Past News Items

Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Lawrence J. Kozlowski, formerly superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs· Miccosukee Agency, Homestead, Fla., has been appointed superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency, Dulce. N. M.

He will fill the position left vacant by the recent transfer of Ralph Bo Armstrong to the post of Project Engineer in the Navajo area. The transfer is effective October 22.

Ten athletes from the Riverside Indian School, Anadarko, OK were chosen to participate in the 1999 World Summer Games, a sport festival organized by Special Olympics International taking place June 25, thru July 4, 1999. Riverside Indian School is a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding facility open nationally to American Indian children. These athletes, plus two coaches, qualified by competing in the Special Olympics Oklahoma 1997 Winter Sports Festival where they won the senior boys' level 3-basketball division.

The actual celebration -- the throwing of a switch to turn on electric power at Puertocito -- takes place August 26, but the real significance of the event extends both ways in time from that date, according to the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Puertocito is a remote Indian reservation in west central New Mexico, the home of the Alamo Navajos, a tribal group separated from the main or "Big Navajo" Reservation 100 miles to the north during the Navajo's struggles with Kit Carson and the U.S. Cavalry 100 years ago.

"Eight federally recognized Indian tribes and approximately 56,000 Indian people have been adversely affected by the recent disastrous weather in South Dakota," Ms. Deer said.

The Dakotas have been hit by freezing temperatures and record snowfall. Snow has drifted to as high as 15 feet in some areas closing all roads and stranding people in remote areas. "Mercifully, there has been only one reported Indian death as a result of this bad weather." Mr. Delbert Brewer, Area Director for the Aberdeen Area Office said.

American Legion officials and Charles Reno have been invited, in recognition of the Legion's successful effort to correct the military record of Major Marcus A. Reno, to attend the ceremonies being held June 23, 24 and 25 at Crow Indian Agency, Mont.

The ceremonies include re-enactments of Custer's Last Stand.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, said today he extended the invitations at the suggestion of officials of the Crow Tribe to:

John E. Davis, National Commander of The American Legion;

Faith Roessel, a special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has announced her resignation. Roessel is a native of Round Rock, Arizona, and is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.

The Department of the Interior today announced the election of five incorporators of the thirteenth region established for the benefit of Alaska Natives who are not permanent residents of Alaska and who elected to be enrolled in such a region under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The incorporators were elected in a mail ballot of adult thirteenth region enrollees. The enrollees voted on a list of 24 nominees submitted to the Department by organizations representing non-resident Alaska Natives.

The Interior Department today released a legal opinion that two California Indian tribes are entitled to enough Klamath-Trinity basin salmon to support a moderate living standard, or 50 percent of the harvest, whichever is less.

The opinion, signed by Interior Solicitor John D. Leshy, notes that when the Hoopa Valley and Yurek Reservations were created, the U.S. government reserved a federally protected fishing right for the two tribes.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that the Douglas Construction Company of Topeka, Kansas, has been awarded a $3.5 million contract to build new facilities at the Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kansas.

The contract calls for the construction of a new learning resource center and a kitchen-dining building.

The learning resource center, with approximately 34,800 square feet of floor area, will house a library and provide facilities for media production and distribution, photography processing, TV studio, offices and classrooms.

Sidney L. Mills, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' office of trust responsibilities, has been appointed director of the BIA's area office at Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ross Swimmer, Interior assistant secretary for Indian affairs announced today.

Mills, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, served as the Albuquerque area director from 1978 to 1982, before coming to Washington for the position in trust responsibilities. Both positions are at the senior executive service level.