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Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today denied an application by the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska for the Federal Government to take in trust three acres of land in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as the site for an Indian gaming casino.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has officially cleared Kenneth Whitehorn, former BIA agency superintendent for education on the Tohono O'odham reservation in Arizona, of any knowledge or involvement in a child abuse case that occurred on the Hopi Indian Reservation in 1987.

Eddie F. Brown, newly-installed Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today outlined an action plan for the next 90 days to focus on improving education programs, addressing tribal development on the reservations, and improving Bureau of Indian Affairs management at the central office, area and agency levels.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan, Jr., after meeting with Brown to discuss Indian affairs programs, strongly endorsed Brown's priorities.

Interior Assistant Secretary Kenneth. L. Smith announced today that Management Concepts, Incorporated (MCI) of Falls Church, Virginia has been awarded a $5 12,000 contract for a detailed study of the results of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA).

The Secretary of the Interior, under ANCSA, must report to Congress in 1985 on actions taken to implement the act and the status of Alaska Natives.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has announced its intention to do an environmental impact statement on a proposal to allow commercial harvesting of anadromous fish on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northern California, has scheduled a series of 1 meetings in the area, December 7-14 to identify significant issues related to the proposed action and to determine the scope of the study.

BIA officials expect the draft EIS to be prepared and available for public review by the end of March, 1982.

The Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the Nation's Energy Resources will hold its first meeting on July 27 in Washington, Commission Chairman David F. Linowes announced today.

Formation of the Commission to investigate problems of waste and loss of revenues from energy resources, principally oil and gas, extracted from Federal and Indian tribal lands, was announced this week by Interior Secretary James Watt.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt today announced reduced Interior budget requests totaling $5.94 billion in Fiscal Year 1981 and $5.75 billion in Fiscal 1982. The new budget figures, part of President Reagan's economic recovery program, represent reductions of $383 million in Fiscal 1981 and $877 million in Fiscal 1982 from the Carter Administration budgets for the two fiscal years.

"During the past month, I have participated extensively in discussions with President Reagan and the rest of the Cabinet on the state of the economy and Federal budget," Watt said.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that Don C. Foster, area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., has been designated, effective November 16, to serve as acting area director for the Bureau's operations in Alaska with headquarters in Juneau, pending the selection of a successor to Hugh J. Wade. Mr. Wade, who has been area director for the Bureau at Juneau since 1950, was recently advised that for administrative reasons his services will no longer be required.

Public school enrollment of Indian children is increasing at a fast rate a Bureau of Indian Affairs survey released by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, shows. Comparative figures for the years 1942 and 1952 show that while the number of Indian children enrolled in all schools rose some 25 percent in that decade, the number attending public schools in their home states rose approximately 40 percent.