Past News Items

Transfer of more than 10,000 acres of land and about 30 buildings at the Southwestern Sheep Breeding Laboratory, Fort Wingate, N. Mex., from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today disapproved a proposed 25-year oil and gas development contract negotiated between the Navajo Indian Tribe and the Delhi-Taylor Oil Corporation of Dallas, Texas.

One of his objections was based upon the questionable legality of the proposal. The contract would have embraced 5,300,000 acres, about one-third of the Navajo Reservation which includes land in three States.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel announced today that the first meeting of the Pyramid Lake Task Force will be held October 16 at Reno. The Task Force includes representatives of the Department of the Interior and the States of California and Nevada.

The Task Force will study water allocations in the Truckee-Carson Basin and develop a plan intended to satisfy various water demands in the area.

"Graphic Arts of the Alaskan Eskimo," a new profusely illustrated 88-page publication, is now being offered for sale by the Government, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Illustrated with nearly 100 reproductions of graphic works of art by Alaskan Eskimos, the publication depicts such unusual items as engravings on ivory and watercolor drawings on skin and paper, as well as woodcuts, etchings, lithographs,and engravings.

An accompanying interpretive text is by anthropologist Dorothy Jean Ray.

President Chino, Vice Presidents, and friends. I am especially happy to be here at the 25th Anniversary Convention of the National Congress of American Indians.

A major reorganization of the central office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D. C., was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said today he has directed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to review the termination program affecting the Klamath Indians in Oregon, with a view to preparing appropriate amendments to the Klamath Termination Act of 1954 for presentation to Congress early next year.

The proposals would be designed particularly to protect the Klamath timber-land and the tribe's interests in this resource, the Secretary said.

A special three-day Polar Plan Conference on Arctic problems ended today with direction from Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel that future plans for the area should be viewed from an international standpoint.

"Knowledge of the world's polar regions will change not only the countries bordering on the Arctic -- it will change economic, social and cultural conditions throughout the world," Secretary Hickel said.

"I urge you to think of the Arctic as a single entity, so that all nations can contribute to its conservation and the wise use of its resources," he said.

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.

The action of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe of New Mexico in setting up a $1,000,000 trust fund to provide college scholarships for the younger members was hailed today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons as “an outstanding example of tribal progress.”

The fund, largest of its kind ever established by an Indian tribal organization, represents chiefly income from oil and gas leasing of the tribal lands, It will be administered by the First National Bank of Albuquerque under terms of a 20-year agreement which was approved by Commissioner Emmons on July 2.