Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of the Interior proposes to acknowledge the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Southampton, New York as a federally recognized Indian tribe, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs George T. Skibine announced today. The Department will issue a notice of this proposed finding in the Federal Register.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced approval of a proposal made by the Navajo Indian Tribe that bids be invited for a two-year preferential oil and gas prospecting permit on 35,336 acres of wildcat tribal land in Coconino County, Arizona.

The successful bidder would be given not only a. prospecting permit but a preference to select for lease not less than six tracts comprising 2,560 acres each, Subject to a bonus payment of $25 per acre less 50 percent of the per-acre bonus paid for the permit.

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today that he has extended the period for review and comment on proposed regulations governing the adoption of tribal water codes on Indian reservations published in the Federal Register March 17. The deadline has been extended from April 18 to June 2, 1977.

The regulations establish standards which tribal water codes must meet to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Tribal water codes deal with the use on reservations of water subject to tribal control.

Washington, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has approved a realignment of his office’s organizational and reporting structure. The realignment is contained in an order he signed on September 11, 2009, effective immediately. The action to reorganize the Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs (OAS-IA) was taken in order to strengthen the management and administration for Indian Affairs’ bureaus, offices and programs.

James F. Canan, career employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, will take over as new area director for the Bureau at Billings, Montana, June 24, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Canan has been assistant area director in charge of resources at Gallup, New Mexico, since last December. At Billings he succeeds Percy E. Melis who retired last March.

The United States Department of Justice informed a Federal Court February 28 that it intended to follow a modified Interior Department recommendation to pursue Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian claims to millions of acres of land in the State of Maine.

Interior's recommendation updates a draft litigation report sent to the Justice Department in January. The February 25 report, signed by Frederick N. Ferguson, Acting Deputy Solicitor for Interior, still asks for the return of land as well as trespass damages. It includes, however, two changes agreed to by the tribes.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the addition of Wizipan Garriott, Tracie Stevens and Paul Tsosie to his immediate staff and senior policy team. They will support the Assistant Secretary as he moves forward in carrying out Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s Indian education and law enforcement initiatives, distributing Recovery Act funds to Indian Country, and overseeing Indian Affairs bureaus, offices and programs.

The Department of the Interior today proposed new regulations so Indian tribes having organized forest enterprises may be able to sell lumber and other forest products without supervision by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Bureau guidance over sales, the Department explained, is needed for small scale operations where the tribal enterprise organization has limited experience in conducting such sales. It also serves a purpose where there is no formal agreement between the tribal forest enterprise and the tribal or individual Indian owners of the forest land.

The tribal plan for the use and distribution of judgment funds awarded to the Seneca Nation of Indians by the Indian Claims Commission has been published Ii in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

A total of almost $5.5 million was awarded jointly to the Seneca Nation and the Tonawanda Band of Senecas to provide, fair compensation for land sold in the period between 1797 and 1842. Each tribe will receive a proportionate share based on tribal membership. Both are New York tribes.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of the Interior issued the following statement today regarding the February 24, 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, in which the Court said that land could not be taken into trust for the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island under Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 because the Tribe was not under the jurisdiction of the United States in 1934.