Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced four personnel changes, effective September 1, in agency superintendent positions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Guy Robertson, superintendent of the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., will be transferred to the superintendency at Rosebud, S. Dak., replacing Will J. Pitner, recently assigned as Bureau area director at Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Charles S. Spencer, superintendent at Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak., succeeds Robertson.

Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons of the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that the museum of the Northern Plains Indians at Browning, Montana, will continue to be operated by the Bureau without any change except a reduction in staff required by reduced appropriations for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

It had been proposed to transfer management responsibility for the museum to the Arts and Crafts Board, created in the Department of the Interior by the act of August 27, 1935 (49 Stat. 891).

In moving to take over the management of Alaska Native Industries Cooperative Association, Seattle, Wash., during recent weeks, the Department of the Interior has acted to protect the financial interests of the United States and the operating interests of stores of the native villages of Alaska, Secretary Douglas McKay said today.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today that five of the Indian Bureau's key personnel will move to new assignments on November 1.

James W. Kauffman, superintendent of the Minnesota Agency, Bemidji, Minn., will take over the comparable position at Pine Ridge, S. Dak. This job has been vacant since last August when former Pine Ridge Superintendent Benjamin Reifel was promoted to Area Director for the Bureau at Aberdeen, S. Dak.

Wendell W. Palmer, superintendent at Klamath Agency, Oregon, will move to Bemidji replacing Kauffman.

Transfer of Melvin L. Robertson, superintendent of the Western Washington Indian Agency, Everett, Wash., on July 14 to the comparable position at the Menominee Agency, Keshena, Wis., was announced today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood.

Robertson replaces Raymond H. Bitney who moves to the position of assistant director in the Bureau's area office at Anadarko, Okla.

As part of the Indian Bureau’s program to step up school enrollment on the Navajo Reservation of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, 21 passenger buses are being purchased from the International Harvester Company, the Department of the Interior announced today.

International Harvester was the low bidder with a price of $83,644.66. The only other bidder, Chrysler Motors Corporation, submitted an offer of $92,883.10.

The buses will be used to transport children from their homes to day schools and trailer schools on the reservation.

Income received by Indian tribes and individual Indians from oil and gas leasing of their lands reached the record total of more than $41,000,000 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton reported today.

This compares with an income of about $28,000,000 in 1955 and approximately $13,000,000 in 1951.

Nearly $36,000,900 of the 1956 total was accounted for by ten tribal groups. The great majority of tribes, as usual, received little or no oil and gas income.

Thousands of Indian landowners in many different parts of the country will be affected by a recent Internal Revenue Service ruling which exempts from Federal income taxes the direct income derived from Indian trust lands allotted under the General Allotment Act of 1887, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons said today.

Percy E. Melis, chief of the Indian Bureau's Branch of Forestry for the past three years, will become area director for the Bureau at Billings, Montana, on June 15, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

George S. Kephart, assistant chief of the Forestry Branch, will succeed Melis as chief.

Only guardians appointed under State law will be entitled to receive the property of enrolled members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon who are minors under the laws of the State where they reside or otherwise incompetent to manage their own affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.