Past News Items

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown will keynote the third in a series of regional economic development conferences with Indian tribal leaders May 14-15 in Oklahoma City. The meeting is being held in conjunction with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce's third annual Indian economic development conference on May 14.

The Department of the Interior favors the enactment of legislation that would permit further leasing of lands on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in western Arizona and southeastern California, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

A negotiated agreement for reclamation of the Jackpile Mine in New Mexico between the Pueblo of Laguna and Anaconda Minerals Company, former operators of the nation's largest open-pit uranium mine, was signed today by the Denver based company and approved by the Department of the Interior. The Laguna tribal council has already approved the agreement and will formally sign it in ceremonies in Albuquerque December 18. Anaconda has agreed to pay the Laguna tribe $43.6 million to reclaim the more than 2,600 acres of land disturbed by the company during a 30-year mining operation.

Award of a $393,202 contract for the construction of about nine miles of highway on Navajo Route 1 in northern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The section of road begins at Tuba City, Arizona 1 and extends northeast past the Rare Metals Uranium Mill, towards Kayenta, in the northern part of the Navajo Reservation.

This nine-mile section is the first project on Navajo Route 1 to be constructed or immediate takeover by the State of Arizona after the Bureau of Indian Affairs contract is complete.

Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA) Law Enforcement Officers have begun an extensive campaign against the supply and use of narcotics, drugs and marijuana on Indian reservations throughout the United States.

Ross Swimmer, Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs has given top priority to improving law and order on reservations. He feels it is a fundamental key to economic development for the Indian tribes.

High bids totaling $866,695 have been received by the Uintah and Ouray Indian Tribe of Utah for oil and gas leases on 14 tracts of tribally owned land comprising nearly 31,000 acres, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The high bidder on all 14 of the tracts was Standard Oil Company of California.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has asked the Department's Geological Survey for technical recommendation prior to acceptance of the bids

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith has denied the request of an Oklahoma tribe to have off-reservation land given U.S. trust status to allow the tribe to operate a bingo game free of state regulation.

In rejecting the request of the Kaw Tribe to have five acres of land in Kay County, Oklahoma, taken in trust by the United States, Smith said he considered the legal and political impact on all tribes, not just the tribe making the request.

The Department of the Interior today announced completion of a trust agreement under which the United States National Bank of Portland, Oregon, replaces the Bureau of Indian Affairs as trustee for the tribal property of the remaining members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon.

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith announced today new assignments for four Bureau of Indian Affairs area directors all of them members of the Federal Government's senior executive service.

The new appointments are as follows:

Sidney Mills, the Albuquerque area director, has been named director of the Bureau's Office of Trust Responsibilities in Washington, D. C.

Vincent Little, director of the Bureau's Portland, Oregon area office, replaces Mills in Albuquerque.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported. today that an agreement has been reached between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Harry Winston, Inc." of New York City, for the establishment early next year of a diamond processing plant at Chandler, Arizona, which will provide new job opportunities for the State's Indian population.