Past News Items

Assistant Attorney General J. Stanley Pottinger announced today the creation of an Office of Indian Rights within the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

Carl Stoiber, senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division and head of the special task force on Indian rights, has been named Director of the new Office. R. Dennis Ickes will serve as Deputy Director.

WASHINGTON – As part of the Obama Administration’s all of the above approach to American energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today approved a 350-megawatt solar energy project on tribal trust land of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians (Tribe) in Clark County, Nevada. The project marks a milestone as the first-ever, utility-scale solar project approved for development on tribal lands, and is one of the many steps the administration has taken to help strengthen tribal communities.

Full independence from Federal supervision is being extended to an Indian Tribal group in the United States for the first time since 1909 under terms of a proclamation signed by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, it, was announced today.

The affiliated Alabama and Coushatta Tribes of Polk County, Texas, under terms of the proclamation, will be removed effective July 1, from the scope of all Federal laws specially applicable to Indians.

WASHINGTON. D.C.--Senator James Abourezk today asked Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton to take immediate personal charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs until a commissioner of that agency is legally appointed. Abourezk is chairman of the Senate Interior Subcommittee on Indian Affairs.

Abourezk said that the intervention or the Interior Secretary is required immediately to stop the BIA from going ahead with a reorganization plan which is being implemented "prematurely, illegally and without realistic involvement of the Indian tribes."

Secretary of the Interior Fred .A. Seaton announced today the Departments’ approval of the November 1 action of the Navajo Tribal Council in appropriating $300,000 of tribal funds for use by the Tribe to induce new industrial plants to locate in the vicinity of the reservation. The added payrolls would provide increased job opportunities for tribal members, it was explained.

The Department has also approved the Tribal Council’s proposal to use $44,000 in previously advanced Federal funds for the same purpose.

­­­ Appointment of Stanley D. Lyman, 60, Superintendent of the Pine Ridge Agency, Pine Ridge, S. Dak., since October 1971, to head the Indian Trust Protection Office of the Phoenix Area, Bureau of Indian Affairs, beginning November 11, was announced today by Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the

WASHINGTON – On Friday, April 27, 2012, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be joined by Crow Tribe Apsáalooke Nation Chairman Cedric Black Eagle and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer for the signing of a Crow Tribe-Montana Water Rights Compact. The compact seeks to resolve more than three decades of controversy, ensure safe drinking water for the reservation, and provide for the rehabilitation of the Crow Irrigation Project. The ceremony will take place at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

In order to clarify the position of the Department of the Interior with reference to the so-called ''Wyandotte Indian Cemetery" in Kansas City, Kansas, Secretary Fred A. Seaton today issued the following statement:

WASHINGTON – In June and July 2019, the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations mailed more than $140 million in purchase offers to more than 18,000 owners of fractional land interests at the Navajo Nation. The deadline for landowners to return their voluntary purchase offers is either August 30, 2019, or September 30, 2019, depending on the offer cover letter date.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will convene the first meeting of the Commission established to undertake a forward looking, comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s trust management.