Past News Items

PHOENIX - Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will meet with tribal leaders and law enforcement officials from tribes in Arizona at the Heard Museum on Thursday, Feb. 22 and hold a press conference on the President's budget proposals for Indian country.

Award of a $12,500 contract to study the economic feasibility of manufacturing a wide variety of building materials on or near the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton said today that the Administration will seek full funding of $80,000,000 for the Indian Financing Act approved by President Nixon April 12, 1974.

Secretary Morton said that although the Act was originally slated for only partial funding during this fiscal year, the President has determined that the Act's programs should be accorded a higher priority and be fully funded in Fiscal Year 1975.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason announced today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has undertaken its initial response to assisting tribes in the Gulf Coast states who are victims of Hurricane Katrina. There are six federally recognized tribes located in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi who were impacted by the powerful storm. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of this devastating event and their families,” Cason said.

Appointment of Paul L. Winsor as area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He succeeds James E. Hawkins, who recently transferred to the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which the Interior Department administers for the United States under a United Nations trusteeship.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson praised volunteer activity in behalf of Indian foster children April 2, as he bestowed the Indian Leadership Award of the Bureau of Indian Affairs upon an individual and a committee as part of National Action for Foster Children Week March 31 -April 6. The ceremony was held in the Department of the Interior Auditorium Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that its Office of Hearings and Appeals is operating under a new structure that will improve and expedite the resolution of Indian probate cases. OHA has created a separate hearings division to focus exclusively on these cases; is opening new offices in Alaska, S.D, and Ore.; and is increasing its staff devoted to probate adjudication.

Award of a $2,129,250 contract for the construction of elementary school facilities at Rough Rock, Arizona, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The scheduled construction, which will replace the obsolete existing temporary sheet metal building serving some 60 children, will provide an additional 260 Navajo children with needed school accommodations.

President Ford will meet with more than 200 leaders of the American Indian community at the White House Friday afternoon (July 16), Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

It will be the first time a President of the United States has met with such a broad representation of the Indian leadership.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has confirmed Clayton J. Gregory as regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pacific Regional Office in Sacramento, Calif., effective July 11. Gregory, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana with more than 20 years of government service, had been serving as the acting regional director since May 2003.