Past News Items

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, will serve as co-Grand Marshall in a march honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 15, 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change is commemorating the twenty-eighth Annual King Week, and Dr. King's sixty-seventh birthday with a week of activities in Atlanta. The Center's activities began on January 7, 1996, and will culminate with a "National March of Celebration & Rally" at 1:00 P .M. on Monday, January 15th.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt today announced the appointment of Faith Roessel, a licensed attorney and enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer said today the President's fiscal year 1995 budget request of $2.24 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) continues the shift of resources from the BIA to Indian tribes and strengthens the foundation established last year by President Clinton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to fulfill the federal Indian trust responsibility and the creation of a government-to-government partnership.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan and Barron Collier today signed agreements on the terms and conditions for closing on the Phoenix Indian School land exchange by December 18, 1996. "This exchange will provide substantial benefits for Indian tribes, the City of Phoenix, and our national parks and refuge systems, Lujan said. “These agreements represent long and arduous negotiations and a great deal of work by Congress, the city of Phoenix, the Interior Department and officials of the Arron Collier Company.

Interior Assistant Secretary Eddie F. Brown today said the recently established Indian Gaming Management Office has developed an action plan and oversight process to provide assistance to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) field staff and Indian tribes on gaming management issues and problems.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan and Secretary of Agriculture Edward Madigan today announced approval of a historic agreement in principle to resolve a century-old land dispute between the Navajo and Hopi Indian tribes in Arizona. "For the first time we have an agreement in principle between the two tribes," Lujan said. "We cannot pass up this Once-in-a-century opportunity to settle this bitter dispute." The agreement in principle, approved earlier this week by the Hopi and Navajo tribal councils, was achieved after 17 months of intense negotiations conducted by U.S.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced he approved a cooperative agreement to activate the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program for the recovery of endangered squawfish "Although the actual effort to bring about recovery of the squawfish in the San Juan Basin has been underway for nearly two years, the completion of this document provides us with the blueprint for future," Lujan said.

A national conference of area directors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS) culminated here October 20 with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that updates a 1988 agreement and spells out the management framework for implementation of a national strategy the two federal agencies are undertaking to prevent and treat alcohol and substance abuse among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today signed a contract with the Gila River Indian Community, completing the allocation of Central Arizona Project water to 11 tribes within the state "Central Arizona Project water will be instrumental in the future development of Arizona, and it will be especially beneficial to the Gila River Indian Community and other tribes sharing in it," Lujan said. "The signing of this contract is an important milestone, completing a process that has taken 16 years." Governor Thomas R.

A meeting of area directors of the two principal federal agencies providing services to American Indians and Alaska Natives will take place October 19-20 at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia.