Past News Items

Interior Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs James Canan announced today that 150,000 acres of timberland was purchased April 23 for the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Indian tribes of Maine under the terms of the Maine Indian Settlement Act passed last October.

The purchase involved 38 separate tracts of land in East-Central Maine, ranging in size from 30,000 acres to 40 acres. The total cost was $29.6 million. The land was bought from the Dead River Land Company of Maine.

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Dakota has selected Cyrin F. Maus for a two-year tribal management assignment under the Tribal Managers Corps (TMC), Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today. Maus, who will begin his general management assignment at Lower Brule in January, 1981, will be the first manager assigned under TMC.

"We are very please that Mr. Maus has decided to come to Lower Brule because he has a lot of valuable experience in tribal government," said Lower Brule spokesman D. L. Fallis.

Transfer of the Southwestern Range and Sheep Breeding Laboratory at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, on August 1, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, to the Bureau of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. The move fa part of the broad program aimed at narrowing the scope of Indian Bureau operations and transferring responsibilities, wherever possible, to other agencies of Government for to the Indians themselves.

Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman today announced the appointment of Mr. Marcy Cully, Bowlegs, Oklahoma, as Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma for the period beginning December 10, 1952 through December 31, 1953.

Mr. Cully, who was elected Assistant Chief at a tribal election held June 3, 1952, fills the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. George Harjo, Sasakwa, Oklahoma, principal chief, on December 9, 1952.

Authority for the appointment of a principal chief of the Seminoles is contained in the Act of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 137).

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced three important personnel moves in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Russell G. Fister will transfer from the position of assistant area director, Minneapolis, Minn., to be superintendent at Osage Agency, Pawhuska, Okla., effective November 27. He will succeed Theodore B. Hall whose transfer to the position of assistant area director, Gallup, New Mexico, was recently announced.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs has contracted with Cornell University Medical College, New York City, for the services of a physician specializing in diseases of the chest as a full-time staff member at the Navajo Medical Center, Fort Defiance, Arizona.

Three additional personnel moves involved in the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs were announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

W. Wendell Palmer, superintendent, Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyo., will be transferred to the same position at Klamath Agency, Oreg., replacing Erastus J. Diehl who retires June 30. Glenn R. Landbloom, Bureau extension and credit officer at Aberdeen, s. Pak., will replace Palmer. Both transfers are effective June 13.

Selection of Hans Mork Jensen, a fish biologist with 13 years' experience in the Washington State Department of Fisheries, to fill the newly established position of fisheries management specialist in the Portland area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the reappointment of Floyd E. Maytubby, Oklahoma. City, Okla., as Principal Chief of the Chickasaw Indian Tribe tor a two-year term beginning October 18.

In a major step designed to improve and expand Federal health services to Indians in the United States and Alaska, the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior will transfer its entire health program to the Public Health Service on July 1.

Involved in the transfer will be about 3,600 Indian Bureau employees and about 970 buildings. The real property inventory, estimated to be worth about $40,000,000, includes 56 hospitals, 21 health centers, 13 boarding school infirmaries, and numerous other structures used in the health program.