The Senate Indian Affairs Committee yesterday approved by voice vote the nomination of Larry Echo Hawk for the Department of Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs post, the Associated Press reported.
In this post, Echo Hawk will develop DOI policy on Indian affairs-related issues and make budget recommendations that affect Indian education, public safety, social health and welfare, economic development, energy development, federal recognition of tribes and other issues.
He will oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), the Office of Indian Gaming, the Office of Self-Governance, the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (OIEED), the Office of Federal Acknowledgement, the Office of Budget Management and other offices at the Department of the Interior related to tribes, individual Indians and Indian lands.
Nominated by President Obama in April, Echo Hawk said economic development, education and public safety in Indian Country will be among his top priorities. He also said Indian health is an area that requires special attention.
Echo Hawk, Pawnee, is a law professor at Brigham Young University. He served as Idaho Attorney General from 1991 to 1995.
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