Minnesota Agency at Bemidji, Minnesota.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn announced that the Department is extending the opportunity for public comment on a Preliminary Discussion Draft of potential changes to the Federal Acknowledgment Process by more than 30 days to September 25, 2013. This extended period is in response to written requests as well as requests received at the tribal consultation sessions and public meetings held in July and August.

Headquarters of the Fort Berthold Indian Agency is being moved from Elbowoods to Newtown, North Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The move, part of the readjustment and relocation at Fort Berthold made necessary by construction of the Garrison Dam and Reservoir Project of the Missouri River Basin Development, was originally scheduled to take place later. Because of an emergency need to use the agency buildings at Elbowoods for school purposes, however, the move is being undertaken at the present time and should be completed in the next few weeks.

Fred Thompson, Jr., has been made Assistant Area Director, Community Services, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Navajo Area Office, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

Thompson, a member of the Navajo Tribe, has been the Housing Development Officer in the area office since August, 1976.

After serving as Assistant Executive Director of the Navajo Housing Authority, Thompson, 34, became Housing Development Officer at the Fort Defiance Agency in 1971. He transferred to the area office in 1974.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services will offer the next in its series of training sessions for tribal court personnel on June 17-20, 2013, in Grand Forks, N.D., with cases focusing on sexual assault on children.

Increased emphasis on the ultimate goal of transferring basic Indian Bureau functions either to the Indians themselves or to State and local highlighted the 1952 work of the Bureau, Commissioner Dillon S. Myer said today.

Among the major moves during the year were Indian Bureau-sponsored bills introduced in the last Congress to transfer civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indians to the States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, California, Oregon and Washington;

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today that a proposal has been sent to the Congress recommending designation of the Lewis and Clark Trail as a National Historic Trail in the National Trails System.

Legislation proposed earlier to the Congress would add National Historic Trails as a new category of trails within the National Trails System. They would complement the existing three types of trails: National Scenic Trails, National Recreation Trails, and connecting or side trails.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced the collaborative initiative between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Spirit Lake Tribe of North Dakota to improve the health, safety and welfare of children being placed in foster care through the use of mobile fingerprinting units. Under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, all adults in a household where minor children are to be placed must be fingerprinted as an integral part of the background investigation.

Reappointment of Harry J. W. Belvin, Durant, Oklahoma, as principal chief of the Oklahoma Choctaw Indian Nation for a four year term was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Belvin, who was first appointed to the position in 1948, was renamed on the basis of balloting by the tribal members from September through October 10. In the tribal election he received 5,254 votes and his opponent, Hampton Anderson of Atoka, 2,602.

Tribal members also expressed a preference for the four-year term by a margin of roughly two to one.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of David N. Burch as Superintendent at the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah. Since 1970, Burch has been Deputy Assistant Area Director for Education in the Phoenix Area Office.

Intermountain was once the Bureau's largest school as an off-reservation boarding high school for Navajo Indian students. It is now an inter-tribal school, and the administration was transferred from the Navajo Area to the Phoenix Area last summer.