Past News Items

On Saturday, April 25, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will visit North Dakota, where he will be joined by Senators Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Gov. John Hoeven, and meet with local leaders and tribal officials. The Secretary will announce Interior’s Indian Affairs funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. He also will visit communities hit by recent flooding and confer with state and federal flood response officials.

The appointment of Ronald L. Esquerra as his executive assistant was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson. Esquerra 29, is an enrolled member of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe.

"Ron has an impressive record of achievement," the Commissioner said. "He will be working very closely with me and will be a valuable asset for the Bureau and for Indian people."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will be joined by Kindergarten – 3rd graders and faculty from 20 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) funded schools on Wednesday, November 7, to kick off the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education’s ‘BIE READS’ plan to improve BIE students’ literacy. The Secretary will read with the students, who are from high performing BIE-funded schools from across the country, after which he will announce the schools selected to participate in the initial phase of the plan.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Charles W. James, 53, Choctaw Indian born in the Indian community of Kanima, Okla., to the post of Area Director, Anadarko Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior.

WASHINGTON--Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett today honored twenty-eight departmental executives at a ceremony in the nation's capital.

Presidential Rank Awards honoring exceptional long-term accomplishments went to seven employees, while 21 received the Secretary's Executive Leadership Award honoring them for their superior performance and excellence in leadership.

A contract amounting to nearly $1.4 million has been awarded to Burgraff Construction Company of Idaho Falls, Idaho, to pave, drain, and surface slightly more than 16 miles of road and build two reinforced concrete bridges on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in the village of Owyhee, Nevada Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason today issued a Final Determination to acknowledge the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc., (Mashpee) as an Indian tribe. The Mashpee is a group of 1,453 members located on Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Mass.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today announced two decisions resolving long standing controversies over Indian rights.

In a controversy between the Fort Mohave Indian Tribe and the Bureau of Land Management over the ownership of 3,500 acres of land near the Colorado River in California, the Solicitor has determined that the Tribe is legally entitled to equitable ownership of the land and the Secretary has signed an order directing the Bureau of Land Management to take prompt action to carry out the decision.

WASHINGTON – The Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason will visit the Hopi Tribe of Arizona on September 1 to meet with Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor and tribal council members, as well as school officials and students of the tribe’s seven Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)-funded schools who have met their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirement under the No Child Left Behind Act for a second year in a row. The Hopi Tribe is one of several federally recognized tribes who have multiple BIA-funded schools on their reservations.

Cam1issioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the awarding of two contracts accounting to nearly $9 million in Federal money for Bureau of Indian Affairs day schools at Acomita, New Mexico, and Wanblee, South Dakota.

"These two schools, when completed, will serve a need that has existed for many years," Thompson said.