Past News Items

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.

Leslie p. Towle, assistant area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, S. Dak., has been named new superintendent at Pine Ridge Agency, S. Dak., and John C. Dibbern, an assistant in the resources division of the Bureau's Washington office, has been selected for the similar position at Colorado River Agency, Parker, Ariz., the Department of the Interior announced today.

A contract to supply 10,000 feet of corrugated metal culver pipe for use in water spreading and drought alleviation work on the Papago Indian Reservation of southern Arizona has been awarded to the

Consolidated Western Steel Division of the United States Steel Corporation in Phoenix, the Department of the Interior announced today. Consolidated Western Steel's bid of $28,485.60 for supplying the 18- and 24- inch pipe was the lowest of four received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The others ranged from $30,781.80 to $34,917.60.

Award of a $43,000 bridge construction project on the Wind River Reservation, Fremont County, Wyoming, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project, on the Fort Washakie-Arapahoe Road, involves the construction of a three-span steel H-beam bridge with concrete deck, making use of the existing abutments and piers, widening the roadway and increasing the loading design.

The road is a school bus route and services a large number of Indian families in an irrigated district and completes a through route between Fort Washakie and Riverton, Wyoming.

Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced changes in two superintendencies in the Pacific Northwest involving the Yakima, Colville and Klamath agencies.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the first set of four awards which will hereafter be made annually "in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

The 1958 awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, are being presented today in Gallup, New Mexico. Recipients, and the categories for which they won, include:

Award of two contracts totaling $59,370.47 to complete the storage tank rehabilitation and the range-water supply phases of the Indian Bureau's development program on the Papago Indian Reservation, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Improved safeguards for the property interests of both individual Indians and tribes were announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons. The Department of the Interior made public his statement on the Indian Bureau's policy governing sales of individually owned Indian lands.

A $374,915.15 contract for construction of approximately 10 miles of highway on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona has been awarded to Richey Construction Company of St. Johns, Arizona, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The contract involves 1.593 miles from Chinle Junction to Chinle with a 291- foot, 9-span bridge across Nazlini Wash and 8.384 miles from Chinle Junction south toward Ganado with a 33-foot precast concrete beam bridge.

Plans for further insuring the secrecy of absentee ballots in Osage Indian Tribal Council elections, and representation proportionate to each voter’s financial interest in the Osage mineral estate, were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

In a letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the Department said it has submitted a notice of the proposed changes for publication in the Federal Register.