OPA

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that James N. Lowe will transfer December 1 from the Washington staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Sacramento, Calif., area office where he will take over the duties formerly performed by Assistant Area Director Henry Harris, Jr., who resigned from the Bureau on November 9.

Mr. Lowe came with the Bureau as a member of the program coordinating staff last September after a career of nearly 30 years in Government service with State and Federal agencies. His early service included 10 years as a county agricultural agent in Oklahoma and Kansas, and eight years as a regional agronomist with the Soil Conservation Service. During World War II he spent two years with the Board of Economic Warfare and successor agencies and in 1945 returned to the Department of Agriculture with the Production and Marketing Administration.

From 1947 to 1951 he was stationed in Mexico City working for the Bureau of Animal Industry on the foot-and-mouth disease eradication project. For three years before coming with the Indian Bureau he was an industrial specialist with the Production and Marketing Administration headquartered in Washington, D. C. He was born at Warren, Ark., in 1898 and is a graduate of Oklahoma A. and M. College.

Mr. Harris has been assistant area director for the Bureau at Sacramento since February 1951. His previous Government career included work with the War Relocation Authority, the Social Security Board, and the Works Progress Administration.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that membership rolls will be required for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians under recently enacted legislation providing for termination of Federal supervision over the property and affairs of western Oregon Indians in the next two years.

The decision was based on the fact that these two groups are the only ones affected by the western Oregon legislation which have tribal assets. Compilation of the rolls is the first step in determining which individual Indians are entitled to a beneficial interest in the assets or in the proceeds if a sale should be favored by the tribe.

Under Public Law 588 of the 83rd Congress the two Indian groups are now given six months in which to prepare a tribal roll and submit it to the Secretary for publication in the Federal Register. If the Indians fail to compile a roll within the time limit, the Secretary is required to prepare a roll on their behalf. The law also provides for appeals to the Secretary for modifications in the rolls as published.

Rolls will not be required for the other 58 bands and groups involved in the western Oregon terminal legislation but may be submitted in the discretion of the tribal groups.

Public Law 588 is one of six Indian "termination" laws enacted by the 83rd Congress and approved by President Eisenhower. The other Indian groups covered are the Menominees of Wisconsin, the Klamaths of Oregon, the mixed bloods of the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah, four scattered bands of Utah, and the Alabama and Coushatta Tribes of Texas.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced an administrative realignment in the Bureau of Indian Affairs which will bring the Cherokee Agency, Cherokee, N. C., on December 1, under direct supervision of the central office in Washington, D. C.

The North Carolina agency, which has been under direction of the area office at Minneapolis, Minn., for the past four years, is the closest of all Indian Bureau field offices to the Nation's capital. Because of this proximity and its comparative remoteness from area offices, the agency is being brought directly under Washington office supervision.

In the move Joe Jennings, superintendent of the Cherokee Agency, will transfer to the Washington office as a member of the program coordinating staff. William E. Ensor, Jr., administrative officer at Cherokee, will take over local supervision of the agency as acting superintendent.

In his new post in Washington Mr. Jennings will join a staff group which has the task of developing cooperatively with the various Indian tribes programs designed to promote their economic and social advancement and to prepare them for eventual independence of Federal supervision.

Apart from the shift in supervision from Minneapolis to Washington, no other fundamental change in the status of the Cherokee Agency is contemplated.

Mr. Jennings, a veteran of 23 years with the Indian Bureau, has been superintendent at Cherokee since 1946. He entered the Indian Service in 1931 as superintendent of schools at Pine Ridge Agency, S. Dak., and later was named superintendent of all Bureau schools in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. In 1939 he transferred to the central office and was given general supervision over Bureau schools in the southeastern area. After; six years in this position he was shifted to the Cherokee Agency in 1945 as acting superintendent and one year later was named superintendent. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and holds a Ph. D. from George Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn.

Mr. Ensor has been administrative officer at Cherokee for the past nine years and has been an employee of that agency since 1929. He entered the Indian Service in 1928 as assistant clerk at Tuba City, Ariz.

Evan L. Flory, Chief of the Branch of Land Operations, Bureau of Indian Affairs, was named a fellow of the Soil Conservation Society of America at the Society's annual meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., on November 16, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Mr. Flory, who has been in charge of the Indian Bureau's soil and moisture conservation program since 1946, is the first Department of the Interior employee to be so honored. Under his leadership, provisions for soil conservation work have been specifically incorporated in the leases on all Indian lands and the entire 3,500,000 acres of leased Indian cropland is now under conservation treatment.

The citation from the Society reads as follows: "The grade of fellow is bestowed on Evan L. Flory by the Soil Conservation Society of America in recognition of his exceptionally outstanding achievement and leadership in the field of soil and moisture conservation."

Christian H. Beitzel will replace Robert B. McKee as superintendent of the Crow Creek Indian Agency in South Dakota when the agency moves from Fort Thompson to Pierre on December 1, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

For the past two years Mr. Beitzel has been superintendent of the Pierre Indian School which is being brought under supervision of Crow Creek Agency in the transfer. He joined the bureau in 1936 as school principal at Fort Berthe1d Agency, N. Dak., and was later named superintendent of that agency. Subsequently he served as superintendent of the Pipestone Agency, Minn.; the Turtle Mountain Consolidated Agency, N. Dak.; and the Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

Mr. McKee, who has been superintendent at Crow Creek since 1950, will transfer to the position of administrative officer in charge of the Sisseton Area Field Office, Sisseton, S. Dak. His earlier experience with the bureau included seven years as agricultural extension agent at the Flathead Agency, Dixon, Mont., and six years in the same position at the Pine Ridge Agency, S. Dak. Before coming with the bureau in 1937 he had 19 years as county agricultural agent in Yellowstone and Flathead counties, Mont.

Local direction of the Pierre School will be taken over by the principal, George R. Weisz.

Transfer of Frell M. Owl on January 26 from the position of superintendent of the Northern Idaho Indian Agency, Lapwai, Idaho, to the same position at the Fort Hall Agency near Pocatello was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Owl, an eastern Cherokee Indian, has a long background with the Indian Bureau. After joining the Bureau in 1928, he served for 17 years at the Great Lakes Agency, Ashland, Wisconsin, as teacher, principal, education field agent, community worker, and assistant to the superintendent. In 1945 he became superintendent of the Crow Creek Agency, Fort Thompson, S. Oak., and in 1950 was moved to the Red Lake Agency, Red Lake, Minn., where he served until his transfer to northern Idaho last May. He was born at Cherokee, N.C., in 1899, attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., Hampton Normal Agriculture Institute, Hampton, Va. and received a B. S. degree from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., in 1927.

At Fort Hall Mr. Owl succeeds Peru Farver who recently transferred to the Bureau's Washington office as chief of the branch of tribal affairs. Several candidates are currently under consideration as successor to Mr. Owl.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today made public an exchange of letters between Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons and Mr. Reuben Olson, director of public relations, Anselm Forum, Inc., Gary, Indiana.

The correspondence deals with basic questions of Indian affairs policy on which there has been widespread public misunderstanding. The text of the two letters follows:

ANSELM FORUM INC. Gary, Indiana

Bureau of Indian Affairs November 1, 1954

Washington, D. C.

Gentlemen: We are greatly disturbed over the disclosure that it is evident to some that a motive for the intended transfer of the Indian Affairs Bureau is a mercenary one.

Can you inform us as to the validity of the fear that liquidation of the Bureau is desired so that Indian's land can be bought up for a song? And that uranium deposits are expected to be found in these disposed of lands?

Anything we can do in behalf of justice for the Indian please command us.

Very sincerely yours,

(Sgd) Reuben Olson

Director Public Relations

4456 Jackson St.

December 10, 1954

Dear Mr. Olson:

Reference is made to your letter of November 1, 1954, requesting our views on a reported fear that the “liquidation” of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is desired so that Indian land may be "bought up for a song" and that lands to be disposed of contain uranium deposits.

I am afraid that there is a widespread lack of informed public opinion about present Indian policy and I am, therefore, more them happy to comment on some of the assertions and assumptions in your letter. It has for many years been the principal end and aim of Indian administration to admit the Indian into the enjoyment of full citizenship. To bring his economic, social and political life up to the level of American standards and to relieve him of all special Federal supervision and restrictions have also been leading objectives of Indian administration. It follows that, as these objectives are achieved, this Bureau would progressively retire from the operation of special services for, and the exercise of special guardianship over, Indians.

We would strongly oppose any proposal brought before the Congress for an abrupt termination of Federal guardianship over the tribes with the object of liquidating this Bureau. An essential fact about the American Indian tribes is the diversity in their background and their present readiness for complete or partial readjustment of their relations to the Federal government. Nany tribes have reached such a degree of group and individual advancement that it is possible to take decisive steps towards the termination of Federal supervision and the removal of restrictions and controls over their lands.. Throughout the country it is not generally appreciated to what extent certain tribes have developed to the point of being completely capable of managing their own affairs.

The 83rd Congress, recognizing this fact, enacted six "terminal" bills, namely, for the Klamath Tribe of Oregon, the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, four small Paiute groups in Utah, the Ute Tribe of Utah, a group of tribes in Western Oregon, and a small remnant group in Texas. The periods for carrying out the termination programs of these tribes range from two to seven years. In one case, that of the Ute Tribe of Utah, only a portion of the tribe, the mixed-bloods, are to be terminated, while the full-bloods are given an unspecified period in which to carry out a development program under which to achieve self-support and independence, with the active help of the Federal government. Prior to the introduction into the Congress of legislation affecting these tribes, careful field studies were conducted and extensive consultations with the Indians were carried out. In view of this approach, we cannot understand how it would be possible to characterize these terminal bills as a calculated conspiracy to deprive the Indians of their lands or the Indians' mineral rights.

As a part of this general policy, this administration has actually sought, with considerable success, to accelerate the transfer of Indian children from special Indian Bureau schools to regular public schools. Here there is a distinct loss of Indian Bureau operation but a heightened increase in educational service to Indians. Similarly, the 83rd Congress enacted a law providing for the transfer of the Indian Bureau health program to the U. S. Public Health Service. Again, there is a gain for the Indians, but a diminishment of Bureau organization. Such deliberate steps are strictly in accordance with the generally accepted objective of improving services to Indians through normal or established arrangements. The "liquidation" of this Bureau is a secondary result, not a primary purpose.

When the above mentioned terminal bills were before the Congress, there was criticism on the score of exposing minerals to alienation in only one case, namely, the four small Paiute tribes in Utah. We immediately supported an amendment, which was incorporated into the bill, under which the Secretary of the Interior is required to appoint one or more trustees for management of such rights for a period of not less than ten years. It is confidently believed that if any minerals or oil and gas should be discovered in the future on the lands of these four groups, sufficient safeguard has been erected to prevent any spoliation.

Certatn1y it cannot be truthfully charged that these forward looking steps, aimed at bringing the Indian people into the main stream of American life, are for the purpose of exposing their lands to alienation to whites at premium prices. On the basis on which our fundarnenta1 approach is being made, it is not foreseen that there will be disadvantageous alienation of land.

Your interest in writing is appreciated.

Sincerely yours,

The first step in a "pilot" operation to test the feasibility of contracting for food service in Indian Bureau schools will begin at Cherokee Agency, Cherokee, N. C., on January 17 when Cleaves Food Service, Washington, D. C., takes over the job of providing noonday lunches at the five schools under the agency, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Similar operations are planned for the near future at other Indian Bureau boarding and day schools in New Mexico and Arizona as part of the feasibility study. If the plan of contracting for food services proves effective and more economical than Federal operation of kitchens and dining halls at Indian Service schools, the Bureau contemplates turning the job over to private concerns under contract at all or most of its 263 schools throughout the country.

The contract with Cleaves Food Service was negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under a special delegation of authority from the General Services Administration. Negotiation was used for the "pilot" or study contract because of the difficulties inherent in advertising for bids on such an unusual operation. In the event of large-scale contracting, however, the Bureau intends to advertise for bids and award the contracts in accordance with standard governmental procedures.

The five schools covered in the initial operation are Cherokee Central, Big Cove, Soco, and Birdtown at Cherokee and Snowbird at Robbinsville. Their combined enrollment is approximately 800.

In a resolution commending the Eisenhower Administration's program to provide school facilities for reservation children, the Navajo Tribal Council declared that for the "first time in American history since the Treaty of 1868 the Congress of the United States has taken effective action to provide adequate schools for Navajos."

The Navajo emergency education program, which is designed to put every Navajo child of school age in school within two years, has had the personal support of President Eisenhower and Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Funds for the program, administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, were included in the regular appropriations and in supplemental acts approved by the President on August 26, 1954.

Since the beginning of the program, 8,276 additional Navajo children have been placed in school this year. When the program was drawn up last winter only 14,000 Navajo children out of a total school age population of 28,000 were able to attend school. The Bureau's goal for this year was to provide facilities for 7,000, and it is planned to accommodate the remainder by the fall of 1955.

As of December 16, there were 21,730 children enrolled in public, Federal and Mission schools on and off the reservation. Completion of a new reservation school at Kayenta, Arizona, in January will permit enrollment of 500 more children. New facilities at Crystal, Greasewood and Steamboat, Arizona boarding schools in Arizona, will take care of 500 more children and another school at Pinon when completed will take in 300 children.

The Council's resolution expressed appreciation for the cooperation of State and local school authorities in the border town dormitory program which placed 1,027 children in public schools. Continuance and enlargement of this program was requested by the Council.

"The Navajo people confirm and approve," the resolution states "the plans of Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons for providing schools for the Navajo children and deplore criticism by those who are not familiar with the facts, in respect to plans developed by the Commissioner and his staff by and with the collaboration, advice and approval of the Navajos."

The resolution points out that the Council has been fully advised as to the locations of schools and boarding houses on and off the reservation, and "appreciates fully that a great advantage is enjoyed by Navajo children, with the generous cooperation of state and local school authorities, by attending schools in such communities as Richfield, Utah; Aztec, Gallup, N. Mex.; Holbrook, Snowflake and Winslow, Arizona, where education in State schools gives Navajo children the advantage of learning English and with the same opportunities which non-Indian children enjoy."

"The use of other school facilities in States away from the reservation accommodating 5,570 children is necessary at least for the time being until school facilities closer to the reservation are available has been approved by the Council as the only available alternative to no Schools at all for some of our children," the resolution continues.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Indian Bureau's School of Practical Nursing now located at Lawton, Okla., will be transferred in early February to Albuquerque, N. Mex., where much more extensive training facilities are available.

The school, established at Lawton in 1935, has been training about 40 Indian girls a year for practical nursing positions in Indian hospitals throughout the country. Approximately 28 percent of the graduates over the past 19 years have been Indian girls from Oklahoma as compared with 41 percent of the graduates who came from tribal groups in New Mexico and Arizona.

Recently the National Association for Practical Nurse Education, the national accrediting organization for schools of this type, announced that it would no longer approve the school in its present location because of the limited training facilities available for students. If the school should lose its accreditation, the graduates would no longer be eligible for Civil Service positions with the Bureau.

The Bureau's hospital at Lawton has an authorized capacity of 50 beds. Its operations will be unaffected by the transfer.

In the new location at Albuquerque, the students of the school will have access to the Bureau’s 108-bed Albuquerque Sanatorium, the 153-bed Bernalillo County Indian Hospital and the 208-bed Medical Center at Fort Defiance, Arizona.