Past News Items

Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Marvin L. Franklin today announced the publication of a new Bureau of Indian Affairs booklet on the current status of Indian education.

Indian Education: Steps to Progress in the 70's is a 60 page booklet that gives a comprehensive outline of the numerous Bureau of Indian Affairs programs underway to raise the American Indians' level of education.

DURANT, OKLA. — The fifth government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the draft report on Indian Affairs Administrative Organizational Assessment and Bureau of Indian Affairs/ Bureau of Indian Education streamlining plans starts Thursday, May 10, 2012 at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla. The two-day consultation is the fifth of seven that will take place around the country in Arizona, Florida, South Dakota, Washington, California and Alaska. The first was held in Miami on April 12 and 13, 2012.

Awarding of a $409,300 negotiated contract to the Department of Public Instruction, State of South Dakota, was announced today by W. Barton Greenwood, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney announced today the decision for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to take approximately 9,300 acres of land near Mandaree, North Dakota into trust status for the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, a tribe also widely known as the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara (MHA) Nation. In 2011, the Tribe submitted its Fee-To-Trust Application for the Figure 4 Ranch Property, which is currently used by the Tribe for a buffalo ranch operation as well as oil and gas production.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Keith Moore announced today that the Circle of Nations-Wahpeton Indian Boarding School in Wahpeton, N.D. and the Baca/Dlo' Ay Azhi Community School in Prewitt, N.M. have been nominated to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Green Ribbon Schools award.

Our Bible history tells us that Noah and his ark were on the stormy seas for 40 days and 40 nights before the waters receded.

I can tell you -- I think I know what life on that ark must have been. This is my 40th day as skipper of another ark, the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We did not have the time to scrape the barnacles off her hull before we were hit by Hurricane Teddy, battered a bit by Hurricane Wendell, and sprayed again with a lot of salt by the militants, at the NCAI Conference in Albuquerque.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney announced today the opening of the fourth of seven offices established under the Operation Lady Justice Task Force to investigate cold cases involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Half a millennium ago, when European explorers amazed their compatriots with stories of a New World, what they actually described was a land that had long been home to America's native peoples. In the Northeast part of this country and along the Northwest coast, generations of tribes fished and hunted; others farmed the rich soils of the Southeast and Great Plains, while nomadic tribes roamed and foraged across the Great Basin. In the arid Southwest, native peoples irrigated the desert, cultivating what land they could.

The Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior today announced the signing of an agreement on extension work with American Indians. The agreement, which goes into effect July 1, gives the Agriculture Department responsibility for rendering technical advice and guidance in extension work formerly carried on by the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In September, President Trump announced the successful repatriation of ancestral remains and funerary items from Tribes associated with the Mesa Verde region from Finland. Following that effort, the White House has asked the U.S. Departments of the Interior and State to work together to assist other Native American tribes in the repatriation of any additional cultural items abroad.