Past News Items

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today asked Secretary of Defense Neil F. McElroy to help speed Army payments of money to Indians for land which the Federal Government took for reservoir projects.

The money is owed to three Indian groups in North Dakota and South Dakota. It totals $7,623,888 for 73,500 acres of land taken for two different projects.

Award of a $30,934.75 construction contract for irrigation improvement work on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwestern Colorado was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract covers the erecting of a 40-inch diameter steel pipe siphon approximately 670 feet long across Dry Creek Wash, located in the vicinity of Ignacio, Colorado, as part of the Indian Bureau's Pine River Irrigation Project.

Appointment of James E. Hawkins, former executive director of the Alaska Rural Development Board, as Area Director at Juneau for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in charge of its Alaskan operations, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

The award of a $439,600 contract for adding seven classrooms and a 500-seat gymnasium to an Indian school plant at Fort Yates, North Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The successful bidder was Kyburz Construction Company of Aberdeen, South Dakota. Nine higher bids ranging from $452,990 to $497,800 were received.

Standing Rock School, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has a present enrollment of 133 boarding and 157 day pupils in grades 1 through 12.

Award of a $414,700-contract for construction of a new school building at Fort Totten, near Devils Lake, North Dakota, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Roel Construction Company, Inc., of Fargo, North Dakota was awarded the job on the basis of its low bid. Ten higher bids were received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs ranging from $415,000 to $488,000.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today called attention to the proposed roll of the Ottawa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma which was published in the Federal Register March 21, 1958.

The Department of the Interior announced today the appointment of Harold W. Schunk as Superintendent of the Rosebud Indian Agency, Rosebud, South Dakota, effective November 27. He succeeds Graham E. Holmes, whose transfer to the Gallup Area Office in New Mexico, as Assistant Area Director for resources, was effective today.

Reappointment of Turner Bear as Principal Chief of the Creek Indian Tribe of Oklahoma for a two-year term beginning October 5 was announced today by the Department of the Interior. He has been serving in the position for the past two years.

Under a 1906 law the President was empowered to appoint a Principal Chief periodically for each of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma--Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Creek. In 1951 this appointing authority was delegated to the Secretary of the Interior.

Completion of the final membership roll of the Ottawa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, following the disposition of all appeals, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The preliminary membership roll, published in the Federal Register March 21, 1958, included 549 individuals. The net result of additions and subtractions made as a consequence of appeals to the Secretary of the Interior is a final roll of 630.

Under a 1956 Congressional law, Federal trusteeship of the Ottawa property is to be ended by next August 3.

Under Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today cautioned against permitting lessees- of Indian lands the privilege of meeting the highest offer when the lands are sold under competitive bidding at the request of the owners.

He said such a provision, admittedly advantageous to the lessees, would in most cases have "an adverse effect on the Indian selling his land.”

The Under Secretary set forth the Department's position in a letter to Chairman James E. Murray of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.