Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the publication of "A History of Indian Policy" by Dr. S. Lyman Tyler, head of the American West Center, University of Utah, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The book is now available in paper cover from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 for $4.25.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs announces the Indian Energy Opportunity Roundtable: Tribes, Companies and Government Explore Oil and Gas Possibilities. The half-day event, which will be held in Denver, CO on October 18, 2005, is cosponsored by the Department’s Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development and the Domestic Petroleum Council. The Roundtable is being held to gather all interested stakeholders to discuss the development of the vast energy resources owned by American Indian tribes.

Approval of a coal-mining lease to the El Paso Natural Gas Company covering 8,762 acres of tribally owned land on the New Mexico portion of the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.

The Texas Company has indicated its intention to use the strip-mined coal in a conversion plant, to be located on the reservation that would produce motor-fuel components and gaseous hydrocarbons. If the plan proves feasible, up to 200 jobs would be provided, mainly for Navajos.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today called passage of the Indian Financing Act of 1974 "a giant step toward viable Indian reservation communities that will be a credit to this Nation." The law, signed by President Richard M. Nixon April 12:

1. Consolidates existing Indian revolving loan funds already administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and authorizes the appropriation of an additional $50,000,000 for the consolidated fund from which direct Federal loans will be made to Indian organizations and individuals.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that BIA Special Agent Selanhongva McDonald, an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and a 13-year veteran of BIA law enforcement, successfully completed his training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy (FBINA) in Quantico, Va., last month, graduating with his class on March 18. He is now one of a select group of BIA law enforcement officers who are FBINA graduates.

A 10-man delegation, headed by the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, and including three other Indians and two Interior Department officers, has been named to represent the United States at the Fifth Quadrennial Conference of the Inter-American Indian Institute to be held in Quito, Ecuador October 19-25.

A plan for the use and distribution of more than $9 million awarded to the. Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The award is compensation or reservation land taken by the united States in the early part of this century. The reservation is in North Dakota.

Washington - Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will speak at the Circle of Cultures: Time of Renewal and Exchange Opening Ceremony held at the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND on October 22, 2004.

"Lewis and Clark played a significant role in shaping the history of our nation," said the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. "But without the involvement of the American Indians they met along the way, it would have never been possible for them to achieve their goals."

To stimulate greater economic growth and development on Indian reservations, the Department of the Interior has asked Congress to increase by $35 million the authorized amount of the revolving loan program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Under a bill proposed by the Department, the authorization for the program would be boosted from $27 million to $62 million and the Bureau would be permitted to make grants of not more than 20 percent of the borrowed amount in connection with the loans under certain circumstances.

The Reflector City portion of the Badlands Air Force Gunnery Range, South Dakota --some 5,280 acres of land --is now available for sale to its former owners, mostly Oglala Sioux Indians, Morris Thompson, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said today.

The lands have been declared excess to the needs of the Air Force and administrative jurisdiction has been transferred to the Department of the Interior. Notice was published in the Federal Register of January 3.