Past News Items

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.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons today commended the Navajo Indian Tribe for its “statesmanship” in appropriating tribal funds for projects which the Federal Government would normally carry out.

The appropriations included $545,000 to build major law and order facilities at Tuba City and Chinle, Arizona, and Shiprock, New Mexico, and small detention facilities at Bitter Spring and Lupton, Arizona, and Tohatchi, New Mexico.

Award of a contract for construction of dormitory and dining facilities to accommodate Navajo Indian children attending public school at Flagstaff, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of Interior.

The successful bidder is Wilson Hockinson & Cantrall, Inc., of Albuquerque with a bid of $801,723. Six higher bids, ranging from $804,880 to $899,500, were submitted by contractor, from Arizona, New Mexico and Missouri.

Three personnel changes involving Indian Bureau positions in Montana and North Dakota were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Charles S. Spencer, superintendent of the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., for the past three years, moves June 16 to the comparable position at the Flathead Agency, Dixon, Mont., replacing Forrest R. Stone who recently retired.

At Blackfeet Mr. Spencer will be succeeded by Howard F. Johnson, who transfers June 23 from the Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Ariz., where he has been agricultural extension supervisor since 1951.