Past News Items

A meeting of area directors of the two principal federal agencies providing services to American Indians and Alaska Natives will take place October 19-20 at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Properties of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, including the 694,000-acre tribal forest, have been appraised at a "realization value" of $121,659,618, Under Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson said today.

In a letter to Thomas B. Watters of Klamath Falls, management specialist supervising the Klamath termination program under the act of August 13, 1954, Under Secretary Chilson authorized Mr. Watters to proceed immediately with arrangements for a tribal election as provided in the termination statute.

Notices to vacate the premises within 10 days will be sent on April 15, 1992, to persons without valid leases on spaces in the Havasu Landing Mobile home Park on the Chemehuevi Indian reservation in California

The Department of the Interior's Field Solicitor in Phoenix reported today that approximately 400 people have not signed valid leases. Those who do not reach agreement with the tribe before April 15 will receive the notices.

Promotion of H. Rex Lee, Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to the position of Deputy Commissioner was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mr. Lee replaces W. Barton Greenwood, who has been Deputy Commissioner since the position was established in 1956, and who is retiring November 1.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced proposed guidelines to govern future decisions on the granting of trust status for off-reservation lands acquired by Indian tribes

11 Many tribes are seeking to acquire land outside of their historic reservations to improve their prospects for economic development, and Interior has proposed a new policy to guide the acquisition process," Lujan said in remarks prepared for the Western Governors' Association in Fargo, North Dakota.

The Secretary said proposed new acquisition rules include the following:

Ten plans submitted by Indian rancherias in California for distribution of lands and other assets among the individual members under a 1958 law have now been given final approval by the Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

In total, the plans provide for distributing 904.79 acres among 137 individual Indians.

Six of the plans have also been ratified by referendum vote among the Indians affected and are now being put into effect.

The Department of the Interior has scored notable successes this summer in its war on drugs. Interior Secretary Don Hodel emphasized that drug enforcement is a top priority in his Department.

The summer-long effort to eliminate illegal drug activity on the Nation's public lands has led to the destruction of more than 166,000 marijuana plants on Interior lands. Almost 400,000 additional plants were eradicated in immediately adjacent areas in cooperative enforcement actions with state, local and other federal agencies.

A $178,907.28 contract for construction of two bridges on Navajo Route 1 in New Mexico was awarded today by the Department of the Interior.

These bridges in San Juan County will replace two timber structures that no longer will carry the heavy traffic which the oil and mining operations in northern Arizona and southeastern Utah have generated.

One 2-span pre-stressed concrete box-girder bridge will be constructed across Rattlesnake Wash west of Shiprock, New Mexico, and one 6-spansteel-girder bridge with a concrete deck will cross the Red Rock Wash.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer today signed the Fort Peck Tribal Water Code, a model agreement for the administration of Indian water rights and the first code to be approved since 1975.

The code resulted from a 1985 compact between the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation and the State of Montana. The Fort Peck tribes own a portion of the Missouri River in northeastern Montana.

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of H. R. 6128, a bill that will permit members of the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina to divide their tribal assets and discontinue their special Indian relations with the Federal Government.

The Catawba Indians have requested such legislation and have explicitly approved the provisions of H. R. 6128.