OPA

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe of Indians headquartered in Trumbull, Conn. The Golden Hill Paugussett petitioning group did not demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under Part 83 of Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations, “Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.”

Federal acknowledgment of a group as an Indian tribe establishes a government-to-government relationship between the United States and an Indian tribe, and is a prerequisite to the protection, services and benefits of the Federal government available to Indian tribes by virtue of their status as tribes. This determination is final and effective 90 days after publication of a notice of the determination in the Federal Register unless the petitioner or any interested party requests reconsideration with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA).

The regulations at 25 CFR Part 83 provide a means to acknowledge Indian tribes that have continuous social and political existence. The Golden Hill Paugussett petitioner, however, did not establish its continuous existence, failing to meet criteria 83.7(a), (b), (c) and (e) of the acknowledgment regulations.

The Final Determination reevaluated a January 21, 2003 Proposed Finding’s conclusion that the petitioner met criterion 83.7(a). The Final Determination concludes the petitioner did not demonstrate that it was identified as an Indian entity on a “substantially continuous” basis since 1900. The available identifications apply only to the State-recognized Golden Hill entity, which comprises a small portion (about 33 percent) of the petitioner. They do not apply to the predominant portion of the group (about 63 percent) added in 1999, which claims but has not demonstrated descent from another related group, the historical Turkey Hill tribe. Four percent of the group is of unknown ancestry. These members were not identified as part of the State-recognized Golden Hill entity from 1900 to 1998, nor identified separately as an Indian entity. Thus, the petitioner as a whole has not been identified on a substantially continuous basis since 1900.

Under criterion 83.7(b), the Final Determination affirms the Proposed Finding’s conclusion that the historical Golden Hill Indians ceased to exist as a distinct community in 1823. The petitioner has not demonstrated distinct community since 1823. The evidence presented did not support the petitioner’s claims that the historical Turkey Hill and historical Golden Hill Indians were always one entity. Available evidence shows that the historical Turkey Hill Indians no longer maintained tribal relations and ceased to exist as an Indian entity around 1825, and the State of Connecticut never recognized the historical Turkey Hill group as part of the State-recognized Golden Hill entity.

Under criterion 83.7(c), the Final Determination affirms the Proposed Finding’s conclusion that between 1802 and 1973, the evidence does not establish that an entity with an internal political process existed. Since 1973, a few individuals formally organized into a more visible and active political group. However, there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate bilateral political interaction between the leaders and the members, or widespread support for or involvement in political processes.

Under criterion 83.7(e), the Final Determination affirms the Proposed Finding’s conclusion that the petitioner has not demonstrated that its membership consists of individuals who descend from a historical Indian tribe or from historical Indian tribes that combined and functioned from as a single autonomous entity.

The Golden Hill Paugussett met criteria 83.7 (d), (f) and (g) of the acknowledgment regulations by demonstrating that it has a governing document, that its membership is not principally composed of members of an acknowledged North American Indian tribe, and that it is not the subject of congressional legislation that has expressly terminated or forbidden the Federal relationship.

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. The Nipmuc Nation group does not meet four of the seven mandatory requirements for Federal acknowledgment under Part 83 of Title 25 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations (25 CFR Part 83), “Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.” Therefore, the Nipmuc Nation group does not meet the requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

The historical tribe with which the Nipmuc Nation group asserts continuity was the Hassanamisco, or Grafton, Nipmuc Indians of southeastern Worcester County, Mass. The Hassanamisco reservation was sold in 1727, except for 500 acres, which was divided in 1727 to 1730 among seven Hassanamisco proprietary families, who were given individual title. The land was not the common property of a tribal entity and the State did not hold title to the reserved Hassanamisco property. There was no common fund, but, rather, each proprietary family owned a share in the funds received from the sale of the land. The Hassanamisco Indians were identified on the 1861 Earle Report compiled for the State of Massachusetts by its Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The historical Hassanamisco Indians were affected by the Massachusetts Enfranchisement Act of 1869, an act which “detribalized” the historical Hassanamisco Indians, and ended the State’s relationship with them.

The Nipmuc Nation group has 526 members. The Final Determination rejects the petitioner’s argument that it has had continuous State recognition with a reservation. The Sisco family, one of the families in the petitioner, retains ownership, as a family, of 2-1/2 acres of the land originally reserved for the historical Hassanamisco Indians. This land, in the Town of Grafton, Mass., is known as the “Hassanamisco Reservation.” Annual “Indian Fairs” have been held at this location since 1924. However, only two percent of the current membership of the Nipmuc Nation group descends from the historical Hassanamisco Indians. For at least 107 years, there was no State recognized Indian entity and no State supervision. A limited relationship was created between the petitioner and Massachusetts after the establishment of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs (MCIA) in 1976.

The regulations at 25 CFR Part 83 provide a means to acknowledge Indian tribes that have continuous social and political existence. The Nipmuc Nation group, however, does not establish its continuous existence, failing to meet criteria 83.7(a), (b), (c) and (e). The Nipmuc Nation group does meet criteria 83.7(d), (f) and (g).

Under 83.7(a), the Nipmuc Nation group does not meet this criterion which requires that it have been identified as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900. For the period from 1900 to 1979, there were no external identifications of a Nipmuc entity broader than some of the Hassanamisco proprietary descendants. An external identification of that small group is not the same as an external identification of the current petitioner, which is substantially different. External identifications that included all the various elements that now comprise the Nipmuc Nation (and, for some portions of the period, additional elements no longer included in the petitioner’s membership) exist only from the mid-1970’s to the present.

Under 83.7(b), the Nipmuc Nation group does not meet this criterion which requires that a predominant portion of the petitioning group comprise a distinct community from historical times until the present. From 1785 to 1869 and from 1869 through the early 1950’s there continued to be a limited community made up of some of the descendants of the original Hassanamisco proprietary families residing in Grafton and in the city of Worcester, Mass. Only two percent of the petitioner’s members descend from the Hassanamisco proprietary families. The evidence does not show that a community of Dudley/Webster Indian descendants and other Indians ancestral to the petitioner’s members had “coalesced” around some of those Hassanamisco families by the 1920’s, as the petitioner asserts. During the 1920’s and 1930’s there was some limited interaction in the context of pan-Indian organizations, which also had non-Nipmuc and non-Indian members. The petitioner’s ancestors did not constitute a distinct community from the 1920’s through the 1950’s.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Zara Ciscoe Brough, then the owner of the “Hassanamisco Reservation” property, created a number of lists of Nipmuc Indians. The evolving governing documents and membership lists of the period from 1961 through 1979 are consistent with a process of expanding the definition of the Nipmuc group she was using beyond the Hassanamisco to include families with which she had little or no previous contact and which had little or no previous contact with one another. The wide fluctuation in membership, both in size and component family lines, since the 1970’s also indicates that the petitioner does not constitute a distinct community.

Under 83.7(c), the Nipmuc Nation group does not meet this criterion which requires that it has maintained political influence over its members as an autonomous entity from historical times until the present. The available evidence does not indicate that political influence and authority existed within the Hassanamisco Indians between 1785 and 1900 at a level sufficient to meet criterion 83.7(c). Also, during that time period, the ancestors of 98 percent of the petitioner’s members were not affiliated either with the Hassanamisco Indians or with one another.

For the period from 1900 to 1961, the available evidence does not show that a Hassanamisco or other political entity that included the majority of the ancestors of the petitioner existed. Most of the “political” events and activities cited by the petitioner took place, from the 1920’s through the late 1950’s, in the context of pan-Indian organizations in New England. From 1969 through 1980, Zara Ciscoe Brough sought to expand the Hassanamisco Foundation, an organization that she had created in 1961 to control the Hassanamisco land and support a museum, in order to ensure that the land remained in Indian hands after her death. The revised 1969 Hassanamisco Foundation bylaws and the circa 1980 Hassanamisco-Nipmuc Tribe governing documents expanded the membership to include anyone of any kind of Nipmuc descent. Although for some years there were annual membership meetings of the Hassanamisco organization, the evidence is that attendance at these meetings was small and primarily limited to council members. There was only limited evidence that the issues dealt with by the Hassanamisco council were of importance to the members.

The evaluation of evidence for political influence from 1980 to the present is complicated by the greatly fluctuating nature and size of the membership. However, the evidence does not indicate that any of the councils from 1980 to the present has exercised significant authority or influence, or maintained a bilateral relationship with the widely varying number of persons on the various membership lists (the membership at the time of the proposed finding in 2001 was 1,602; it is now 526).

Under 83.7(d), the Nipmuc Nation group meets this criterion which requires the petitioning group to submit a copy of its governing document and membership criteria.

Under 83.7(e), the Nipmuc Nation group does not meet this criterion which requires that the members descend from a historical tribe or from tribes that amalgamated and functioned as a single entity. Two percent of the members (11 of 526) descend from the historical Hassanamisco/Grafton Nipmuc tribe that was identified on the Earle Report in 1861. Fifty-three percent of the members (277 of 526) descend from six families (Jaha, Humphrey, Belden, Pegan/Wilson, Pegan and Sprague) that were identified as Dudley/Webster Indians in 1861. Thirty-four percent of the members have Indian ancestry from an individual identified as a “Miscellaneous Indian” on the Earle Report, eight percent descend from Connecticut Indians, and three percent have other Indian ancestry. Therefore, 45 percent of the petitioner’s membership does not have documented ancestry from either the historical Hassanamisco tribe or the historical Dudley/Webster tribe. Neither the two percent of the members who descend from the Hassanamisco tribe nor the 53 percent who descend from the separate Dudley/Webster tribe is sufficient, based on precedent, to meet the requirements of criterion 83.7(e) for descent from a historical tribe.

Under 83.7(f), the Nipmuc Nation group meets this criterion which requires that a petitioning group be composed principally of persons who are not members of any acknowledged North American Indian tribe.

Under 83.7(g), the Nipmuc Nation group meets this criterion, because it has never been the subject of congressional legislation terminating or forbidding the Federal relationship.

The Notice of Final Determination on The Nipmuc Nation will be published in the Federal Register. It will become effective 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register unless a request for reconsideration is filed by that date with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA).

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians (CB) from Dudley, Mass. The CB group does not meet three of the seven mandatory requirements for Federal acknowledgment under Part 83 of Title 25 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations (25 CFR Part 83), “Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.” Therefore, the CB group does not meet the requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

The CB, which was organized in 1981, has 357 members. The historical tribe with which it asserts continuity was the Dudley/Webster Nipmuck Indians of southeastern Worcester County, Mass. The Dudley/Webster Indians were affected by the Massachusetts Enfranchisement Act of 1869, an act which “detribalized” the historical Dudley/Webster Indians and ended the State’s relationship with the tribe. The historical Dudley/Webster Indians maintained community and political influence or authority over the tribe’s members through 1891, the date of the final per capita distribution of the assets derived from the sale of the reservation.

The regulations at 25 CFR Part 83 provide a means to acknowledge Indian tribes that have continuous social and political existence. The CB group, however, did not establish its continuous existence, failing to meet criteria 83.7(a), (b) and (c) of the acknowledgment regulations.

Under 83.7(a), the CB petitioner does not meet this criterion which requires that it have been identified as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900. From 1900 through 1978, the record contains occasional external identifications of individuals and single families as descendants of the Dudley/Webster Indians, but no external identifications of a continuing Dudley/Webster entity, group, settlement or community antecedent to the CB. Some newspaper articles in the years 1979 to 1980 discussed efforts to form the CB. Since 1981, there have been external identifications of the CB organization.

Under 83.7(b), the CB petitioner does not meet this criterion which requires that a predominant portion of the petitioning group comprise a distinct community from historical times until the present. The Proposed Finding published on October 1, 2001 concluded that the Dudley/Webster descendants did not maintain community after 1891. This Final Determination concludes that the CB has not constituted a community either before or since 1980. The petitioner’s view that the CB, as created in 1981, was simply a formalization of an existing community made up of three “traditional family lines,” was not supported by the available evidence. Although the present membership is largely drawn from three genealogically definable “lines,” there is no evidence to demonstrate that they formed a single community for the past 113 years, from 1891 through 1980 or that they form a community at present. There was no contemporary, primary, evidence that the women designated by the petitioner as the “informal” leaders of each of the “three traditional families” interacted during the period from 1900 through 1980, or that they even knew one another. One extended family comprises more than 42 percent of the membership.

Under 83.7(c), the CB petitioner does not meet this criterion which requires that it has maintained political influence over the members as an autonomous entity from historical times until the present. The evidence in the record for the Final Determination does not show any political influence or authority for a group antecedent to the CB from 1891 through 1980. The creation of the CB organization in 1981 was not the formalization of a pre-existing system of informal family leadership. Neither has the CB demonstrated that it has exercised political influence or authority over its membership within the meaning of the acknowledgment regulations since it formed in 1981.

Under 83.7(d), the CB petitioner meets this criterion which requires the petitioning group to submit a copy of its governing document and membership criteria.

Under 83.7(e), the CB petitioner meets this criterion which requires the petitioning group to demonstrate that its membership consists of individuals who descend from a historical Indian tribe or from historical Indian tribes which combined and functioned as a single autonomous political entity. About 79 percent of the CB members descend from Lydia (Sprague) Nichols Shelley Henries, who was identified as a Dudley/Webster Indian on the 1861 Earle Report compiled for the State of Massachusetts by its Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Two other Dudley/Webster family lines are each represented with four descendants in the CB membership. Seventeen percent of the CB’s members descend from the sister of a man who married a Dudley/Webster Indian, but who is not herself documented to have been a Dudley/Webster Indian. Since 82 percent of the CB members have documented descent from the historical Dudley/Webster tribe as it was identified in 1861, the CB petitioner meets criterion 83.7(e).

Under 83.7(f), the CB petitioner meets this criterion, which requires that a petitioning group be composed principally of persons who are not members of any acknowledged North American Indian tribe.

Under 83.7(g), the CB petitioner meets this criterion, because it has never been the subject of congressional legislation terminating or forbidding the Federal relationship.

The Notice of Final Determination on the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians will be published in the Federal Register. This Final Determination will become effective 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register unless a request for reconsideration is filed by that date with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA)

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will address the delegates to the United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. (UNITY) 2004 National Conference being held June 25-29 at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort on the Gila River Indian Reservation near Phoenix, Ariz. Anderson will speak just after 2:00 p.m. (local time) on the afternoon of June 25 following the conference’s official opening ceremonies.

UNITY is a national non-profit organization that promotes personal development, citizenship and leadership among American Indian and Alaska Native youth through a network of over 200 Youth councils representing over 45,000 young people from tribes across the United States.

The National UNITY Conference is one of the largest annual gatherings in the country of Native American youth ages 15 to 24. The event provides attendees with leadership, problem-solving and public speaking skills through hands-on experience as facilitators, team leaders, hosts and other conference roles. The UNITY conference also provides an opportunity for colleges and universities to reach out to this important segment of the American Indian and Alaska Native population.

WHO: David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior

WHAT: Anderson will address the 2004 National UNITY Conference.

WHEN: Friday, June 25, 2004 starting at 2:00 p.m. (local time)

WHERE: Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort, Gila River Indian Community, Sacaton, Ariz.

Note to Editors: Credentialed media covering the event should be in place by 1:45 p.m. Press seating will be provided. The program will begin at 2:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will be joined on July 8 by representatives of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico and other departmental officials at a signing ceremony at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to formalize the Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Agreement. The agreement, which Congress ratified and confirmed on June 23, 2003, resolves an Arizona state general stream adjudication over water rights in the Little Colorado River Basin that has been ongoing since 1979.

Since time immemorial, the Zuni people have used an area at the confluence of the Zuni and Little Colorado Rivers in northeastern Arizona for sustenance and religious purposes. Tribal religious leaders made regular pilgrimages from their homelands in New Mexico to the area to worship at the Sacred Lake located there and at surrounding springs, wetlands and riparian areas – sites at the core of Zuni religious beliefs, but threatened by significant deterioration as a result of development close by. In 1984, Congress established the Zuni Heaven Reservation to protect these sacred lands.

When signed, the agreement will resolve all of the Zuni Tribe’s water rights claims in a way that satisfies the Tribe’s needs without harming other water users, brings environmental restoration to the Zuni Heaven Reservation and provides $19.2 million to be used by the Tribe for riparian and wetlands restoration activities, including acquiring necessary state-based water rights from willing sellers.

WHO: Gale Norton, Secretary, Department of the Interior David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior Representatives of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico

WHAT: Norton and Anderson will participate in the signing ceremony for the Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Agreement.

WHEN: Thursday, July 8, 2004, at 3:00 p.m. (EDT)

WHERE: Main Interior Building, South Penthouse, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

CREDENTIALS: Press registration will be provided. Please bring your sanctioned media credentials and if possible, wear on your shirt collar or around your neck for easy viewing. This will assist our staff. Press seating will be provided.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Dave Anderson today formally signed an agreement with leaders of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico that will resolve the tribe’s water rights claims in the Little Colorado River Basin of Arizona without harming other water users.

“This agreement creates a productive partnership among the Zuni Tribe, other water users in the basin, the State of Arizona, and the Federal Government to begin restoring the Zuni Heaven Reservation in Arizona,” Secretary Norton said in signing the settlement. “This collaboration will work to conserve the land and water resources they all share.”

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, who sponsored Congressional legislation that provided a framework to resolve these Zuni water rights issues and spoke at the ceremony, called the settlement a “fair and final solution that protects access to water for rural Arizonans while respecting the religious beliefs of the Zuni Tribe.”

Assistant Secretary Anderson congratulated the Tribe for its accomplishment saying, “The Tribe’s commitment to the process of working with the Interior Department, Congress, the State of Arizona and local water users to resolve their claims has resulted in the preservation of a site sacred to the Zuni people.”

Wilford Eriacho, chairman of the Zuni Tribe’s Water Rights Negotiating Team, said the settlement assures the Zuni people that the wetlands of the Zuni Heaven Reservation will be restored as close as possible to their original condition. “It will help us to preserve our religious traditions by ensuring that the Zuni will continue to make pilgrimage to the lands our ancestors call home.”

Also attending the ceremony were Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico, Lt. Gov. Carmelita Sanchez of Zuni Pueblo, Zuni Councilman Eduard Wemytewa, and Joan Sandy of the Zuni Tribe.

The Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Agreement, which Congress ratified and confirmed on June 23, 2003, resolves claims associated with the Zuni Heaven Reservation in the Little Colorado River Basin of northeastern Arizona. The agreement would not affect any claims or water rights for the Zuni Tribe’s homeland reservation in New Mexico.

The Tribe will be entitled to purchase annually up to 3,600 acre-feet of surface water rights in addition to existing surface water rights on the Zuni Heaven Reservation. The settlement also recognizes the right of the Zuni Tribe to annually withdraw or use up to 1,500 acre-feet of ground water from wells on specified Zuni lands.

The settlement provides $19.2 million from a Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Development Fund to be used by the Tribe for riparian and wetlands restoration activities. These include acquiring necessary state-based water rights from willing sellers.

The United States Government will contribute the bulk of the funds. The State of Arizona will contribute $1.6 million to the tribe’s restoration activities and will make additional settlement contributions. The Salt River Project will contribute $1 million to be used for restoration activities.

The settlement requires the Federal Government to take into trust parcels of land, subject to existing easements and rights of way. The tribe and the United States waive all past, present and future claims to additional water rights for Zuni lands in Arizona.

Since time immemorial, the Zuni people have used the area of Hunt Valley, Arizona -- at the confluence of the Zuni and Little Colorado Rivers in northeastern Arizona -- for sustenance and religious purposes. Tribal religious leaders made regular pilgrimages from their homelands in New Mexico to the Hunt Valley area to worship at the Sacred Lake located there and at surrounding springs, wetlands and riparian areas. These sites are at the core of Zuni religious beliefs, but are threatened by deterioration as a result of other development in the area.

Recognizing the need to protect these sacred sites and provide for their use by future generations of Zuni people, Congress established the Zuni Heaven Reservation in 1984 to protect these sacred lands. Securing water rights for these reservation lands is necessary to enable restoration of the resources and sacred sites and to return them to meaningful religious use.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has named William F. Benjamin as regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Great Plains Regional Office in Aberdeen, S.D. The appointment was effective May 16, 2004. Benjamin, who is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, comes to his appointment after having served as deputy regional director of the bureau’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings, Mont.

“I am very pleased that Bill Benjamin will be taking the helm at our Great Plains Regional Office,” Anderson said. “His level of knowledge, as well as his extensive programmatic and managerial experience, will ensure that the BIA will fulfill its commitment to providing quality service to its customers.”

As deputy regional director, Benjamin was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day program and administrative operations for the BIA regional office including trust and human services programs, administration and personnel, environmental services, safety programs, facilities management and information resources, as well as working with tribal and state governments and other federal agencies. During his tenure Benjamin also has served on several Federal water rights negotiation teams dealing with tribal-state water rights compacts; worked to resolve conflicts between a Montana tribe, federal agencies and private lenders to provide housing mortgages to tribal members; worked with irrigation water users to resolve water supply and water rights issues; and forged productive relationships with tribal leaders, state officials, federal representatives and members of the public.

Benjamin has built a 27-year career with the bureau starting in 1977 as a loan specialist with the Billings Area Office (now called the Rocky Mountain Regional Office). Prior to that time, he had worked in the private sector where he spent several years first as a high school teacher in Montana (1966 – 1969) and then with the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (1969 – 1977) where he directed recruiting programs for American Indians on reservations throughout the western United States. He later served as finance director for the organization’s office in Great Falls, Mont.

From 1977 on Benjamin worked successfully in a series of positions dealing with human service programs and budget and finance functions at the agency and area office (now regional office) levels within the BIA. He served as a tribal programs specialist in the bureau’s Fort Belknap Agency in Harlem, Mont. (1977 – 1978); held budget and finance positions with the Billings Area Office (1978 – 1993); served a temporary assignment as a supervisory accountant with the BIA’s Division of Accounting Management (DAM) in Albuquerque, N.M. (1992); rose to the level of area supervisory accountant with the Billings office; and was promoted to chief of DAM’s payments branch in Albuquerque (1993 – 1996) prior to his becoming deputy regional director in the Rocky Mountain office.

Benjamin also has successfully completed the Federal Executive Potential Training Program (1991 – 1992) and the Interior Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program (2000 – 2001). Benjamin, who was born and raised in Browning, Mont., on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is a 1960 graduate of Browning High School. Following a course of study in accounting, economics and business law at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, he continued his education at Eastern Montana College where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in business education, with a major in accounting, in 1966.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has confirmed Clayton J. Gregory as regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pacific Regional Office in Sacramento, Calif., effective July 11. Gregory, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana with more than 20 years of government service, had been serving as the acting regional director since May 2003.

“Clay Gregory is an outstanding senior manager with a long commitment to serving Indian people,” Anderson said. “I am confident that, as director of the BIA’s Pacific Regional Office, he will continue to provide excellent service to the California Indian tribes and their members.”

Gregory started his federal career in the early 1970s holding a variety of positions with the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and Wyoming, including wilderness ranger/fireguard, supervisory forestry technician, trail crew supervisor and forestry aide. He later joined the BIA in Montana as a forester, and went on to develop a career in natural resources management as a natural resources specialist and, later, as a natural resources officer.

In the early- to late-1990s, Gregory served three stints as acting superintendent of the BIA’s Crow Agency, also in Montana, which provides services to the Crow Tribe. In that capacity, he oversaw the agency’s day-to-day operations working with the tribe to protect, conserve and enhance its trust assets and resources while providing human services assistance to individual tribal members, as well as working with other federal, state and local governments and the general public.

From March 2000 to May 2003, Gregory served as a natural resources officer in the BIA’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings where he supervised and managed the regional Division of Natural Resources with programs in forestry and fire management, land and minerals, and water resources. During his tenure, he chaired the Crow Boundary Settlement Act of 1994 Steering Committee and the Federal Water Rights Negotiation Team for the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana.

In addition, Gregory served as acting deputy regional director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in 2001 and in 2003. In that capacity he was responsible for overseeing six BIA agency and field offices as well as tribal and trust programs serving eight Federally recognized tribes in Montana and Wyoming.

As acting regional director of the Pacific Regional Office, Gregory has supervised and directed the day-to-day operations of four BIA agency and field offices as well as trust and human services programs for the 104 Federally recognized tribes in California.

Gregory graduated from Lodge Grass High School in Lodge Grass, Mont., in 1970 and went on to the University of Montana-Missoula where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry in 1978. He also successfully completed the Federal Executive Potential Training Program (1992 – 1993) and the Interior Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program (2002).

WASHINGTON – Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the foundation established by Congress to support Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) education programs has been renamed the National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education (NFEAIE) in a bill signed by President Bush on July 2, 2004. The foundation, designated the American Indian Education Foundation in its original legislation, felt the change was needed in order to avoid confusion with organizations having similar names.

“We are pleased that Congress acted in a timely manner to rename the foundation as the National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education,” Norton said. “With this action, the NFEAIE board of directors can move forward in their mission to put private contributions to work on behalf of BIA students.”

Congress established the foundation in December 2000 as a federally-chartered charitable nonprofit corporation under Title XIII of the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-568) to accept and administer donations for the benefit of the BIA’s Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) and “other activities” to further educational opportunities for American Indian students attending BIA-funded schools. Federal agencies are prohibited from accepting private donations unless authorized to do so by Congress.

NFEAIE board members include David Beaulieu, Ph.D. (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe - White Earth), director, Arizona State University-Tempe Center for Indian Education; Sharon K. Darling, founder and president, National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), Louisville, Ky.; John Guevremont, director, Mashantucket Pequot Tribe National Government Affairs Office, Washington, D.C.; Daniel Lewis (Navajo), senior vice-president and director, Office of Native American Financial Services, Bank of America, Phoenix, Ariz.; Nick Lowery, president, Nick Lowery Foundation and co-founder, “Nation Building for Native Youth,” Tempe, Ariz.; JoAnne Stately (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe), senior program officer, The Saint Paul Foundation, St. Paul, Minn.; Linda Sue Warner, Ph.D. (Comanche), research associate professor, University of Missouri-Columbia Truman Center for Public Policy; and Della Warrior (Otoe-Missouria), president, Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Santa Fe, N.M. Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson are ex-officio members of the board.

NFEAIE founding director Lorraine Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock) has over 20 years’ experience in Indian education from her work with federal Indian education programs and having served as executive director of two non-profit Indian education organizations: the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) in Albuquerque, N.M., and the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) in Alexandria, Va.

NFEAIE will be organized as a 501(c)(3) corporation in the District of Columbia. Under the terms of the statute, the Secretary is authorized to provide support for NFEAIE for a period of at least five years until it becomes an independent entity. The board meets annually and operates independently from the Interior Department. NFEAIE is currently preparing to file articles of incorporation and by-laws with the District as well as applications for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and trademark protection for its name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

WASHINGTON – Office of Indian Education Programs Director Edward Parisian will join students, parents and tribal officials on August 31, 2004, to celebrate the opening of First Mesa Elementary School, a newly-constructed Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) operated elementary school located in Polacca, Ariz., a Hopi community situated at the eastern base of First Mesa on the Hopi Reservation.

First Mesa Elementary School is a K-6 facility that will serve students from First Mesa villages and the Polacca community. The school replaces an older building, Polacca Day School, which has been on the list of aging BIA schools that have been slated for replacement.

The BIA school system is comprised of 184 BIA-funded elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states and serving approximately 48,000 students.

WHO: Edward Parisian, Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, Department of the Interior.

WHAT: Parisian will visit the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona to celebrate the opening of the First Mesa Elementary School where he will be joined by students, parents, school representatives and tribal officials.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 at 10:00 a.m. (all times are local time) 10:00 a.m.: Dedication ceremony (open to press)

• Posting of Colors by Hopi Jr. ROTC
• Opening Prayer by Raleigh Namoki, Sr.
• Welcome: Bruce Steele, Principal, First Mesa Day School Lawrence Polingyumptewa, Comm. Chairman Brannon Sidney, Polacca Day School Student Body President Danielle Polacca, 2004 Miss Hopi
• Speakers will include (in order of presentation):
  • Jeremiah LaMesa, Project Manager
  • James Tewayguva, Kikmongwi
  • Leo Lacapa, Corn/Water Clan Leader
  • The Honorable Wayne Taylor, Jr., Chairman, The Hopi Tribe
  • Edward Parisian, Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, DOI
• Ribbon-cutting at main entrance of school (open to press)
• Tour of First Mesa Day School (open to press)

WHERE: First Mesa Day School Directions from Flagstaff or Winslow, Ariz.: Take I-40 to Exit 257 (State Highway 87). Go North to State Highway 264 (60 miles). Turn east and go approximately 6 miles to sign for First Mesa Elementary School. (school will be on the south side of 264). Turn right at sign.

CREDENTIALS: Please bring your sanctioned media credentials. Wear on shirt collar or around neck for easy viewing, if possible.