Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk issued the following statement today on the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy:

In response to wishes of the tribal membership, the Department of the Interior has proposed legislation providing for division of tribal assets of the Ponca Indians of northeastern Nebraska and discontinuing their special Indian relations with the Federal Government, Assistant Secretary John A. Carver, Jr., reported today.

Under a bill suggested to Congress by the Department, division of the assets would be made only if approved by a majority of the adult members of the tribe.

Donald Dodge, a member of the Navajo Tribe, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Navajo Area, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ben Reifel announced today.

One of 12 BIA regional jurisdictions, the Navajo Area serves only the one tribe, by far the Nation's largest, and one reservation of some 14 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Dodge has been the Superintendent of the Fort Defiance Agency on the reservation since 1972. He was earlier the Administrative Manager at Fort Defiance and the Tribal Operations Officer in the Area Office.

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.

Selection of Edward F. Edzards, a career employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as a new superintendent of the Pierre Agency, supervising the Bureau's operations on the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations in South Dakota, effective August 19, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Edzards has been in charge of the Bureau's Cheyenne and Arapaho area field office (formerly designated as a sub-agency since 1955. For six years before that he worked for the Bureau as a farm management supervisor at Pawnee, Clinton and Concho, all in western Oklahoma.

The awarding of four contracts totaling more than $5 million for construction projects on the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson.

A contract for $4,215,636 was awarded to the Lembe Construction Co., Albuquerque, N.H., for the construction of additional school facilities at Santa Rosa, Ariz.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today issued a proposed finding not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, (Petitioner #84A) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, Calif., has 1,640 members.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced approval of 35 Accelerated Public Works projects in 18 States and the Virgin Islands totaling $1,988,000 and simultaneously reported that these allotments have committed the total of APW funds for all Federal projects by the Department of the Interior.

Eddie V. Edwards, a Choctaw Indian, has been appointed Assistant Area Director (Resources Management) for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Sacramento, California office, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

PHOENIX – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Carl Artman delivered the keynote address at the National Native American Economic Policy Summit, calling on tribal leaders to share ideas on economic development and follow the example of tribes who have become local or regional business leaders.

“We are exploring the reinvigoration of tribal governments nation building, and how one tribe’s success can spark the success of others,” said Artman. “Successful tribes must continue to expand their outreach to tribes that strive for success.”