Past News Items

Nominations for members of a special committee to advise the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on administration of Indian trust responsibilities are now being accepted, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The Advisory Committee on Trust Responsibilities will render advice with respect to water rights, real property rights of every kind and nature, and personal property rights wherein the United States has a trust responsibility to an Indian tribe, band, or community.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs John Tahsuda today announced his approval of land leasing codes for 10 tribes in seven states. Today’s action brings to 39 the number of federally recognized tribes whose land leasing regulations have been approved by the Department of the Interior in accordance with the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (HEARTH) Act.

Washington, DC--Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that President Bush intends to nominate Frank A. Bracken as Under Secretary of the Interior Department. Currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ball-InCon Glass Packaging Corporation in Muncie, Indiana, Bracken will assume his post at Interior upon confirmation by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Van A. Peters as Superintendent of the Stewart Indian School, Stewart, Nevada.

Peters, a member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada, has been a school principal in Elko County, Nevada since 1972. He was previously a teacher and athletic director in Reedsport, Oregon.

A United States Army veteran, Peters earned both his B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Nevada.

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke applauded the efforts of a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) K-9 Police Officer who recently took more than 17 pounds of deadly drugs off the streets. The BIA officer was monitoring vehicle traffic on Interstate 25 on the San Felipe Pueblo Indian Reservation when he conducted a traffic stop resulting in the arrest of an individual, and the seizure of approximately 15.9 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.25 pounds of heroin.

Interior Secretary James Watt approved on April 4 a coal mining agreement between the Crow Indian Tribe of Montana and the Shell Oil Company.

Under the agreement Shell will begin mining an estimated 210 million tons of coal from a 2,560 acre tract in the Youngs Creek area of the Crow reservation.

Jack R. Ridley, a Washoe-Shoshone Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Tribal Resources Development in Washington, D.C., Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today

Ridley has served as Director of the Center for Native American Development at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho since 1977.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts announced today that applications to the Indian Affairs Student Leadership Summer Institute, a 10-week paid internship for post-secondary Native students now in its second year, are being accepted for 2017. The deadline for applications is November 30, 2016.

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith said today that a notice proclaiming the establishment of a reservation for the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe of Washington is being published in the Federal Register.

According to the notice, the new reservation would be comprised of five tracts of trust land totaling 99 acres in Skagit County. Four of the five parcels are located approximately seven miles north of the present tribal offices in Burlington, Washington. The other parcel is located two miles northeast of the town, Sedro Wolley.

James A. Joseph, Under Secretary of the Interior, and Huey Johnson, California' Secretary for Resources, today announced creation of a five-member observer team to monitor enforcement of strict regulations the two departments imposed earlier this week on Klamath River salmon and steelhead fishing.

"Formation of the team responds to general concern that the regulations be rigorously and equitably enforced," said Joseph. "The group will be a neutral body which will work to reconcile the interests of all parties concerned with the Klamath River fishery."