Past News Items

Award of an $85,400 contract for the improvement of the Heart Butte Short Cut Road on the Blackfeet Reservation at Browning, Montana, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project covers the grading and graveling of 7.637 miles of road from the bridge over Two Medicine River to Badger Creek. It is the center section of a route known locally as the Heart Butte Short Cut Road. It is the main traffic route from the all-Indian community of Heart Butte to the agency and serves several public schools in the vicinity of Two Medicine River.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the second set of four awards which are made annually “in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

These awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, were presented yesterday in Flagstaff, Arizona. Recipients, and the categories for which they won, include:

1. The Museum of Northern Arizona, of Flagstaff, Arizona--Nonprofit organizations.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today called attention to the results of the first sale of oil and gas leases held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the basis of a fixed bonus of $500 per acre and competitive bidding on the royalty rates. The bids were opened at Window Rock, Arizona, July 28. The total bonus offered at $500 per acre was $1,245,500.

Completion of the final membership roll of the Ottawa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, following the disposition of all appeals, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The preliminary membership roll, published in the Federal Register March 21, 1958, included 549 individuals. The net result of additions and subtractions made as a consequence of appeals to the Secretary of the Interior is a final roll of 630.

Under a 1956 Congressional law, Federal trusteeship of the Ottawa property is to be ended by next August 3.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst today announced the restoration of nearly 9,000 acres on two Indian reservations in South Dakota to tribal jurisdiction.

Thirteen tracts totaling over 3,000 acres of the restored land are on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. An additional 5,880 acres are on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the third set of awards which are being made "in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

These awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, are being presented today in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Recipients, and the categories for which they on, include:

A $178,907.28 contract for construction of two bridges on Navajo Route 1 in New Mexico was awarded today by the Department of the Interior.

These bridges in San Juan County will replace two timber structures that no longer will carry the heavy traffic which the oil and mining operations in northern Arizona and southeastern Utah have generated.

One 2-span pre-stressed concrete box-girder bridge will be constructed across Rattlesnake Wash west of Shiprock, New Mexico, and one 6-spansteel-girder bridge with a concrete deck will cross the Red Rock Wash.

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of three contracts totaling $887,704 for road and bridge construction on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico.

The largest contract, for $366,431, involves the grading, drainage and bituminous surfacing of 4.1 miles of Navajo Route 1 running west from the Arizona-New Mexico State line.

A change in Federal regulations that will permit the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make loans to withdrawing members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon regardless of their degree of Indian blood was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Under the former rules, loans could not be made to individuals of less than a quarter degree Indian blood.

The amendment of the regulation was made possible as a result of legislation recommended by the Department and recently enacted by Congress (Public Law 86-40).

Award of a $1,176,800 contract for construction at the Wingate School at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, to provide facilities that will increase the school's capacity by about 325 Indian students, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.