Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will be joined by Kindergarten – 3rd graders and faculty from 20 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) funded schools on Wednesday, November 7, to kick off the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education’s ‘BIE READS’ plan to improve BIE students’ literacy. The Secretary will read with the students, who are from high performing BIE-funded schools from across the country, after which he will announce the schools selected to participate in the initial phase of the plan.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman met Tuesday with officials from several Southern California tribes impacted by the Poomacha, Witch and Harris fires that have raged across thousands of acres of their reservations over the past week. The tribal leaders were attending a multi-agency coordination meeting of federal and state agencies organized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Rincon Indian Reservation, one of the most severely impacted communities. Artman visited some of the burned areas on the Rincon reservation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will visit Southern California tomorrow to inspect extensive damage caused by the Poomacha Fire on the La Jolla Indian Reservation and the Rincon Indian Reservation, two Luiseno tribal communities headquartered in San Diego County. He also will join other Federal and State officials in meetings with leaders from these and other affected tribes to discuss relief efforts for their communities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Tomorrow morning at 8:50 a.m., Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will speak to the Tribal Nations Legislative Summit of the National Congress of American Indians at the Weston Hotel in the District of Columbia. Later in the day, he will be the keynote speaker for a Council of Energy Resource Tribes summit on Native energy development and its place in America's future. The afternoon event will be held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 4:30 p.m. on Capitol Hill, and will include representatives from 53 tribes and Canadian First Nations.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will discuss the Interior Department Indian Affairs Modernization Initiative on September 18, 2007, on Native America Calling. He will be joined by Majel Russell, who is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. NAC is the national public radio and online public affairs and news program of the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, a Native­ operated media center in Anchorage, Alaska.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced that the Interior Department will hold a series of dialogue meetings with tribes on its Indian Affairs Modernization Initiative during the month of September.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced he has named E. Sequoyah Simermeyer as Counsel to the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. Simermeyer, an enrolled member of the Coharie Intra­Tribal Council, Inc., of North Carolina who also shares ancestry with the Navajo Nation of Arizona, previously served as a Government Affairs Group Associate with the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), an association of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes in Washington, D.C. His appointment became effective on August 20, 2007.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced he has appointed Montana attorney Majel Russell, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana, as his new Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. Russell succeeds George T. Skibine, the acting principle deputy assistant secretary since April 2, 2007, who will continue in his current position as director of the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Gaming Management. Russell’s appointment became effective on August 20, 2007.

Thank you, Neal. Last Wednesday, Neal made his first appearance at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee since he was confirmed as Assistant Secretary.

Neal talked with Senators about tribal governance practices, economic development and education. That was expected – that’s his job.

It’s what happened after his testimony that took Washington by surprise. He could have driven back to his BIA office – and returned phone calls and other tasks.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will be the keynote speaker on Tuesday, July 24, 2007, at the Bureau of Indian Education’s first National Partnership Conference on improving Indian education. The event “Partnerships for Student Success” will take place on July 24-26 at the Renaissance Denver Hotel in Denver, Colo.