Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan said today the confirmation of Carl J. Kunasek of Arizona as Commissioner of the Office of Navajo &Hopi Relocation signals the beginning of the final phase in settling the century-old land dispute between the two Indian tribes. President Bush nominated Kunasek and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on May 22, 1990, after a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst today announced the adoption of regulations governing the preparation of a roll for distribution of the Oklahoma Quapaw Indian Judgment Fund.

The roll is being prepared under the provisions of a recently enacted congressional law in order to identify the persons entitled to share in a judgment awarded to the Tribe in 1954 by the Indian Claims Commission. The amount of judgment money now on deposit in the U. S. Treasury to the credit of the Tribe is nearly $1,000,000.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer has informed Indian tribal leaders that almost $3 million could be saved over a five year period by using a private contractor for services to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.8 billion in Indian trust funds. The $3 million figure was arrived at in cost comparisons between the proposal of a selected bidder and an in-house Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) proposal.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation that would adjust Indian and non-Indian land use on some 266,000 acres near the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New Mexico, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

Interior Assistant Secretary Ross Swimmer has announced the appointment of Joe M. Parker, a Chickasaw Indian, as director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) Muskogee, Oklahoma area. The appointment was effective May 25.

Since 1976, Parker has been superintendent of the BIA' s Tahlequah, Oklahoma agency, one of seven agencies under the Muskogee area office.

The Department of the Interior today invited lease proposals on two tracts of undeveloped Indian land in Nevada with a total shore frontage of nearly 14 miles on Pyramid Lake, an inland body of deep-blue fresh water in a desert-mountain setting.

The lands are on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation about 33 miles north of Reno and offer excellent possibilities for business recreational or residential development.

John Fritz, Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, has approved a joint venture agreement between the Crow Tribe of Montana and a subsidiary corporation of the O'Hare Energy Company of Denver for oil and gas exploration and development on the reservation

Because of fire safety hazards involved in student dormitories, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is taking action immediately to close its 500-pupil school at Fort Defiance, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Arrangements will be made so that all of the presently enrolled students can finish the current term either by transferring to other reservation schools immediately, or by taking summer school instruction. Plans are also being made to place all of them in other school facilities for the new term which starts next fall.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced that it is publishing in the Federal Register, July 21, 1982, regulations to govern the preparation of a membership roll of the Pribilof Islands Aleut Communities of St. Paul and St. George. The roll to be prepared will serve as a basis for a per capita distribution of judgment funds awarded to the communities by the U.S. Court of Claims.

For additional information, contact the Enrollment Coordinator, Enrollment Coordinating Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pouch 7-1971, Anchorage, Alaska 99510, telephone 907/271-3761.

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The Government has extended for another five years the trust restrictions on allotted Indian lands, scheduled to expire in calendar year 1962, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior John A. Carver, Jr., said the action underscores the Department's policy of taking all precautions against prematurely ending Federal trust protection of the property of individual Indians.