McCaleb begins new life at BIA

FROM THE ARCHIVE

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MONDAY, JULY 9, 2001

Neal McCaleb was quietly sworn in last week to one of the toughest jobs in federal government: running the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Confirmed by the Senate a week before Interior Department officials had expected, the former Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation became the eighth Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs after a July 4 ceremony presided over by Secretary Gale Norton. It was a short and private event, one which belied the huge responsibilities he will now face as the Bush administration's point man on Indian issues.

A member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, McCaleb said he was "ready, willing and enthusiastic" to tackle those challenges. He quickly went to work the next day, attending meetings in the building he will call his home for at least the next three years.

The way McCaleb puts it, being at the BIA is all about servicing the 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to more than 550 federally recognized tribes the agency oversees. The President may be his official boss but McCaleb says the needs and wants of his new "customers" will drive how he does his job.

Its a far cry from the role the BIA used to play the last time McCaleb had a significant role in Indian policy. During the 1980s -- when he was a member of a presidential commission that authored a controversial report largely rejected by tribal leaders -- the BIA functioned largely as a dictator, telling tribes what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

Self-determination was more than a decade old yet most of the agency's budget was in the hands of bureaucrats who didn't always have, or weren't aware of, the best interests of tribes. Of the BIA's $824 million budget in 1984, only about 27 percent went to tribes in the form of tribal priority allocations and related funds.

Since then, the BIA's budget has grown to a proposed $2.2 billion in 2002, reflecting a 61 percent increase in the American Indian and Alaska Native population over the past two decades. Although the full need still hasn't been met, the greatest portion of the budget -- 42 percent -- now goes to tribes for those critical daily operations.

At the same time, some areas haven't changed. Indian education, a key priority of the Bush administration, is about 30 percent of the proposed 2002 budget, the same as it was twenty years ago.

The trust fund, which was identified by the Reagan commission as a large problem, also remains an eyesore for the federal government. Congress has spent about $614 million over the past five years to fix the system which McCaleb and other Interior officials say won't be fully completed for another four.

Relevant Links:
Bureau of Indian Affairs - http://www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html