Past News Items

Award of two contracts for rehabilitation of dormitories at Cheyenne and Arapaho School, Concho, Oklahoma, and at Ft. Sill School, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Award of a $271,570 contract for construction of day school facilities at Borrego Pass on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico to Wilson Hockinson & Cantrall, Inc.; of Albuquerque was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Two other New Mexico firms submitted higher bids of $279,900 and $283,630.

The new four-classroom school will serve 120 Indian children living in the Borrego Pass area. It will be erected at the site of the present trailer school operated by the Indian Bureau.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton has submitted a proposed bill to Congress that would equalize the value of tribal property divided among members of the Ague Caliente Band of Indians on the Palm Springs Reservation in California.

The legislation was developed after numerous conferences with the Ague Caliente Band. It would affect 92 Indians, 31 adults and 61 minors," who live in and around the resort community of Palm Springs. Also affected would be undivided tribal properties estimated to be worth over $12,000,000.

Award of a $214,950 contract to Alder-Child Construction Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, for construction of dormitory facilities to house Indian children at Richfield, Utah, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Sixteen higher bids, ranging from $225,313 to $368,413, were submitted by contractors from Utah and New Mexico.

Four small bands of Paiute Indians in Utah, comprising 232 members, will take over full responsibility for management of their own affairs under a proclamation approved by Acting Secretary of the Interior Fred G. Aandahl in fulfillment of a 1954 congressional enactment.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has taken joint action with the Department of Agriculture in designating the Klamath Indian Forest and Klamath Marsh on the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon.

Award of a $35,438 contract for the construction of two bridges on the Menominee Indian Reservation, Shawano County, Wisconsin, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Ten Indian high school graduates will soon be attending the North Dakota School of Science at Wahpeton, North Dakota l through scholarship program made possible by a grant of Federal land to the school, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst recently signed a quitclaim deed conveying 70 acres of land previously used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school at Wahpeton to the State-controlled school in the same city with the understanding that the scholarship program would be established.

Award of four contracts aggregating $474,881.48 for road improvement work on Indian reservations in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Two of the jobs are on the Pine Ridge Reservation, one at Rosebud and one at Crow Creek.

Under Secretary Hatfield Chilson today announced cancellation of the development lease on 67,000 acres of Indian lands on the Colorado River Reservation near Parker, Arizona. The lease was executed by the Department on August 13, 1957 with the Colorado River Enterprises, an Arizona Corporation.

On April 8 Under Secretary Chilson gave notice to the Corporation requiring it to show cause, on or before May 7, why the lease should not be cancelled for failure of the Corporation to post the performance bond in the amount of $5 million required under the terms of the lease.