Past News Items

Award of a $1,313,550 contract for the construction of complete new school facilities to accommodate 244 additional Indian pupils on the Navajo Reservation at Shonto, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new facilities will b, built at a site approximately 3/4 of a mile from an existing Indian Bureau school.

The appointment of a new Commissioner provides a special opportunity to talk to you about the administration's policies with respect to American Indians. I have asked all of the Bureau's employees here in Washington to come to this meeting because I want you to know what these policies are. I have asked you because I know that almost everyone of you has some share in carrying out policies, or in applying the policies to particular cases or situations. Whatever you may be doing, even if you do not realize it at the moment, is sure to involve or affect policy.

It gives me special pleasure to announce, on behalf of the President, the nomination of Mr. Louis R. Bruce of New York State to be the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs. His biography is being passed out to you. As an enrolled member of the Sioux Tribe, Mr. Bruce has continually demonstrated his leadership among American Indians during a long and distinguished career.

Award of a $59,405.54 contract for the clearing and leveling of 240 acres of land and the construction of the main lateral and waste way to serve these lands on the Hogback Project of the Navajo Reservation near Shiprock, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

This construction work will bring under irrigation two new farm units. When completed, the project works will serve an ultimate area of 11,500 acres of land benefiting 500 Navajo Indian families.

The Department of the Interior today announced completion of plans developed by Indians on seven rancherias in California for distributing group property among themselves and taking it out of Federal trust supervision, under a 1958 law. The Indians accepted the plans at referendums at each rancheria.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs John Tahsuda announced today that the Department of the Interior has signed an agreement with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon to guide implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations.

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a $963,560 contract for construction of 8.1-miles of roadway on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona from Marsh Pass, approximately 58 miles northeast of Tuba City, running northeasterly towards Kayenta.

This section of road is part of Navajo Route 1, which was authorized by the Anderson-Udall legislation of 1959.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior today released the 2015 Status Report for the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Program), which summarizes its implementation to date and significant economic impact in Indian Country. Since 2013, the Buy-Back Program has paid nearly $715 million to landowners and restored the equivalent of approximately 1.5 million acres of land to tribal governments.

The way has been cleared for construction of a $50-million dam and reservoir on Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico with approval of an easement agreement by the Pueblos, the Army's Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The agreement covers 4,000 acres of Cochiti Pueblo land, for which the Pueblo will receive a settlement of $145,200, plus all right to develop recreation facilities in the area.

WASHINGTON – Acting Bureau of Indian Education Director Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes will address the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute’s (SIPI) graduating class of 2016 at a commencement ceremony on Friday, April 15, at the SIPI campus in Albuquerque, N.M.

Established in 1971 at the request of the 19 Pueblo tribes in New Mexico and other federally recognized tribes to help train American Indians and Alaska Natives for employment, SIPI is a National Indian Community College and Land Grant Institution with a national, tribally appointed board of regents.