News

Interior Deputy Secretary Michael L. Connor announced today that the Department of the Interior has signed agreements with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation in California, Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho, and the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota to conduct the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program) in their communities.

The U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that an additional $4.8 million has been transferred to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund (Scholarship Fund), bringing the total amount contributed so far to almost $39 million.

With its newest contribution, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today that it has transferred $4 million to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund, bringing the total transferred funds to nearly $35 million.

Continuing President Obama’s commitment to strengthen tribal sovereignty, Interior Deputy Secretary Michael L. Connor announced today that the Department has signed agreements with the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation in California and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota to implement the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program).

U.S. Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary Michael L. Connor will host a listening session on March 3, 2016, at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to hear directly from tribal leaders and individual landowners on the progress of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program). Deputy Secretary Connor will be joined by Special Trustee for American Indians Vince Logan.

The Department of the Interior today released the 2015 Status Report for the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Program), which summarizes its implementation to date and significant economic impact in Indian Country. Since 2013, the Buy-Back Program has paid nearly $715 million to landowners and restored the equivalent of approximately 1.5 million acres of land to tribal governments.