Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, located in southeastern California, just north of Yuma, Arizona, will be transferred on January 1 from the jurisdiction of the Indian Bureau office at Sacramento, California, to the area office at Phoenix, Ariz.

The move is being made primarily because of specialties which the Fort Yuma Indians have with other Indian groups on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

Substantial progress in the Department's program to provide educational facilities for 22,000 Navajo children during this school year is being made, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

As of October 15 about 19,000 children are enrolled in public, Federal and mission schools, both on and off the reservation.

Expansion of reservation schools scheduled for completion in November will accommodate another 1,500 children.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the opening of a new national headquarters for the Buildings and Utilities Branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Albuquerque, N. Mex.

The new office, which will supervise all construction activities of the Bureau) is being staffed with construction personnel drawn from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D. C. and from area offices throughout the country. When fully staffed, it will consist of 37 technical and 15 clerical or administrative employees.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will continue for the present operating its two area offices in Oklahoma at Muskogee and Anadarko.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today said the Department has submitted for congressional consideration a series of bills providing for orderly termination of Federal administration of Indian Affairs in eight tribal jurisdictions.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today awarded a contract to Southern Cafeteria Operating Company, Birmingham, Alabama, for the provision of noonday meals during the coming school year at five Federal day schools on the Cherokee Reservation in western North Carolina.

Southern Cafeteria’s bid of 44 cents per meal was the lowest of those received in response to invitations issued by the Indian Bureau on July 22. The bids were opened August 15.

Headquarters for the Menominee Indian Agency in Wisconsin will be transferred as soon as possible from Neopit to Keshena, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Primary reason for the move, which has been discussed with Menominee tribal representatives over the past several months, is to separate the Indian Bureau's governmental functions at the agency from the operations of the Menominee tribal lumber mill located at Neopit.

Award of a $201,750 contract for Indian education to the Department of Public Instruction, State of North Dakota, was announced today for the Department of the Interior by W. Barton Greenwood, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In accordance with their own expressed wishes, about 2,100 Indians of western Oregon are taking over full control of their ow property and will no longer receive special Federal services because of their status as Indians under a proclamation signed this week (August 13) by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the signing of a public land order which makes available for oil and gas leasing approximately 5,300 acres of tribally owned land on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah.