Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts announced today the 10 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools eligible for funding for campus-wide replacement. Publication of this list completes the process for identifying the Department’s top priority schools for campus-wide replacement developed through negotiated rulemaking required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

For many of the years leading up to Alaska's statehood the Federal Government had periodic interest in converting Alaska into a penal colony. The idea seems to have started during Andrew Johnson's Administration and ran out sometime in the 1940's when Harold Ickes was Secretary of the Interior.

It's my impression that a lot of Alaskans suspect that the penal colony view, is still prevalent in Washington. The fact is that this couldn't be farther from the truth. We think of Alaska as you do, not as America’s “last frontier,” but as America’s "great frontier."

The largest coal supply letter of intent agreement ever negotiated, utilizing Navajo and Hopi Indian coal reserves in Arizona, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. The coal to be supplied under this agreement will be used in a planned electric generating plant to be built in Clark County, Nevada, by a group of private and public utilities, with Southern California Edison Company as project manager.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and continued commitment to support Native American leaders in building strong, resilient communities, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn today announced the Administration has dedicated nearly $10 million this year to help tribes prepare for climate change through adaptation and mitigation.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs Task Force" in Sacramento, Calif. processed more than 5,000 applications for Eskimo, Indian, and Aleut homesteads in Alaska in an eight week period ending April 21, approximately 20 times the number of homestead applications the Bureau handled in the previous 66 years.

The award of a $540,998 contract for remodeling and construction at the 200-man Job Corps Center at Poston, Arizona, on the Colorado River Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. The center is expected to be ready for activation within six months.

PHOENIX, Arizona – As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and create clean energy jobs, on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will make several major announcements related to energy development on tribal lands. The announcement will be held at the Heard Native American Museum at 1:00 pm MST.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today that he has authorized Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Offices to enter into contract negotiations with 25 Indian tribes for the fiscal year 1972 Tribal Affairs Management Program. The Tribal affairs Management Program assists in the development of managerial skills for those tribes that cannot finance full-time effective tribal management.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today announced the award of a $721,670 contract for further construction on the east-west road now being cut through the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona.

The construction will open up to tourist traffic the 1.5 mile stretch of the old Geronimo Trail which leads through rock-bound Barlow Pass into the pine flats. The flats are the site of the Tribe's projected Point of Pines recreational development.

WASHINGTON, DC – In another step to fulfill President Obama’s commitment to strengthen Indian communities, the U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program) has sent purchase offers to nearly 16,000 individual landowners with fractionated interests in parcels on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.