Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has appointed Billie D. Ott, a member of the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma, Assistant Director, Support Services, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Administration.

Ott, a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, had been Vice President and General Manager of Eastern Operations for the General Telephone and Electronics, Information Systems in Stamford, Conn. He has held other top management positions with Electronic Associates, Inc., and with General Electric.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior announced today it is taking the final steps in its efforts to identify the whereabouts of approximately 17,000 Native Americans to provide compensation as part of the Cobell settlement.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith has assigned Charles Hughes the Bureau of Indian Affair's top financial official, to full time implementation of reforms and improvements which were initiated in the past year in the BIA's management of finances and trust funds

“The scope depth and importance of the efforts and their stage of development now require that these projects receive concentrated attention from all affected Bureau employees including my own office” Smith said.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today that Earl J. Barlow, a Blackfeet Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education.

Barlow has been Superintendent of Schools in Browning, Montana since 1973. He has also served as the Montana State Supervisor of Indian Education and has worked for thirty years as a teacher, principal and education program administrator.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts today issued an updated Contract Support Costs (CSC) Policy for the Indian Affairs Manual (IAM). The updated Policy reflects extensive tribal consultation and the work of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) CSC Workgroup, which is comprised of tribal and federal experts.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt today awarded 23,000 timbered acres on Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska to the Sitka-based Shee-Atika Native Corporation in satisfaction of its selection rights under the 10-year-old Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

With the salmon spawning run on the Klamath River in California nearly over, the Department of the Interior announced today that it is opening portions of the river to Indian subsistence fishing.

WASHINGTON – Lawrence S. Roberts, who is leading the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, announced today that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) has extended its deadline for nominations of qualified individuals to serve on a negotiated rulemaking committee (NRC) that will recommend revisions to its school accountability system. Nominees are being sought from federally recognized tribes whose students attend BIE-funded schools.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith told Indian leaders and state and federal government officials that Indian tribal governments have "the primary responsibility for the social and economic well-being of the people on their reservations."

Smith, speaking at a workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona on the provision of human services on reservations, said that though the Bureau of Indian Affairs provides assistance to tribes, the principal duties remain with the tribe's government.

Theopule L. Traversie, a former Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Cheyenne River Agency at Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

Traversie was formerly in the BIA's Portland Area Office where he worked as a loan specialist. A United States Navy veteran, Traversie earned a degree in business administration in 1963 from Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota and completed law studies at the University of South Dakota in 1966.