Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Acting Office of Indian Education Programs Director Edward Parisian today announced that the OIEP will hold its 2005 Tribal Consultation Meetings on August 29 and 30 to obtain oral and written comments on potential issues concerning Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools under authority provided by Public Law 95-561, the Education Amendments Act of 1978. The BIA published a notice on the 2005 Tribal Consultation Meetings in the Federal Register on August 8.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that he has named Christopher B. Chaney as Deputy Bureau Director of the BIA’s Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES). Chaney, an enrolled member of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, had previously served as Associate Solicitor for the Division of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The appointment became effective August 7.

WASHINGTON – Department of the Interior Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason today announced that the Department has released the final increment of $1 million to the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in Fort Thompson, S.D., to address costs stemming from a serious fire that broke out on April 24 at the Crow Creek High School, a BIA-funded, tribally operated boarding school that serves over 400 students in grades 6-12 on the Crow Creek Reservation.

WASHINGTON – Representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will join with officials of the Colville Confederated Tribes on May 27 to celebrate the opening of the Tribes’ new replacement Paschal Sherman Indian School in Omak, Wash., situated at the northwest corner of the Colville Reservation.

WASHINGTON – Department of the Interior Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason today announced a partnership effort involving the Bureau of Indian Affairs, South Dakota Senator John Thune, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, and Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Chairman Duane Big Eagle involving an initiative to address the devastating effects of a fire in the Crow Creek school dormitory in Fort Thompson, South Dakota on Sunday, April 24, 2005.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale will be the keynote speaker this week at the 14th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial taking place on May 5 at the United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) has published in the Federal Register a final rule implementing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), President Bush’s signature education legislation, in the BIA-funded schools.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that BIA Special Agent Selanhongva McDonald, an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and a 13-year veteran of BIA law enforcement, successfully completed his training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy (FBINA) in Quantico, Va., last month, graduating with his class on March 18. He is now one of a select group of BIA law enforcement officers who are FBINA graduates.

WASHINGTON – Amy Hall, an early childhood teacher with the Hannahville Indian School Family and Child Education (FACE) program and the 2005 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year, was honored today at the National Center for Family Literacy’s 14th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy in Louisville, Ky. Hannahville is a Bureau of Indian Affairs funded day school operated by the Hannahville Indian Community, a Potawatomi tribe located in Wilson, Mich.