Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today award of a $2,369,756.55 contract to construct 25.076 miles of 34-foot finished width, two-lane highway, between Lechee Rock and Kaibito, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation.

The work to be done under this contract and under two other contracts previously awarded will leave only 20 miles of construction needed to complete the connection between Page, Ariz., and State Route 164 south of Shonto, Ariz.

Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover announces that there is currently $59 million dollars available in loan guaranty authority to assist tribal and individual economic development projects and business ventures through the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Indian Loan Guaranty Program.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett today announced preparation of a roll of Upper and Lower Chehalis Indians of Washington State entitled to share in a $754,000 Indian Claims Commission judgment.

An amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations provides that "all persons who were alive on Oct. 24, 1967, who establish that they are descendants of members of the Upper and Lower Chehalis Tribes as they existed in 1855 shall be entitled to be enrolled to share in the distribution of the judgment funds."

Charles Chi bitty of Tulsa Oklahoma, the last surviving member of the Comanche Code Talkers, will receive the Citizen's Award for Exceptional Service from the Department of the Interior in a ceremony that will take place in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon on November 30, 1999. The. Ceremony is to honor his role as a Comanche Code Talker during World War II where he and his fellow Comanche Indians were instrumental in saving many lives during the Normandy Invasion.

An agreement designed to speed the creation of a self-sustaining Alaskan reindeer industry has been signed by the Interior Department's Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Land Management and the State of Alaska, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The agreement, Udall said, sets forth areas of responsibility in "a united effort to improve the economic base for the Native peoples of Alaska by making the reindeer industry a continuing and increasing source of jobs and income."

The U.S. Department of the Interior will hold a public panel discussion to gather comments on the proposed amendment to the Federal Regulations governing the Department's decisions about whether to take land into trust on behalf of Indian tribes. The amendment of these regulations is an important step in providing tribes and their non-Indian neighbors with a clearer understanding of how the Department reviews requests to take land into trust.

A new industry to employ Navajo Indians is being established in the former administration building of the Bureau of Reclamation in Page, Ariz., and Secretary-of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

Reclamation transferred the building to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as it is no longer needed for Reclamation's activities. The building was the center of activity at Page during construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.

On May 20, 1997 Ms. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs called an all employees meeting at BIA Headquarters, Washington, DC. The purpose of this meeting was to provide information relative to current matters taking place within the Bureau of lndian Affairs and to present a Summer Action Plan. "I would like to see the Bureau become a dynamic entity accomplishing positive things at the end of this Summer," Ms. Deer said.

The Summer Action Plan

WASHINGTON – Today President Donald Trump proposed a $1.9 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget for Indian Affairs, which, for this request, includes only the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) budget request is presented separately.

"New Mexico's economy is going to be especially hard hit by the U.S. Senate's proposed budget cuts for Indian programs," said Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, yesterday. New Mexico, because it is home to most of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' central office operations, in addition to being the site of two area offices and seven agency offices, will bear a major share of the cuts. Additionally, there are twenty-three tribes in New Mexico, each of which are slated for a 32 percent cut in tribal program funds.