Past News Items

A significant first step toward the resolution of Indian water-rights claims in New Mexico will be taken Monday, April 6, in Albuquerque, N.M., when Chief U.S. District Court Judge John E. Conway signs an order that finally adjudicates the water rights of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe in the Rio Chama Basin in northern New Mexico. The order, which is a Partial Final Judgment and Decree, will determine the tribe's water rights on the east side of its reservation. The signing will take place in the U.S. District Court, 500 Gold SW, 13 floor east courtroom, at 1:30 p.m.

A Tribal-State gaming compact between the Pala Band of Mission Indians and the State of California was approved Saturday, April 25, by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover and will take effect when the notice is published in the Federal Register. "I want to stress that this compact applies only to the future gaming operation of the Pala Band of Mission Indians," said Assistant Secretary Gover. "The terms and conditions of this compact are binding only on the State and the Pala Band.

Twenty-eight Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in four states will officially become on-ramps to the information superhighway this Saturday, May 16, 1998. Access Native America Net Day will officially move Indian schools in Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Mississippi on-line and provide the students of these schools with access to the Internet through the Department of the Interior's network.

In an address to the Building Economic Self-Determination in Indian Communities conference today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover attacked the lack of jobs and opportunities on Indian reservations, and pointed out some of the major barriers to economic development on the reservation. "Unemployment on Indian reservations is 49%*. Nearly half of our people are not working, because there are not enough jobs, and not nearly enough opportunity in Indian country. What would happen if half of America were unemployed?

After several hearings about the need for more police on Tribal lands and the severe need for school construction and repair funds in Indian Country, the Senate Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations cut the President Clinton's request to fund the needs of the American Indian people for law enforcement and school construction by more than $140 million.

An emergency created by a historic lack of salmon in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska has created the need for emergency funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover announced today the Bureau of Indian Affairs would immediately release $206,000 to be used for emergency assistance to the hundreds of Native Alaskans dependent on the salmon harvest in the Bristol Bay area. ·

One tribe’s 22-year journey through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) process for federal recognition ended this afternoon when Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover signed the final determination in favor of federal acknowledgement for the Chinook Indian Tribe/Chinook Nation of Washington State in a ceremony at the Department of the Interior’s main building in Washington, D.C.

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover has reaffirmed the federal trust relationship between the United States and the King Salmon Tribe and the Shoonaq’ Tribe in Alaska and the Lower Lake Rancheria in California after finding that their government-to-government relationship with the U.S. has never been severed.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has named Michael J. Anderson, as Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs until the end of the Clinton Administration. Mr. Anderson has been serving in the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs. He succeeds Kevin Gover, who resigned on January 3, 2001.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that he is directing the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to issue a renewable 5-year permit for the Kayenta coal mine on Indian land in northeastern Arizona Lujan will defer a permit decision on the adjoining Black Mesa mine pending the analysis of additional information on water resource impacts In addition Lujan has ordered a study of alternatives to the use of the existing slurry-pipeline to transport coal