Past News Items

Ten Indian high school graduates will soon be attending the North Dakota School of Science at Wahpeton, North Dakota l through scholarship program made possible by a grant of Federal land to the school, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst recently signed a quitclaim deed conveying 70 acres of land previously used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school at Wahpeton to the State-controlled school in the same city with the understanding that the scholarship program would be established.

Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Craig, both members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, have been awarded a $59,000 contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide hot lunches for 900 Cherokee school children in North Carolina next winter, the Department of the Interior announced today. The couple, who operate Craig’s Restaurant and Motor Court at Cherokee, North Carolina, were the low bidders for the contract. They agreed to provide the noonday meals at 36.5 cents each, the lowest price offered since the private contract system was initiated at Cherokee in 1955.

Award of a $309,000 contract for the construction of a gymnasium at the Cherokee Indian School operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Cherokee, North Carolina was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The Indian Bureau’s program for stimulating the growth of industry and industrial jobs in the vicinity of Indian reservations in line with over-all Interior Department objectives will be considerably broadened in scope during the fiscal year 1959, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

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.

Appointment of James E. Hawkins, former executive director of the Alaska Rural Development Board, as Area Director at Juneau for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in charge of its Alaskan operations, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

Award of three contracts totaling $152,508 on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona, and the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, for water drilling and water-storage development facilities was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Water development at the contract locations is necessary to sustain present schools and facilities and to determine feasibility of additional school facilities planned at these locations.

When the last triennial conference of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers was held here at Estes Park back in 1955, it was a matter of real regret to me that I was unable to be with you in person. Those of you who attended that conference may recall that I had to be in Alaska at that particular time and that my speech was delivered for me by Assistant Commissioner Reid. This year I have been somewhat more fortunate in the scheduling of my time and I have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to be here and to sit in--although somewhat briefly--on your sessions and deliberations.

Award of three contracts totaling $1,024,915.10 for road improvement work on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and in Utah near the "Four Corners" area, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Award of five school-access road construction contracts totaling nearly half a million dollars on Indian reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.