Past News Items

Distribution of tribal funds to individual members of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin under Public Law 399, approved June 17, is going forward smoothly and satisfactorily, Acting Secretary of the Interior Ralph A. Tudor announced today.

The enactment which establishes a program for terminating Federal supervision over Menominee affairs before the end of 1958, also provides for an immediate payment of $1,500 to each tribal member from Menominee funds on deposit in the United states Treasury.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay will arrive in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 17, for a ten-day inspection tour of the Territory.

In addition to surveying the Department’s Alaskan activities, the itinerary has been planned to provide for meeting with government personnel and with Alaska business groups, natives and other citizens.

Mrs. McKay will accompany the Secretary on the tour which will end on July 27. William Strand, director of the Office of Territories, Department of the Interior, which has immediate supervision of Alaskan affairs, will also be in the party.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay has instructed three Department of the Interior officials to meet in Portland, March 10, to ascertain the facts in a complaint raised by Indians of the Warm Springs Reservation they are not getting fair prices for the timber sold from their lands.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today that Allan M. Adams will move on November 20 from Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota, where he has been real property officer, to be superintendent of the Winnebago Agency, Nebraska, replacing Victor E. Godfrey.

Godfrey, who has been in charge at Winnebago for nearly two years, will transfer on the same date to be real property officer in the Bureau's area office at Aberdeen, S. Dak.

Broader educational opportunities for Indian youngsters from the primary grades through the university level and more effective conservation of Indian soil and water resources are two of the prime benefits expected to result from increased Indian Bureau appropriations for the fiscal year which began July 1.

Important, though less sweeping, improvements are also in prospect in the fields of relocation, trust property management, forestry and law enforcement.

Appointment of Fredrick M, Haverland as area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Phoenix, Ariz., succeeding Ralph M. Gelvin, who died last September, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Haverland, now assistant area director for the Bureau at Muskogee, Okla., will take over his new duties on January 17. In the Phoenix position he will have charge of all Bureau activities in Arizona, Nevada and Utah outside of the Navajo Reservation,

Stumpage rates to be paid by the Warm Springs Lumber Company, Warm Springs, Oregon, for timber cut under contract since last April 1 on the Schoolie Unit of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation are being increased by approximately 18 percent for ponderosa pine and 44 percent for Douglas fir and other species, the Department of the Interior announced today.

A major reorganization of the central office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D. C., was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

Dear Sir or Madam:

In view of the special concern of all persons interested in Indian affairs in the extension of the Indian Claims Commission Act, I am attaching a copy of the Department's most recent report on this important legislation.

Sincerely yours,

June 25, 1956

My dear Senator Murray:

Appointment of Charles B. Rovin as Chief, Branch of Welfare, Bureau of Indian Affairs, succeeding Robert W. Beasley, who resigned effective March 1, was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.