Past News Items

Three career employees have been selected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for management training under the executive development agreement recently negotiated between the Department of the Interior and the Civil Service Commission, Secretary Douglas McKay announced today. They are: Carl J. Cornelius, relocation officer, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, Cass Lake, Minn.; Grover C. Gardner, supervising loan examiner, Anadarko Area Office, Anadarko, Okla.; and Richard D. Butts, superintendent, Red Lake Agency, Red Lake, Minn.

Promotion of Theodore B. Hall from the position of Superintendent, Osage Indian Agency, Pawhuska., Oklahoma, to Assistant Area Director for the Indian Bureau at Gallup, New Mexico, effective October 30, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

A successor to Mr. Hall at Osage Agency has not yet been selected.

National headquarters for the Indian Bureau's relocation program, involving guidance and help for Indian workers and their families seeking to establish new homes away from the reservations, will be moved on August 1 from Washington, D. c., to Denver, Colo. Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Charles F. Miller, Chief of the Bureau’s Branch of Relocation for the past two years, will continue to direct the program from Denver. However, Charles B. Rovin, Assistant Chief of the Branch, will remain in Washington as a liaison with the Bureau's Central Office.

Appointment of Robert L. Bennett, a member of the coordinating staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, as superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Elbert J. Floyd, whom Mr. Bennett replaces, has been designated as administrative officer in charge of a new area field office to be established by the Bureau at Zuni, N. Mex.

Both moves are part of the current reorganization of the Bureau and are effective June 6.

Appointment of William H. Olsen, Anchorage, Alaska, as director of the Juneau Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, sometimes known as the Alaska Native Service, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. Mr. Olsen succeeds Hugh J. Wade who was relieved of responsibilities as Area Director last November.

Robert Bruce McKee, Administrative Officer at the Sisseton Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was named today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood to be the new Superintendent at Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Mr. McKee succeeds Ralph M. Shane who resigned effective July 29 to go into the newspaper business in New Town, North Dakota.

The vacancy at Sisseton caused by Mr. McKee's promotion will be filled by Wray P. Hughes who is now Administrative Officer at Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Full independence from Federal supervision is being extended to an Indian Tribal group in the United States for the first time since 1909 under terms of a proclamation signed by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, it, was announced today.

The affiliated Alabama and Coushatta Tribes of Polk County, Texas, under terms of the proclamation, will be removed effective July 1, from the scope of all Federal laws specially applicable to Indians.

Award of a $230,677 construction contract for Indian school facilities at Round Rock, Ariz., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract was awarded to 'Wilson, Hockinson & Cantrall, Inc., of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Five other contractors from Colorado and New Mexico submitted higher bids, ranging from $238,990 to $294,000.

The Round Rock project is one of several which the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior is undertaking under its long-range program of providing school facilities for all school-age Indian children.