OPA

Walter R. Mills, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Colorado River Agency at Parker, Arizona, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced.

Mills, 43, has been an Indian Self-Determination Specialist in the Phoenix Area Office the past two years. He formerly served as Administrative Manager of the Phoenix Indian School and, earlier, of the Hopi Agency at Keams Canyon, Arizona. He began his career with BIA in 1971 as an instructor at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute at Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A graduate of the Haskell Indian Institute, Mills worked in private industry in Oklahoma and Texas from 1963 to 1971.

Jess T. Town, 39, Choctaw Indian from Talihina, Okla., was today named Superintendent of the Rosebud Agency, Rosebud, His appointment is effective August 8. Town will move to this post from one as Area Field Representative of the Bureau in Riverside, Calif.

Town was graduated from Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma in May 1950, and attended Phoenix College, Phoenix, Ariz. He began his Federal service in the Phoenix Indian School in 1954.

He became a fiscal accountant with the Uintah and Ouray Agency of the Bureau at Fort Duschene, Utah, and then a supervisory administrative officer at the San Carlos Agency, San Carlos, Ariz. After serving as tribal operations officer at the Western Washington Agency, Everett, Wash., he held that same post at the Sacramento Area Office. He became Area Field Representative, Riverside Field Office of the Bureau in 196'7, a post he held until his present appointment.

He served in the United States Army from September 1952 to that same month in 1954.

Ray F. Maldonado, a member of the Yakima Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Olympic Peninsula Agency at Hoquiam, Washington, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today.

Maldonado, 36, has been a Management Analyst in the office of the Interior Department's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in Washington, D. C. From 1976 to 1979, he worked as an analyst in the BIA’s Central Office for the implementation of the Indian Self-Determination Act A graduate of Western Carolina University at Cullowhee, North Carolina, Maldonado was for five years the administrative officer of the BIA Agency on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, A United States Army veteran, Maldonado was an industrial .development intern for the North Carolina Division of Commerce and Industry in 1970-71.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Neal A. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and President Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, was sworn into office July 4, 2001, on the occasion of America’s 225th birthday. “I’m ready, willing and enthusiastic about starting in my new role,” McCaleb said. Interior Secretary Gale Norton administered the oath of office at the Interior Department building in Washington, D.C., where McCaleb was surrounded by well-wishers including Chickasaw Nation Ambassador Charles Blackwell, who held the bible for the ceremony. The Senate had confirmed McCaleb’s nomination on June 29.

“I was gratified and privileged today to be able to swear in Neal McCaleb as my Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs,” said Secretary Norton. “I know he will do an outstanding job. I commend the Senate for confirming this important member of my leadership team, and I look forward to many more swearing-in ceremonies in the days and weeks ahead.”

The event in Washington was an administrative swearing-in; an official public ceremony will take place in the coming weeks.

Following the ceremony, McCaleb announced his intent to focus on three immediate goals: to meet with tribal leaders on a one-to-one basis and, to the greatest extent possible, on their turf; to become involved with congressional activities that relate to American Indian and Alaska Native interests; and to rapidly develop a working knowledge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the 176- year-old federal agency he will oversee, and its people and operations in order to be useful and responsive to the needs of the agency’s customers. “The BIA, in all of its functions, is to be a service organization to the American Indian and Alaska Native people,” McCaleb said. “In my view, I expect it to be an ‘Indian Service.’”

Until his nomination by President Bush, McCaleb served as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Transportation in Governor Bellmon’s Administration from 1987 to 1991, and recently in Governor Keating’s Administration from 1995 to 2001, where he was responsible for overseeing the construction and maintenance of the state’s transportation systems and the state-assisted general airports program. In 1999, then-Secretary McCaleb negotiated the reinstatement of passenger rail service to Oklahoma with Amtrak after a 20-year absence. He was also the first in the history of the state government to serve concurrently as Director of both the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (1987 to 1995) and the Oklahoma Transportation Authority, as well as serving as Cabinet Secretary. He served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was elected Minority Floor Leader in 1978.

A native of Oklahoma City, Okla., McCaleb has been a practicing engineer with more than 40 years’ experience in designing and supervising the construction of roads, bridges, public facilities and architectural structures in Oklahoma and throughout the Southwest. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He and his wife Georgann have four grown children.

McCaleb is the eighth Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to be sworn in since Congress established the position in the late 1970s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency with almost 10,000 employees nationwide, provides services to, carries out its federal trust responsibilities for, and promotes the self-determination of the 558 federally recognized Tribal governments and approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) will hold the second of six training sessions to improve the trial advocacy skills of tribal court prosecutors, defenders and judges on August 14-16, 2012, in Ignacio, Colo. This training session, which will focus on domestic violence, was originally scheduled to take place in Durango.

The training is being conducted under the Tribal Court Trial Advocacy Training Program, a joint effort by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice that furthers the mandate of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TOLA) to strengthen tribal sovereignty over criminal justice matters on federal Indian lands by strengthening the skills of those who practice within the tribal court system.

The program is the result of a collaborative effort by the OJS and DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative (AJI) to offer trial advocacy training with courses designed specifically for tribal courts and free training to the judges, public defenders and prosecutors who work in them. Training is provided in three areas – domestic abuse, illegal narcotics and sexual assault on children and adults – with faculty and instructional materials prepared by experts knowledgeable about tribal court issues. The program is unique because it also has training specifically for public defenders.

The first session was held July 24-26 in Duluth, Minn. The rest will be held September 11-13 in Great Falls, Mont.; October 2-4 in Seattle, Wash.; October 23-25 in Chinle, Ariz.; and January 15-17, 2013, in Albuquerque, N.M.

CREDENTIALS: This invitation is extended to credentialed media representatives, who must display sanctioned media credentials for admittance to the event.

Award of a $1,543,500 contract for the construction of school facilities that will provide for 150 additional students at Lukachukai, Arizona on the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a 7-classroom addition to an existing school building, a l60-pupil dormitory, a 480-pupil kitchen and dining room, and employees' quarters and garage facilities. In addition to the building construction, a 75,000-gallon elevated water tank, a new sewage lagoon, curbs and gutters, street paving, walks and other site improvements are included in the contract.

The work, when complete, will serve 150 pupils in addition to the present enrollment of 297 pupils. It will also provide safe and sanitary school facilities for 60 children who are presently housed in old and obsolete buildings.

The successful bidder was Flaugh-Slavens Co., Box 700, Cortez, Colorado. Six higher bids, ranging from $1,566,710 to $1,667,441, were received.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Department of the Interior will hold a signing ceremony tomorrow for a $100 million contract between GovWorks, the Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) franchise fund, and Wyandotte NetTel, an American Indian telecommunications and information technology firm owned by the Wyandotte Nation in Wyandotte, Okla. Wyandotte NetTel will provide telecom and information technology products and services to the federal government.

The ceremony will take place at the main Interior Department building in Washington, D.C. Officials present will include Neal A. McCaleb, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs; Chief Leaford Bearskin, Wyandotte Nation; and Tom Kitsos, Acting Director, Minerals Management Service.

Profits from Wyandotte NetTel fund education, child care, medical, housing and other tribal service programs of the Wyandotte Nation.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is part of a three-year Department of the Interior (DOI) agreement with one of the nation’s leading producers of high-tech geographic mapping software that will expand the usage of geographic information system (GIS) technology throughout Indian Country.

Martin says the Department has successfully negotiated an amendment to its blanket licensing agreement for mapping software with ESRI of Redlands, California. The agreement will broaden the use of the software in BIA offices and provides software licenses for tribal governments.

“The economic development blueprint for Indian Country includes full use of the tools of the modern, high-tech world,” Martin said today. “This new software agreement will not only increase the use of this modern mapping technology at BIA offices nationwide but it will facilitate the expanded use of GIS by tribal governments. This technology is the latest tool in the field of spatial data mapping. Land and resource managers, as well as tribal governments across Indian Country, will continue to benefit from the use of this modern software and they will acquire it and technical support at the lowest cost possible.”

ESRI produces GIS software that is currently in use by federal, state and local governments across the nation. Currently, ESRI software is used throughout BIA and Indian Country. After implementation, the agreement will have generated even more use of GIS technology with the addition of new software licenses. BIA will continue to provide software training to its employees and tribal members.

[Editors Note: ESRI spokesman John Steffenson may be contacted to discuss the mapping software at (303) 449-7779 (extension 8237). The Coeur D’Alene Tribe GIS Department actively utilizes the ESRI product. Contact Frank Roberts of the Coeur D’Alene Tribe to discuss the practical applications of the software in Indian Country at (208) 686-5307 or visit www.cdatribe.org/gis .]

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure today welcomed hundreds of tribal leaders and representatives attending the 2012 Tribal Self-Governance Annual Conference taking place this week in New Orleans, La. The conference, which started May 6 and runs through May 10, is being held at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.

The Acting Assistant Secretary opened the portion of the conference devoted to Department of the Interior bureaus and agencies who fund self-governance tribes. Laverdure assured the conference attendees that proposed changes within the Indian Affairs organization do not specifically target the Indian Affairs Office of Self-Governance and would not affect self-governance tribes separately from other tribes. “No decisions have been made and tribal feedback will be incorporated into any final decisions,” Laverdure said. “Furthermore, no matter what changes, if any, are made, we will work closely with the tribes and Office of Self-Governance to ensure that services are not disrupted.”

Proposed administrative changes include proposed streamlining plans for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The proposals are the subject of tribal consultation meetings taking place across Indian Country in seven states. The sessions, which began in April and will continue into summer, have already been held in Florida, Arizona, Washington, and South Dakota. The remaining sessions will be held in Oklahoma, California and Alaska. For more information on these and consultation meetings on other topics, visit the Indian Affairs web site at http://www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/ASIA/Consultation/index.htm.

He reiterated his office’s strong support for a legislative Carcieri “fix,” and commitment to supporting amendments to Title IV of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 that seek to resolve the problem of tribes having to follow the BIA’s and the Indian Health Service’s differing sets of self-governance program administration requirements.

Laverdure reviewed Administration accomplishments that the Interior Department and Indian Affairs have achieved since 2009:

• Tribal consultations are at historic levels across the federal government, and President Obama has held three White House Tribal Nations Conferences where leaders from the federally recognized tribes meet with Cabinet and senior Administration officials.
• Over 157,000 acres of land have been taken into federal trust status for federally recognized tribes. These lands are used for housing, economic development, tribal government services, cultural and natural resource protection, and other purposes deemed necessary by tribes.
• Strengthened the Department’s government-to-government relationship with federally recognized tribes through the development of a formal DOI-wide tribal consultation policy. The Department also is in the process of formalizing its consultation policy for Alaska Native Corporations as called for by congressional appropriations acts of 2004 and 2005.
• The provision of over $3.0 billion to tribal communities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and since its inception, the guaranteed lending of over $1.0 billion to qualified tribes and individual Indian entrepreneurs by Indian Affairs through its business loan guaranty program.
• Indian Affairs’ continuing efforts to promote tribal economic development which include coordinating its loan programs with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce to improve their effectiveness in Indian Country.
• The Interior Department’s finalizing of new leasing regulations that include the creation of residential and commercial leasing subparts and provisions that allow the development of wind and solar renewable energy projects on federal Indian lands.
• The continuing implementation by the Department, Indian Affairs and the BIA Office of Justice Services of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, which gives tribes greater sentencing authority, strengthens services to victims, helps combat alcohol and drug abuse, and improves coordination between tribal and federal law enforcement. This is being accomplished through training for tribal court personnel and practitioners and law enforcement officers, as well as through the Secretary’s Safe Indian Communities High Priority Performance Goal (HPPG) Initiative to reduce violent crime in tribal communities.
• The Interior Department reached a settlement agreement in the Cobell class action lawsuit and the Agriculture Department reached a settlement in the Keepseagle case. Forty-one tribal trust cases have been settled that include over $1.0 billion to tribes. Several water settlements have been finalized ending costly, decades-old litigation.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs has responsibility for assisting the Secretary of the Interior in the fulfillment of his trust responsibilities to tribal and individual Indian trust beneficiaries, and in promoting self-determination and self-governance for the nation’s 566 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The Assistant Secretary oversees several programs including the Indian Affairs Office of Self-Governance, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), which administers one of two federal school systems.