Past News Items

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today issued a proposed finding to decline to acknowledge a Derby, Conn., group, the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as an Indian tribe.

WASHINGTON – President Trump today proposed a $944.5 million Fiscal Year 2021 budget for the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The BIE’s budget request is presented separately, continuing the historical action in FY 2020 to recognize the distinct and separate responsibilities and missions of the Indian Affairs’ two bureaus. The FY2021 budget request will continue to advance BIE reform, provide autonomy and accountability, streamline services, maximize efficiency, and build capacity.

PHOENIX – In an address yesterday before a large crowd of tribal government and business leaders attending the National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb drew upon his 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur to point out the importance of partnerships between tribes and federal agencies and corporations.

“Partnerships are a powerful tool” for tribal businesses to use, McCaleb said, citing the role they play in the business world as a mechanism for creating profits and expanding market share.

BLOOMINGTON, MINN.–Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump and Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney established the first of seven offices dedicated to solving cold cases involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Washington - The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb has named Daniel J. DuBray, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, as his Special Assistant for Communications - Indian Affairs.

"Dan will be a valuable asset to Indian Affairs with his extensive media and Capitol Hill experience, and his understanding of American Indian issues," McCaleb said.

(Washington, D.C.) – The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb is in Ottawa, Canada today for bilateral talks with representatives from the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). The bilateral talks were created to provide an opportunity for the United States and Canada to exchange information on how each administer their responsibilities to their indigenous populations.

On a chilly, overcast day, leaders from twenty-nine tribal nations stood next to Bureau of Indian Affairs officials, a pen was put to paper and a historic agreement establishing the first government-to-government consultation policy between the BIA and the tribal nations was signed on December 13, 2000 in Seattle, Washington.

The Department of the Interior published a final rule on governing review of per capita distributions in the Federal Register. The new regulation establishes procedures for the submission, review and approval of tribal revenue allocation plans for the distribution of net gaming revenues from tribal gaming activities. Assistant Secretary -Indian Affairs Kevin Gover in announcing these regulations stated, "These new rules will provide clarity and guidance to tribal governments in meeting the mandates of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."

This report provides a portrait of the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States and discusses the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), and areas outside reservations and ANVSAs (outside tribal areas) at the national level. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, Michael J. Anderson, on Monday will issue a new decision (technically described as a "reconsidered final determination," even though it is not a final determination) on the petition of the Golden Hill Paugussett for acknowledgment as an Indian tribe.

The reconsideration decision concludes that the earlier decision of Assistant Secretary Deer in 1996 rejecting the petition needs to be reconsidered.