Past News Items

Award of a $283,675 contract for the construction of a community recreation building on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation at Fort Hall, Idaho, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a multipurpose building with a total floor area of 20,660 square feet. The main floor will consist of a full-sized basketball court and stage. The basement will contain a kitchen-dining room, a library and reading room, hobby rooms and toilet and shower rooms.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson, today announced the appointment of Alton R. Nordwall, 47, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, to be Assistant Area Director of the Minneapolis Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Nordwall has a BS degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University, a commercial certificate from Haskell Institute --now Haskell Indian Junior College --and has just completed the Department of the Interior Manager Development Training Course.

WASHINGTON – Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason announced today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Eastern Regional Office in Nashville, Tenn., has approved under 25 CFR 151 a request by local officials of Madison County and Oneida County in the state of New York to extend the comment period for state and local governments on a land-into-trust application from the Oneida Indian Nation. The Bureau granted a 60-day extension of time to submit comments on the tribe’s application which is comprised of three groups of land parcels.

Promotion of Floyd E. Stayton from principal to superintendent of the Haskell Institute for Indian students at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

He succeeds Solon G. Ayers who is also being promoted. Ayers has moved from Haskell to the position of director of schools in the Indian Bureau's area office at Portland, Oreg.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Robert P. St. Arnold, 42, an enrolled member of the L’Anse Band of Chippewa Indians, to head the New York Liaison Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syracuse, New York.

Although Indians on reservations in New York State are the responsibility of that State's government, the Indians' lands cannot be alienated and therefore BIA maintains a liaison office.

St. Arnold has already assumed the post.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W.

The appointment of Dr. Gordon Macgregor as Special Assistant was announced today by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. He has been assigned to the office of the Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development. He will coordinate programs for the social and economic growth of imp0¥erished Indian communities.

George E. Keller, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Rosebud Agency in South Dakota, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Keller, who was born on the reservation, has been Community Services Office at the agency the past four years. He was formerly Education Program Administrator at the Lower Brule Agency, Principal of the Pierre School and Guidance Supervisor at the Flandreau Indian School.

ALBUQUERQUE – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson says the planned construction of the new National Indian Programs Training Center here is part of an ongoing effort to improve the delivery of federal services to Indian country. Assistant Secretary Anderson joined New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility and a separate dedication of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices on the Albuquerque site as the Pete V. Domenici Indian Affairs Building.

John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945, has been named to receive the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor the Department of the Interior can bestow. The award will be presented by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash, acting as the personal emissary of Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, in a ceremony at Mr. Collier's home in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, on May 4, his 80th birthday.