Past News Items

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — The second government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the Indian Affairs Administrative Organizational Assessment Draft Report and Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education streamlining plans starts Thursday, April 19, 2012 at the Radisson Fort McDowell Resort Hotel in Fountain Hills, Ariz. The two-day consultation is the second of seven that will take place around the country in Arizona, Florida, Washington, South Dakota, Oklahoma, California and Alaska. The first was held in Miami on April 12 and 13, 2012.

Income received by Indian tribes and individual Indians from oil and gas leasing of their lands reached the record total of more than $41,000,000 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton reported today.

This compares with an income of about $28,000,000 in 1955 and approximately $13,000,000 in 1951.

Nearly $36,000,900 of the 1956 total was accounted for by ten tribal groups. The great majority of tribes, as usual, received little or no oil and gas income.

WASHINGTON – According to the Federal Communications Commission, only 46.6 percent of rural, Tribal locations currently have broadband access in comparison to 73.3 percent of the other rural parts of the country.

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request for Indian Affairs, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), is $2.5 billion – a $4.6 million decrease below the FY 2012 enacted level. The proposed budget maintains the President’s commitment to meeting the government’s responsibilities to the 566 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, while holding the line on fiscal responsibility and improving government efficiency.

Thousands of Indian landowners in many different parts of the country will be affected by a recent Internal Revenue Service ruling which exempts from Federal income taxes the direct income derived from Indian trust lands allotted under the General Allotment Act of 1887, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons said today.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney announced today that approximately $5.5 million is available for Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) Energy Mineral Development Program (EMDP) grants to help federally recognized American Indian tribes, Alaska Native entities and tribal energy resource development organizations identify, evaluate or assess the market for energy or mineral resources to be developed. EMDP will fund about 25 to 30 grants. The application deadline is December 2, 2020.

The Department of Justice announced today the repatriation of an Acoma Shield and several other important items of historical and cultural significance to the Pueblo of Acoma and its members.

U.S. Attorney John C. Anderson for the District of New Mexico participated in a repatriation ceremony earlier today with Special Agent Franklin Chavez of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Governor Kurt Riley of the Pueblo of Acoma. Other federal and tribal officials and community members also attended the event at the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum.

Percy E. Melis, chief of the Indian Bureau's Branch of Forestry for the past three years, will become area director for the Bureau at Billings, Montana, on June 15, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

George S. Kephart, assistant chief of the Forestry Branch, will succeed Melis as chief.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will host the Interior Department’s kick-off event for its intertribal economic consortium initiative, which will take place on Monday, February 11, 2008 with a signing ceremony between the Department, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut and the Seminole Tribe of Florida to honor the memorandum of understanding that formalizes the two tribes’ cooperative economic relationship.

Only guardians appointed under State law will be entitled to receive the property of enrolled members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon who are minors under the laws of the State where they reside or otherwise incompetent to manage their own affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.