Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the foundation established by Congress to support Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) education programs has been renamed the National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education (NFEAIE) in a bill signed by President Bush on July 2, 2004. The foundation, designated the American Indian Education Foundation in its original legislation, felt the change was needed in order to avoid confusion with organizations having similar names.

More authority for the Johnson-O' Malley program -- by which American Indians in public schools get special help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs -- may be placed in the hands of Johnson-O' Malley parent committees that must approve special need programs for eligible Indians submitted by public school districts, Morris Thompson, Commissioner of Indian Affairs indicated today.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will give the main address at the May 8 commencement ceremony for graduates of Sitting Bull College, a tribally controlled community college in Fort Yates, N.D., located on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, an area bisected by the North Dakota-South Dakota border. The event will be held at the tribe’s Prairie Knight Casino and Lodge Pavillion located south of Mandan, N.D., starting at 2:00 p.m. (CDT). The 2003-2004 graduating class of 54 students will be the largest in the college’s history.

Robert Abbey will hold a news media teleconference regarding domestic oil and gas production on public and Tribal lands.
Credentialed media may also participate in the teleconference media roundtable by telephone by dialing 1-888-972-9240 and entering the access code INTERIOR.

SELLS, Ariz. – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that President Bush has requested $1.4 million for Fiscal Year 2005 to support border security efforts of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation in southern Arizona shares a 75-mile border with Mexico. The President’s request will help the tribe address law enforcement border issues on the Tohono O’Odham Nation reservation as part of the administration’s efforts to improve homeland security in Indian Country.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced the appointment of two leadership posts within the Bureau of Indian Affairs: Johnna Blackhair, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in Montana, will serve as Deputy Bureau Director for Trust Services at the Bureau of Indian Affairs’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Patricia Mattingly, of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico and the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, will serve as Regional Director of the Bureau’s Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque, N.M.

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the formation of the National Indian Country Telecom Infrastructure Consortium (NICTIC) to coordinate an effort to build and improve the telecommunications infrastructure throughout Indian Country. "Creating this consortium supports the President's National Strategy for Homeland Security by providing critical direction to improving the telecommunications infrastructure in Indian Country," said Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney announced today that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) is soliciting applications for its Native American Business Development Institute (NABDI) grant program, which has a total of $900,000 to fund feasibility studies for tribal economic development projects in Opportunity Zones.

WASHINGTON - The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb has announced that the Department of the Interior published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the Indian Reservation Roads Program in the Federal Register on August 7, 2002. The proposed rule is the product of negotiated rulemaking between tribal representatives and Federal representatives from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Transportation under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform will hold its next meeting on June 13-15, 2002 in Bismarck, N.D. The Task Force was established in February of 2002 to review and propose plans for improving the Department’s management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.