Past News Items

The Department of the Interior has proposed amendment of Title 25 of the Code of Federal regulations to establish requirements and filing application deadlines for enrollment with the Mdewakanton and Wahpakoota Tribe of Sioux Indians and the Sisseton and Wahpeton Mississippi Sioux Tribe, Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced today.

The proposed amendment is being published in the Federal Register.

The Federal regulations governing the United States credit program for Indian tribes are being broadened to permit loans of funds which the tribes can use for the purpose of attracting industry to the vicinity of reservations, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Washington, D.C. – The Department of the Interior today launched a new effort to develop a Department-wide policy on tribal consultation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced today. The new consultation policy will be developed with input from the nation’s 564 federally recognized tribes.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Amon A. Baker, 48, a member of the Cherokee Nation to be Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Baker replaces Edwin Moore who was appointed Assistant Area Director for Education in Muskogee in February 1964.

Baker holds a B.S. and Masters degree from Northeastern College, Tahlequah, Oklahoma in Industrial Arts and Education. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946.

The Crow Indians are the first Indian Tribe to receive advanced funding to plan abandoned coal mine reclamation, Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today.

The Tribe will get $156,545 to help prepare its reclamation program. The funding became available with the signing of the cooperative agreement between the Tribe and Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM).

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk issued the following statement today on the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy:

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the publication of "A History of Indian Policy" by Dr. S. Lyman Tyler, head of the American West Center, University of Utah, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The book is now available in paper cover from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 for $4.25.