[YouTube: Final Webchat with Secretary Ken Salazar] After more than four years on the job, Ken Salazar is getting ready to step down as the Secretary of the Interior Department. Salazar, a former U.S. Senator from Colorado, joined the Obama administration in January 2009. He quickly made Indian issues a priority and announced Larry Echo Hawk as the new Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs within a week of taking office. Since then, Salazar has had a big impact in Indian Country. He helped negotiate a $3.4 billion settlement to the Cobell trust fund lawsuit and more than $1 billion in tribal trust fund settlements, along with more than $2 billion in water rights settlements for tribes in six states With Echo Hawk a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, at the helm of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the administration rescinded negative policies affecting Indian gaming and the land-into-trust process. Salazar hosted the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference and sought to restore a relationship with tribes that had been fractured under the last president. "We continue to figure out ways of doing better. There's still a lot more work to be done," Salazar said in his final webchat on Wednesday. "President Obama's direction to me has been clear," Salazar added. "The first Americans of the United States and Alaska Natives deserve to be a part of the American dream and have the same opportunity as everybody else." Salazar outlasted Echo Hawk in Washington, D.C. Kevin Washburn, a citizen of the Chickaaw Nation, will remain in charge of the BIA after Salazar steps down. The Senate has yet to confirm Sally Jewell as the next Interior Secretary so Salazar is still on board. Get the Story:
Ken Salazar to leave Interior with no regrets (The Washington Post 4/5)
Ken Salazar says goodbye, proud of reforming Interior Department (VOXXI.Com 4/4)
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