Past News Items

The Department of the Interior announced today award of a contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for $324,650 to build a 200-pupil dormitory at Oglala Community School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

The successful bidder was D. L. Moffitt Company of McCook, Nebraska. Thirteen higher bids, ranging in price from $328, 401 to $397,450, were received.

Oglala Community School, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is a reservation boarding and day school, with a present enrollment of 457 boarding and 349 day school pupils in grades 1 through 12.

Award of contracts totaling about $217,000 for remodeling kitchens and dining facilities at Indian schools at Pierre and Flandreau, South Dakota, and Wahpeton, North Dakota, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

E. J. Pfeiffer Construction Company of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was awarded the job at Pierre on its bid of $63,798. The successful bidder on the work at Flandreau was H. L. Grohne Company, Decatur, Illinois, with a bid of $89,000. The $63,880 contract at Wahpeton was awarded to Comstock Construction Company, Wahpeton, North Dakota.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today approval of a recommendation made by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons for transfer of the Department’s function of approving contracts between attorneys and Indian tribes. Commissioner Emmons recommended that the function be shifted from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Office of the Solicitor of the Department.

The transfer will be effected as soon as the necessary order has been developed and formally approved by the Secretary.

Final approval of an extensive revision of the Federal regulations on the management of Indian forest lands was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Among other changes, the new rules provide a system of appeal to the Secretary of the Interior from decisions made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on timber sales contracts.

The Department of the Interior has recommended the enactment of S. 2085, a bill authorizing the use of a judgment fund of approximately $1,860,000 awarded to the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Indian Tribes of Oklahoma by the Indian Claims Commission, it was announced today.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the second set of four awards which are made annually “in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

These awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, were presented yesterday in Flagstaff, Arizona. Recipients, and the categories for which they won, include:

1. The Museum of Northern Arizona, of Flagstaff, Arizona--Nonprofit organizations.

Award of a $67,275 contract for construction of three bridges on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Dewey County, South Dakota, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The Department or the Interior today announced the award of a $331,445 contract for construction or new dormitory facilities at Magdalena, New Mexico, that will make it possible for 128 Navajo children from the surrounding area to attend the local public schools.

Appointment of Robert L. Bennett, a veteran of nearly 25 years' service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as Area Director for the Bureau at Juneau, Alaska, was reported today by the Department of the Interior.

An Oneida Indian and native of Wisconsin, Bennett has been serving as Assistant Area Director at the Bureau's area office at Aberdeen, South Dakota, since 1958. At Juneau he succeeds James E. Hawkins who has been Area Director there for the past five years and who will be given another assignment in the Bureau.

I congratulate the Oglala Sioux Housing Authority and Mrs. McGuire, the Public Housing Commissioner, and Housing Administrator Robert Weaver, in working out this project to enable Federal assistance to be used for the decent housing of our Indian families as it has been used for so many others.

This is the first use of public housing aid to meet the needs of our Indians and it is long overdue. It expresses our determination to extend the benefits of Federal Housing aids to all Americans. And certainly these Indian families are the first who can claim their rights as Americans.