Past News Items

Thousands of Indian landowners in many different parts of the country will be affected by a recent Internal Revenue Service ruling which exempts from Federal income taxes the direct income derived from Indian trust lands allotted under the General Allotment Act of 1887, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons said today.

Percy E. Melis, chief of the Indian Bureau's Branch of Forestry for the past three years, will become area director for the Bureau at Billings, Montana, on June 15, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

George S. Kephart, assistant chief of the Forestry Branch, will succeed Melis as chief.

Only guardians appointed under State law will be entitled to receive the property of enrolled members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon who are minors under the laws of the State where they reside or otherwise incompetent to manage their own affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons today commended the Navajo Indian Tribe for its “statesmanship” in appropriating tribal funds for projects which the Federal Government would normally carry out.

The appropriations included $545,000 to build major law and order facilities at Tuba City and Chinle, Arizona, and Shiprock, New Mexico, and small detention facilities at Bitter Spring and Lupton, Arizona, and Tohatchi, New Mexico.

Promotion of Don Y. Jensen to superintendent of the Indian Bureau's Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Montana, effective September 8, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Jensen has been for the past year land operations officer at the Bureau's Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak. Previously he served for one year at Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Montana, and eight years at the Crow Agency in Montana as a soil conservationist and land-use planner. He was born at Castle Dale, Utah, in 1920 and is a graduate of Utah State College.

Legislation that would restore about 65,000 acres of land now in Federal ownership to five Indian tribal groups in California, Idaho, Montana and Washington is needed 1tin simple justice 11 to these people, the Department of the Interior said today in announcing endorsement of H. R. 3490 and S. 1757, bills that would accomplish this purpose.

Portland area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the retirement of Jasper W. (Jap) Elliott, superintendent of Warm Springs Indian Agency, and transfers of three other Oregon and Idaho agency superintendents.

Award of a contract for construction of a pumping station and rehabilitation of irrigation works on the Modoc Point Project of the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon to C. H. Strong Engineering and Construction, Eugene, Oregon, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Strong's bid of $129,297.50 was the lower of two received. The other bid was for $154,828.45.

Award or a contract for construction of an earth-fill dam on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fremont County, Wyoming was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The accepted bid of $35,932.64 submitted by L. H. Weber of Rawlins, Wyoming, was the lowest of seven received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The others ranged from $36,000 to $70,600.

The Department of the Interior announced today the appointment of Charles J. Rives as superintendent of the San Carlos Indian Agency, San Carlos, Ariz., effective December 13. He succeeds Thomas H. Dodge who transferred last November to the superintendency of the Osage Agency at Pawhuska, Okla. His appointment was recommended by the San Carlos Tribal Council.