Past News Items

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.

Appointment of Lloyd New Kiva, Cherokee Indian artist and owner-manager of an Indian arts and crafts shop at Scottsdale, Ariz., as a member of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

A native of Fairland, Okla., Kiva was named to fill out the unexpired term of Willard W. Beatty, who died September 29 shortly after being elected chairman of the Board. The term expires July 6, 1964.

Assignment of an Indian Bureau economic development officer to work with the Miccosukee Seminole Indians living along the Tamiami Trail in Florida on plans for improving their economic and social status was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The man chosen for the assignment is Reginald C. Miller, a veteran of 23 years' service with the Bureau, who recently completed a survey of the Miccosukees' situation and prospects at Secretary Udall's request.

Indian children in three Bureau of Indian Affairs schools will be given special education services and assistance next school year with the help of funding by the Office of Education.

Schools in which the programs will be initiated include Wahpeton Indian School, Wahpeton, N.D.; Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Ariz. and Intermountain School, Brigham City, Utah.

The three programs are intended to establish guidelines for Similar, future operations in other Bureau schools, where they are applicable.

The Department of the Interior today announced the selection of Clyde W. Hobbs, superintendent of the Crow Indian Agency in Montana for the past four years, to head the Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyoming, effective June 4.

He succeeds Arthur N. Arnston who has been superintendent at Wind River since 1954 and is being assigned to complete the wind-up of Indian Bureau responsibilities on the Catawba Reservation in South Carolina as provided by a 1959 law.

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Principal Deputy Secretary for Indian Affairs John Tahsuda met with a group of high school students from across Indian Country. The students are in Washington, D.C., with George Washington University's INSPIRE Pre-College Program which is an abridged version of the school's Native American Political Leadership Program, a semester-long internship program for college and graduate students.