Past News Items

Selection of Glenn R. Landbloom, a veteran Indian Bureau employee, as general superintendent of the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Ariz., was announced today by Glenn L. Emmons, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Landbloom, assistant area director for the Bureau at Aberdeen, S. Dak., since 1954, is expected to report for duty at Window Rock around September 1. He succeeds G. Warren Spaulding, who retires August 31 after more than 30 years of service with the Bureau and four years as head of the Navajo Agency.

Award of a $375,798 contract for construction work that will nearly double the capacity of Indian school facilities at Canoncito, New Mexico, 18 miles west - of Albuquerque, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Canoncito School, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has a present enrollment of 62 day pupils. When completed, the enlarged facilities will provide for 120 day pupils.

The award of a $378,590.14 road construction contract for 16.8 miles of road on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, Gila and Navajo Counties, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The Krumtum-Dewar Construction Company, Ltd., of Phoenix, Ariz., was the successful bidder, with the lowest of fifteen bids received. The others ranged from $409,939.50 to $518,262.68.

The Department of the Interior announced today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is inviting proposals by private capital for development of a full section of Indian land in the heart of Palm Springs, California.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, to assure continued conservation management of the 750,000 -acres Klamath Indian Forest in Oregon and thus protect one of the Nation’s most valuable ponderosa pine stands from the threat of destruction, has asked Congress to amend the 1954 Act which now provides for an end of Federal Trusteeship of the Klamath Reservation by August 1960.

Appointment of Dale M. Baldwin as Superintendent of the Fort Peck Indian Agency, Poplar, Montana, succeeding David Paul Weston, was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Baldwin has been with the Bureau since 1949 and for the past two years has served as program officer in the Washington office. Mr. Weston has been at Fort Peck since 1957 and is transferring to the Washington office as program officer. Both moves will be effective November 14.

The Department of the Interior favors legislation giving the White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe of Arizona beneficial ownership of 7,579 acres of Federal land on the Fort Apache Reservation, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

The acreage involved was originally set aside many years ago as the Fort Apache Military Post and has more recently been used as the site of an Indian Bureau school. The lands, exclusive of improvements, were appraised in 1958 at an estimated value of $141,000.

The Department of the Interior today announced a proposed revision of Federal regulations to remove restrictions against road construction that have applied for more than 20 years on 310,000 acres on four Indian reservation areas in three States.

Plans for a change in the Federal regulations to permit more extensive leasing of Indian lands for underground storage of oil and gas were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The proposal covers both tribally and individually owned lands in Federal trusteeship or restricted status and could include lands which are currently under oil and gas production lease as well as those which are not. Under present regulations storage leases have been possible only for lands not under lease for oil and gas development.

Further exploration of coal resources in the lands of the Navajo Indian Reservation that may lead to a development expenditure of more than $1,000,000 and employment of as many as 200 Indians is now definitely in prospect, the Department of the Interior announced today.