Past News Items

WASHINGTON, DC – Deputy Secretary of the Interior Mike Connor today announced that the Department’s Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program) has sent purchase offers worth more than $298 million to nearly 4,000 landowners with fractional interests on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Interested sellers will have until November 21, 2014, to return accepted offers.

Regulations establishing procedures for Indian tribes seeking to form tribal constitutions or charters, or make changes in existing ones, were published in the Federal Register January 7, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett said today.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, both of the U. S. Department of the Interior, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further the cause of dam safety. The purpose of the memorandum, according to Commissioner of Reclamation R. Keith Higginson, is to identify those areas where Reclamation can provide technical expertise to assist BIA in developing formalized program for dam safety.

WASHINGTON – The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform will hold the seventh in a series of public meetings on Aug. 19, 2013, in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of the Commission’s comprehensive evaluation of the Department of the Interior’s management and administration of Indian trust assets. The meeting also will be accessible by teleconference and Webinar.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons will leave Washington, D.C., September 5, for a trip to the major Indian areas of Oklahoma. He is acting under broad instructions from President Eisenhower.

Wilfred Brown, a Navajo, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The Fort Defiance agency is one of five serving the huge Navajo Reservation.

Brown, 38, has been Administrative Manager and Program Officer at the agency. He previously worked for the Navajo Tribe as a planning assistant and economic planner.

An Army veteran, Brown earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering and Industrial Design at Arizona State University.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay will present the Special Award in Human Relations of the American Public Relations Association to the community of Sheridan, Wyoming, at 7 p.m., Monday, March 2, 1953, at a banquet to be held in the ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel. The APRA is holding its annual convention here, March 1-3.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today urged the Senate Energy committee to adopt President Carter's recommendation to designate 92 million acres of federal lands in Alaska as new or expanded units of the National Park, Wildlife Refuge, Wild and Scenic River or National Forest systems.

"Through enactment of these proposals, we can be certain that the crown jewels of Alaska -- its most spectacular natural environments, recreation areas and wildlife habitats -- will remain intact for the benefit of our nation's citizens," Andrus said.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) will hold the last in a series of six training sessions to improve the trial advocacy skills of tribal court prosecutors, defenders and judges on January 15-17, 2013, in Albuquerque, N.M. This training session will focus on cases dealing with illegal narcotics.