Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that a contract amounting to nearly $2.5 million has been let by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, for the construction of a 14 mile stretch of bituminous paved highway in the Glen Canyon Dam area of the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Successful bidder is Thorn Construction Co., Inc. of Provo, Utah.

WASHINGTON – Representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will join with officials of the Colville Confederated Tribes on May 27 to celebrate the opening of the Tribes’ new replacement Paschal Sherman Indian School in Omak, Wash., situated at the northwest corner of the Colville Reservation.

The Department of the Interior today announced that all Tillamook Indians who consider themselves eligible to participate in a judgment distribution totaling approximately $149,000 should contact the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office in Portland, Oregon, regarding applications.

The funds cover a 1962 judgment of the Indian Claims Commission in favor of the Nehalem and Tillamook Indian Bands. Money was appropriated by Congress in May 1963. Public Law 88-506 of August 30, 1964 provides for disposition of the funds.

Louis D. Bayhylle, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Tribe, has been appointed Chief Personnel Officer of th Bureau of Indian Affairs. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Bayhylle has been Chief of Personnel Services at the Veterans Administration Hopsital in New York City since 1963. He has been in personnel work with the Veterans Administration for more than 30 years.

A native of Muskogee, Oklahoma, Bayhylle is a graduate of the Central High School there. He has completed numerous training programs in management and personnel.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will attend the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BCGA) 2005 Native American Summit in Phoenix, Ariz., next month where he will sign a cooperative agreement with the organization to establish BCGA Indian Clubs at or near schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The summit will take place Feb. 1-3 at the Embassy Suites Hotel Phoenix-North.

Award of a $4,563,129 contract for the construction of school facilities that will provide for 768 additional students at Shonto, Arizona, was announced today by the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

David Makity, president, and Elliott Pamp, vice president, Battle Creek Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss Federal recognition of their tribe.

“The group is interested in expanded service for school age and older members in the areas of health, education, and social service benefits,” Thompson indicated.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge a group known as “The Nipmuc Nation” from Sutton, Mass.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has scheduled a conference of top field administrators of Indian reservations for June 16-18 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It will be the second such conference since 1938 and a sequel to one called by the Secretary in 1961.

In making the announcement today, Secretary Udall said:

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service today announced nearly $40,000 in repatriation grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to assist museums, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations in returning ancestral human remains and cultural objects to their people.