Past News Items

American Indians, who still prize eagle feathers for ceremonial status, are joining the fight to save the national bird from extinction. The Red Lake Band of the Chippewa Tribe has designated its 400,000-acre reservation in north-central Minnesota as a Bald Eagle Sanctuary.

The Chippewa lands are on an important eagle migration route and have several active nests. Rare except in Alaska, bald eagles are one of the species Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has designated for management and study under the Endangered Species Act of 1966.

WASHINGTON, DC (January 8, 2010) – U.S. Department of the Interior officials will welcome college football All-American and Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle to Bureau of Indian Education schools in New Mexico and Arizona on January 12-13 to kick off the new Our Way to Health™ Program.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of a bill which would amend the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, extending its life for five years beyond the present expiration date of April 10, 1967.

The Commission was established as an independent tribunal to hear and decide all tribal claims against the United States that existed before 1946. Over half the claims cases are still undecided.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk issued the following statement today on the election of the new Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation:

The final environmental impact statement for the Westmoreland Resources
Crow Ceded Area coal leases, pertaining to more than 30,000 acres of land in
Bighorn County, Montana, is now available to the public, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs Ben Reifel announced today.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Policy and Economic Development Jodi Gillette and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director Michael Black today were in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the second of six regional government-to-government tribal consultations regarding the Trust Land Consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement. The meetings with tribal leaders represent part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to reinvigorating nation-to-nation relationships with tribes.

Interior Department officials have recommended that the United States oppose the June 1977 ruling of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which has the effect of banning the subsistence hunting of bowhead whales by Alaskan Eskimos.

Interior under Secretary James A. Joseph proposed this position to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance in an October 10 letter in which he said, "Our trust responsibility to this Native American population cannot be ignored or subjugated to other concerns."

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director Michael S. Black today announced that the Office of Indian Services (BIA-OIS) Division of Human Services was recognized by Computerworld for the Division’s case management automation initiative. The Laureate award bestowed on the Division recognizes visionary application of information technology promoting positive social, economic, and educational change. The presentation took place at the Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony & Gala Awards on Monday, June 20, 2011

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has extended the time allowed for comment on proposed procedures governing the determination that an Indian group is a federally recognized Indian tribe.

Because of numerous requests for more time to review these procedures, published in the Federal Register June 16, the new deadline will be September 18, 1977.

Notice of this extension is being published in the Federal Register.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Keith Moore will visit Flagstaff, Arizona on Tuesday to announce the winner of the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA). Levi Horn of the Chicago Bears, who is representing Nike N7, the company’s commitment to bring access to sport to Native American and Aboriginal communities, will join Director Moore in presenting the award to the Kinlani Bordertown Dormitory. PALA is a six week physical fitness challenge managed by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.