Past News Items

Speaking on Monday, December 18, 2000, at the opening of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) new offices in Reston, Virginia, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover pondered on what Ely S. Parker, the first American Indian to be appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, would think of being honored 130 years after his tenure by the naming of a Department of the Interior building for him. Mr.

In the summer of 1911 President Howard Taft was in the White House; the territory of Arizona was a frontier outpost, with a population of 205,000 scattered sparsely over its 113,575 lonely and arid square miles; and 34-year-old Sheriff Carl Hayden of Maricopa County, then a major in the National Guard, was at Camp Perry, Ohio, competing successfully in the national rifle matches.

Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hilda Manuel, has announced her resignation from government service effective April 7, 2000. Ms. Manuel, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, has worked at the BIA for ten years, including more than five years as Deputy Commissioner. She served two Assistant Secretary -Indian Affairs appointees. Ms. Manuel has provided strong leadership during some tumultuous times for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today approval of a program proposed by the Navajo Indian tribe to invest up to $10 million of tribal scholarship funds in selected stocks to increase the annual income available for education purposes.

The net annual income from the scholarship funds will be devoted to scholarships for needy Navajo youth, as has been done in the past with income from scholarship funds held in banks or the U.S. Treasury.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that she has confirmed Terry Virden, a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, as Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "Terry Virden has been a strong advocate for the BIA," said Martin. "I am confident that he will continue to guide the Bureau with a steady hand now and into the future." The Deputy Commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nearly 180-year-old federal agency.

A $2,187,000 contract for school facilities construction at Santa Rosa, on the Papago Reservation in Southern Arizona, has been awarded to the F. H. Antrim Construction Co., of Phoenix, Ariz., the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover will unveil the Trust Assets Account Management System this Friday in Billings, Montana at the Billings BIA Area Office.

TAAMS is a major component in fixing the Indian Trust Funds System. The Billings Area will serve as the pilot of this project which is scheduled for completion early in 2001.

Millions of dollars’ worth of brainpower, representing a "who's who " of management, labor, higher education, and science, is helping guide the administration of America's natural resources, the Department of the Interior said today.

I was delighted and gratified that the House Ways and Means Committee rejected proposals to tax proceeds of tribal commercial enterprises. If enacted, it would have constituted a major reversal of federal Indian law and policy· and would have wiped out tribal economies which are only now for the first time in American history beginning to show signs of economic growth.

Theodore S. Hoffman, president of Hoffman Information Systems, Inc., Hoffman Electronics, Corp., of El Monte, Calif., has accepted an appointment as a consultant on economic development with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.