Past News Items

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the appointment of Ernest T. Moran as superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency at Lame Deer, Montana and Roland E. Johnson as the first superintendent of the recently established Laguna Agency, Laguna, New Mexico.

The Laguna Pueblo to be served by Johnson has a land area of about 400,000 acres and a membership of about 6,000. It was formerly part of the Southern Pueblos Agency, which included nine other smaller pueblos. The BIA announced in April, 1980 that a new agency was being established to serve Laguna.

Interior Secretary James Watt said today that President Reagan had announced his intention to nominate Kenneth L. Smith, a member of the Wasco Tribe of Oregon, to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, subject to Senate confirmation.

"Ken Smith is a vigorous and highly qualified tribal leader who has worked effectively at the local and national level to improve the economic and social position of Indians in our society," Watt said. "Smith was selected only after extensive consultation with elected tribal leaders from all across the Nation."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced that a partial per capita payment of judgment funds awarded to the Mississippi Sioux Indians by the Indian Claims Commission will be made before the end of April. The award was for land taken in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota in the early 1800's.

Interior Secretary James Watt said today President Reagan's budget amendments sent to Congress this week include a reduction of seven percent -- $75.9 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the fiscal year 1982 budget presently pending in Congress.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt today announced reduced Interior budget requests totaling $5.94 billion in Fiscal Year 1981 and $5.75 billion in Fiscal 1982. The new budget figures, part of President Reagan's economic recovery program, represent reductions of $383 million in Fiscal 1981 and $877 million in Fiscal 1982 from the Carter Administration budgets for the two fiscal years.

"During the past month, I have participated extensively in discussions with President Reagan and the rest of the Cabinet on the state of the economy and Federal budget," Watt said.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt said today the Department will initiate deep cuts and funding shifts and realign responsibilities among bureaus as part of President Reagan's program for economic recovery. Several major initiatives are being announced today as steps in that program, with other announcements to follow March 10.

John A. Jollie, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe of North Dakota, has been selected as the new coordinator of the Tribal Managers Corps (TMC), a program in the BIA's Division of Self-Determination Services.

Wyman J. McDonald, a member of the Flathead Tribe, has been appointed superintendent of the BIA's Northern Idaho Agency at Lapwai, Idaho. He succeeds Jerry Jaeger who is now the BIA area director at Aberdeen, South Dakota.

McDonald was superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency, Idaho since 1976 and had earlier been superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico.

A former Marine, McDonald, 42, is a graduate of the University of Montana.

Proposed regulations establishing uniform procedures for federal land managers to protect and conserve archeological resources on public and Indian lands have been published in the Federal Register of January 19, 1981.

The proposed regulations would implement the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (P. L. 96-95) which was signed by President Carter on October 31, 1979.

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act has two major purposes:

The American Indian Task Force of the Small Community and Rural Development Policy (SCRD) has focused its activity on four high priority concerns of American Indians, according to an updated report from Deputy Assistant Secretary Thomas Fredericks. As task force co-chairman, he identified the four concerns as 1) tribal consultation, 2) information systems, 3) Federal assistance management systems (FAMS), and 4) housing.

The Administration established the Indian Task Force last August to improve coordination and delivery of Federal services to American Indians.