Past News Items

Nearly 500 “mixed blood" members of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northern Utah have withdrawn from the tribe and are now in the process of setting up their own organization, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

The action was taken under Public Law 671 of the 83d Congress which provides for a division of tribal assets between "mixed blood" and "full blood" members and for termination of Federal trusteeship over the property and affairs of the “mixed blood" group by August 27, 1961.

A new set of regulations on the leasing of Indian lands held in trust by the Federal Government, which will permit leasing in some cases up to 25 years, in line with a Congressional law enacted last August, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Under the old law, Secretary McKay explained, most leases of Indian land were limited to a five-year period although longer leases were permitted in some cases.

Retirement of John M. Cooper on March 31 from the position of area director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Billings, Mont., was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

In making the announcement Commissioner Emmons paid tribute to Mr. Cooper's record of service with the Bureau over the past 21 years. This included two years as area director at Billings, three years and six months in comparable positions at Aberdeen, S. Dak., and Anadarko, Oklahoma, and one as director of Indian Bureau participation in Missouri River Basin Investigations.

Award of a $40,905.34 road construction project to improve transportation facilities in Beltrami County, Minnesota, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The 2.84-mile project is part of an over-all plan by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to improve the 22-mile link between Minnesota Trunk Highway No. 1 and the Village of Ponemah. The road is constantly used by the school bus and by local Red Lake commercial fishermen, and is the only outlet for the residents of the Village.

The White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe of Arizona and the Hale Adams family group from the Hopi Reservation, also in Arizona, have been honored by the Department of the Interior with Conservation Service Awards, it was announced by Secretary Douglas McKay today.

The White Mountain Apaches were cited for their excellent work in juniper eradication, and the Hale Adams family group for adopting more productive farming methods and promoting them among their Hopi neighbors.

Appointment of Charles B. Rovin as Chief, Branch of Welfare, Bureau of Indian Affairs, succeeding Robert W. Beasley, who resigned effective March 1, was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

Appointment of Kenneth F. Lee and Dr. Ebbe Curtis Hoff, both of Richmond, Va., as members of the Indian Bureau's special commission to study alcoholism in selected Indian areas of the Southwest was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons.

In an effort to learn more about the problem of alcoholism among Indians, and how to deal with it more effectively, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons today announced the appointment of a special three-man commission which will begin in the near future a three-month study on the Navajo Reservation (of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah) and other Indian reservations of New Mexico and Colorado.

Only guardians appointed under State law will be entitled to receive the property of enrolled members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon who are minors under the laws of the State where they reside or otherwise incompetent to manage their own affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

More Indians are being educated and receiving aid in voluntary relocation than ever before in history, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay pointed out today in commenting on the annual report submitted by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L, Emmons.

The Indian Commissioner told of the increased emphasis which the Department placed on Indian education and the voluntary relocation, as well as other facets of the Bureau's many-sided program for the year just ending,