OPA

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the appointment of Carl W. Beck of Apache County, Arizona; as a special consultant on Indian Affairs.

A former official of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mr. Beck resigned in 1948 to enter private business.

He served in the Indian Service for 23 years in a number of responsible positions including the superintendencies of the Western Shoshone Agency, Owyhee, Nevada, and Fort Hall, Idaho. He entered the Navajo Indian Service in 1929.

Mr. Beck was born in 1902 in Mexico and early in his life removed to St. Johns, Arizona. He attended the public schools of that city and later the University of Arizona.

The largest oil and gas mining lease sale ever made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be offered prospective bidders at a sale to be held at Window Rock, Arizona, April 21, May 1, May 12, and May 22, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

The land area totals more than 528,000 acres in the vicinity of the isolated Four Corners area on the Navajo reservation in Arizona and Utah. If all the land is taken up by successful bidders, the Navajo Tribe could realize a cash bonus estimated at a possible $3,000,000 plus annual rental payments of $650,000 per year, and one-eighth royalty if production is obtained.

Sealed bids will be received by Allan G. Harper J area director, Navajo-Hopi reservation, at the Window Rock Area office on tracts which average 2,560 acres each and which involves a total of 214 tracts.

The bids are to be opened as follows:

Block A, 53 tracts, totaling approximately 130,963.80 acres, bids to be opened at 2:00 p.m., April 21;

Block B, 52 tracts, totaling approximately 130,108.64 acres, bids to be opened at 2:00 p.m., May l;

Block C, 60 tracts, totaling approximately 147,094.49 acres, bids to be opened at 2:00 p.m., May 12;

Block D, 49 tracts, totaling approximately 120,642 acres, bids to be opened at 2:00 p.m., May 22.

Blocks A, B, c, and D, lie in Utah, south of the San Juan River and in northeast Arizona in the vicinity of the Four Corners.

In addition, bids will also be opened April 21 on 10,240 acres of Tribal land in San Juan County, New Mexico, approximately 15 miles south of Shiprock; bids will also be opened on 5,540 acres of Tribal land in Coconino County, Arizona, located approximately 6 miles southwest of Tuba City. Prospective bidden, will also be invited to bid on 8,155 acres of individual scattered allotted lands in San Juan County, New Mexico, approximately 20 miles south of Farmington, New Mexico.

The leases are offered without any special drilling requirements. Geologists, representing many oil and gas companies, have made exhaustive geological surveys of the area to be leased by the Navajo Tribe. There is great oil and gas development, adjoining the tracts now opened for lease, in the vicinity of Shiprock, Farmington and Bloomfield, New Mexico.

This will be the first major sale for oil and gas leases on the Arizona side of the reservation. Prospective bidders, not on the mailing list, may procure copies of the advertisements by phoning or writing Mr. Marvin D. Long, Chief of Lands, Window Rock, Arizona,

Public school enrollment of Indian children is increasing at a fast rate a Bureau of Indian Affairs survey released by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, shows. Comparative figures for the years 1942 and 1952 show that while the number of Indian children enrolled in all schools rose some 25 percent in that decade, the number attending public schools in their home states rose approximately 40 percent.

In 1942, of the total 70,000 Indian children of school age enrolled in school, 35,000 were in public schools, 28,000 in Federally operated schools, and 7,000 in mission schools. These figures compare with a total of 88,000 Indian children of school age enrolled in school in 1952, with 48,000 in public schools, 31,000 in Federal schools and 9,000 in mission schools.

The Alaska statistics are not included in the survey. During the past school year Alaska had 11,000 Indian children of school age enrolled in all schools available to them. Of this total, 4,700 were in public schools, 5,200 in Federal schools and 1,100 in mission schools.

The three types of schools available for Indian children are those operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, public schools of the States in which the Indians reside, and mission schools operated by religious denominations.

Seventy-eight percent of the approximately 123,000 Indian children of school age in the United States and Alaska are in schools of some kind.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the transfer of a 45-bed Indian hospital at Hayward, Wisconsin, to a local nonprofit corporation for future operations and maintenance.

The hospital was turned over to the Hayward Memorial Area Hospital Association. It will continue to provide services primarily for members of the Lac Courte Oreilles tribe, and will also serve non-Indians of the area. The hospital will be operated under a policy of equality of treatment and non-segregation.

Under contracts negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, other Indians in the area will receive service at local hospitals closer to their reservations than the Hayward Hospital. The Lac du Flambeau Indians will receive treatment at Moccasin or Rhinelander, Wisconsin; the Bad River Indians at Ashland, and the Red Cliff band of Chippewas at Bayfield.

The Hayward Hospital, operated for many years by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is the first to be transferred to local ownership and supervision under authority of Public Law 291 of the 82nd Congress, approved April 3, 1952.

The move is part of the Indian Bureau’s program of transferring its service responsibilities to State and local agencies. The transfer was discussed with the Indians involved and approved in resolutions adopted by their tribal councils.

Legislation is being drafted in the Bureau of Indian Affairs which will authorize transfer to the State of Texas complete trust responsibility over the affairs of the 410 Alabama-Coushatta Indians living on an approximately 4,000-acre reservation in Polk County, Texas, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Those are the only Indians in Texas for which the Bureau has any responsibility. Their tribal assets consist solely of lands upon which there is an excellent stand of timber. Their economy is based entirely on wage-earnings, principally in the logging industry.

Secretary McKay's action in asking that Federal legislation be drafted for introduction as soon as possible in the Congress was in response to a recently passed concurrent resolution by the Texas legislature accepting the trust responsibility, as well as a resolution adopted by the Indians on February 13, 1953, The Indian resolution stated, in part:

"WHEREAS, the Alabama and Coushatta Indian Reservation is located in Polk County, Texas, and consists of 4,281 acres of timberland (and) the State of Texas, through its Forest Service, is willing and able to extend to our reservation the conservation and management practices which are being applied to State forests, therefore, be it resolved that the Secretary of the Interior be, and is hereby, urged to authorize the great State of Texas to assume full responsibility for the management, protection and conservation of our forest resources....."

On May 21, Gov. A11an Shivers notified Assistant Secretary of the Interior Orme Lewis that the State Legislature had accepted the trust responsibility by concurrent resolution. That resolution stated:

"WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States may pass legislation relinquishing the trust responsibilities of the United States with respect to the lands and other assets of the Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes, and,

"WHEREAS, This Legislature finds it necessary to hereby indicate its desire and set forth a policy necessary in order to achieve a stronger unity for the protection of the interest and welfare of such Indian tribes; now therefore, be it

"RESOLVED, By the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, that in the event the Congress of the United States shall provide such legislation, and the Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes shall indicate their consent by appropriate resolution, the Governor is hereby authorized to accept on behalf of the State a transfer of the trust responsibilities of the United States respecting the lands and other assets of the .Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes; and, be it further

"RESOLVED, That the Governor is authorized to designate the state agency in which such trust responsibilities shall rest, and the agency so designated shall have authority to promulgate rules and regulations for the administration of the trust and the protection of the beneficial interest of the Indians in such lands and other assets."

Subsequently Assistant Secretary Lewis directed the Bureau to prepare legislation to provide for the termination of Federal responsibility for administering the affairs of Indians in the State of Texas. The only actual services which. this Bureau has been performing in connection with these tribes in recent years is a payment of monies- $18,000 in the current fiscal year--under the Johnson O'Malley Act to the State of Texas for the use of the local school district.

The State of Texas has given a number of services to these tribes and maintains a superintendent on the reservation. Texas is spending approximately $41,000 during the current year. This interest of the State in the welfare of these tribes has a long historical background, evidently going back to the days of Sam Houston, their friend. In 1854-1855, the State purchased 1,110 acres, the deeds running to the Alabama Tribe direct. The United States purchased in 1928 approximately 3,181 acres, to be held in trust for the Alabama and Coushatta Tribes. The two areas are contiguous and have been treated as one reservation.

Competitive bidding for oil and gas leases in the rich Williston Basin field, under supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is bringing higher financial returns to Fort Peck Indians than if direct negotiations with the Indians for the lands were permitted, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

Two good illustrations of the value of Bureau supervised sales were revealed this week at a competitive sale on the Fort Peck reservation in eastern Montana.

In one case, Indian heirs owning a two-third's interest in a 40-acre tract were offered $26.50 an acre bonus for a lease. In the sale held by the Bureau, the heirs will receive more than 30 times that amount, or $822.56 an acre. The owners also have good prospects that a well will be drilled on their land in the near future as there is a producing well located on an adjacent tract. Standard Bureau leases require offset drilling to protect leased land from drainage.

The other instance of the value of competitive bidding came to light in the sale, A woman member of the tribe, received an offer of a $19,000 bonus for an oil and gas lease on 320 acres. She had sought a fee patent for the land, but the Bureau, exercising its responsibilities instead, included the land in the recent sale. Under competitive bids she received a bonus of $33,737.60.

In another case a tribesman sought a fee patent after receiving an offer of $17,500 for the outright sale of surface and mineral rights on a 320-acre tract. Believing that the minerals were worth many times that amount, the Bureau included the land in a sale held last March 27. Three times more than the amount offered for outright sale, or $56,807.60 was received, In addition, the owner like all the other Indian lessors, will receive the standard annual rental of $1.25 per acre and a 12 1/2 percent royalty on all oil and gas produced.

Another illustration of the competitive bid system involved a Fort Peck Indian who several months ago sought a fee patent in order to sell his 320-acre tract for $3,520. Acting on the belief that the full market value of the land could be realized only through competitive bidding, the Bureau held and advertised sale of the land. It brought the Indian owner $16,000.

Secretary McKay explained the Department and Bureau have received many urgent requests recently for fee patents and for negotiated oil and gas leases on the Fort Peck Reservation, which is located within the Williston Basin and has been a center of intense oil and gas activity in recent months. In all of the cases cited by the Secretary and many others the Bureau has been functioning in its role as trustee for Indian lands to protect the owners and assure them the greatest possible returns.

Secretary McKay pointed out that the objective of the Department is to terminate Federal responsibility for administering the affairs of individual Indian tribes as rapidly as the circumstances of each tribe will permit. He emphasized, however, that as long as the Bureau continues to have trust responsibilities it will discharge them to the best of its ability and in the best interest of the Indians.

Glenn L. Emmons, Gallup, New Mexico, today nominated by President Eisenhower to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs, is 570 He was born at Atmore, Alabama in 1895. His family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he attended public school and the University of New Mexico, leaving the University in 1917 for military service. He was a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.

Discharged from the Army in 1929, he went to Gallup, New Mexico, to enter the banking business in which he has continued until now.

He has had extensive contacts with the Indians in that area. There are 75,000 Indians in the Navajo tribe alone, and perhaps another 15,000 in other tribes in the immediate area, Gallup is known as the Indian capital of the southwest. Among the other tribes in that area are the Hopis, Lagunas, Zunis, Apaches, Utes, and Pueblos.

In keeping with President Eisenhower’s campaign pledge to confer with the Indians on the appointment of an Indian Commissioner, Orme Lewis, Assistant Secretary of the Interior has conferred with about 150 different groups of Indians representing about 75% of the Indians with whom the Bureau of Indian Affairs has any business. He has been holding these conferences almost daily for four months.

The selection of Mr. Emmons followed the withdrawal of Alva Simpson, Jr., of Santa Fe State Welfare Director of New Mexico, who asked that his name be not given serious consideration, due to the pressure of his own activities in his own State. Mr. Simpson had been loyally supported by groups of friends in that area. Prior to announcement of Mr. Emmons nomination, Secretary McKay received the following telegram from Gov. Edwin L. Mechem of New Mexico:

"Please stop consideration of Alva Simpson's name as Indian Commissioner. As director of New Mexico's welfare department he has assumed additional important duties and greater responsibility with proportionate salary increase. He is most valuable to New Mexico and we need him here."

Dr. James Raymond Shaw has been assigned from the United States Public Health Service to serve as chief of the Branch of Health of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Dr. Shaw comes to his new assignment from the position of Chief of the Division of Hospitals, Bureau of Medical Services in the PHS. In this position, which he has held for the past year, he has been responsible for the supervision and management of the entire system of PHS hospitals and outpatient clinics.

As chief of the Indian Bureau's Branch of Health, he will assume similar responsibilities for supervising the administration of 59 Indian Service hospitals in 15 States and Alaska. In addition, his responsibilities will include supervision of the public health phases of the Indian Bureau’s health program.

Born in Yale, Michigan in 1908, Dr. Shaw graduated from Michigan State Normal School and was a high school teacher for three years before entering the University of Michigan Medical School in 1932. He served an internship at the New Orleans PHS hospital in 1936 and was admitted to the commissioned corps of the PHS in 1938.

After two years of PHS service in Washington, he was granted a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic for postgraduate study. From 1941 to 1944 he served as chief of the Department of Medicine in San Francisco PHS hospital and subsequently was assigned as district medical officer, Coast Guard, Long Beach, Calif.

In 1945 Dr. Shaw was promoted to senior surgeon and concurrently was elected a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. That same year he was advanced to the position of medical officer in charge of Los Angeles and San Pedro clinics, and remained there until 1949. From 1949 to 1952 he was medical officer in charge of Detroit PHS hospital.

Dr. Shaw succeeds Dr. Fred Foard, another PHS career officer, who retired last October,. Dr. Burnet M. Davis, who has been serving in the interim as acting chief of the Bureau's Branch of Health, was recently reassigned to the PHS’s Division of International Health.

A 36-year career in the Bureau of Indian Affairs ended on July 31 when Leroy D. Arnold, Chief Forest and Range Managemen, retired, Mr,. Arnold who lives at 2110 Hildarose Drive, Silver Spring, Md., began work with the Indian service as a forest fire guard at Warm Springs Indian Agency, Oregon, June 1917. He has served as forest ranger at Warm Springs and Yakima agencies and was deputy forest supervisor at Tulalip Agency, Washington. He also served for a time as superintendent of Klamath Agency, Oregon and since 1941 has been chief of the Bureau's Forest and Range Management branch.

Born in Kansas in 1888, he was educated in local schools and taught school for four years before he was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1917 with a bachelor of science degree in forestry.

Another personnel change in the Bureau was the transfer of Peru Farver, superintendent at Turtle Mountain Consolidated Agency, Belcourt, N. Dak., to the superintendency at Fort Hall Agency, Fort Hall, Idaho. He succeeds Earl Wooldridge who has retired.

Supt. Farver, a Choctaw Indian has been at Turtle Mountain for two years, He entered the Bureau service in 1910 as a teacher at Union Agency, Muskogee, Okla. He has had various assignments in the service including superintendencies at Tomah Agency, S. Dak.; Red Lake, Minn.; and Cheyenne River, S. Dak. No successor has been named at Turtle Mountain.

Transfer of the Southwestern Range and Sheep Breeding Laboratory at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, on August 1, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, to the Bureau of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. The move fa part of the broad program aimed at narrowing the scope of Indian Bureau operations and transferring responsibilities, wherever possible, to other agencies of Government for to the Indians themselves.

The Fort Wingate Laboratory was established in 1935 for the purpose of producing an improved breed of sheep and a better quality of wool through the crossing of native Navajo stock with high-grade rams. Originally the work was intended primarily for the benefit of the Navajos since sheep raising and the weaving of woolen rugs have been for many years key factors in the Tribe's economy.

The Bureau of Animal Industry, which has cooperated in the laboratory work, is assuming full responsibility under an agreement recently reached between the two bureaus. While emphasis will continue to be placed on the special needs of the southwestern Indians for rug wool, the laboratory will also stress breeding improvements for fleece and mutton production intended to benefit both Indian and non-Indian sheep producers. One of the principal reasons for the transfer was the growing recognition of the results achieved by the laboratory and the realization that its work is beneficial not merely to Navajos but to the whole sheep industry of the Southwest.

Involved in the transfer are 2,439 acres of land along with the buildings, approximately $70,000 of operating funds for the balance of the fiscal year, and the personnel required for the station operations. The director of the laboratory is Stanley L. Smith.