Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Jerold L. “Jerry” Gidner today announced that he has named Diane K. Rosen as Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Midwest Regional Office in Ft. Snelling, Minn. Rosen, who has ancestry from two federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin, the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians where she is enrolled and the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, had been serving as the acting regional director since October 25, 2009.

Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe today announced approval of a major uranium exploration and development agreement between the Navajo Nation and the EXXON Corporation.

The agreement gives EXXON the fight to explore or prospect for uranium in a 400,000 acre tract on the Navajo Reservation in San Juan County, New Mexico. If ore in sufficient quantities to warrant development is discovered, EXXON is authorized to take a total of 51,200 acres to lease for mining purposes.

Commissioner Louis R. Bruce announced today that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded a $200,000 contract to the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., to operate an Indian post-correctional rehabilitation program for Indian prison parolees.

WASHINGTON, DC (January 8, 2010) – U.S. Department of the Interior officials will welcome college football All-American and Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle to Bureau of Indian Education schools in New Mexico and Arizona on January 12-13 to kick off the new Our Way to Health™ Program.

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina will soon be receiving per capita payments as their share of more than $1.8 million awarded to the Band by the Indian Claims Commission in 1972. Tribal officials are concerned, however, that the present address of a significant number of Tribal members is not known and that some individuals eligible for enrollment have not made application to be included in the membership.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel leaves Washington today for an “on the scene” environmental inspection tour of three National Park System areas in Wyoming and Montana and a meeting with tribal chiefs of the Crow Indian Reservation.

His trip will include official visits to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks Wednesday, July 1, through Saturday, July 4, followed by a meeting with the Crow Indian leaders—with whom he will smoke an “environmental peace pipe,” at a ceremony in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of President Obama’s efforts to expand domestic energy production and strengthen American Indian communities, on Wednesday, October 10, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will join Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure, Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Mike Black and Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall to make an announcement regarding energy development on tribal lands in North Dakota.

The awarding of four contracts totaling more than $5 million for construction projects on the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson.

A contract for $4,215,636 was awarded to the Lembe Construction Co., Albuquerque, N.H., for the construction of additional school facilities at Santa Rosa, Ariz.

A special three-day Polar Plan Conference on Arctic problems ended today with direction from Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel that future plans for the area should be viewed from an international standpoint.

"Knowledge of the world's polar regions will change not only the countries bordering on the Arctic -- it will change economic, social and cultural conditions throughout the world," Secretary Hickel said.

"I urge you to think of the Arctic as a single entity, so that all nations can contribute to its conservation and the wise use of its resources," he said.