Past News Items

Assignment of an Indian Bureau economic development officer to work with the Miccosukee Seminole Indians living along the Tamiami Trail in Florida on plans for improving their economic and social status was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The man chosen for the assignment is Reginald C. Miller, a veteran of 23 years' service with the Bureau, who recently completed a survey of the Miccosukees' situation and prospects at Secretary Udall's request.

The unparalleled development of human end natural resources that has taken place on the Navajo Indian Reservation since the end of World War II is "only a prologue:" to the further development that must be accomplished over the coming decade, the Commissioner-designate of Indian Affairs, Philleo Nash, told a predominantly Navajo audience today.

Award of a $962,754 contract that will double the enrollment capacity of the Wide Ruins Boarding School on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Justifiable pride in the many historic accomplishments of Oklahoma Cherokee Indians must not be permitted to divert attention from the problems of present-day Cherokees struggling to make a livelihood on unproductive lands, Philleo Nash, Commissioner-designate of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior said today.

Dear Friends:

We are sending the attached Philatelic Release from the Post Office Department as an item which may be of interest to you. We understand that this is the first commemorative stamp to feature an Indian motif.

Black-and-white photographs of the stamp design may be obtained without charge by writing to Mr. J. F. Kelleher, Special Assistant to the Postmaster General, Washington 25, D. C.

M.M. Tozier

Information Officer

The Department of the Interior favors proposed legislation to provide that judgment funds on claims against the United States awarded to any of the constituent Indian tribes on the Colville Reservation in Washington shall be deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the confederated tribal group on the reservation, Assistant Secretary John A. Carver, Jr., announced today.

The 130,000 man-days of recreational fishing which a fishery management program provided to visitors alone on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Ariz., in 1958 is creating considerable interest in similar programs on other Indian reservations, especially in the West, the Department of the Interior reports.

The Department of the Interior today announced two actions looking toward a greater equalization in the value of extremely valuable individual Indian land holdings on the Agua Caliente Reservation at Palm Springs, California.

One was the recent submission to Congress of a report favoring the enactment, with amendments, of H.R. 5557, a bill that deals with the equalization problem.

The second action taken was the adoption in final form of a set of administrative instructions for equalization. These were published as a proposal in the Federal Repository last January 23.

Award of a $67,275 contract for construction of three bridges on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Dewey County, South Dakota, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The Department of the Interior announced today it has submitted to Congress two legislative requests providing for distribution of judgment funds resulting from awards by the Indian Claims Commission to three Indian groups.

The groups affected are the Quapaws of Oklahoma with a fund of about $820,000; the Citizen Band of Potawatomis of Oklahoma with a fund of $168,735.40 plus accrued interest; and the Prairie Band of Potawatomie of Kansas with a fund of $79,624.86 plus accrued interest. The last two groups are covered by one proposal.