Past News Items

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced plans today to change the assessments in the San Carlos Indian Reservation Irrigation Project in Arizona. The new proposal would comply with present policy that assessment rates should reflect the full cost of the work required.

For more than 10 years the annual basic assessment rate has been 50 cents an acre. It was only a token assessment. The project provides subsistence truck gardens and the Indians are unable to pay the full cost. The Federal Government paid most of the cost from appropriated funds.

Appointment of John B. Keliiaa as superintendent of the Jicarilla Apache Indian Agency, Dulce, N. Mex., succeeding Guy Robertson, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Keliiaa has been serving as acting superintendent of the agency since January 5 when Mr. Robertson transferred to the post of assistant area direct in the Indian Bureau’s office at Sacramento, Calif. He will take over full responsibilities of the position February 23.

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of a $574,589 school construction contract which will provide facilities for 120 additional Indian children at the Oglala School on the Pine Ridge Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

The contract provides for construction of a two-story brick and concrete masonry building with 24 classrooms and a library. This new building will replace the existing elementary school which is extremely overcrowded and structurally unsound. Capacity of the school will be increased from 786 to 906 pupils.

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands on the Palm Springs Reservation in California and the three Seminole Reservations in Florida for periods up to a maximum of 99 years.

Under present law the maximum term permitted for such leases is 25 years with an option to renew for an additional 25 years.

A change in Federal regulations that will permit the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make loans to withdrawing members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon regardless of their degree of Indian blood was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Under the former rules, loans could not be made to individuals of less than a quarter degree Indian blood.

The amendment of the regulation was made possible as a result of legislation recommended by the Department and recently enacted by Congress (Public Law 86-40).

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the Department, hoping to keep as much of the present Indian estate as possible in Indian hands, has recommended major amendments of S.51, a bill dealing with the sale or leasing of tracts owned by two or more Indians.

One of the most important recommendations asks for a $15,000,000 increase in the Indian Revolving Loan Fund set up to help Indians acquire land, he said.

Award of a $176,168 contract to rehabilitate approximately 1,200 acres of land on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northern Nevada, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for re-leveling of the land and the construction of canals, laterals and water control structures. The work to be done is part of an over-all program to develop available resources on the Duck Valley Reservation for use by Indian families.

Grave moral issues would be raised by last-minute attempts now to disturb Navajo Indian title to small "islands” of former public lands in Utah within the tribal reservation boundaries, the Department of the Interior warned today.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst presented the Department’s views in letters to Senator Frank E. Moss, and Representative David S. King, both of Utah.

Development of both human and natural resources on Indian reservations will be the prime objective for the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Kennedy Administration, Commissioner Philleo Nash told an audience in Denver, Colorado, Tuesday evening.

Visiting in Denver for a nationwide conference on Indian Bureau superintendents, the new Commissioner, woe entered on duty September 26, spoke on “The New Trail for American Indians” before a meeting of the Indian Visitors of the American Friends Service Committee.

The final act ending federal supervision over Klamath Indian tribal property has been completed in Washington, D. C. with signing of the Klamath Termination Proclamation by the Acting Secretary of the Interior, James K. Carr.

Robert D. Holtz, director of the Portland area, Bureau of Indian Affairs, said today that Under Secretary Carr signed the proclamation on behalf of Secretary Stewart Udall who was away from the capital.

The proclamation is effective Sunday, August 13.