Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure today issued the following statement on the recent passing of Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Chairman Stanley R. Crooks:

“Stanley Crooks, the late chairman of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota, takes his place among the thoughtful, far-seeing and decisive tribal leaders that Indian Country has produced throughout history.

Appointment of Robert D. Holtz as area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., was announced today by Acting Secretary of the Interior Clarence A. Davis. He succeeds E. Morgan Pryse who retires from the Bureau December 31, after 35 years of service.

Holtz has been assistant area director at Minneapolis since last July. He first came with the Bureau in 1931 as a forest ranger with the Klamath Agency in Oregon and later served in the same capacity at Zuni Agency in New Mexico, and as forest supervisor at the Papago Agency, Sells, Ariz.

The largest cession of land to a group of Native Americans in the history of the United States is one way to describe the effect of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed by the Congress December 18, 1971.

Or, put another way, The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act will put about one-twelfth of Alaska into the hands of the Alaska Native corporations --an administrative device unique in the annals of solutions to aboriginal land claims.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure today announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior will conduct a series of listening sessions with federally-recognized tribes regarding American Indian sacred sites located on federal lands.

The consolidation of two Choctaw Indian schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oklahoma was announced today by Acting Commissioner W. Barton Greenwood. Wheelock Academy, established in Millerton in 1832, will be closed and its students will use dormitory facilities at Jones Academy and attend public schools in nearby Hartshorne.

The move will reduce operating costs per pupil to about half of the present figure and will provide better educational opportunities for the children.

The Federal regulations regarding Indians voting in tribal elections have been amended to conform with the 26th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified June 30, 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced today.

The amendments are to Part 52 of Title 25 (Code of Federal Regulations). Four sections were changed to reflect the lower voting age.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, the Office of the Secretary of the Interior will have the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform participating in a live radio-broadcast talk show on Wednesday, June 13, 2012. The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform is tasked with moving forward on their comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s management and administration of the nearly $4 billion in trust assets.

Appointment of Richard D. Butts as superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Agency, Cherokee, N. C., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Speech of Marvin L. Franklin,

Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs,

At the Student-Faculty Center,

Oklahoma City University,

Oklahoma Education Association Convention, Indian Education Division,

October 19, 1973

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The fourth government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the Indian Affairs Administrative Organizational Assessment Draft Report and Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education streamlining plans starts Thursday, May 3, 2012 at the Holiday Inn Rapid City – Rushmore Plaza, S.D. The two-day consultation is the fourth of seven that will take place around the country in Arizona, Florida, Washington, Oklahoma, California and Alaska. The first was held in Miami on April 12 and 13, 2012.