OPA

The Department of the Interior favors the enactment of legislation that would permit further leasing of lands on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in western Arizona and southeastern California, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

In a report to Congress on S. 2286, a bill to authorize such leasing, Mr. Ernst pointed out that the absence of leasing Authority is now "hampering the orderly development of the reservation." In addition, he said, many leases previously granted will be expiring soon and the lessees are unable to plan sound programs without assurance of renewal.

S. 2286 would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to lease the portions of the reservation not assigned to individual Indians and to approve leases of the assigned lands made by the holders of the assignments.

Special authority is necessary to authorize leasing of Colorado River Reservation lands, Mr. Ernst explained, because of the uncertainty as to beneficial ownership of the property. The Reservation was established by an 1865 law for the "Indians of said [Colorado] River and its tributaries." Whether the Indians now settled on the reservation are the exclusive owners is a question now in litigation.

Recognizing this uncertainty, Congress in 1955 passed a law authorizing the Secretary of the Interior, for a period of two years, to lease the unassigned lands. The authority expired August 14, 1957. The day before it expired, an Arizona corporation signed a 25-year lease on some 67,000 acres of the reservation. However, the lease was cancelled May 13, 1958, when the corporation failed to explain satisfactorily its failure to post a $5 million performance bond. The terms of the lease required the bond.

The reservation contains slightly over 100,000 acres of potentially irrigable land. Approximately one-third of this has so far been developed for irrigation through the use of Federal funds.

The Department of the Interior today announced .its support of H. R. 4786, a bill that would turn over to the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Tribe approximately 16 acres of land, together with a Government-owned cottage and warehouse office building, in Dewey County, South Dakota.

The land was bought by the United States from a private company in 1915 and was for many years used as the site for an Indian Bureau farm station. Its use for this purpose was discontinued in 1948.

The Government cottage and warehouse-office building were formerly used by the Indian Bureau tribal field aid, were built at a cost of $3,104, and are currently valued at $5,352.

In addition to these two Government buildings, there are on the land five tribally owned houses occupied by Indian welfare clients and two privately owned Indian homes.

The Department recommended amendment of the bill so that it conveys the title and does not require the execution of conveyancing instruments by the Department. No opinion was expressed on whether the property should be conveyed to the tribe in trust or unrestricted status, nor on whether the tribe should be given title to the privately owned homes.

The Department of the Interior favors legislation giving the White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe of Arizona beneficial ownership of 7,579 acres of Federal land on the Fort Apache Reservation, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

The acreage involved was originally set aside many years ago as the Fort Apache Military Post and has more recently been used as the site of an Indian Bureau school. The lands, exclusive of improvements, were appraised in 1958 at an estimated value of $141,000.

In a report on S. 2268, a bill to effect the transfer, Mr. Ernst pointed out that the Indians have been using most of the land that is not used for the Theodore Roosevelt Indian School. Under the bill's terms the land would be held in trust for the Tribe by the United States.

The Department recommended a technical amendment of the bill to provide explicitly that the Tribe's beneficial ownership of the property would be "subject to the right of the Secretary of the Interior to use any part of the lands and improvements for administrative or school purposes for as long as they are needed for those purposes."

The Department of the Interior today announced the retirement of one Indian Bureau agency superintendent and the transfer of two others in a related series of moves.

Retiring August 31 is Elbert J. Floyd, Superintendent of the Zuni Agency in New Mexico for the past five years. He will be replaced September 6 by Richard D. Butts, Superintendent at the Cherokee Agency in North Carolina since 1955. Mr. Butts, in turn, will be succeeded September 20 by Darrell Fleming, who for the past two years has headed the work at Uintah and Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah. Anew superintendent for Uintah and Ouray has not yet been named.

Born at Hartsville, Missouri, in 1900, Mr. Floyd came with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1925 at the Consolidated Ute Agency in Colorado and served there for 17 years as laborer, farm leader, and agricultural extension agent. In 1942 he transferred to the Klamath Agency in Oregon as agricultural extension agent and remained in that position until he was appointed superintendent at Consolidated Ute in 1950. Four years later he transferred to the Zuni post.

Mr. Butts is a native of Harrington, Kansas, and a graduate of the Oklahoma A. and M. College. He joined the Bureau in 1948 as a soil conservationist at Colville Agency, Nespelem, Washington. Since that time he has served as superintendent of the Umatilla Agency in Oregon and the Red Lake Agency in Minnesota in addition to his more recent duties at Cherokee. Prior to 1948 he served for six years in the Army and attained the rank of Major.

Mr. Fleming was born of Cherokee Indian descent in 1911 at Bernice, Oklahoma, and attended the Haskell Indian Institute at Lawrence, Kansas. He carne with the Bureau in 1933 as a clerk at Crow Agency, Montana, and subsequently served in a variety of administrative positions with the Bureau. In 1954 he was named superintendent of the Fort Belknap Agency, Harlem, Montana, and served there three years before transferring to Uintah and Ouray. He was in the Navy for two years during World War II.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst today announced the adoption of regulations governing the preparation of a roll for distribution of the Oklahoma Quapaw Indian Judgment Fund.

The roll is being prepared under the provisions of a recently enacted congressional law in order to identify the persons entitled to share in a judgment awarded to the Tribe in 1954 by the Indian Claims Commission. The amount of judgment money now on deposit in the U. S. Treasury to the credit of the Tribe is nearly $1,000,000.

Under the congressional law and the regulations, applications for inclusion on the judgment fund roll must be submitted to the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Muskogee, Oklahoma, on or before January 17, 1960.

Persons eligible for enrollment include those of Quapaw blood whose names appear on the tribal membership roll of January 4, 1890 (on the basis of blood membership rather than adoption) and descendants of such persons living on July 17, 1959. The burden of proof in establishing eligibility is placed by law upon the applicant.

Provision is made in the regulations for review of the applications by the Quapaw Tribal Business Committee in the period of three months after January 17, 1960, and for appeals to the Secretary of the Interior from decisions made by the Indian Bureau’s Area Director. Decisions of the Secretary are final.

Application forms may be obtained from the Area Director at Muskogee, the Bureau’s Quapaw Area Field Office at Miami, Oklahoma, or members of the Quapaw Tri-Business Committee.

The regulations will be published in the Federal Register in the near future.

The Department of the Interior today recommended the enactment of legislation that would transfer about 10,500 acres of federally owned land to the Rosebud Sioux Indian Tribe of South Dakota.

The lands to be transferred are located on the Rosebud Reservation and were acquired by the Federal Government between 1933 and 1950 for use in farming and ranching operations of the Rosebud Indian Boarding School. They are no longer needed for this purpose.

The original cost of the lands was approximately $45,000. Their present value is about $223,000. Also involved in the transfer would be improvements valued at around $2,000. These include a barn, bunkhouse, small house, granary, wellhouse and tower, garage and addition, and wellhouse and mill.

In a report on H. R. 2460, a bill providing for the transfer, the Department called attention to a $500,000 loan made to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe by the Bureau of Indian Affairs last fall for land acquisition purposes. Donation of the lands involved in the bill, the report said, “will supplement the Tribe's land acquisition program.”

Except for a few scattered tracts, the lands are in a compact block and can be readily utilized by the Tribe. In one block of about 280 acres, the Tribe already owns a 15/126 interest and the Federal Government a 111/126 interest.

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands on the Palm Springs Reservation in California and the three Seminole Reservations in Florida for periods up to a maximum of 99 years.

Under present law the maximum term permitted for such leases is 25 years with an option to renew for an additional 25 years.

In a report on H. R. 8712, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst pointed out that the bill is needed to permit leases with a long term enough so that the lessee can obtain financing for the type of real estate development contemplated at the Palm Springs and Seminole Reservations. In both cases intensive development for residential or commercial use is being considered.

"Difficult problems arise under present laws limiting leases to what is the equivalent of a 50-year period,” Mr. Ernst explained. "By the time financing is obtained by the lessee, the lease has less than 50 years to run. The Federal Reserve Act and the National Housing Act require a minimum of 50-year leases before approving loans secured by lease holdings."

"A longer term will permit the financing of maximum development of the tribal lands," he explained. “This does not mean that all leases will be for the maximum term allowed by law. The Department will not approve leases for terms longer than needed to get the best return for the Indian owners."

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.

The larger contract for $205,818, involves the grading, draining, and crushed gravel surfacing and construction of one bridge, 93 feet in length, on 12.4 miles of Cheyenne River Reservation Route 8 running west from Willow Creek. This is the second section of approximately 50 miles of all-weather road proposed for construction to serve 40 Indian families, including many who have resettled from the Oahe reservoir taking area, being established in stock raising enterprises in the southeastern section of the Cheyenne River Reservation. A 12.7 mile section of this road extending south from U.S. Highway 212 to Willow Creek is presently being constructed under a previous contract. The road, when completed, will serve for school bus, mail route, and farm to market travel.

The successful bidder was Delzer Construction Company of Selby, South Dakota. Eight other bids were received ranging to $259,378.

A second contract for $49,930 provides for construction of reinforced concrete bridges over Cedar Creek, Straight Creek, and LaRoche Creek on the Lower Brule Reservation Route 10 in Lyman and Stanley Counties, South Dakota. The construction of the bridges is a part of the improvement to all-weather standards of some 43 miles of road extending west from the Lower Brule Subagency, north of Reliance, South Dakota, to a connection near the northwest corner of the Lower Brule Reservation to a Stanley County road leading to U. S. Highway 83 and on to Pierre, South Dakota. Besides benefiting farm and ranching operations, mail delivery, and education of Indian children in a large area along the south side of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley Counties, this road will also have recreational value. It will provide access to much of the shoreline of the impounded lake that will be created when the Big Bend Dam across the Missouri River is completed.

The contract for construction of the bridges was awarded to Burton Jensen of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Nine bids were received ranging to a high of fi73,233.

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.

The Act of August 18, 1958, under which the distribution plans were approved, applies to 41 small tracts of Government land in California set aside for Indian use and known as rancherias. Seventy-five other Indian areas in the State are not affected. The law was enacted at the request of the Indians involved and covers a total of 7,617 acres.

Under the procedure established in conformity with the law, the plans for distributing the lands and other assets are drawn up on each rancheria by the Indians themselves and submitted .to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. After receiving tentative approval from the Bureau, they are posted in a public place on the rancheria for 30 days.

If no protests are received, the plan is given final approval by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. If protests are received, the plan is submitted for consideration by the Secretary of the Interior. Following final approval, a referendum is held among the distributees. If the vote is favorable, immediate steps are taken to put the plan into effect.

Once the property has been transferred, the Indian beneficiaries are no longer eligible by the terms of the 1958 law for special services because of their status as Indians. Thereafter all laws of the United States and of the several States apply to them as they do to other citizens.

The distribution plan most recently given final approval by the Department was for the Lytton Rancheria in Sonoma County. It covers 50 acres to be distributed among nine individual Indians.

Following is a list of the other nine rancherias whose plans have been given final approval, together with the acreage involved and the number of Indian distributees in each case:

Sixteen other plans have been submitted by rancherias and are now in process prior to the stage of final approval.

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

The contract includes a modern, fire-resistant, eight-classroom school building with a kitchen and multipurpose room, a bus garage, four new employees’ quarters, the relocation of two existing houses, and related equipment, utilities and site work. The project will replace an existing Bureau of Indian Affairs two-classroom day school. The new school will be operated under the Todd County Public School System, and will provide for 180 additional pupils.

The successful bidder was L.R. Foy Construction Company, Inc., of Hutchinson, Kansas. Three higher bids, ranging from $375,000 to $463,000 were received.