Past News Items

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.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today he has established a Water Policy Council designed to coordinate departmental policy decisions and management activities in the area of water resources.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan and Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter today directed federal officials to suppress all natural fires in national parks and wilderness areas until individual fire management plans for the areas are determined to be in compliance with new federal recommendations.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has reached an agreement with Dr. Gerald Gipp, President of Haskell Indian Junior College which resolves the BIA inquiry into allegations against Dr. Gipp.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that President Bush intends to nominate Eddie Frank Brown to be Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Brown will assume his post at Interior following hearings before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and confirmation by the full Senate. He will be responsible for Interior programs serving more than 1.4 million Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States.

Washington, DC--Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that President Bush intends to nominate Martin L. Allday of Midland, Texas as the Department's Solicitor. Allday will assume his post at Interior upon confirmation by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"Martin Allday is a veteran attorney, a strong executive, and a distinguished leader of his profession and his community," said Secretary Lujan. "I am delighted that he has accepted the challenge of serving the President and the American people as the Interior Department's Solicitor."

Washington, DC--Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that President Bush intends to nominate Frank A. Bracken as Under Secretary of the Interior Department. Currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ball-InCon Glass Packaging Corporation in Muncie, Indiana, Bracken will assume his post at Interior upon confirmation by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan, Jr. announced today that Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos will join him on a two-day, three-state tour of Indian schools this week. The unprecedented visit by two Cabinet members to schools administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in California, Arizona and New Mexico "reflects the commitment to improved education for Native Americans that President Bush, Secretary Cavazos, and I share," said Lujan.

The Department of the Interior today announced the resignation of Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Last November he tendered his resignation to then President Reagan and in a recent letter to Secretary Don Hodel made it official as of January 29.

"I believe we have moved the agenda forward for a real change in Indian country," he wrote Hodel. "Certainly, there is a new awareness of what the problems are and the solutions to those problems. This is a convenient time for me to leave and rejoin my family in Tulsa, (Oklahoma)," he said.

The first meeting of the Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economies will be held 1n Washington, D. C. October 19-20, Co- Chairmen Robert Robertson and Ross Swimmer announce d today.