Past News Items

The Department of the Interior announced today several proposed amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations governing the election of Osage Tribal officers.

Under the proposed rule changes, the requirement for a nominating convention in Osage County, Okla., would be eliminated and nominations would be accepted from any group of at least 25 qualified Osage voters. Write-in candidates would be barred.

From Alaska to Florida, resource managers for the Department of the Interior are watchfully scanning snow and rainfall figures as the first signs of spring appear- - -hoping that last year's disastrous fire record will not recur in 1967.

Over most of the 550 million acres managed by Interior agencies, 1966 was called the worst fire year since 1957, year of the great Alaska fires. Paradoxically, 1965 had been one of the lightest years on record for fire damage. And the prime factor, as usual appeared to be the weather.

Yeffe Kimball, an Osage Indian artist, will have an exhibition of her work beginning March 1 through April 7 in the Art Gallery of the Department of Interior.

Sponsored by the Center for Arts of Indian America of which Mrs. Stewart L. Udall is president, the show is entitled, “A 30 Year Retrospective of an American Woman Painter.” It is the first one man showing of Indian art to be sponsored by the Center.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of a bill which would amend the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, extending its life for five years beyond the present expiration date of April 10, 1967.

The Commission was established as an independent tribunal to hear and decide all tribal claims against the United States that existed before 1946. Over half the claims cases are still undecided.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the assignment of new supervising engineers for two major Indian irrigation projects w_ the Navajo project on the New Mexico side of the reservation, and the nearly completed Wapato project on the Yakima Reservation at Wapato, Wash.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the recent reassignment of three officials to posts in its field installations.

Fred H. Massey, Assistant Commissioner in the Bureau's Washington, D.C., central office, has been temporarily assigned as acting area director for the Bureau's Anadarko, Okla., area office. He will fill the post left vacant by the assignment of Leslie P. Towle, former area director, to the Portland, Ore., area office. The assignment, which is for an indefinite period, became effective January 29.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has ordered rolls prepared for use in distributing judgment funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commission to six tribes.

To share in the awards~ which were ordered in five separate cases, are the Miami Indians of Oklahoma and Indiana; the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska; the Quileute Tribe and the Hoh Indians of Western Washington; and two other Western Washington Tribes -- Nooksack and Duwamish.

Wilma Louise Victor, a Choctaw Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs' top-ranking woman educator, has been selected as one of the six women in Government to receive the coveted 1967 Federal Woman's Award.

A native of Idabel, Oklahoma, Miss Victor is Superintendent of Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah, which is a home away from home for 2,100 Navajo youngsters from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

She was selected for her “exceptional creative and executive ability in the administration of a unique and complex school program for disadvantaged Indian youth".

When the first year's operations under the War on Poverty were summed up recently, the record showed that Indian reservation communities were among the most responsive of all groups to the self-help challenges of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the award of a $913,000 contract "for construction of new school facilities on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation at Cibecue, Arizona. Successful bidder was Taylor Construction, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona.

The contract calls for construction of an 8-classroom school building to replace a smaller structure that has become dilapidated and inadequate. The new school will accommodate a total of 240 Indian children, 80 more than formerly were served.