OPA

WASHINGTON – The Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform will hold its final meeting on December 16th and 17th at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, task force members will provide closing comments and review their work over the past 11 months that has been aimed to improve trust management systems and processes to better serve American Indian and Alaska Native tribal and individual trust account beneficiaries.

On December 4th, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb announced a major reorganization plan for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) that was based on organizational concepts developed by the task force over the past year. The task force was established in February of 2002 to review and propose plans for improving the Department’s management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.

WHO: Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform

WHAT: Final meeting to review past year of activity and reorganization plan to improve Department of the Interior management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.

WHEN: December 16, 2002 – 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. December 17, 2002 – 8:30 a.m. to Noon (Local time)

WHERE: J.W. Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. Ph: 202-393-2000.

WASHINGTON - The House and Senate appropriations committees with funding authority over Department of the Interior (DOl) programs have approved a DOl plan to realign the management organization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST). Input for the reorganization plan was received through the Joint Tribal/DOl Task Force on Trust Reform and a series of consultation meetings the Interior Department held over the past year with tribal leaders. The Department released details of the reorganization plan on December 4.

"I am very encouraged by this strong endorsement from Congress, allowing us to take an historic step in the reform of Indian trust management and improving the delivery of services to the American Indian and Alaska Native community," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said today. "I am particularly encouraged by the bipartisan recognition from both the House and the Senate of the hard work we've undertaken and our strong reliance on the advice that was given to us by tribal leaders over the past year."

Outgoing Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb says the fundamental themes of the reorganization plan were developed over the past year through the extensive work of the Tribal Leaders/DOl Task Force:

"This approval by the Congress is a testament to the sheer volume of work we have undertaken over this past year and our intensive efforts to include tribal leaders in the development of our reorganization plan. Secretary Norton and I are also deeply grateful for the support and guidance we've received from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its chairman, Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and vice-chairman, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-CO)."

In its December 18 letter to Interior Secretary Norton concurring with the DOl reorganization plan, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies called attention to "the Department's efforts over the past year in formulating this proposal, including more than forty-five meetings with Tribal leaders, extensive internal management reviews, and six appearances before the relevant authorizing committees of Congress." The committee's chairman, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) and the panel's ranking member, Sen. Conrad Bums (D-MT), issued the letter.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies also released a letter to Secretary Norton late yesterday approving the reorganization plan. House subcommittee chairman Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM) and ranking minority member Rep. Norman Dicks (D-W A) noted the "comprehensive process of informing the Indian community through exhaustive consultations" conducted over the past year by Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary McCaleb.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene Martin today announced her final decision to acknowledge that the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as defined in the Assistant Secretary’s final determination, meets the regulatory requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as acknowledged, has over 300 members and is located near Kent, Conn., on a reservation established by the Colony of Connecticut in 1737 and confirmed in 1752 – a period of 278 years. The newly acknowledged tribe meets all the mandatory criteria under 25 CFR Part 83, the Federal acknowledgment regulations. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation has demonstrated continuous existence as an Indian tribe and a notice of the decision will be published in the Federal Register.

This decision is issued under a court approved negotiated agreement which supercedes certain provisions of the Federal acknowledgment regulations. Several lawsuits concerning the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation are pending. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation filed two lawsuits under the Non-Intercourse Act. A third lawsuit filed by the United States seeks to condemn certain lands on the Schaghticoke Reservation, under eminent domain, to become part of the Appalachian Trail. All three lawsuits involve the question of whether the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is an Indian tribe under Federal law.

The State of Connecticut, through the Offices of the Governor and Attorney General, the Connecticut Light & Power Company, Kent School Corporation, the Town of Kent, and the Housatonic Valley Coalition consisting of the City of Danbury and the Towns of Bethel, Brookfield, New Fairfield, Newtown, and Ridgefield, Conn., and others have participated in the administrative process before the Department of the Interior.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation evolved from the Weantinock and Potatuck tribes that existed at the time of the first sustained contact of the Indians of northwestern Connecticut with non-Indian settlers. Connecticut appointed an overseer for the group in 1757 and maintained oversight continuously until the present. The Schaghticoke have been identified as an Indian entity since the early 1740’s to the present. The tribe has maintained a community exercising political influence over its members from first sustained contact with non-Indians to the present. Members of the newly acknowledged tribe descend from persons identified by State and Federal records as members of the historical Schaghticoke tribe.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior Department’s trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination on behalf of the 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency with 10,500 employees nationwide, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.8 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes, and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), which is responsible for administering the Federal Acknowledgment Process.

WASHINGTON – President Bush has proposed a $2.3 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for Fiscal Year 2005 that will ensure the continuation of the Interior Department’s Indian trust reorganization and management improvement efforts, maintain the commitment to implementing the No Child Left Behind Act in BIA-funded schools, continue school replacement construction projects, and support law enforcement. The request also includes payments for Indian water and land claims settlements.

“The President has proposed a budget that will ensure trust management continues to improve, that Indian students will learn in safe and healthy schools, and that law enforcement services will improve for tribal communities,” said David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request provides $291.8 million, an increase of $47.4 million over the Fiscal Year 2004 enacted level, to continue the Department’s effort to reform and improve its management of trust resources and assets of the Federally recognized tribes and individual Indians. The request includes $29.1 million to continue the modernization of the BIA’s information technology systems and security to support trust and non-trust programs.

Increases to support ongoing reform and reorganization of Indian trust programs include $4.0 million to quicken the pace at which current probate cases are resolved and $5.5 million for additional trust management and oversight positions at the local level. Other 2005 requests which will enhance trust management are a $2.0 million increase for training to develop a workforce geared toward the unique execution of trust operations across the nation and $1.1 million to establish a permanent Office of Tribal Consultation which will promote greater Federal consultation with tribes on issues effecting trust reform.

The Indian Land Consolidation Program will expand into a nationwide effort to reduce the fractionation of individual Indian land ownership interests in 2004. The budget for the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) includes an unprecedented $75 million for the program, reflecting a $53.3 million increase in funding. The BIA will receive those funds for the ongoing effort to acquire small, fractionated ownership shares in allotted Indian lands from willing sellers. The BIA has implemented the land consolidation effort as a pilot program in four states on seven reservations. As of December 31, 2003, program funds purchased 68,938 individual interests representing 42,075 acres.

As part of the President’s Healthy Forests Initiative, the Fiscal Year 2005 budget request for BIA also includes a program increase of $1.0 million to improve the management of Indian forests. The request will increase the number of reservations covered by forest management plans. Such plans optimize benefits and address use conflicts on reservations, as well as improve the utilization of trust resources. This request also will complement fuels treatment efforts by DOI’s wildland fire program.

In January 2002, the President signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request seeks $522.4 million for elementary and secondary school operations to maintain the President’s commitment to improving student achievement in BIA schools. It also includes an increase of $500,000 to expand FOCUS to five new sites. FOCUS is a program that provides targeted assistance to schools to raise their level of instruction and improve student learning.

The budget request also includes $229.1 million for school replacement construction and repair, including $68.5 million to replace the five remaining schools and dormitories on the education facilities construction priority-ranking list. They are the Bread Springs Day School, Gallup, N.M.; Ojo Encino Day School, Cuba, N.M.; Beclabito Day School, Shiprock, N.M.; Leupp Boarding School, Winslow, Ariz.; and Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Ore. The school construction budget also includes $9.9 million, an increase of $4.0 million over Fiscal Year 2004, for the Tribal School Construction Demonstration Program, which provides incentives to tribes to match Federal funds to build replacement schools.

Together with funding provided in previous appropriations, the 2005 budget will significantly improve the condition of BIA schools, which serve almost 48,000 Indian students living in 23 states. In School Year 2002-2003, the BIA directly operated one-third of its schools and the remaining two-thirds were tribally-operated under BIA contracts or grants.

For post-secondary education, the Fiscal Year 2005 budget request seeks $43.4 million, and supports two existing tribally-controlled colleges that have recently met statutory requirements for BIA support: the Tohono O’odham Community College in Arizona and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College in Michigan. The budget request also includes $250,000 for a student loan repayment program, a pilot project specifically targeted to college graduates who agree to a term of employment with the BIA. This program will add to the Bureau’s ability to recruit new employees.

Furthermore, funding is requested to continue support for the BIA’s Law Enforcement Program to improve public safety and justice in Indian Country. The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request seeks $1.4 million for BIA operations at the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation border in Arizona, and an increase of $7.8 million for the operation of eight new detention centers to meet current detention standards and alleviate conditions such as severe overcrowding and the mixing of juvenile and adult detainees. The Department’s $29.1 million IT increase includes $1.5 million for the BIA share of an Incident Management and Analysis Reporting System to be used by all Interior Department law enforcement programs.

The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request also seeks $34.8 million to meet Federal requirements for authorized settlements resolving tribal land and water claims. The request includes funding for two new settlements: $14.0 million for Zuni Pueblo water claims in N.M. and $1.75 million for Seneca Nation land claims at Cuba Lake in New York. The request also includes the second $10.0 million payment for the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw settlement in Oklahoma, and $8.0 million for the Colorado Ute/Animas La Plata settlement. The budget reflects a net decrease of $25.4 million from the Fiscal Year 2004 funding level due primarily to the completion of the Santo Domingo and Ute Indian settlements in 2004.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, education and economic development for the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their members. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.8 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes.

WASHINGTON – David W. Anderson, an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa in Wisconsin, who also shares ancestry from the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, and President Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, was sworn in today by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. “I am deeply honored by the confidence that President Bush and Secretary Norton have shown me through this appointment,” Anderson said. “I am fully prepared to meet this new challenge.” His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 9, 2003.

“I am pleased to have Dave Anderson as part of my management team,” Secretary Norton said. “He is an experienced leader whose extensive management skills and insights on Indian issues will further our efforts to improve the lives of Indian people, and provide quality customer service to Indian tribes and beneficiaries.”

Anderson is a nationally recognized entrepreneur whose background includes that of corporate turnaround specialist, cookbook author, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and, as an original investor in the Rainforest Café and founder and chairman of Famous Dave’s of America, Inc., one of the nation’s fastest growing chains of family restaurants, a successful restaurateur. Anderson is the ninth Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs to be confirmed since Congress established the position in the late 1970s. In addition to helping the Department fulfill its trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, the Assistant Secretary is responsible for promoting the self-determination and economic well-being of the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their 1.8 million members.

During the course of his business career, Anderson helped found three publicly traded companies, creating over 18,000 new jobs, and reorganized several failing businesses in Indian Country that turned them into financially successful operations. For example, as chief executive officer for Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa tribal enterprises in 1982, Anderson created a management team that successfully rebuilt reservation businesses into profitable and stable operations. Under his leadership, their gross revenues increased from $3.9 million to $8.0 million – an achievement recognized by President Reagan’s Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economies.

As a philanthropist, Anderson is known for his dedication to the American Indian community after having donated more than $6 million to Indian advancement programs and having established a national organization to help young Indian people.

In 1999, the Anderson Family itself provided $1.4 million to establish the YouthSkills Foundation, an organization that helps disadvantaged American Indian children. The foundation is supported by proceeds from Anderson’s award-winning BBQ cookbook, “Famous Dave’s Backroads & Sidestreets” (1999) and his most recent book, “LifeSkills for Success” (2004).

In 2001, Anderson founded the LifeSkills Center for Leadership, an organization offering life-changing programs for at-risk Indian youth and young adults. The center made such an impression on television personality Oprah Winfrey that her Angel Network supported its work with a $25,000 grant the next year.

Anderson also has served on numerous national and state commissions, including the Presidential Advisory Council for Tribal Colleges and Universities (2001), the National Task Force on Reservation Gambling (1983), the Council on Minority Business Development for the State of Wisconsin (1983) and the Wisconsin Council on Tourism (1983), as well as Harvard University’s Native American Program Advisory Council. In 2003, he was appointed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to the American Indian Education Foundation, a non-profit organization established by Congress to accept contributions from private citizens and groups to support the education of Indian students at Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools.

Anderson has used his business and life experiences to help others through public speaking, and by sharing his optimism and inspiration with youth groups and community organizations. He has received numerous honors for his efforts including being named a Bush Leadership Fellow (1985); recognition as Minnesota and Dakota’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by the Wall Street firm Ernst & Young, NASDAQ and USA Today (1997); designated Restaurateur of the Year by Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine (1998) and being chosen by his community as an Olympic Torch carrier for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Anderson received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1986. He and his wife maintain their family home in Edina, Minnesota.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, self-governance and economic development for the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their members. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the 179-year old agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes; the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), which administers the Federal Acknowledgment Process; and the BIA school system, which serves almost 50,000 American Indian children located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states.

(SACATON, ARIZ.) – On a visit to the Gila River Indian Reservation in south-central Arizona, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, joined by Gila River Governor Richard Narcia, today announced that the Gila River Indian Community has been designated as an expansion site of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Land Consolidation Program.

The Secretary announced on Monday that President Bush is included an unprecedented $75 million in the FY 2005 federal budget for the Department of the Interior’s historic Indian Land Consolidation program. The budget reflects a $53.3 million increase in funding for the Department’s ongoing efforts to acquire small, fractionated ownership shares in allotted Indian lands from willing sellers. The Gila River Indian Community has one of the highest numbers of fractionated parcels in the nation.

“One of the greatest challenges managing trust responsibilities is the fractionation of individual Indian interests on land that the federal government holds in trust,” Secretary Norton said. “Without corrective action, millions of acres of land will be owned by such small ownership interests that no individual owner will derive any meaningful value. President Bush has responded to the challenge by proposing to invest an historic amount – $75 million – to expand the Indian Land Consolidation Program.”

The Indian Land Consolidation Program is a key component in the Department’s trust reform and management efforts. Once interests are purchased, title can then be transferred to the tribe. Purchase of fractional interests increases the likelihood of more productive economic use of the land, reduces record-keeping and large numbers of small dollar financial transactions and decreases the number of interests subject to probate. It also reduces the federal burden of managing those interests where, in many cases, the cost to account for and probate highly fractionated tracts far exceeds either the owners’ receipts or the value of the underlying property.

“By working with the Gila River Indian Community to reduce the number of tracts held in fractionated ownership, economic development can be expanded for housing developments and better long-term planning,” Secretary Norton said. “Our program will help reduce the burden on the federal government and, more importantly, help create new opportunities for the Gila River Indian Community.”

The BIA began the Indian Land Consolidation Program as a pilot program on three reservations in 1999. It was later expanded to seven reservations in four states. As of December 31, 2003, program funds purchased 68,938 individual interests representing 42,075 acres.

SELLS, Ariz. – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that President Bush has requested $1.4 million for Fiscal Year 2005 to support border security efforts of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation in southern Arizona shares a 75-mile border with Mexico. The President’s request will help the tribe address law enforcement border issues on the Tohono O’Odham Nation reservation as part of the administration’s efforts to improve homeland security in Indian Country. Martin made the announcement during a tour of the reservation to see first-hand the problems faced by the tribe in protecting its portion of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The needs of the Tohono O’odham Nation are significant and supported by a substantial investment,” Martin said. “Today’s tour has shown me the magnitude of this problem and justifies our request for funds.”

For years Tohono O’odham tribal members have struggled with the costs associated with trying to curtail the increasing levels of illegal immigration and drug trafficking through their reservation. Such costs include devoting limited tribal resources on border enforcement and to combating robberies against tribal members, as well as providing health care and autopsy services to illegal immigrants and dealing with increased environmental pollution from the litter and waste left behind. Approximately 1,500 illegal immigrants cross the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation daily.

In 2002, there were 71,700 reported incidents of illegal immigrant apprehension and contacts in Indian Country with most of those reported by the Tohono O’odham Nation. That year, Tohono O’odham Nation police seized 65,000 pounds of illegal narcotics. In 2003, over 100,000 pounds were confiscated by tribal law enforcement.

The tribe currently has 69 commissioned officers serving the 2.8 million-acre reservation, which has become the route of choice in Arizona for thousands of drug and immigrant smugglers seeking easy entry into the United States. The President’s request will fund additional tribal police officers, and related costs, to concentrate on border criminal activities and assist federal, state and local authorities in coordinating efforts to resolve cross-jurisdictional issues on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation.

WASHINGTON – Interior’s new Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, David W. Anderson, pledged to work with tribes for the betterment of Indian people and to put greater emphasis on supporting Bureau of Indian Affairs employees in the field during his public swearing-in ceremony today with Secretary Gale Norton. Accompanied by his sister in full tribal dress who held a bible for his swearing-in, Anderson took the oath of office administered by Secretary Norton in front of over 100 attendees comprised of tribal officials and departmental employees. “I am looking forward to working with tribes and tribal leaders,” Anderson said. “My administration will be in the field serving two customers: BIA employees and the tribes.”

Secretary Norton publicly welcomed Anderson as the newest addition to her staff. “His enthusiasm and great compassion for Indian people will be a big asset to Indian Affairs,” Norton said. Anderson was also joined by officials of the Lac Courte Oreilles Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa in Wisconsin, where he is an enrolled member, and Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, from whom he also shares ancestry. A private swearing-in was held for Anderson on Feb. 2.

David Anderson is a nationally recognized entrepreneur whose background includes that of corporate turnaround specialist, cookbook author, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and, as founder and chairman of Famous Dave’s of America, Inc., one of the nation’s fastest growing chains of family restaurants, a successful restaurateur.

As the ninth Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs to be confirmed since Congress established the position in the late 1970s, Anderson will help the department fulfill its trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries. He also will promote the self-determination and economic well being of the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their 1.8 million members. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the 179-year old agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes, the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, which administers the Federal Acknowledgment Process; and the BIA school system, which serves almost 50,000 American Indian children in 23 states.

During the course of his business career, Anderson helped found three publicly traded companies, creating over 18,000 new jobs, and reorganized several failing businesses in Indian Country that turned them into financially successful operations. For example, as chief executive officer for Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa tribal enterprises in 1982, Anderson created a management team that successfully rebuilt reservation businesses into profitable and stable operations. Under his leadership, their gross revenues increased from $3.9 million to $8.0 million – an achievement recognized by President Reagan’s Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economies.

As a philanthropist, Anderson is known for his dedication to the American Indian community after having donated more than $6 million to Indian advancement programs and having established a national organization to help young Indian people.

In 1999, the Anderson Family itself provided $1.4 million to establish the YouthSkills Foundation, an organization that helps disadvantaged American Indian children. The foundation is supported by proceeds from Anderson’s award-winning BBQ cookbook, “Famous Dave’s Backroads & Sidestreets” (1999) and his most recent book, “LifeSkills for Success” (2004).

In 2001, Anderson founded the LifeSkills Center for Leadership, an organization offering life-changing programs for at-risk Indian youth and young adults. The center made such an impression on television personality Oprah Winfrey that her Angel Network supported its work with a $25,000 grant the next year.

Anderson also has served on numerous national and state commissions, including the Presidential Advisory Council for Tribal Colleges and Universities (2001), the National Task Force on Reservation Gambling (1983), the Council on Minority Business Development for the State of Wisconsin (1983) and the Wisconsin Council on Tourism (1983), as well as Harvard University’s Native American Program Advisory Council. In 2003, he was appointed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to the American Indian Education Foundation, a non-profit organization established by Congress to accept contributions from private citizens and groups to support the education of Indian students at BIA schools.

Anderson has used his business and life experiences to help others through public speaking, and by sharing his optimism and inspiration with youth groups and community organizations. He has received numerous honors for his efforts including being named a Bush Leadership Fellow (1985); recognition as Minnesota and Dakota’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by the Wall Street firm Ernst & Young, NASDAQ and USA Today (1997); designated Restaurateur of the Year by Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine (1998) and being chosen by his community as an Olympic Torch carrier for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Anderson received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1986. He and his wife have maintained their family’s home in Edina, Minnesota.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will publish the Replacement School Construction Priority List in the Federal Register. The current list, which was last published on July 9 and July 18, 2003, is revised by the addition of newly prioritized schools. The BIA uses the list to determine the order in which Congressional appropriations are requested to replace aging BIA-funded schools and dormitories.

Facilities on the previously published list that funding is requested for in fiscal year 2005 are, in order, as numbers 1 through 5 at the top of the revised list:

1. Bread Springs Day School, Gallup, N.M.
2. Ojo Encino Day School, Cuba, N.M.
3. Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Ore.
4. Beclabito Day School, Shiprock, N.M.
5. Leupp School, Winslow, Ariz.

The Replacement School Construction Priority List includes 14 schools considered in need of replacement of their core academic and/or dormitory facilities. This list of 14 should be more than sufficient to continue the Replacement School Construction Program through fiscal year 2007. Funding and scheduling for these projects is contingent on the budget process.

1. Dilcon Community School, Winslow, Ariz.
2. Porcupine Day School, Porcupine, S.D.
3. Crown Point/T’iists’oozi’bi’olta Community School, Crownpoint, N.M.
4. Muckleshoot Tribal School, Auburn, Wash.
5. Dennehotso Boarding School, Dennehotso, Ariz.
6. Circle of Life Survival School, White Earth, Minn.
7. Keams Canyon Elementary School, Keams Canyon, Ariz.
8. Rough Rock Community School, Chinle, Ariz.
9. Crow Creek Elementary/Middle/High School, Stephen, S.D.
10. Kaibeto Boarding School, Kaibeto, Ariz.
11. Blackfeet Dormitory, Browning, Mont.
12. Beatrice Rafferty School, Perry, Maine
13. Little Singer Community School, Winslow, Ariz.
14. Cove Day School, Red Valley, Ariz.

The process used by the BIA to develop the Replacement School Construction Priority List involved identifying which schools have critical health and safety concerns. The list includes schools which ranked highest in need of replacement according to the following criteria, in order of priority: 1) health and safety deficiencies, 2) environmental deficiencies, 3) accessibility for persons with disabilities and 4) condition of existing utilities and site improvements.

In addition, any school placed on the Replacement School Construction Priority List is eligible for the Tribal School Construction Demonstration Program, which provides incentives to tribes to match federal funds to build replacement schools. Participation in the program would expedite the funding for a school replacement project.

In four years, President Bush has dedicated a total of $1.1 billion for replacement, construction and repair of BIA-funded schools. That four-year total is $370 million more than the total amount provided over the preceding eight years and incorporates the $229.1 million proposed for the program by President Bush earlier this month in his fiscal year 2005 budget request.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, self-governance and economic development for the nation’s 562 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their 1.8 million members.

The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the 179-year old agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes, and the BIA school system. The school system serves approximately 50,000 American Indian children in 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states. In school year 2002-2003, the BIA directly operated one-third of these schools and the remaining two-thirds were tribally operated under BIA contracts or grants.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson and Special Trustee for American Indians Ross O. Swimmer testified jointly today before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the Interior Department’s trust initiatives for the 21st century and the successful implementation of Secretary Gale Norton’s Comprehensive Trust Management Plan. The two officials expressed their belief that the soon-to-be completed reorganization of the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians under the plan will lead to enhanced services for tribal and individual Indian trust beneficiaries.

“We are confident that the goals and objectives of the Comprehensive Trust Management Plan will enable the Department to provide important services to Indian country more efficiently and effectively than in the past,” Anderson and Swimmer said in a prepared statement to the committee. “We are confident that our trust initiatives under the plan will result in a noticeable enhancement to the level of service our organizations currently provide.”

Approximately 4,000 tasks implementing the reorganization have been or soon will be completed. The new organizational structure will increase emphasis on tribal economic development, self-determination and self-governance policies and projects; increase accountability by adding over 100 employees in the field to serve as additional resources for fiduciary trust transactions and increase service delivery by BIA and OST front line staff to provide consolidated beneficiary services.

After launching the effort to develop a comprehensive approach to improving Indian trust management by Secretary Norton in January 2002, the department undertook an assessment of its role as trustee and its management of business lines such as beneficiary services, financial accountability and natural resource management, as well as developing efficient and standard business processes, including best practices, for these business lines.

The first phase of this trust reengineering project – called the “As-Is” phase – documented how trust operations were then being conducted and was completed in February 2003. On March 21, 2003, a report was issued on the “As-Is” phase detailing the following eight core Indian trust processes: probate, title services, beneficiary services, appraisal, surface asset management, subsurface asset management, accounting management and cadastral survey. The second phase of the trust reengineering project, the “To-Be” phase, has taken a fresh look at how trust operations should be conducted. This phase also involves designing new processes and related improvements in support systems, organizations, training and personnel requirements.

The Comprehensive Trust Management Plan is the department’s roadmap for guiding and designing the implementation of its trust reform efforts. One component of the plan is the realignment of trust functions of the OAS-IA, BIA and OST into a coordinated and integrated system within Interior to reduce redundancies and to put greater emphasis on providing services to individual Indian and tribal trust beneficiaries more efficiently and effectively than in the past.

The plan resulted from over 45 consultation meetings department officials held throughout 2002 with tribal leaders and in meetings of the Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform. In June 2003, the department held 15 briefings with BIA regional office employees on the reorganization and in September further consultation meetings were held with tribal leaders on the realignment of BIA regional and agency offices.

Within the Interior Department structure, BIA retains management responsibility for trust assets and resources. To allow BIA regional directors and agency superintendents to focus on service delivery, regional and agency administrative and IT functions have been consolidated under two new deputy assistant secretaries within the office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs who will provide support to the regional and agency offices as needed. Under this structure, BIA managers now can focus exclusively on providing trust services to tribes and individuals while at the same time providing tribal government services such as economic development, social services and environmental protection.

In addition, the Office of Indian Education Programs, which continues to oversee the BIA school system and administer education programs for BIA students, and the Office of Law Enforcement Services also have undertaken realignments of their respective organizational structures. The OIEP realignment took place on Oct. 19, 2003 and the OLES reorganization will be completed by March 31.

OST continues to be responsible for the management of financial assets and certain reform projects while maintaining its statutory oversight responsibilities. The Special Trustee has added regional trust administrators and trust officers in the field to work closely with BIA regional and agency trust services staff. Trust officers will eventually become the line of contact for tribal and individual Indian beneficiaries regarding trust assets ownership, account balances (for individual Indian and tribal trust accounts) and trust transactions. OST is working to fill six regional trust administrator positions and expects to have 45 trust officers on board by the end of fiscal year 2004.

The department foresees tremendous benefits to tribes and employees in several ways. For tribes, such benefits will include: a focus on beneficiary services, the promoting of self governance and self-determination, ensuring trust accountability, allowing trust employees to focus on trust matters, ensuring better use of trust assets, and keeping trust asset decision-making at the agency level. For employees, benefits will include keeping trust asset decision making at the agency level, allowing trust employees to focus on trust matters, standardizing trust business processes, improving management, creating opportunities for professional growth, and instilling personal and organizational accountability.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, self-governance and economic development for the nation’s 562 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their members. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the BIA, the 179-year old agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes; the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, which administers the Federal Acknowledgment Process; and the BIA school system which serves almost 50,000 American Indian children located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states.

The Special Trustee for American Indians is responsible for the oversight and coordination of the department’s efforts to reform its practices relating to the management and discharge of the Secretary’s Indian trust responsibilities.

Note to Editors: Assistant Secretary Anderson and Special Trustee Swimmer’s joint statement may be viewed via the Department’s website at www.doi.gov.