Past News Items

Award of three school construction contracts on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona totaling $1,224,334 and increasing pupil capacity by more than 50 percent was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The contracts involve the replacing of a trailer school with permanent facilities; construction of a new school replacing one destroyed by fire; and construction of new facilities replacing two old schools on the reservation which are beyond rehabilitation.

The Department of the Interior favors legislation that would reinvest in the Indian tribes of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming title to the minerals in 161,500 acres previously ceded to the Federal Government, it was announced today.

In a report to Congress Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst recommended enactment of H. R. 11141, a restoration pill, with some technical and clarifying amendments.

Award of a $53,046.69 contract for irrigation work on the Western Shoshone Indian Reservation in Nevada to L. C. Cheney, Weiser, Idaho, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract covers construction of approximately three miles of laterals and 13 miles of farm ditches, construction or installation of 66 water control structures, leveling 211 acres to a predetermined grade, and plowing and land planning of 507 acres.

Award of an $112,758 contract for grading, draining, and crushed gravel surfacing of 12.983 miles of road on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, from U. S. Highway 212 north to the Thunder Butte Indian settlement along the Moreau River, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The successful bid, by E. Stoltenberg &Son of Naper, Nebraska, was the lowest of' 19 received. Higher bids ranged from $119,065.71 to $162,760.61.

Award of a $3,079,459 contract for construction of school facilities that will provide for 719 additional Indian children at the Chinle School on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Sales of timber from lands belonging to Indian tribes and individual Indians brought the owners an income of $10,937,485 in the fiscal year 1959, or 17 percent more than the amount in 1958, Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett announced today.

The volume of timber cut under contract on Indian lands was 551 million board feet, an increase of 98 million board feet over the 1958 total.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today called attention to the results of the first sale of oil and gas leases held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the basis of a fixed bonus of $500 per acre and competitive bidding on the royalty rates. The bids were opened at Window Rock, Arizona, July 28. The total bonus offered at $500 per acre was $1,245,500.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded an $83,305 contract for grading and surfacing 8.25 miles of roadway on the Klamath Indian Reservation in southern Oregon, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation exempting from Federal and State income tax the payments of more than $26,000,000 which the Government has made to four Pacific Northwest Indian tribes to compensate them for the loss of their fishing rights at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River.

The tribes involved are the Yakima of Washington, the Warm Springs and Umatilla of Oregon, and the Nez Perce of Idaho.

Completion of the final membership roll of the Wyandotte Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, following the disposition of all appeals, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The preliminary membership roll, published in the Federal Register April 5, 1957, included 1,159 individuals. The net result of additions and subtractions made as a consequence of appeals to the Secretary of the Interior is a final roll of 1,154 names.