Past News Items

WASHINGTON - Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 7 at 10:30 am eastern, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Munoz will hold a press conference call with reporters to make an announcement regarding tribal nations and federal disaster aid.

Nearly $200 million in new school construction and school improvement projects were approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal years 1962-1967, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

The projects funded represent intensive efforts by the Department, during the six years beginning July 1, 1961, and continuing through next June 30, to expand and upgrade Federal school facilities serving young Indians who do not have access to public schools. Bureau schools and dormitories serve about 55,000 youngsters in 18 States.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today administered the oath of office to James C. Redman at his inauguration as Haskell Indian Nations University’s (HINU) sixth president. The ceremony took place today on the Haskell campus in Lawrence, Kan., where Echo Hawk and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Keith Moore were joined by local dignitaries, tribal leaders, students, staff, faculty and fellow regional academic community members.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today approval an agreement between the Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Kennecott Copper Corp. to settle a long-standing dispute over water rights in Arizona's Gila River watershed.

Under the agreement, the Indians consent to Kennecott's continued use of water from Mineral Creek, a tributary of the Gila River, in its mining operation upstream from the Indian Reservation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk and his principal deputy assistant secretary, Donald “Del” Laverdure, today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Harvard University’s Project on American Indian Economic Development whereby DOI and Harvard will collaborate on promoting tribal economic development through research, outreach and leadership education. The MOU was finalized July 12, 2011.

Proposed regulations to implement the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, insofar as it pertains to coal mining on Indian lands, were published in the Federal Register September 15 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The proposed regulations are intended to bring surface coal mining activity on the Indian lands into compliance with the environmental safeguard and reclamation requirements imposed by the Act.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes today announced Billings, Montana as the location for the first of six regional government-to-government tribal consultations regarding the Trust Land Consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement.

Because of widespread interest, the opportunity to comment on a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed operating criteria for the Lower Carson-Lower Truckee River Basins is being extended, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Notice was published in the Federal Register August 2, 1977 that the deadline for written comments has been changed from July 9 to September 30 and that a supplemental hearing will be held September 22 in the Jot Travis Auditorium, University of Nevada, Reno.

Washington, April 27, 2011—Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack welcomed St. Louis Rams Quarterback Sam Bradford to the Agriculture Department today and joined him in urging Native American youth to spend the summer pursuing healthy outdoor activities. Bradford, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, participated with over 30 Native American students at USDA's People's Garden in planting a Native American garden, called The Roots of American Agriculture.

Alvin G. Picotte, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Flandreau Indian School, South Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Picotte has been since 1973 an Assistant Principal in the Minneapolis Public Schools system.