Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Charlotte P. Begay, the adult education coordinator with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Wingate Elementary School’s Family and Child Education Program (FACE) in Ft. Wingate, N.M., was honored yesterday as one of the state’s two winners of the Milken National Educator Award. She and Suzanne Harper, principal of Colinas Del Norte Elementary School in Rio Rancho, received their $25,000 awards at surprise notification ceremonies at their respective schools. Each can use their award in any way they choose.

A Family Employment Training Center, the first established and directed by an all-Indian corporation, will open this fall at Bismarck, N.D.

Contracts for the project are being signed at the site of the Center today.

The United Tribes of North Dakota Development Corporation, whose membership includes all the tribes of North Dakota, announced that it will award the contract for the operation of the Center to Bendix Field Engineering, Corporation, Owings Mills, Md., a subsidiary of The Bendix Corporation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney announced today that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) is soliciting applications for the Tribal Energy Development Capacity (TEDC) grant program.

Washington -The Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian Reservation Roads Program is holding a series of meetings around the country to educate the public on the proposed rules that are the product of negotiated rulemaking between tribal representatives and Federal representatives from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Transportation under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. The meetings on the proposed rules are being held in the following list of cities:

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, today praised the wildfire-fighting Indians of seven tribal groups who were commended in a joint resolution by the Southwest Interagency Fire Committee for their work during last summer's fire season.

In the course of what experts have called the greatest fire outbreak in the history of organized fire-fighting, one of the Indian men lost his life.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his appointment of Aurene Martin as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. Martin, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, came to the Interior Department in October 2001 as Counselor to Assistant Secretary McCaleb. Her appointment was effective on May 28, 2002.

The Education Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of four special conferences this summer to orient field personnel to recent developments in teaching American Indian children in BIA schools, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will meet with tribal leaders on Friday, February 1, 2002 in Arlington, Va., at the seventh in a series of consultation meetings on the Department’s plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. He will be joined by Wayne R. Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs and Ross O. Swimmer, Director, Office of Indian Trust Transition. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel (2799 Jefferson Davis Highway) starting at 9:00 a.m. EST.

A new Instructional Service Center has been established in Brigham City, Utah, to direct a massive in-service training program for the education staff of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that Edgar L. Wight has been appointed director of the Center.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has scheduled a public meeting August 8- 9,2000 in Reston, Virginia, to address technical questions that have been raised by state, local and tribal officials concerning the Bureau of Indian Affairs' March 31, 2000 proposed findings to acknowledge federal recognition of the Eastern Pequot Indians of Connecticut and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot Indians of Connecticut.

The meeting was requested May 18,2000 by the Connecticut Attorney General's office. Comments on the proposed findings are due by September 27, 2000.