FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Nedra Darling
February 8, 2002
202-219-4152
Eighth Consultation
Meeting On
Improving Indian
Trust Asset Management
Set For February 14
In Portland, Oregon
(WASHINGTON,
D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will meet
with tribal leaders on Thursday, February 14, 2002 in Portland, Oregon, at the
eighth in a series of consultation meetings on the Department’s plan to improve
the management of Indian trust assets.
He will be joined by Ross O. Swimmer, Director, Office of Indian Trust
Transition. The meeting will be held at
the Sheraton Hotel (8235 NE Airport Way) starting at 1:00 p.m. PST.
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 BITAM and a new Office of Indian Trust Transition to implement the
transfer and consolidation plans.
Meetings also have been held in
Albuquerque, N.M.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Rapid City, S.D.;
San Diego, Calif.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Arlington, Va.
WHO: Neal
A. McCaleb, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, and Ross O. Swimmer,
Director, Office of Indian Trust Transition.
WHEN: 1:00
p.m. PST, Thursday, February 14, 2002.
WHAT: Interior
Department tribal consultation meeting on improving the management of
Indian trust assets.
WHERE:
Sheraton Hotel, 8235 NE Airport Way, Portland, Oregon, 97220.
Phone: 503-281-2500. Fax: 503-249-7602.
-BIA-