Past News Items

The lead agency coordinating the federal response to COVID-19 is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of Emergency Management (OEM) are supporting this by planning and implementing DOI’s response.

Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel and Health and Human Services Secretary Otis Bowen, M.D., have signed a memorandum of agreement to coordinate implementation of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. A portion of the law is devoted to the prevention and treatment of alcohol and substance abuse among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Forty-three Indian tribal leaders and officials of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will meet September 4-6 in Bismarck, N.D. to discuss the reorganization of the BIA.

Under Secretary Frank A. Bracken said today the Department of the Interior already has begun correcting problems identified in a just released Senate report on Indian Affairs, and will continue cooperative efforts with the Congress and the Tribes to improve programs

The Department of the Interior today announced the resignation of Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Last November he tendered his resignation to then President Reagan and in a recent letter to Secretary Don Hodel made it official as of January 29.

"I believe we have moved the agenda forward for a real change in Indian country," he wrote Hodel. "Certainly, there is a new awareness of what the problems are and the solutions to those problems. This is a convenient time for me to leave and rejoin my family in Tulsa, (Oklahoma)," he said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has asked Congress for $901.4 million dollars for its fiscal year 1984 programs and projects. An additional $100 million is to be provided for reservation road projects under the Highway Improvement Act of 1982 recently enacted by President Reagan.

The $100 million roads allocation through the Department of Transportation "will create thousands of new jobs while helping the reservations build infrastructure for economic development", said Kenneth L. Smith, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

Bureau of Indian Affairs officials from Washington, D.C., will be meeting September 14-17 with Alaska State officials and Alaska Native representatives to discuss a proposed transfer of as many as 20 BIA-operated village schools to state operation in the 1982-83 school year. The Bureau currently operates 39 elementary village schools serving approximately 2,100 students.

Coming to Alaska will be Interior's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Roy H. Sampsel and the BIA's Director of Indian Education Programs Earl Barlow.

Federal, State and Tribal leaders met in Washington on May 6 and 7 to seek solutions to problems concerning the fishery in the northern Great Lakes off Michigan's coastlines.

The group, composed of representatives of the Secretary of the Interior, Michigan Governor's Office and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and leaders of the Bay Mills, Grand Traverse and Sault Ste. Marie Tribes, issued the following statement:

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Thomas W. Fredericks announced today that proposed regulations governing business practices on Indian reservations were published January 6 in the Federal Register.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay has announced departmental decisions and clarifications on questions recently raised by a number of South Dakota livestock operators about the sale of grazing privileges at, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the five-year period beginning next November 1.