OPA

WASHINGTON – President Bush has proposed a $2.2 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for Fiscal Year 2006. The budget continues the Department’s commitment to reform trust management and provides increases for law enforcement and detention centers, an economic development commission, and a leadership academy pilot program.

“The President’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Indian Affairs maintains his commitment to improving tribal communities by targeting federal dollars where they can produce the greatest results,” said David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

Together with a request of $304 million for the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), the Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposes an investment of $2.5 billion in Indian programs.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Operation of Indian Programs is $1.9 billion.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request includes a $12.6 million increase to continue support for Secretary Norton’s ongoing efforts to reform current trust systems, policies and procedures. The increase includes $3.0 million to continue to implement trust reform permitting more decisions to be made at the local level and more efficient management of trust assets. An increase of $9.6 million will strengthen the Bureau’s efforts to address the current backlog in probating Indian estates. This increase includes $8.0 million for contractor costs associated with case preparation for over 23,000 probate cases and $1.6 million for contract support for title related workload associated with Indian land consolidation, administrative law judges and Youpee activities. The request for the BIA portion of the unified trust budget reflects a $5.2 million savings to the government due to elimination of one-time costs, project task completion, and management efficiency gains.

The budget request also includes $1.5 million for lease costs at the new National American Indian Training Center in Albuquerque, N.M. The center, which was established to provide standardized trust and program-related training, will provide a broad range of mission critical, leadership and career development training to employees of the BIA and OST.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request proposes a $16.7 million increase for BIA detention facilities. The proposed budget addresses issues raised by the Interior Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its September 2004 report that documented poor conditions at BIA detention facilities. The increase includes $4.1 million to support detention operations at four new centers currently under construction with Department of Justice (DOJ) funds, and $3.2 million for facility operations and maintenance at 19 detention centers built with DOJ grants since 2001. The increase adds $4.4 million for detention center improvement and repair construction projects. The proposed budget also includes $5.0 million to outsource detention of individuals in jurisdictions where BIA facilities do not comply with national standards.

The budget request includes $500,000 to establish an Economic Development Commission to increase tribal business opportunities and reduce unemployment on Indian lands. The commission will investigate impediments to tribal business development and develop an operational model for tribal businesses.

The President’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Indian School Operations provides $521.6 million to support 184 BIA-funded schools and dormitories. The BIA and the Department of Education continue to work together to ensure that BIA-funded schools meet performance and accountability requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110). The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request proposes a $2.0 million increase to implement pilot leadership academies at four BIA schools. The intent of leadership academies, which will seek to apply the best practices of innovative schools in the public and private sector, is to instill in students a life-long desire and aptitude for learning and encourage post-secondary education.

In addition, the budget seeks $60.9 million for post-secondary education to fund operating grants to 26 tribal colleges and universities and the BIA-operated institutions of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, NM. The request also includes a $500,000 increase to expand the BIA student loan repayment program, which was first implemented in Fiscal Year 2005 to improve the Bureau’s ability to recruit highly qualified new employees.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Construction is $232.1 million.

Repairing and rebuilding BIA-funded Indian schools is one of Interior’s highest priorities. The request for Indian school construction of $173.9 million provides funding for replacement schools and major facility improvement and repair projects. In 2001, 65 percent of BIA-funded schools were in poor condition with 35 percent considered good or fair. After compilation of the work funded through 2006, those numbers will be reversed, showing marked improvement in the condition of schools.

Between 2001 and 2005, funding was appropriated for 34 replacement schools, nine of which have been completed and are in operation. Twenty-five schools are in design or construction phases. Fiscal Year 2006 funding will allow replacement of the Porcupine Day School in South Dakota and fund Phase I of the replacement of the Crownpoint Community School in New Mexico, schools which are next in priority on the new Replacement School Construction Priority List published in March 2004. The reduction in the number of school replacements funded in the 2006 request will allow BIA to focus on completing the 25 schools already under design or in construction.

The Fiscal Year 2006 school construction request includes $128.4 million to fund four major facilities improvement and repair projects, annual maintenance needs, and minor repair projects. These projects will address critical health and safety concerns, improve compliance with code standards, and resolve program deficiencies at existing education facilities.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for land and water settlements is $24.8 million. Settlements resolve long-standing claims to water and lands by Indian tribes. The request includes funds for the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw settlement in Oklahoma ($10.2 million), the Colorado Ute/Animas La Plata settlement ($8.1 million), and the Zuni water settlement in New Mexico ($5.4 million).

The Fiscal Year 2006 BIA budget request reflects reductions in funding levels for programs that lack performance accountability, duplicate other Federal or state programs, and have implemented management efficiencies. Program reductions include welfare assistance (-$6.4 million), Johnson-O’Malley grants (-$8.8 million), community fire protection (-$1.2 million), therapeutic residential model (-$3.0 million), consolidation of education line officers (-$1.4 million), energy development grants (-$.4 million), agency office administration costs (-$1.4 million), water management and planning (-$2.0 million), water rights negotiations and litigation (-$2.4 million), the endangered species program (-$2.0 million), one-time costs associated with the removal of the Chiloquin Dam (-$2.1 million), and projected savings related to improved fleet and space management (-$.8 million).

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 1.8 million members.

WASHINGTON—Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has named W. Patrick Ragsdale to be Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA) effective Feb. 13, 2005.

Ragsdale, who is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has been serving for the last year as Director, Trust Review and Audit in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.

“Mr. Ragsdale comes to this position with a wealth of experience in Indian Affairs,” said Anderson. “He has done everything from teaching in Indian schools to holding the position of Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs between the Reagan and Bush administrations. I have every confidence in his management abilities and his dedication to meet the needs of Indian people.”

Ragsdale began his career at BIA in 1967 as a teacher. From 1969 to 1972 he was on military furlough serving as an officer with the US Marine Corps. During his BIA tenure he has served in many capacities including: Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Area Director - Anadarko, Assistant Area Director (Trust Responsibilities) - Phoenix, and Superintendent of the Unita and Ouray Agency.

He retired in 1993, joined the Cherokee Nation and became Executive Director of the Nation in 1999. He returned to Federal service in February last year to become the Director, Trust Review and Audit in Albuquerque.

“I look forward to rejoining the large group of family and colleagues in the Indian Bureau after being absent for more than 10 years. I have great appreciation for Mr. Anderson’s efforts to energize leadership in Indian Country and am grateful to him for giving me this opportunity.”

Ragsdale has a bachelors degree in history from the University of Central Oklahoma and has graduate hours at both the University of Oklahoma and the University of Arizona.

He was born and attended high school in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and has two adult daughters and two grandchildren.

Ragsdale will replace Brian Pogue as BIA Director. Pogue left the directorship to take the position of Regional Director--Anadarko.

The Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs directly oversees the day-to-day activities of the agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes. The Director administers all laws governing non-education portions of Indian Affairs, provides leadership and direction for BIA employees, and oversees and monitors the work of the BIA regional offices, agencies and field offices. The Director also shares authority and responsibility for the management of tribal and individual Indian trust funds with the Special Trustee for American Indians, and oversees the Bureau’s Land Consolidation Center, the agency’s nationwide program to consolidate fractionated interests in Indian lands.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced a cooperative initiative with the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide Federally recognized tribes participating in the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) Native Sovereign Nation (NSN) Domain Name Program with the opportunity to use E-Buy, GSA’s online procurement system for products and services.

“E-Buy is an important e-commerce tool for the Federal government to buy products and services efficiently and cost effectively,” Anderson said. “This initiative will help improve ecommerce in Indian country by providing tribal governments the same opportunity to meet their service and supply needs online while making the most of their procurement dollars.”

OIA and GSA will introduce the NSN Domain Name/E-Buy Program at the 19th Annual National Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair, known as RES 2005, being held Feb. 7-10 at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nev. They also will conduct a panel discussion on Feb. 8 about the initiative as part of GSA’s Native American Business Center special session “GSA Presents the Native American Business Center and Other Programs.” The discussion is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. local time.

The E-Buy program is designed to bring ease and versatility to online procurement. NSN Domain Name Program participating tribes, identified by the –nsn.gov suffix in their web addresses, will be able to use E-Buy to send Requests for Quotes and receive quotes for products and services under GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules program. They also will be able to access E-Buy’s services such as quotes on millions of products and services, locating suppliers and making large purchases, searching for information, and establishing blanket purchase agreement pricing.

E-Buy benefits also include saving time and resources by competing procurements online, ensuring compliance with Department of Defense Section 803 requirements, increased competition from suppliers, and allowing submission of modifications online.

The Indian Affairs NSN Domain Name Program, which began in 2002, currently has 67 active tribal domains with another 96 domains registered with GSA’s Federal Technology Service.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) also has endorsed the value of online procurement by encouraging tribal housing coordinators to utilize the NSN Domain Name Program and E-Buy for tribal housing programs.

To learn more about the Indian Affairs NSN Domain Name Program, contact Paul Marsden, EGovernment Officer, Office of Information Policy, Office of the Chief Information Officer, OIA, at 703-735-4112 or visit the GSA/FTS dotgov registration web site at www.dotgov.gov.

For more information about the GSA E-Buy program visit www.ebuy.gsa.gov or call GSA Advantage/E-Buy Customer Service at 877-472-3777. For more information about HUD/ONAP contact C. Raphael Mecham, Administrator, Southwest Office of Native American Programs, at 602-379-7200.

Registration and other information about RES 2005 can be found at www.ncaied.org.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that its Office of Hearings and Appeals is operating under a new structure that will improve and expedite the resolution of Indian probate cases. OHA has created a separate hearings division to focus exclusively on these cases; is opening new offices in Alaska, S.D, and Ore.; and is increasing its staff devoted to probate adjudication.

"The OHA restructuring that takes effect today is an outgrowth of the department's trust reform initiatives for the 21st century," said Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Cameron, who oversees performance, accountability and human resources at the department. "It will increase our level of service to native people by speeding the distribution of trust estates to heirs and beneficiaries."

OHA's former Hearings Division has been divided into three separate divisions: Probate Hearings, White Earth Reservation Land Settlement Act Hearings, and Departmental Cases Hearings.

The creation of a separate Probate Hearings Division grew out of a two-year review and consultation process, which led to the 2004 development of the department's Fiduciary Trust Model. One of the recommendations from that process was that the probate adjudication functions handled separately by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and OHA be consolidated into a single organization.

To implement this recommendation, the department is transferring to the new Probate Hearings Division most of the existing OHA Hearings Division judges and staff, along with 10 attorney decision-maker positions and 10 support staff positions currently in BIA. The BIA and OHA are issuing a joint rule in the Mar. 9 Federal Register reflecting the consolidation of the probate adjudication functions.

The attorney decision-makers are currently limited to probate cases that do not require a formal evidentiary hearing. The Fiduciary Trust Model envisions that the attorney decision.makers, working with OHA's administrative law judges and Indian probate judges, will eventually take on additional authority to handle other types of probate cases as well.

OHA will be opening new offices in Aberdeen, S.D.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Portland, Ore., to handle Indian probate cases referred from the BIA regions headquartered in those cities. OHA also will be adding staff to many of its current offices to accommodate an increase in probate case referrals expected from BIA. Other locations for the Probate Hearings Division are Albuquerque, N.M.; Billings, Mont.; Bismarck, N.D.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Rapid City. S.D.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Twin Cities, Minn.

OHA's WELSA Hearings Division will also be located in Twin Cities, Minn. It will render heirship determinations required by the White Earth Reservation Land Settlement Act.

The Departmental Cases Hearings Division will be located in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will handle all other cases requiring an administrative hearing in which an aggrieved party is challenging an action taken by one of the department's bureaus. Such cases include mining contests, grazing cases, surface mining appeals, Native allotment contests and cases under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

Besides its hearings divisions, OHA has four other units that handle other types of administrative appeals: the Office of the Director, the Interior Board of Contract Appeals, the Interior Board of Indian Appeals and the Interior Board of Land Appeals. Decisions from the Probate Hearings Division and the WELSA Hearings Division will generally be appealable to IBIA, while decisions from the Departmental Cases Hearings Division will generally be appealable to IBLA.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason today announced that Captain John Herrington, an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and the first American Indian astronaut to serve with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will provide the keynote address this morning at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) FACE and Baby FACE National Training Conference in Pearl River, Miss. The event is scheduled for March 8-10 at the Silver Star and Golden Moon Resort on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reservation.

Herrington, who is also the first American Indian astronaut to walk in space, is well known among Indian educators as a role model for Indian children and youth through his willingness to speak before students and adults about his life and professional experiences.

Also joining Captain Harrington will be the six FACE and Baby FACE programs’ 2005 Parent Essay Winners, who will be recognized at the conference for their accomplishments. The winners are

OIEP administers FACE, the Family and Child Education program, which provides early childhood and adult education programs to American Indian families at home and in school. The FACE program has served over 15,000 infants, children and adults since its start in 1991. The program also provides opportunities for adults to complete their secondary level education and obtain workplace skills such as computer training. Since 1991, over 500 adults have earned their high school or general equivalency diploma (GED) and approximately 2,000 adults have found employment by participating in FACE.

WHO: John Harrington, Commander, USN, and Astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

WHAT: Captain Harrington will be the keynote speaker at the BIA/OIEP FACE and Baby FACE National Training Conference.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 9, 2005, starting at 8:30 a.m. (EST) Captain Herrington will speak immediately following the presentations to the 2005 Parent Essay Winners portion of the morning program.

WHERE: Silver Star and Golden Moon Resort, Pearl River, Miss., on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reservation.

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

The Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are coordinating a multi-agency federal response to a tragic shooting that occurred Monday on the reservation of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. Ten people were killed and 7 others were injured. The Directors of the BIA and IHS today expressed their agencies' joint commitment to assisting the tribe in the wake of the tragedy.

"On behalf of all Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, I want to express our deepest condolences to the Red Lake Tribe and to the families of the victims over their tragic loss," Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale said. "The BIA is providing active service to the Red Lake community to help them begin the process of recovering and healing."

"This is an incredible tragedy that is affecting the entire tribe," said IHS Director Charles W. Grim. "We are working with other Federal agencies to do all that we can to alleviate the suffering and lingering effects of this dreadful day. Our hearts and our prayers go out to all of them, especially the families of the victims."

The IHS Bemidji Area Chief Medical Officer and the IHS Bemidji Area Director are on-site today on the Red Lake Reservation assessing medical and other public health needs, as well as meeting with community and family members of the victims of the shooting to offer support and condolences. The IHS is coordinating with medical providers and law enforcement staff in the community and will mobilize staff as appropriate to meet health needs. Also, the IHS is collaborating with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disaster response psychological unit, for immediate and long-term support. The Health Resources and Services Administration will provide emergency funds to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians to help deal with the aftermath of the tragedy, and the IHS and BIA are also working jointly to determine needs for information alerts and other intervention processes to address and prevent future violence.

A number of BIA personnel are already providing support to on the-ground federal and local agencies in Red Lake. The BIA's Office of Law Enforcement Services has sent personnel to the site to assist the FBI, which has primary responsibility for investigating the incident. They include uniformed police officers, special agents, supervisory special agents, telecommunications officers and law enforcement officers trained in providing peer support counseling to local police and community members. A BIA mobile community substation also has been sent to Red Lake with dispatchers to provide an array of telecommunications services and carry out other specialized law enforcement functions.

In addition, the Bureau's Office of Tribal Services has sent social workers from its Midwest Regional Office, in Ft. Snelling, Minn., to Red Lake to provide support to community members. They also will work with the Red Lake tribal government in obtaining long-term resources to help the tribe deal with any lingering effects produced by the tragedy.

The Director of the BIA oversees the day-to-day activities of the 180-year-old Interior Department agency, which provides services to 1.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives from the 562 federally recognized tribes. The Director administers all laws governing non-education portions of Indian Affairs, provides leadership and direction for BIA employees and oversees and monitors the work of the BIA regional offices, agencies and field offices. The Director also shares authority and responsibility for the management of the tribal and individual Indian trust funds with the Special Trustee for American Indians, and oversees the Bureau's Land Consolidation Center, the agency's nationwide program to consolidate fractionated interests in Indian lands.

The IHS, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 1.8 million of the nation's estimated 3 .2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of 562 federally recognized tribes.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton has upheld a June 2004 decision by former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin, who declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe of Indians. The petitioning group, headquartered in Trumbull.
Connecticut, did not successfully demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under Federal regulations.

In October 2004, the group's submission of eleven potential grounds for reconsideration before the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA) were each determined to be outside the scope of BIA's jurisdiction and referred to Secretary Norton for her review. Under governing regulations, it is within the discretion of the Secretary whether to ask the current Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs to review the matter or to let the June decision stand. Secretary Norton has informed the petitioner that none of the issues it has raised warrant further consideration, that the decision to decline acknowledgment of the Golden Hill Paugussett group is the final action of the Department and is effective immediately.

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.

WASHINGTON – Amy Hall, an early childhood teacher with the Hannahville Indian School Family and Child Education (FACE) program and the 2005 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year, was honored today at the National Center for Family Literacy’s 14th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy in Louisville, Ky. Hannahville is a Bureau of Indian Affairs funded day school operated by the Hannahville Indian Community, a Potawatomi tribe located in Wilson, Mich.

“I would like to offer my congratulations to Ms. Hall for being named the 2005 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year,” said Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason. “She exemplifies a commitment to quality teaching which has benefited her students and school tremendously.”

Hall, who was announced Teacher of the Year last November, was presented with a Crystal Apple award and $5,000 for the Hannahville FACE program by Mr. Hideaki Otaka, President and CEO of Toyota Motor North America, Inc. The company is a partner of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), a national non-profit organization established in 1989 to meet the educational needs of parents and their children through family literacy programs. FACE is a BIA-funded program that brings literacy programs to Indian families across the country and, as an NCFL project, benefits from the center’s expertise.

“I want to commend Amy Hall and the Hannahville Indian School FACE program for their outstanding dedication to improving the lives of families through literacy,” said Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) Director Edward Parisian. “We also deeply appreciate the National Center for Family Literacy, and its partner, the Toyota Motor Corporation, for their support of the BIA FACE program.”

FACE and its companion program, Baby FACE, are administered by OIEP to provide early childhood education and pre-literacy experiences for infants and families in the home as well as early childhood and adult education programs in school. An important facet of these programs is support of parental involvement in a child’s reading experience. Since its start in 1991, the FACE program has served over 15,000 infants, children and adults. In addition, it has enabled over 500 adults to earn high school or general equivalency diplomas (GEDs) and approximately 2,000 adults to find employment.

The BIA school system serves approximately 48,000 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.

For more information about NCFL, its projects and partners, visit www.famlit.org.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that BIA Special Agent Selanhongva McDonald, an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and a 13-year veteran of BIA law enforcement, successfully completed his training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy (FBINA) in Quantico, Va., last month, graduating with his class on March 18. He is now one of a select group of BIA law enforcement officers who are FBINA graduates.

“I congratulate Special Agent Selanhongva McDonald and all BIA law enforcement personnel who have graduated from the FBI National Academy,” said Ragsdale. “Through their accomplishment, these dedicated professionals have demonstrated their commitment to their fellow officers and to the citizens whom they have sworn to protect.”

McDonald spent 10 weeks at the FBI Academy as one of 250 trainees selected from domestic and international law enforcement agencies comprising the 220th Session, as the class is called. He underwent intensive classroom and physical training leading up to a 6.2 mile run that all graduates must complete.

“I want to express my appreciation to BIA Law Enforcement for providing me the opportunity to attend the FBI National Academy,” McDonald said. “The FBINA training program is the best and most demanding I have attended during my career. It has made me a better officer.”

Special Agent McDonald, an instructor at the United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M., began his law enforcement career in 1992 as a BIA police officer on the Hopi Indian Reservation in northeastern Arizona. In 1997, he completed the Basic Criminal Investigator Training Program in Glynco, Ga., and in 1998 joined the BIA’s Western Nevada Agency in Carson City, Nev., as a special agent. While there he was assigned to the FBI’s Safe Trails Task Force investigating violent crimes in Indian Country. From then until 2001, he was the Lead Special Agent for the Western Nevada Agency, as well as the agency’s chief of police. He also served as police chief for the Fallon Indian Reservation of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe in Nevada. In 2001, he served for six months as a Federal Air Marshall.

In September 2002, Special Agent McDonald became an instructor at the Indian Police Academy where he teaches a wide range of subjects including investigating child and elder abuse cases, defensive tactics for law enforcement personnel, and crime scene investigation and photography.

Immediately following his graduation from the FBINA, McDonald was assigned to the joint FBI-BIA team investigating the school shooting on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. He is currently on temporary assignment to the BIA Office of Law Enforcement Services headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Special Agent McDonald was born in Tucson, Ariz., and graduated from Pala Verde High School. He went on to Northern Arizona University where he received a Bachelors of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 1990.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) has published in the Federal Register a final rule implementing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), President Bush’s signature education legislation, in the BIA-funded schools. The action follows three years of consultation with tribal leaders, school officials, parents and other stakeholders in negotiated rulemaking called for by the Act to bring the pillars of the President’s public education reform plan – accountability and testing, flexibility and local control, funding for what works – to the Bureau schools.

The NCLBA directed the Secretary of the Interior to conduct consultation meetings followed by negotiated rulemaking for six sections of the Act that require the following: defining adequate yearly progress (AYP), the essential measurement for determining that a school is providing quality education; establishing separate geographic attendance areas for each BIA-funded school; establishing a formula for determining minimum annual funding necessary for each BIA-funded school; establishing a system for the direct funding and support of all BIA-funded schools; establishing guidelines to ensure constitutional and civil rights of Indian students in BIA-funded schools; and establishing a method for administering grants to tribally controlled schools.

Starting in 2002, the OIEP conducted consultation meetings with parents, teachers, students, school officials and tribal representatives on establishing the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, published in the Federal Register a Notice of Intent to form the committee and requesting nominations for committee members, and published in the Federal Register a list of proposed committee members.

In July of 2003, the committee, which was comprised of tribal and federal representatives, school administrators, school board members and other educators, held meetings across the country and organized work groups to undertake the rulemaking required by the NCLBA.

The BIA school system serves approximately 48,000 American Indian children in 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states. In school year 2004-2005 the BIA directly operated one-third of these schools and the remaining two-thirds were tribally operated under BIA contracts or grants.