Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett announced today a policy, pursuant to the Anti-Deficiency Act, to assure that the Bureau of Indian Affairs does not spend more than Congress entitles it to spend.

The policy prohibits all area directors and program directors from obligating funds in excess of Congressional appropriations, on penalty of “appropriate administrative discipline, including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay, or removal from office.”

Headquarters of the Fort Berthold Indian Agency is being moved from Elbowoods to Newtown, North Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The move, part of the readjustment and relocation at Fort Berthold made necessary by construction of the Garrison Dam and Reservoir Project of the Missouri River Basin Development, was originally scheduled to take place later. Because of an emergency need to use the agency buildings at Elbowoods for school purposes, however, the move is being undertaken at the present time and should be completed in the next few weeks.

Increased emphasis on the ultimate goal of transferring basic Indian Bureau functions either to the Indians themselves or to State and local highlighted the 1952 work of the Bureau, Commissioner Dillon S. Myer said today.

Among the major moves during the year were Indian Bureau-sponsored bills introduced in the last Congress to transfer civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indians to the States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, California, Oregon and Washington;

Reappointment of Harry J. W. Belvin, Durant, Oklahoma, as principal chief of the Oklahoma Choctaw Indian Nation for a four year term was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Belvin, who was first appointed to the position in 1948, was renamed on the basis of balloting by the tribal members from September through October 10. In the tribal election he received 5,254 votes and his opponent, Hampton Anderson of Atoka, 2,602.

Tribal members also expressed a preference for the four-year term by a margin of roughly two to one.

Action by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to clear up a 49-year-old injustice against a full blood Idaho Indian was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

The Indian is James J. Miles, a 70-year-old member of the Nez Perce Tribe and

Deacon of the Presbyterian Church, The Bureau's action, taken by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons on July 29, was approval of an application filed by Miles about a year ago for a patent-in-fee or unrestricted title to a 114-acre tract near Orofino,

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the award of four contracts for the construction of school facilities on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. The total amount of the awards is $1,647,791.

This is the first step in the development of the Navajo Emergency Educational Program.

The awards are as follows:

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced organizational changes in the New Mexico offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs based on recommendations by the survey team which recently completed a study of the Bureau as well as information and advice received from the Indians, individuals and organizations of the communities affected.

Adult Indians on reservations who missed the advantages of education in their youth and are now handicapped by lack of ability to read, write, speak or understand the English language will be given an opportunity to develop these basic skills under a new Indian Bureau Program announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that he has appointed a three-man team to investigate the collapse of a footbridge on the East Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina on July 3.

Members of the team left today to confer with James H. Baley, Jr., United States District Attorney at Asheville, No Co, Richard D. Butts, Superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, and Frank Parker, General Counsel for the Cherokee Indians.

A Forestry Service Center to help Indians develop productive capacities of their commercial forest lands has been established at Littleton, Colo., in the Denver metropolitan area, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today.

The new office will be directly under the Central Office of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, and initially will be staffed with six employees. Bruce said the Cen­ter is centrally located to most Indian reservations.