Past News Items

Appointment of Herman E. O'Harra as superintendent of the Hopi Indian Agency, Keams Canyon, Ariz., was announced today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that, in accordance with a decision jointly reached by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons and himself, a three-man departmental committee has been appointed to hold hearings in the State of Washington beginning February 13 on the controversial Yakima tribal election held last December 6.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today that he has instructed the Indian Bureau’s area office at Billings, Montana, to withhold approval of additional sales of restricted Indian lands on the Crow Reservation in Montana that violate limitations imposed by the Act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 751).

Appointment of James F. Canan as superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Indian Agency, Ignacio, Colo., succeeding Robert L. Bennett, who transfers to the Indian Bureau's Aberdeen, S. Dak., area office as program officer, was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons. The transfer will be effective January 29.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs awarded a $61,540.78 contract today to improve the entrance road to the Taos Pueblo of New Mexico, which annually attracts thousands of visitors.

The improvement will provide a bituminous surface for a little more than two miles with adequate drainage and right-of-way into one of the most popular and spectacular pueblos of the Southwest.

Floyd Haake of Santa Fe, New Mexico, received the contract. One other bid was received, for $86,860.41.

The Potawatomi Area Field Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has been operating from both Mayetta and Horton, Kansas locations, will be consolidated in the near future into a single office at Horton, the Department of Interior announced today.

Up to now only the land operations personnel and the Bureau's field representative were stationed at Mayetta. Tho latter, however, served three days a week at Horton.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today called attention to the final roll of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin which was published in the Federal Register December 12, 1957.

The roll, comprising 3,270 names, was compiled under the Menominee Termination Act of 1954 and represents the final listing of tribal members after disposition of all appeals that have been made to the Secretary. Only those people on the roll are entitled under the Termination Act to share in the benefits of tribal property.

The Department of the Interior today announced the appointment of E. Reeseman Fryer, Chantilly, Va., as Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in charge of resource programs.

A native of Mesa, Arizona, and career civil servant, Fryer formerly served with the Bureau from 1936 to 1942 and from 1948 to 1950. In his new post he will have nationwide supervision of the Bureau's realty, land operations, forestry and roads programs. He succeeds E. J. Utz who retired in August.

The Navajo Indian Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior are working closely together to meet all emergency needs resulting from the recent heavy snows and extremely cold weather on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash reported today.

Award of a $1,313,550 contract for the construction of complete new school facilities to accommodate 244 additional Indian pupils on the Navajo Reservation at Shonto, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new facilities will b, built at a site approximately 3/4 of a mile from an existing Indian Bureau school.