Past News Items

Reappointment of Floyd E. Maytubby as Governor of the Chickasaw Indians of Oklahoma for a two-year term beginning October 18, was announced today by Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst.

Mr. Maytubby has served in the office continuously since 1939.

Under terms of the appointment he will receive $250 a month from tribal funds for expenses.

The appointment was made under authority of a 1906 act of Congress o

Martin M. Zoller, Superintendent of the Klamath Indian Agency in Oregon since 1956, will be the new superintendent at the Uintah and Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah, effective October 4, the Department of the Interior announced today.

He succeeds Darrell Fleming who recently transferred to the Cherokee Agency in North Carolina.

Final approval of an extensive revision of the Federal regulations on the management of Indian forest lands was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Among other changes, the new rules provide a system of appeal to the Secretary of the Interior from decisions made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on timber sales contracts.

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $120,788.86 contract for the construction of a municipal center on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation at Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

The contract provides for the construction of a concrete masonry building to serve a multiple use in the Indian community. The building will contain offices for a judge, jail administration space, quarters for incarceration of prisoners, and a large room which will serve as a library and be used for community gatherings, as well as for a courtroom.

Sales of timber from lands belonging to Indian tribes and individual Indians brought the owners an income of $10,937,485 in the fiscal year 1959, or 17 percent more than the amount in 1958, Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett announced today.

The volume of timber cut under contract on Indian lands was 551 million board feet, an increase of 98 million board feet over the 1958 total.

Bena MN – The Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was among the dignitaries to speak at the dedication of the newly constructed Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High School on the Leech Lake reservation, a replacement building resulting from the combination of efforts made over 25 years. The new building replaces the metal clad pole barn, a structure originally built as an auto mechanic shop and bus garage. It lacked proper insulation that made regular classroom sessions difficult during Minnesota’s harsh winters.

High bonus bids totaling over $10,000,000 for oil and gas leases on Ute Indian lands in southwestern Colorado were opened by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on September 2 at Gallup, New Mexico, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst announced today.

On 41 tracts of Ute Mountain tribal land, comprising 92,062.96 acres, the average bonus bid per acre was $112.53 and the total of the high bids was $10,359,671.30. On one of the tracts the bid was $539.25 per acre.

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $372,551 contract for the construction of educational facilities at Rosebud, South Dakota.

Ten plans submitted by Indian rancherias in California for distribution of lands and other assets among the individual members under a 1958 law have now been given final approval by the Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

In total, the plans provide for distributing 904.79 acres among 137 individual Indians.

Six of the plans have also been ratified by referendum vote among the Indians affected and are now being put into effect.

Award of two contracts totaling $255,749 for road and bridge construction on the Cheyenne River and Lower Brule Indian Reservations in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.