Past News Items

The 1979 calendar of Indian fairs, exhibits, ceremonials, dances, feasts and other celebrations is now available, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Most of the events in the state-by-state listings occur in the summer or fall months and are open to tourists and other visitors. The pocket-size booklet lists more than 500 items, giving the nature of the activity, dates and locations.

The booklet also contains some summary information about. Indians in the United States and the addresses of Bureau of Indian Affairs' field offices.

The Department of the Interior is proposing amendments in the Federal regulations that govern elections to adopt or amend tribal constitutions for tribes organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Proposals also are being made to standardize procedures under which some 97 Indian tribes may petition the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to authorize elections to amend their tribal constitutions.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has named businesswoman and attorney Karen J. Atkinson, an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, as director of the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development.

New proposed regulations governing the preparation of a Yurok Indian voting list are being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The establishment of qualifications and standards for such a voting list is the first step toward the election of an interim governing committee and subsequent organization of the Yurok Tribe.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the reassignment of three career officials to posts in the Southwest.

Theodore B. White will move to the post of superintendent of the Bureau's San Carlos Agency (Apache) at San Carlos, Ariz. The appointment becomes effective January 1, 1967. For the past year he has been employed as a community living and housing guidance specialist in the Washington, D.C., Central Office of the BIA.

Washington, D.C.— On Tuesday, September 27, 2011, the Associate Deputy Secretary Meghan Conklin at the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) and Principal Deputy Special Trustee Ray Joseph will attend the fourth regional government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the Trust Land Consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement.

BACKGROUND ON COBELL SETTLEMENT:

Award of a $1,119,100 contract for the expansion and improvement of Federal Indian school facilities on the Navajo Reservation at Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project involves an enlargement in the capacity of the existing boarding school at Teec Nos Pos to provide space for 334 Indian pupils. When completed, it will relieve the present overcrowding and furnish educational opportunities for 252 additional Navajo youngsters.

The work is scheduled for completion in the fall of 1961.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Chippewa Indians of Northern Wisconsin has taken action to correct accounting deficiencies and other irregularities in the administration of Federal funds received under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard said today.

A BIA audit, completed this spring, revealed several problems including the failure to maintain adequate records, violation of contract terms, unauthorized payments to a tribal official and a total lack of accounting controls.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $4.4 million in grants from the Historic Preservation Fund to 117 American Indian tribes to assist with the preservation of important historic and cultural sites and to promote education and interpretation programs.

Persons who are not enrolled members of the present-day Omaha Indian Tribe of Nebraska but are descendants of the Aboriginal Omaha Tribe and Nation should be permitted to share in the judgment fund recovered by the Tribe before the Indian Claims Commission last February, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst said today.