Past News Items

The Department of the Interior today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has terminated supervision of three Indian rancherias in California, under the provisions of the Rancheria Act of August 18, 1958 (P.L. 85-671), as amended.

The rancherias, which are actually small tracts of Indian land under Federal trust, are: Scotts Valley Rancheria, a 56.6 acre tract in Lake County; Robinson Rancheria, 168 acres in Lake County; and Guidiville Rancheria, 244 acres in Mendocino County.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today requested all Bureau employees--and urged all Indian adults--to take part in the National Driver's Test to be telecast over the CBS Television Network Monday, August 30.

The self-evaluation driver review test will be telecast at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, and 9:00 p.m. Central and Mountain time.

Test forms are being distributed throughout the Indian reservations and all Bureau offices.

The largest coal supply letter of intent agreement ever negotiated, utilizing Navajo and Hopi Indian coal reserves in Arizona, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. The coal to be supplied under this agreement will be used in a planned electric generating plant to be built in Clark County, Nevada, by a group of private and public utilities, with Southern California Edison Company as project manager.

The award of a $540,998 contract for remodeling and construction at the 200-man Job Corps Center at Poston, Arizona, on the Colorado River Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. The center is expected to be ready for activation within six months.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced he is appointing H. Edward Hyden, an Interior Department lawyer specializing in American Indian affairs for 26 years, to be Chief Justice of American Samoa.

Mr. Hyden, Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs since 1957, will succeed Judge Arthur A. Morrow, Who became Chief Justice of the territory in the South Pacific in 1937, the year before Mr. Hyden received his law degree.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced renewal of contracts totaling more than $150,000 with six manufacturers to provide on-the-job training for 236 American Indians. The trainees will learn industrial skills ranging from diamond polishing to electronics assembly.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the appointment of Richmond F. Allan of Billings, Mont., as an Associate Solicitor to head the Division of Indian Affairs in the Office of the Solicitor in Washington, D. C.

Mr. Allan, a native of Billings, has been an attorney with the Lands Division in the Department of Justice since February and now makes his home at Alexandria, Va., near Washington.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation authorizing long-term leasing of lands on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Reservation and the Papago Reservation, both in Arizona.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposed bill to provide for disposition of funds appropriated to pay a judgment in favor of the Snake or Paiute Indians of Oregon.

The judgment is for $3,650,000 for the Snake Tract, or Oregon Area, in Docket No. 87 of the Indian Claims Commission. The Commission has divided the total area involved into three tracts. The Snake Tract, consisting of lands in Oregon, Nevada, and California, is the only one for which a final award has been granted.

The award of a $384,600 contract for construction of four metal buildings at the 200-man Eight Canyon Job Corps Conservation Center on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in New Mexico was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Eight Canyon Center is located about eight miles southwest of Mescalero, New Mexico. It is one of ten such centers to be operated on Indian Reservation areas as part of a combined work and education program for unemployed youths under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.