Past News Items

It is real pleasure to be back in Oklahoma and meeting once again with so many of the State's fine Indian people and with delegates to the NCAI annual convention. All of us, it seems to me, owe a hearty debt of thanks to our good friend and host, Bill Keeler, for making this gathering possible and bringing us together in such excellent surroundings.

Reflecting the increasing Indian Bureau emphasis on encouraging the growth of industry around Indian reservations, Acting Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson today announced the appointment of Noel Sargent, a longtime principal staff member of the National Association of Manufacturers, as consultant on the Bureau’s industrial development program and creation of a new branch of industrial development in the Bureau’s Washington office.

Two Indian Bureau personnel changes involving positions in North Dakota were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Harold W. Schunk, superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency at Belcourt, N. Dak. for the past three years, was transferred June 30 to the comparable position at Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak. He succeeds Joseph W. Wellington whose transfer to the superintendency of the Wahpeton School, Wahpeton, N. Dak., was previously announced.

The Department of the Interior announced today award by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of a $256,932 contract for permanent dormitory facilities at Holbrook, Arizona.

The contract was awarded to Bryant Whiting of Springerville, Arizona. Eight higher bids, ranging from $277,777 to $309,941, were received.

The Holbrook project is a part of the Bureau's long-range educational program. One of the objectives of this program is to arrange for the transfer of Indian children from Federal to public schools as rapidly as feasible.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today urged enactment of four Congressional bills which would in combination bring an end to Federal trusteeship over the property and affairs of 38 small Indian reservations or “rancherias” in California in line with recommendations made by the Indian owners.

Haumont Contracting Company of Phoenix, Arizona, has been awarded a contract covering construction of about 11 1/2 miles of road on the Navajo Indian Reservation running easterly from Tuba City, Arizona, toward Keams Canyon and Window Rock, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Haumont's bid of $267,721.04 was the lowest of eleven received. The others ranged from $276,725.73 to $419,467.05.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior today confirmed its agreement with leaders of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota on a major program of tribal land consolidation.

The program was announced by the tribal leaders in Washington on December 5.

To help finance the operation, the Bureau will extend the tribe a loan of $500,000 from its revolving loan fund.

Award of two contracts in the amounts of $34,876 and $23,741.25 for water development at ten school locations on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Award of three school construction contracts on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona totaling $1,224,334 and increasing pupil capacity by more than 50 percent was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The contracts involve the replacing of a trailer school with permanent facilities; construction of a new school replacing one destroyed by fire; and construction of new facilities replacing two old schools on the reservation which are beyond rehabilitation.

The Department of the Interior favors legislation that would reinvest in the Indian tribes of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming title to the minerals in 161,500 acres previously ceded to the Federal Government, it was announced today.

In a report to Congress Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst recommended enactment of H. R. 11141, a restoration pill, with some technical and clarifying amendments.