OPA

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will help to distribute more than 500 teddy bears collected by school children in Oklahoma for children in Washington, D.C., personally affected by the September 11 attacks.

Assistant Secretary McCaleb served as the Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation at the time the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed.

PLEASE NOTE: For security reasons, the BLM or BIA will need beforehand the names of all reporters and camera people who will attend.

-BIA-

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary Wayne Smith will meet with tribal leaders on Thursday, December 20, 2001, in Minneapolis, Minn., at a second consultation meeting on the Department's plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. The meeting will be held at the Doubletree Hotel (7901 24th Avenue South) starting at 9:00 a.m. (CST).

On November 15, 2001, the Department announced plans to transfer and consolidate Indian trust asset management functions currently administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other Interior agencies within a new Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management. The Department also announced the establishment of an Assistant Secretary for Indian Trust Assets Management to oversee BIT AM and a new Office of Indian Trust Transition to implement the transfer and consolidation plans.

The Department has scheduled a series of consultation meetings with tribal leaders and other affected and interested parties. Additional meetings will be held on January 3, 2002, in Oklahoma City, Okla.; January 10 in Rapid City, S.D.; January 17 in San Diego, Calif.; January 23 in Anchorage, Alaska; and February 1 in Washington, D.C. (Arlington, Va.). A notice on the meetings with dates and locations was published in the December 11 Federal Register.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Interior Assistant Secretary ~ Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary Wayne Smith will meet with tribal leaders on Thursday, January 3, 2002, in Oklahoma City, Okla., at the third in a series of consultation meetings on the Department's plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. The meeting will be held at the Westin hotel (1 North Broadway) starting at 9:00 a.m. (CST).

On November is, 2001, the Department announced plans to transfer and consolidate Indian trust asset management functions currently administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other Interior agencies within a new Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management. The Department also announced the ~establishment of an Assistant Secretary for Indian Trust Assets Management to oversee BIT Al\1: and a new Office of Indian Trust Transition to implement the transfer and consolidation plans.

Consultation meetings also will be held on January 10 in Rapid City, S.D.; January 17 in San Diego, Calif.; January 23 in Anchorage, Alaska; and February 1 in Washington, D.C. (Arlington, Va.). A notice with meeting dates and locations was published in the December 11 Federal Register.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced her designation of Aurene M. Martin, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, as Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. “Aurene Martin brings solid experience in Indian affairs and a commitment to excellence to her new role,” said Secretary Norton. “She will be an able leader for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during its transition into an efficient and effective Indian service.” Martin had served as Deputy Assistant Secretary under Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb, who recently retired from public service.

“I’m deeply honored to accept Secretary Norton’s designation,” Martin said, “and I am confident that our efforts to improve the BIA will result in improved services to the trust beneficiaries and the federally recognized tribes.”

In October 2001, Martin joined the Interior Department as Counselor to the Assistant Secretary after having served as Republican senior counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs since January 1999, where she oversaw Indian health care, gaming and self-determination issues and appropriations. From October 1998 to January 1999 she served as Director of Congressional and Public Affairs for the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).

From June 1993 to October 1998, she worked for the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin and left as Senior Staff Attorney. While there she worked on all aspects of tribal representation including Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) litigation, gaming, and self-determination and tribal government issues.

Martin was born in Shawano, Wisconsin, and was raised on the Menominee Indian Reservation. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she majored in History, Italian and History of Culture. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1993. She is a member of the Wisconsin State Bar and has been active in its Indian law section, including serving as an officer of the section.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the 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 1.4 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes.

Note to Editors: A photo of Ms. Martin may be viewed via the Interior Department’s web site at www.doi.gov.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON - The Department of the Interior has submitted plans to a federal court outlining a proposed $335 million effort to conduct an historical accounting of individual American Indian and Alaska Native trust accounts as well as a separate blueprint to guide the future management of Interior's trust obligations to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles says the filing late last night confirms the Department's firm commitment to reengineer its trust asset management functions and reasserts Interior's ability to perform an historical accounting for some 260,000 Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust account holders.

"Interior is ready, willing and able to provide an historical accounting to account holders," Deputy Secretary Griles said today. "We intend to provide IIM account holders with historical statements of their accounts and detailed information regarding their land assets. A 1994 federal statute specifies the scope of this monumental task. Secretary Norton and this administration are committed to seek the necessary funding from Congress to perform this important work."

The Historical Accounting Plan is expected to take five years and is designed to provide each IIM account holder with a Historical Statement of Account. Most of the money in IIM trust fund accounts will be reconciled through a transaction-by-transaction basis, while other accounts will be reviewed through accepted accounting methods that include statistical analysis.

Four of the nation's five largest accounting firms are consulting with Interior's Office of Historical Trust Accounting (OHTA), including Deloitte & Touche LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, Grant Thornton LLP and KPMG LLP. A fifth firm - Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey LLC has experience with numerous Indian trust projects over preceding years. OHTA is also being advised by Bank of America, which has the largest commercial trust operation in the United States. Nationally recognized historical research and statistical consulting firms have also been retained for this project.

"While we have been working aggressively to create a plan to review the history of Indian trust accounts, Interior is also looking forward - carrying out a comprehensive and systematic plan to reform how it will manage its trust responsibilities into the future," Deputy Secretary Griles said today. "We are following through with our commitment to completely examine and document Interior's current trust business processes across Indian country so we are able to confidently reengineer those functions to ensure we will meet our goals and objectives in trust asset management. "

Griles says Interior's trust management reform efforts have been part of an open process that has benefited from tribal leaders' input and that tracks previous reports filed with the federal court:

"We have described and identified our trust management reform efforts in quarterly reports to the court, beginning with the Eighth Report filed in January of 2002," he said. "Interior's reorganization and reform efforts have been conducted in the full view of tribes through an exhaustive consultation and review process over the past year. The reengineering and reorganization efforts that are now underway at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of the Special Trustee would not have been possible without the advice and counsel of tribal leaders."

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will visit New Mexico on Tuesday, February 4, 2003, to inspect two Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated schools – Wingate High School in Ft. Wingate, N.M., and Baca Community School in Prewitt, N.M. – that are on the Bureau’s list of schools slated for replacement within the next few years.

The first stop on Assistant Secretary Martin’s tour will be Wingate High School, one of four boarding schools directly operated by the BIA and one of seven schools in the Bureau’s FY2004 budget request scheduled for replacement. Her next visit will be to Baca Community School, a BIA-operated K-4 day school, whose new facility is already under construction. She will personally inspect conditions at both sites and meet with the schools’ students, parents, faculty and tribal officials.

The Assistant Secretary oversees the BIA’s school system, which comprised of 185 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools on 63 reservations in 23 states serving 47,909 students.

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Washington DC – Department of the Interior’s Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Aurene Martin applauds the American Indian firefighting crews that were dispatched to assist with the recovery of the space shuttle Columbia, and its crew. The Shuttle broke apart during re-entry February 1, 2003, and is spread over a 500 square-mile area, much of it heavily wooded.

“During times of national tragedies or natural disasters, American Indians are always willing to help our Nation by providing manpower, financial assistance or spiritual comfort to those in need,” Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Aurene Martin said. “We are very proud of the firefighters and other American Indians who are helping with this critical effort.”

Alerted to the fact that they were being dispatched to the area on Tuesday morning, seventeen members of the Cherokee Firedancers, fifteen from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and two from the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma along with fire crews from the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, the Iowa Tribe and Pawnee Tribe were ready to roll by Wednesday.

The request for assistance came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the crews were mobilized as part of a four-crew module that was dispatched by the AOICC (Arkansas-Oklahoma Interagency Coordination Center) located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which handles crew mobilization efforts for both the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs sponsored tribal crews from the state of Oklahoma. The Muskogee (Creek) Nation fire crew is sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the other three fire crews are under contract with the U.S. Forest Service to spend the summer fighting fires across the United States. This is the first time they have been called on to help with a national disaster. The fire crews traveled to Nacogdoches County, Texas where they will setup camp in the 179 acre Angelina National Forest and work the next 14 days searching for metal debris.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibility to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and individuals as well as promoting tribal self-determination, education and economic development. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

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Washington – The National Indian Country Telecommunications Infrastructure Consortium (NICTIC) will hold a meeting on February 27, 2003, at the Wyndham Washington Hotel, 1400 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, starting at 2:30 p.m. in the Ash Lawn North room.

The NICTIC was created to support the President’s National Strategy for Homeland Security by coordinating an effort to build and improve the telecommunications infrastructure throughout Indian Country. “This national organization can serve as an engine to improve the telecommunications infrastructure throughout Indian Country,” said Brian Burns, Chief Information Officer-Indian Affairs.

An initial meeting of the NICTIC was held on September 18, 2002 in Phoenix, AZ that was jointly hosted by the Department of the Interior’s Indian Affairs and the General Services Administration (GSA). At that meeting the concept of establishing the Consortium was discussed with tribes, private organizations and government agencies. During a second meeting that was held on October 17, 2002 in Las Vegas, NV, a list of goals and objectives was developed outlining what the Consortium would achieve. A third meeting was held on December 11, 2002 in Albuquerque, NM, where a draft of the Consortium’s Vision Statement and expansion of the goals and objectives was accomplished. At the meeting on February 27, 2003, Cal Ramos from NASA will present a presentation on NASA Wireless Satellite Technology. The finalization of the Vision Statement, discussions on funding strategies, grant writing seminars for tribal representatives, the development of an inventory and where to initiate a pilot project will be discussed.

The goals of the Consortium are to: 1) develop an Indian Country telecommunications resource inventory; 2) establish an Indian Country telecommunications network architecture; 3) establish an Indian Country telecommunications integration model; and 4) assist Tribes in their effort to pay for the cost of telecommunications infrastructure by providing technical assistance in securing millions of dollars of Federal grant funds available each year from Federal agencies.

Note to Editors: Agenda of NICTIC meeting can be downloaded at DOI web site.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) popular family literacy program, FACE, will be expanded to seven BIA-funded schools in the 2003-2004 school year. The Family and Child Education program, which is administered by the Bureau’s Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), 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 ability to read and comprehend information is vital to a lifetime of learning,” said Assistant Secretary Martin. “The FACE program is creating a new generation of readers in Indian communities across the country and bringing new hope to adult students who want to improve their lives through education.”

The seven schools are: Beclabito Day School, Shiprock, N.M.; Mescalero Apache School, Mescalero, N.M.; Oneida Nation Elementary School, Oneida, Wisc.; Santa Rosa Boarding School, Sells, Ariz.; Seba Dalkai Boarding School, Winslow, Ariz.; St. Francis Indian School, St. Francis, S.D.; and Tiospa Zina Tribal School, Agency Village, S.D. The addition of these schools expands from 32 to 39 the number of BIA-funded schools providing family literacy services through the FACE program.

FACE provides early or 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 the program is its support of parental involvement in a child’s reading experience. Since 1991, over 8,000 children from ages birth to five have been served by the FACE program. [In December 2002, FACE enrolled all children from birth to age 5 in the Imagination Library program sponsored by the Dollywood Foundation in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Through this national reading program, all FACE children will receive a new age-appropriate book each month for a possible total of 60 books.]

FACE 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.

Schools are selected through an application process and on-site visits to gauge each school’s commitment and ability to supporting a FACE program. Once selected, a school receives ongoing training and technical assistance to ensure that it will successfully implement the FACE model.

The BIA school system has 185 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on 63 reservations in 23 states and serving approximately 48,000 students. In School Year 2001- 2002, the BIA directly operated one-third of its elementary and secondary schools. The remaining two-thirds are tribally-operated under BIA contract or grant.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the 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, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.4 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Improving Indian student academic achievement through Native language and culture in Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools will be the focus of the upcoming Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) Journeying Home: Language and Culture Preservation Conference. The event, with the theme “Creating Our Future From Our Past,” will be held March 3-6 in Minneapolis, Minn., at the Hilton Minneapolis and Towers hotel. Experts from the field of Indian education will present information and insights on how using Native language and culture in the classroom can help Indian students improve their academic proficiency.

In his introduction to the conference program, OIEP Director William Mehojah, Jr., noted “Native languages and cultures are not only a means to achieving higher academic achievement, but also a means to better connect Native students to their own past and to help prepare them for a future in which education and learning are more important than ever. We know that individuals who are strongly rooted in their past…are often best equipped to face the future.”

Conference attendees will be presented with a wide range of cultural, linguistic, social and education perspectives through speakers and workshops specifically designed to aid Indian educators in the development of curricula and teaching materials, and improving teaching skills, that incorporate Native language and culture.

A special feature of the conference will be the cultural “Knowledge Bowl,” an academic competition between 11 BIA schools that will take place March 4-5. The Knowledge Bowl will pit schools from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin against one another to answer questions about American Indian history, culture and language in a quiz bowl format. Participating schools are: Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, Cass Lake, Minn.; Circle of Life School, White Earth, Minn.; Crazy Horse School, Wanblee, S.D.; Flandreau Indian School, Flandreau, S.D.; Fond du Lac Ojibwe School, Hayward, Wisc.; Nay-Ah-Shing School, Onamia, Minn.; St. Francis Indian School, St. Francis, S.D.; Standing Rock High School, Ft. Yates, N.D.; Takini School, Howes, S.D., and Tiospaye Topa School, Ridgeview, S.D.

OIEP designed Journeying Home as a series of four conferences that would further the use and understanding of Native language and culture to improve student academic achievement. The 2002 Journeying Home conference, held in Portland, Ore., focused on language acquisition. This year’s event is intended to strengthen BIA funded schools in the areas of language and cultural preservation and revitalization.

The mission of the Office of Indian Education Programs is to provide Indian students with quality educational opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with tribal needs for cultural and economic well-being and in keeping with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as distinct cultural and governmental entities, as well as to consider each student’s spiritual, mental, physical and cultural aspects within the context of his or her family and tribe or village.

Note to Editors: The agenda for the 2003 Journeying Home: Language and Culture Preservation Conference may be viewed via the Department’s web site at www.doi.gov.

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