Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has named Donald “Del” Laverdure to the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs effective July 29. Laverdure is an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana (Ties the Bundle Clan) with ancestry from the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the addition of Wizipan Garriott, Tracie Stevens and Paul Tsosie to his immediate staff and senior policy team. They will support the Assistant Secretary as he moves forward in carrying out Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s Indian education and law enforcement initiatives, distributing Recovery Act funds to Indian Country, and overseeing Indian Affairs bureaus, offices and programs.

WASHINGTON – Interior Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman announced today that tribes and tribal organizations will team up with numerous federal agencies at the National Native American Economic Policy Summit, May 15-17, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona to brainstorm and come away with sound economic policy recommendations for Indian Country. This unprecedented effort will bring together federal policymakers, tribal leaders, Native entrepreneurs, tribal economic development professionals, and the private sector for a high-level economic development policy dialogue.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will administer the oath of office to Larry Echo Hawk as Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs at a 10:00 a.m. ceremonial event on Friday, June 26, 2009, in the Sidney R. Yates Auditorium of the Main Interior Building.

SALT LAKE CITY – An unprecedented two-year undercover operation led by agents from Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the FBI today began rounding up what prosecutors call a ring of archeological grave robbers who looted pristine sites in the Southwest, desecrated ancient American Indian burials and stole priceless artifacts, selling them to dealers and collectors who were associated with the network.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk has begun his administration by moving quickly to begin discussions with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, tribal leaders and tribal organizations on economic, energy, education, public safety and other issues that need to be addressed in Indian Country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Larry Echo Hawk, 60, was sworn into office today as the Interior Department’s 11th Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Echo Hawk is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma whose nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 19, 2009. Secretary Salazar conducted the official swearing in ceremony.

WASHINGTON – A graduation ceremony for members comprising the inaugural class of a federally supported pilot project to train American Indians in the commercial building trade will be held December 19, 2008, near the city of Chicago.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today praised the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Larry Echo Hawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and the first American Indian in U.S. history elected as a state attorney general, to serve as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today lauded the Senate’s approval of Larry Echo Hawk, a law professor and former Idaho Attorney General and state legislator, as Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The President had nominated Echo Hawk on April 20, 2009.