Reduced Federal participation in Indian affairs was established as the goal of national policy and progress toward this objective was achieved along many lines during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1953, according to annual report of Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay released today.
Consultations looking toward eventual termination of Federal responsibilities were held during the year with tribal groups in western Oregon and California, the Klamaths of Oregon, the Alabama-Coushattas of Texas, the Chitamachas of Louisiana, and the Prairie Island Band of Minnesota. Programming of a more preliminary nature was carried forward with the Osages of Oklahoma, the Menominees of Wisconsin, the Colvilles and Spokanes of Washington, and the Flatheads of Montana.
Three Bureau hospitals were closed and another transferred to a local organization bringing the total number of Bureau hospitals on June 30 down to 59. Local public school authorities took over responsibilities for operating 16 of the Bureau’s day schools and for the academic work at three of the boarding schools. Total enrollment in the transferred schools was approximately 1,100. Seventy-five miles of reservation roads wore transferred to county highway departments for maintenance and another 400 miles were undergoing improvements aimed at facilitating similar transfer in the near future. Indian borrowing from non-Bureau sources amounted to an estimated $22,000,000 in comparison with only $2,463,835 of additional loans made by the Bureau.
Bureau responsibilities for management of Indian trust lands were reduced somewhat as a result of mounting Indian requests for fee patents or for disposition of their lands through advertised sales. More that 2,500 tracts of Indian allotted land were removed in these and other ways from trust or restricted status. Income to the Indians from mineral leases, principally oil and gas, on their lands increased from $18,600,000 in fiscal 1952 to more than $23,000,000 in 1953.
Greatest progress toward complete termination of Bureau responsibilities for Indian affairs was achieved in California where all Indian children are now attending the public schools and full welfare services are provided to eligible Indians by State and local agencies. During the year the Bureau's California staff completed inventory of Federal buildings used in the administration of California Indian affairs, closed out 550 individual Indian money accounts, sold 102 public domain Indian allotments and 27 reservation allotments for a total return of approximately $1,000,000 to the Indian owners, reached agreement with county highway departments for the eventual transfer of 190 miles of road, and transferred to local agencies additional responsibilities for Indian health work.
Under the long-range Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Program, authorized by Congress in 1950, educational facilities for Navajo children were expanded in fiscal 195.3 through the completion of three school construction projects and the establishment or five new trailer schools. Combined enrollment of Navajo children in public schools, Indian Bureau schools, and mission schools reached an all-time high of 14,106, an increase of almost 1,000 over the previous fiscal year. Road construction work advanced materially with the completion of 53.5 miles of grade construction, 37 miles of base or gravel surfacing, 15.6 miles of bituminous surfacing, and 433 linear feet of bridges. Work was finished on 48 deep-pit charcos for the conservation of soil and water on Navajo rangelands and nine additional wells were drilled with long-range program funds. In the field of tribal business enterprises the chief accomplishment of the year was the completion of a basic agreement between the Navajo Tribe and the Bureau under which the Tribe assumes the major share of operating responsibilities. Two tribal motels and a number of smaller business enterprises were established in 1953.
