Past News Items

Reappointment of Turner Bear as Principal Chief of the Creek Indian Tribe of Oklahoma for a two-year term beginning October 5 was announced today by the Department of the Interior. He has been serving in the position for the past two years.

Under a 1906 law the President was empowered to appoint a Principal Chief periodically for each of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma--Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Creek. In 1951 this appointing authority was delegated to the Secretary of the Interior.

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and the Department of the Interior are now in agreement on a plan developed by the Tribe for future control of its property and service functions after Federal trusteeship is terminated next year, Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett announced today.

The plan was developed by the Tribe under terms of the Menominee Termination Act of 1954 and was submitted to the Secretary of the Interior on July 28. It includes six major parts.

Promotion of H. Rex Lee, Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to the position of Deputy Commissioner was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mr. Lee replaces W. Barton Greenwood, who has been Deputy Commissioner since the position was established in 1956, and who is retiring November 1.

Award of a $298,469.48 contract for construction of additional irrigation works on the Hogback Unit of the Navajo Indian reservation near Shiprock, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Two major items are included in the contract: (1) 5,932 linear feet of main canal with a capacity of 130 cubic feet per second, and (2) 3,600 linear feet of 60 inch diameter steel pipe across Malpais Arroyo.

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of a $574,589 school construction contract which will provide facilities for 120 additional Indian children at the Oglala School on the Pine Ridge Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

The contract provides for construction of a two-story brick and concrete masonry building with 24 classrooms and a library. This new building will replace the existing elementary school which is extremely overcrowded and structurally unsound. Capacity of the school will be increased from 786 to 906 pupils.

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $813,533 contract for the expansion of school facilities that will provide for 150 additional Indian children at Kinlichee School on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.

The contract covers the construction of a 256-pupil dormitory, a five-classroom school building, twenty employees' quarters, a kitchen and dining hall, and a generator building. The existing school is also to be remodeled under this contract.

The Department of the Interior today announced plans for liberalizing the Federal regulations covering the bonds required in connection with leases and permits for developing minerals other than oil and gas on Indian lands.

The purpose of the proposed change is to allow bonds of less than $1, 000 in cases where the Department believes that such bonding will adequately protect the interests of the Indian landowners. Bonds in the amount of $1, 000 are the lowest permitted under the present regulations.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced he has signed an order transferring to the Navajo Indian Tribe approximately 52,000 acres of public land in the McCracken Mesa area of Utah.

He said the transfer substantially completes a land exchange agreement under which the Navajo people receive additional acreage in Utah's “Four Corners” area in compensation for lands they surrendered to permit construction of Glen Canyon Dam, key feature of the billion-dollar Upper Colorado River Storage Project.

Appointment of Dale M. Baldwin as Superintendent of the Fort Peck Indian Agency, Poplar, Montana, succeeding David Paul Weston, was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Baldwin has been with the Bureau since 1949 and for the past two years has served as program officer in the Washington office. Mr. Weston has been at Fort Peck since 1957 and is transferring to the Washington office as program officer. Both moves will be effective November 14.

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $252,990.00 contract for the improvement of the water and sewer systems at White River Agency, White River, Arizona.

The improvements will benefit Indian homes on the Fort Apache Reservation as well as the Agency headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The contract provides for approximately 9-miles of 8-inch water line, 24 new fire hydrants, a new sewage treatment plant, one-half mile of sewer line and three-quarters of a mile of earth dike.