Past News Items

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, November 26, 2002, Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will be joined by The Honorable R. Perry Beaver, Principal Chief, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in dedicating the new headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Eastern Oklahoma Regional Office in Muskogee, Okla. The BIA will be the sole tenant of the two-story facility, which was built, and is owned, by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma.

A total of 159 entries was submitted from 11 Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in the first travel poster contest sponsored by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and ARROW Inc., an Indian interest organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Although all of the winners were from the Bureau's Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, N.M., David Young, BIA Art Director, was highly pleased with the general level of the entries.

WASHINGTON – The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, signed into law by President Trump on Friday, provides critical relief for Indian Country to address the COVID-19 pandemic, including over $500 million in direct appropriations to Indian Affairs and an unprecedented $8 billion for Tribes.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Regional Director Stanley M. Speaks was one of nine BIA employees recognized by Interior Secretary Gale Norton at the Department’s 61st Honor Awards Convocation on September 4, 2002. The event, last held in October 2000, honored the achievement, valor, excellence and merit of Interior employees.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today appointment of Roy Peratrovich of Juneau, Alaska, as Superintendent of the Anchorage District of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Peratrovich is widely known in Alaska. His mother was a full blood Tlingit Indian.

The new superintendent has over 30 years of service with the territorial government of Alaska and with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

He also has been active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood, having served five terms as grand president and now being a life member of the executive committee.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior announced today that it has once again made substantial progress in Fiscal Year 2020 to reduce the risk of wildfire nationwide, treating 1.5 million acres of public land. The Bureau of Indian Affairs treated more than 364,000 acres across Indian Country, which is a record for the bureau.

WASHINGTON – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb has approved a request by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to join in partnership with the Trident Exploration Corporation for the development of the Canadian company’s natural gas leases in Alberta. The Southern Ute Tribe is widely recognized for its success in the extraction of coal-bed methane gas and will lend its expertise to Trident Exploration as part of its economic development strategy.

Although credit is more and more essential for the Indian individual or tribe as emerging economic units, the Bureau of Indian Affairs revolving fund for Indian loans was $18.5 million short of demands upon it during fiscal 1967, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reported today.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced that the Joint DOI/Tribal Leaders Task Force will hold its next meeting on April 25- 26, 2002 in San Diego, Calif. The Task Force was established in February to review plans on improving the Department’s management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.

Two major construction projects on Indian reservations are milestones in Indian American progress -- one emphasizing economic potential and the other human potential -- Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said.

He pointed to the recent ground-breaking ceremony for a $1.5 million Bottle Hollow Motel-complex on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah and completion of the $8.5 million Bureau of Indian Affairs residential school at Many Farms, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation.