MEDIA ADVISORY

Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David Anderson
to Speak at Sequoyah High School

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will bring his message about the benefits of positive thinking and making healthy life choices to an assembly of students, parents, faculty and staff at Sequoyah High School, a contract school for grades 9-12 operated by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in Tahlaquah, Oklahoma. It is the ninth school in a series of visits Anderson plans to make to BIA field offices and education facilities during his administration.

Sequoyah High School, an Indian boarding school, originated in 1871 when the Cherokee National Council passed an act setting up an orphan asylum to take care of many orphans who came out of the civil war. In 1914, the Cherokee Orphan Training School and 40 acres were sold to the United States Department of the Interior to be operated as a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. In 1985, the Cherokee Nation resumed the operation of Sequoyah High School from the BIA under a contract/grant and is regionally and state accredited for grades 9-12.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs oversees the BIA school system, which educates approximately 48,000 American Indian children in 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states.

WHO: David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs

WHAT: Anderson will visit Sequoyah High School to meet with students,
parents, faculty and school officials, and to tour the facilities.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 21, 2004, at 1:30 a.m. (CST)

WHERE: Sequoyah High School Gym, Highway 62, five miles south of Tahlaquah, OK

Note to Editors: Credentialed media covering the event should be in place by 12.45 p.m. Press seating will be provided. The program will begin at 1:30 a.m.