Past News Items

(WASHINGTON) – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today praised Indian Country’s outstanding generosity as our nation rebounds from this week’s tragic terrorist attack.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of innocent people lost or injured by this act of enormous horror,” McCaleb said. “An attack on America is an attack on Indian Country. I am gratified, but hardly surprised, that so many tribes have quickly offered support to the victims and their loved ones.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has taken joint action with the Department of Agriculture in designating the Klamath Indian Forest and Klamath Marsh on the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton today lauded the U.S. Senate’s action late Friday confirming Neal A. McCaleb as Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. “I want to thank the Senate for expeditiously approving Neal McCaleb’s confirmation, “ she said, “As an important member of my team, Neal’s solid leadership, management skills and experience will serve well the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Country and our Nation.”

Award of a $35,438 contract for the construction of two bridges on the Menominee Indian Reservation, Shawano County, Wisconsin, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

After several hearings about the need for more police on Tribal lands and the severe need for school construction and repair funds in Indian Country, the Senate Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations cut the President Clinton's request to fund the needs of the American Indian people for law enforcement and school construction by more than $140 million.

Ten Indian high school graduates will soon be attending the North Dakota School of Science at Wahpeton, North Dakota l through scholarship program made possible by a grant of Federal land to the school, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst recently signed a quitclaim deed conveying 70 acres of land previously used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school at Wahpeton to the State-controlled school in the same city with the understanding that the scholarship program would be established.

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, (the Service) within the Department of the Interior, carried out Federal search and arrest warrants in the four corners area (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah) today. This federal action is a culmination of a two-year undercover investigation which has been conducted by the Service, into the killing and selling of eagles and other protected migratory birds.

Award of four contracts aggregating $474,881.48 for road improvement work on Indian reservations in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Two of the jobs are on the Pine Ridge Reservation, one at Rosebud and one at Crow Creek.

Calling it "a tremendous step forward in addressing the needs of technologically needy students on remote Indian reservations," Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt announced today that Microsoft Corporation has contributed over $350,000 in software, computers and cash to Four Directions, a project of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that will electronically link Indian schools using the Internet and provide new technology opportunities to Native American students in eight states.

Under Secretary Hatfield Chilson today announced cancellation of the development lease on 67,000 acres of Indian lands on the Colorado River Reservation near Parker, Arizona. The lease was executed by the Department on August 13, 1957 with the Colorado River Enterprises, an Arizona Corporation.

On April 8 Under Secretary Chilson gave notice to the Corporation requiring it to show cause, on or before May 7, why the lease should not be cancelled for failure of the Corporation to post the performance bond in the amount of $5 million required under the terms of the lease.