Past News Items

Under Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson today announced that he has issued a notice to Colorado River Enterprises, Inc., successful bidder last August on an Indian reservation development lease in western Arizona, that the corporation has until May 7 to show cause why the lease should not be canceled.

The action was prompted by the corporation's failure to post a $5,000,000 performance bond as required by the terms of the lease contract.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown today told a U.S. Senate committee that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is moving to implement a plan to resolve problems in management of the $2 billion Indian trust fund. "The plan will guide BIA to high levels of service excellence for our customers, the tribal and individual Indian trust account owners," Brown said in testimony prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

Appointment of Willard W. Beatty, executive vice president of the Save the Children Federation of Norwalk, Connecticut, as a member of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior, was announced today by Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst.

Dr. Beatty was appointed to fill the unexpired term of James W. Young, Pena Blanca, New Mexico, who recently resigned. The term expires July 6, 1960.

Extensive investigations by the Bureau of Indian ·Affairs (BIA) have exonerated Kenneth Whitehorn, former BIA agency superintendent for education on the Tohono O'odham reservation, of allegations he had prior knowledge that an employee he hired had been involved in a child abuse case in Arizona.

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $252,990.00 contract for the improvement of the water and sewer systems at White River Agency, White River, Arizona.

The improvements will benefit Indian homes on the Fort Apache Reservation as well as the Agency headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The contract provides for approximately 9-miles of 8-inch water line, 24 new fire hydrants, a new sewage treatment plant, one-half mile of sewer line and three-quarters of a mile of earth dike.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown will keynote the third in a series of regional economic development conferences with Indian tribal leaders May 14-15 in Oklahoma City. The meeting is being held in conjunction with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce's third annual Indian economic development conference on May 14.

The Department of the Interior today announced .its support of H. R. 4786, a bill that would turn over to the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Tribe approximately 16 acres of land, together with a Government-owned cottage and warehouse office building, in Dewey County, South Dakota.

The land was bought by the United States from a private company in 1915 and was for many years used as the site for an Indian Bureau farm station. Its use for this purpose was discontinued in 1948.

A nearly $40,000 Bureau of Indian Affairs grant to the Lummi Indian Business Council in Bellingham, Washington, has translated into a $2.5 million a year fishermen's corporation that provides jobs for tribal members and revenues for tribal coffers.

The tribally-chartered corporation, formed in July, markets the catches of 12 Indian fishing operations to buyers in Japan, France, Belgium and the United States. The results are impressive:

Under Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced approval of Federal regulations governing the enrollment of members of the Rincon, San Luiseno Band of Mission Indians of California. Adoption of such regulations was requested by the band.

Under the regulations, which will be published shortly in the Federal Register, anyone who believes that he or a minor or incompetent should be enrolled is given a period of 90 days after publication to file an application with the Area Field Representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Riverside, California.

Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel today pledged OOI support and active participation in President Reagan's war on drugs.

"The land managing agencies of the Interior Department long have waged a battle of eradicating marijuana growing on Federal lands. Now, as a result of the impetus given the war on drugs by the President, we have added incentive to continue our efforts. We are going to fight this battle until it is won, because we are going to return our national parks and public lands to the American people."