Past News Items

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that it has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to 18 tribes or tribal consortiums to support them in addressing the challenges of climate change as part of the President’s Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, move the economy toward clean energy sources and prepare communities for the impacts of climate change.

Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos who are qualified under the 1906 Alaska Native Allotment Act will find it easier and quicker to obtain land allotments up to 160 acres under liberalized regulations announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

He said the new regulations--which recognize that the Natives' mode of life, the Alaska climate and the character of the land are all different from conditions on the homestead States of the West--are in effect a return to the interpretation of the statute regarding use and occupancy of the land in effect prior to 1930.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to help strengthen Indian communities, and following nation-to-nation consultations with tribal leaders, the Department of the Interior is expanding the implementation strategy for the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program).

Bids are due to be opened January 7, 1965, on camp facilities required for accommodation of Job Corps enrollees at centers to be operated by the Department of the Interior in California, Colorado, Illinois, and New Mexico.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – As part of the Obama Administration’s Climate Data Initiative, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced a new set of online climate data resources to help Arctic communities with climate change planning, adaptation and management. The new data sets, introduced today as part of an online Climate Resilience Toolkit, comprised more than 250 Arctic-related datasets and more than 40 maps, tools, and other resources designed to support climate-resilience efforts in the Arctic.

Federal supervision over the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska has ended, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today. Notification of the action is being published in the Federal Register.

A tribal decision by the Nebraska Poncas in 1956 set the stage for the termination action. Petitions to Congress for appropriate legislation to end Federal supervision led to the 1962 termination law (P.L. 87-629) calling for establishment of a tribal roll and division of tribal assets, if division met with the approval of the majority of' adult tribal members.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000 per fiscal year are available for federally recognized tribes and their education departments. The grants are designed to help tribes assume control of Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-funded schools in their communities, promote tribal education capacity, and provide academically rigorous and culturally appropriate education to Indian students on their reservations and trust lands.

Award of a $1,140,230 contract for construction of school facilities at Porcupine, S. D., located 26 miles northeast of Pine Ridge, S. D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that the construction, when complete, will provide classrooms adequate for a total enrollment of 330 elementary school children.

The facilities will include an instructional materials center, administrative offices, multipurpose-kitchen, a pump house building and quarters.

Dear Tribal Leader:

The Seminole Indians of the Hollywood Reservation in Florida this week signed a contract with Amphenol Corporation of Chicago to lease 10 acres of tribal property for industrialization.

This is the Tribe's first venture into economic development.