Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded contracts totaling $51,582 to furnish transformers, substation equipment and steel framework for a substation at the Portneuf pumping station of the Michaud Irrigation Division near Pocatello, Idaho.

The contracts were for $31,187 to the R. E. Uptegraff Manufacturing Company, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and for $20,395 to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Portland, Oregon.

The Uptegraff and Westinghouse combination bid compares with the next lower acceptable bid of $60,300.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the awarding of a $73,948 contract to the Ruud Construction Company, Spokane, Washington, for the construction of seven bridges on the Colville Indian reservation in central Washington.

The bridges are part of a construction program for the summer of 1957 which will provide better farm-to-market and school bus and mail route roads on the reservation.

Award of a $40,900 contract for construction of 20 deep-pit-type circular charcos (earthen stock water tanks) in the Sells and Gu Achi Districts of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona to L. P. McCrite & Son, Gilbert, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The McCrite bid was the lowest of 18 bids received. The others ranged from $41,600 to $193,700.

Award of a $216,700 contract to Fairbanks Morse and Company of Portland, Oregon, for irrigation pumps for the Michaud Unit of the Fort Hall, (Idaho) Indian Irrigation Project was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

The project is planned for completion in 1962 at an estimated total cost of $5,500,000.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced the Code of Federal Regulations has been amended to guarantee that Indian tribes will receive adequate offers for mineral leases on their lands.

The amendment provides greater uniformity in regulating the leasing of Indian lands for the mining of minerals other than oil and gas. It also furnishes a safeguard patterned after that which applies to oil and gas leases. The latter are required by law to be advertised, not negotiated.

Award of a $78,415.84 contract for construction of 2.899 miles of road on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The route will connect the Indian community of Hays with the new State Federal-Aid highway extending from the Fort Belknap Agency south to a new crossing of the Missouri River. The new State road by-passes the town of Hays and the construction of the Indian Bureau section will permit access for the community to the State highway.

Award of three contracts totaling $152,508 on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona, and the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, for water drilling and water-storage development facilities was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Water development at the contract locations is necessary to sustain present schools and facilities and to determine feasibility of additional school facilities planned at these locations.

Award of a $157,300 contract for the construction of Indian school facilities at Conehatta, Mississippi, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Conehatta School, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has a present enrollment of 180 pupils. The new facilities will provide more adequate facilities for the present enrollment and allow the enrollment of 30 pupils not now in school due to lack of school facilities.

With the retirement of Kenneth A. Marmon as superintendent of the Seminole Indian Agency, Dania, Fla.; on May 31, Virgil N. Harrington will take over full responsibilities of the position, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Since last January Mr. Harrington has been sharing the responsibilities jointly with Mr. Marmon, who retires after 35 years of service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A $51,306.45 contract for road construction on the Big Pine Reservation at Big Pine, Inyo County, California, has been awarded.to J. T. Smith Company, San Fernando, California, the Department of the Interior announced today.

It was the lowest of the fourteen bids received.

The construction of the 2.66 miles of road will give access to existing residential areas and other areas within the reservation.