Past News Items

The United States' top Indian official, Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith, told 350 Indian businessmen January 13 that Indian reservations need businesses that are "competent and competitive and are going to endure to provide jobs and services for the community… because they earn the money they make and they also earn respect".

Justifiable pride in the many historic accomplishments of Oklahoma Cherokee Indians must not be permitted to divert attention from the problems of present-day Cherokees struggling to make a livelihood on unproductive lands, Philleo Nash, Commissioner-designate of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior said today.

The Interior Department honored 103 persons, including three Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, in its 47th Awards Convocation on October 21.

Theodore Krenzke, Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau, and William Finale director of the Bureau's Sacramento Area Office, received Senior Executive Service Awards in the form of cash bonuses. Gabriel Aripa, BIA forestry technician for the Colville Agency, received the Department's valor award for courageously saving the lives of three children on the Colville Indian Reservation in Nespelem, Washington.

Promotion of Otto K, Weaver, an II-year veteran of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to superintendent of the Crow Agency in Montana, effective August 6, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

He succeeds Clyde W. Hobbs who was recently transferred as superintendent to the Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyoming.

Proposed regulations to govern the preparation of three separate rolls of Delaware Indians eligible to share in the distribution of $4 million in Indian Claims Commission awards are being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett said today.

On August 1, 1980, President Carter signed legislation (P.L. 96-38) setting forth provisions for the distribution of the judgment funds among four Delaware groups: the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma, Cherokee Delawares, Kansas Delawares and Idaho Delawares.

The Department of the Interior today announced the revocation of a provision in Federal regulations which for many years has limited the appearance of professional attorneys before courts of Indian offenses on Indian reservations.

Courts of Indian offenses are organized and staffed by Indian tribal groups under regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior. Fifteen such courts are now in operation.

WASHINGTON - From May 15, 2018 through May 26, 2018, the Department of the Interior (DOI) Opioid Reduction Task Force conducted a Criminal Interdiction Operation in and around Tribal reservations in Arizona, seizing 9,050 Fentanyl pills, 48.2 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.2 pounds of heroin, 863 pounds of marijuana, one-half pound of cocaine, and $30,000 in cash. In total, the drug bust yielded a seizure of 913.5 pounds of illegal narcotics, with a street value of approximately $4,791,417.00, and led to 86 total arrests.

Interior's Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Sidney Mills said today that the Department continues to recognize Mrs. Stephanie Hanson as the Treasurer of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, despite a prior attempt by the tribal council to oust Mrs. Hanson from that role

The Department of the Interior today announced a change in the schedule of meetings to be held in March and April by the five-man task force on Indian affairs at key western points.

The locale of the March 24 and 25 meetings has been shifted from Prescott, Ariz., to Phoenix. Otherwise the schedule remain3 as announced in the Department's press release of March 10.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has extended the effective date of its rights-of-way final rule by 90 days. The extension provides grantees, potential grantees, landowners and BIA personnel with more time to review the final rule and to adequately prepare for its implementation.