Past News Items

Proposed regulations to govern the preparation of a roll of persons of Cherokee Shawnee Indian ancestry are being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today. The roll will be used for a per capita distribution of funds awarded to the Shawnees by the Indian Claims Commission.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has awarded $196,735 to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon for a due diligence study for the Warm Springs Biomass Demonstration Project, an effort by the tribes to enhance an existing biomass electrical generating plant located on the reservation.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the award of a contract amounting to nearly $1.33 million to construct a Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school at Casa Blanca, Arizona, on the Gila River Indian reservation. The school will serve young Pima Indians.

Successful bidder is J. R. Youngdale Construction, Inc., San Diego, California.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will address the May 14 commencement ceremony for the 2003-2004 graduates of Haskell Indian Nations University, a Bureau of Indian Affairs operated post-secondary institution located in Lawrence, Kan. Anderson, himself the son of Haskell alumni, is very proud and honored to be with the students at this important event in their lives. For 120 years Haskell Indian Nations University has educated generations of Indian students from tribes around the country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Trust Services, working in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) are planning to hold a series of tribal energy transmission system planning workshops for tribal leaders and tribal resource managers.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will publish the Replacement School Construction Priority List in the Federal Register. The current list, which was last published on July 9 and July 18, 2003, is revised by the addition of newly prioritized schools. The BIA uses the list to determine the order in which Congressional appropriations are requested to replace aging BIA-funded schools and dormitories.

ANADARKO, Okla. – Today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney praised the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Anadarko Agency for deploying the first Tribal Access Program (TAP) biometric/biographic kiosk workstation. The TAP kiosk will help process finger and palm prints, take mugshots, and access data with the national crime information databases to better ensure the safety of children in foster care.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) today issued the following statement relating to a DOI notification to federal court officials on behalf of Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb. “

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney today announced that she has approved the probate code of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) will now apply the code when probating trust or restricted lands within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation.

Codes such as Agua Caliente’s allow tribes to determine how trust or restricted assets within their reservations pass to heirs upon an individual’s death.

Washington - The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb commended Walker River Paiute Reservation Chief of Police Ray East for his courageous act of rescuing the 10-year old California girl abducted from her home in Riverside, CA on Tuesday morning.

"It's great that the incident ended with the little girl safely being returned to her family," said the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. "I commend Chief of Police East for his heroic effort and I believe his actions speak to the caliber of tribal police officers we have working remote reservations nationwide."