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OPA

<p>Office of Public Affairs</p>

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Office of Emergency Management

Our Mission

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Emergency Management is located in the Office of the Director, BIA. Its mission is to ensure Tribal communities, local and regional BIA offices, BIA leadership, and external emergency management responders work together to build, sustain, and improve the capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Services We Provide

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Tribal Assistance Coordination Group
Indian Affairs Emergency Management Council
Emergency Management Training

Who We Serve

BIA OEM program personnel provides emergency response support, incident coordination, and serves as a liaison between Bureau resources and other response entities to support emergency operations for disasters/emergencies on federal trust lands. Regional Coordinators also coordinate the Indian Affairs all hazard response operations and actions and provides assistance to Agency personnel and Tribal emergency management programs, recognizing and respecting the government-to-government relationship.

Key Information

The OEM is responsible for coordinating BIA emergency management efforts internally, function as a liaison with Tribal communities for all phases of emergency management and collaborate with external resources, increasing the Bureau’s emergency management capacity. This mission requires significant interaction within the BIA, with other federal agencies, state governments, local governments, tribal governments and non-government organizations. This interaction emphasizes the multi-layered approach adopted for emergency management.

Policy

About

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Emergency Management (BIA EM) is responsible for policy development and program management of Indian Affairs activities concerning continuity of operations, disaster preparedness, planning, response and recovery. OEM represents Indian Affairs in coordinating across organizational elements of IA and interagency emergency management activities relating to Tribal affairs. This includes coordinating with and among federally recognized Tribes, federal agencies, states, and other jurisdictions to enhance preparedness and resilience of Tribal communities for disasters.

Organization Chart PDF

BIA Org Chart

Connect With Our Team

More Resources

The Office of Emergency Management is headquartered in Washington, DC with virtual staff located throughout the nation to provide technical expertise and program support to BIA's 12 Regions. Learn who your regional coordinator is here.

Regional Offices

Delivery of program services to the federally recognized tribes and individual Indians and Alaska Natives, whether directly or through contracts, grants or compacts, is administered by the twelve regional offices and 83 agencies that report to the BIA Deputy Director-Field Operations, located in Washington, D.C.

Assistant Secretary Newland to host briefing for Tribal leaders on 2023 Budget Request for Indian Affairs

Dates: April 15, 2022 1:00am to 2:00am

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Bryan Newland will host a briefing for Tribal leaders on the President’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget request for Indian Affairs. The briefing will take place via conference call on Friday, April 15, 2022, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Indian Preference

Indian Affairs is unique among Federal employers in that it is authorized to utilize an Indian Preference policy in hiring. Given the BIA’s long historical and significant presence in the communities it serves and Congress’s recognition of needing its workforce to reflect those communities, the Bureau was given the authority to use Indian Preference in its recruitment and hiring processes. Today, that policy applies throughout the Indian Affairs organization.

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Builds on Administration initiative to help tribal leaders restore American Indian homelands

Media Contact: Nedra Darling, OPA-IA Phone: 202-219-4152
For Immediate Release: June 30, 2016
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WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts announced today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has improved its Fee-to-Trust Handbook to reduce the processing time for requests from federally recognized tribes to have land taken into trust for their benefit and proclamations that declare the lands are part of their tribal reservations. Under the revised guidance, these requests may now be submitted simultaneously.

"After hearing from tribal leaders, we have taken another step in reducing lengthy and burdensome processes that hinder tribal governments in more fully utilizing their lands for the betterment of their people,” Roberts said. “The BIA’s revisions to its Fee-to-Trust Handbook provide tribes with greater flexibility in submitting land-into-trust and reservation proclamation requests while reducing the time spent to process them.”

“This effort is part of President Obama’s commitment to work with tribal leaders to restore tribal homelands,” Roberts continued. “Since 2009, we have restored 416,000 acres to tribal ownership and we anticipate reaching the Administration’s goal of restoring half a million acres.”

The Handbook revisions include allowing a tribal government to combine its applications for requesting a land parcel be put into trust status (from fee simple ownership) and having a reservation proclamation issued for it. Previously, a requesting tribe would have to wait until the land is in trust before submitting a reservation proclamation request. The revised Handbook also provides guidance to BIA employees for processing simultaneous fee-to-trust and reservation proclamation requests.

The revisions also provide guidance on processing reservation proclamations where land has already been acquired in trust. A proclamation will not be finalized until the underlying land parcel has been taken into trust. The revised sections are 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 of the Handbook.

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs can issue reservation proclamations under authority delegated by the Secretary of the Interior and in accordance with the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984; 25 USC 467). Lands proclaimed reservations are for the exclusive use of Indians who are entitled to reside on them by enrollment or tribal membership. The BIA publishes reservation proclamations in the Federal Register.

The Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the BIA, which is headed by a director who is responsible for managing day-to-day operations through four offices – Indian Services, Justice Services, Trust Services and Field Operations. These offices directly administer or fund tribally based infrastructure, law enforcement, social services (including child welfare), tribal governance, natural and energy resources, and trust management programs for the nation’s federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages through 12 regional offices and 81 agencies.

The Office of Trust Services Division of Real Estate Services administers the fee-to-trust regulations at 25 CFR Part 151 and reservation proclamations under the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984; 25 USC 467). For more information about the Division of Real Estate Services, visit http://www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/BIA/OTS/RealEstate/index.htm.

https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/opa/online-press-release/acting-assistant-secretary-roberts-announces-updates-bia-handbook

Indian Affairs expands opportunities for Native businesses with new Buy Indian Act rule

For Immediate Release:
April 07, 2022

The Department of the Interior’s Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs today announced new regulations to improve implementation of the Buy Indian Act to promote economic development opportunities in Indian Country. The final rule was developed in consultation with Tribes after the Department proposed revisions to the Buy Indian Act regulations last year.

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Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland Highlights Chaco Canyon Protections, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Tribal Funding During New Mexico and Arizona Visit

For Immediate Release:
February 28, 2022

Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Bryan Newland has completed a four-day tour of meetings and listening sessions with Tribal leaders and members of the public across New Mexico and Arizona.

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Buy-Back Program sends offers to landowners with fractional interests at the Crow Reservation

For Immediate Release:
March 25, 2022

The Department of the Interior today announced nearly 3,000 landowners with fractional interests at the Crow Reservation have been sent more than $97 million in purchase offers from the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations. Landowners who received offers have until April 11, 2022, to consider and return accepted offers in the pre-paid postage envelopes provided.

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President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Makes Significant Investments in Indian Affairs Programs

For Immediate Release:
March 28, 2022

The Biden-Harris Administration today submitted to Congress the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2023. The President’s Budget details his vision to expand on the historic progress our country has made over the last year and deliver the agenda he laid out in his State of the Union address—to build a better America, reduce the deficit, reduce costs for families, and grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out.

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Indian Affairs to host Tribal consultations on changes to fee-to-trust & gaming compact regulations

For Immediate Release:
March 29, 2022

The Department of the Interior’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs today announced that it will hold nation-to-nation consultations with Tribes on draft amendments to two different regulations, one regarding the fee-to-trust process and one regarding Class III gaming compacts. The potential changes to these separate regulations aim to address concerns about their clarity, efficiency, and cost. Tribal leaders were notified of upcoming consultations in a letter from Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland.

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