OPA

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.

One Pine Ridge contract for $203,479.43 covers all-weather surfacing of 8.9 miles of road from Kyle south towards Batesland to provide for all-weather travel for school buses, mail route, and travel needs of 200 Indian families in the area. It is part of the main access route from U. S. Highway 18 located in the eastern part of the reservation. The contract also includes 5.2 miles of road between Rockyford and Manderson to complete an all-weather road between the two communities and directly serve more than 100 Indian families for mail route, school bus, farm-to-market and intercommunity travel. J. F. England's Sons, Inc., and Robt. Millard of Rapid City were the low and successful bidders.

The other Pine Ridge contract for $166,805.75 covers 10.2 miles of road in the vicinity of Wanblee. This contract will provide an all-weather access road from State Highway 73 to the Wanblee Indian community and directly serve more than 200 Indian families for mail route, school bus, and farm-to-market travel. The firm of R. C. Van Houten and Sons of Rapid City was the successful bidder with the lowest of six bids received.

A $68,616 contract for asphalt paving of 7.177 miles of the Rosebud Mission Road on the Rosebud Reservation in Todd County, was won by low bidder, Carlson Lien Construction Company of Rapid City, S. Dak. This work will provide asphalt pavement on the Rosebud-Mission road which is the main access road from the Rosebud Indian community and hospital to U. S. Route 18 just west of Mission, S. Dak. The road will also greatly benefit the school bus route between the Rosebud community and Mission High School.

The fourth contract of $35,980.30 is for reconstruction and repaving of 1.508 miles of the Pierre Indian School street system on the Crow Creek Reservation, Pierre, S. Dak. The Job will provide needed improvements to roads on the school grounds caused by the increased traffic resulting from the relocation of the agency headquarters from Ft. Thompson to Pierre. Dakota Asphalt Sales Corporation of Sioux Falls, was given the contract and submitted the lowest of the three bids received.

Nearly 78 percent of the 2,133 enrolled members of Oregon’s Klamath Indian Tribe have elected to withdraw from the tribal organization and receive a cash payment for their proportionate share of the tribal assets, Under Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson announced today in approving the final results of a tribal election held in April.

Mr. Chilson approved the results in a letter to T. B. Watters, chairman of the management specialists administering the program under the Klamath Termination Act of 1954.

The final results differ only slightly from the preliminary returns announced on April 28. A total of 1,659 or 77.778 percent of the enrolled members have elected to withdraw and 474 or 22.222 percent are remaining. Of the latter group only 80 executed valid ballots to remain. The 394 others are remaining by default.

Award of a $375,798 contract for construction work that will nearly double the capacity of Indian school facilities at Canoncito, New Mexico, 18 miles west - of Albuquerque, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Canoncito School, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has a present enrollment of 62 day pupils. When completed, the enlarged facilities will provide for 120 day pupils.

The contract provides for the construction of two additional classrooms, a kitchen and multipurpose building, two duplex living quarters, the remodeling of the existing school building, and the improving of utilities.

Anchor Construction Company, of Roswell, New Mexico, was the successful bidder for the contract. Three higher bids, ranging from $385,400 to $401,584, were received.

Award of two contracts totaling $59,370.47 to complete the storage tank rehabilitation and the range-water supply phases of the Indian Bureau's development program on the Papago Indian Reservation, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The $29,509 storage tank rehabilitation contract provides for pneumatically placing concrete linings in seventeen storage tanks and stock troughs presently in need of repair. The tanks will provide storage of stock water in the foothills areas of the reservation that are now lacking stock water developments. Successful low bidder was the M. M. Sundt Construction Company, Tucson, Arizona.

The second contract, of $29,861.47, provides for furnishing and installing 19 windmills and nine towers mostly in the foothills areas. Nine of the windmills will replace worn-out and obsolete structures. The contract was awarded to the Arizona General Supply Company, in Prescott.

The foothills regions of the Papago Reservation are some of the better forage producing areas and completion of the projects will result in more proper utilization of forage and more uniform distribution of livestock.

Award of a $40,905.34 road construction project to improve transportation facilities in Beltrami County, Minnesota, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The 2.84-mile project is part of an over-all plan by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to improve the 22-mile link between Minnesota Trunk Highway No. 1 and the Village of Ponemah. The road is constantly used by the school bus and by local Red Lake commercial fishermen, and is the only outlet for the residents of the Village.

The successful bidder for the contract was Herbert Holthusen of Grygla, Minnesota. Five other bids, ranging from $43,722.59 to $55,724.16, were received.

Award of a $33,014.25 bridge and flood-control construction project on the Hoopa Indian Reservation, Humboldt County, California, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project, on the main route to Hoopa Agency, involves the construction of a continuous slab bridge on existing substructures, and protecting levees which will include roadway approaches to the bridge and the developed areas inundated by the floods of the winter of 1955-56. The road is on a school bus route and serves a substantial number of the reservation population.

The construction work is part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' program for the improvement of Indian roads to standards acceptable for incorporation into county road systems. Upon completion of the construction of the Hoopa Agency Loop Road this structure will become a county bridge. The structure will be located on Supply Creek near the old Agency Hospital.

Successful bidders were W. H. Lindeman & Sons, Inc., of Red Bluff, California. Three other bids were received ranging from $38,364.75 to $39,996.50.

Award of a $44,965.83 contract for construction of reinforced concrete box culverts on Oaks-Teresita road in Cherokee and Delaware Counties, Oklahoma, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

When completed, the project will provide an all-weather road which will be an important link in the highway system the Bureau of Indian Affairs is constructing to promote Indian economic advancement under Jurisdiction of the Muskogee Area Office. It will serve as a school bus route, both to grade school and high school in Oaks, and to grade school in Teresita, and as a mail and farm-to-market road to Indians and others in the area.

Successful bidder for the contract was Frank Newell and Son of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Five other bids ranging from $46,857.47 to $64,441.68 were received.

Award of five school-access road construction contracts totaling nearly half a million dollars on Indian reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

In North Dakota, Delzer Construction Company of Selby, South Dakota, received an $85,652.74 contract for 11.2 miles of road in the western section of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Sioux County. The road will be improved to meet adequate standards for all-weather travel needs, and will comprise a section of a bus route for transportation of children to the Becker Day School. Upon completion of the road, the responsibility for its maintenance will be taken over by Sioux County.

Also slated for improvement to meet travel needs of reservation residents for farm-to-market travel, school bus transportation, and mail routes, are 3.1 miles of the Martin Lake Road on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, 1.8 miles of the Crow Hill Road, and 3.2 miles of the East-West Road on the Fort Totten Indian Reservation, all in North Dakota. Archie Campbell and Joe Mayo &Son, a partnership of New Rockford, North Dakota, submitted the successful low bid of $117,034.37.

On the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota, a $107,132.33 contract for 11.5 miles of road was awarded to Bober Construction Company, Minot, North Dakota. The project begins at Lost Bridge on the Little Missouri River and runs northerly to a junction with the road to Mandaree where a day school and subagency headquarters are maintained for the section of the reservation lying west of the Missouri River. The road under this contract is on the route from Dickinson to New Town, and to the Tioga oil fields.

In South Dakota, a $105,796.84 school-access contract on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation to provide an all-weather road from U. S. Highway 212, near Red Elm, north to the Iron Lightning Indian community and Indian Day School in the Moreau River Valley was awarded to Roy Kindt of Winner, South Dakota. The contract calls for the grading, draining, and crushed-gravel surfacing of 9.4 miles of road, Ziebach County and Red Elm Township have agreed to take over maintenance responsibility for this road upon completion of its improvement by the Indian Bureau.

An $80,595.21 contract for eight miles of the Cedar Creek Road on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in Stanley County; South Dakota was awarded to Johnson Brothers, Inc., of Pierre, South Dakota. The work is a part of the improvement of some 43 miles of the Cedar Creek Road, extending from the Lower Brule community, north of Reliance, South Dakota, to a connection in the northwest corner of the reservation to a Lyman County road leading to U. S. Route No. 83 and on to Pierre, South Dakota. Besides benefiting mail delivery, farm and ranching operations, 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. Eventually it will provide access to most of the south shoreline of the impounded lake that will be created when the Big Bend Dam across the Missouri River is completed.

Award of three contracts totaling $1,024,915.10 for road improvement work on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and in Utah near the "Four Corners" area, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The "Four Corners" contract is for the construction of a 574-footsteel and concrete bridge across the San Juan River near Montezuma Creek in southeastern Utah. The bridge will provide a much needed crossing on the San Juan River in the “Four Corners" oil development region. With present facilities it is necessary to travel approximately 150 miles to get from one side of the river to the other. Gardner Construction Company of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, submitted the low and successful bid of $317,175.

A second contract is for construction of a school-access bridge and road section running north from Kayenta Arizona, in the north-central portion of the reservation. The 2.8-mile section, joining a 19-mile road now under contract, will serve an isolated trading center on the reservation where school facilities for approximately 500 children are being developed and maintained. The nearest developed highway providing near direct access is via Tuba City, Arizona, a distance of 75 miles. Successful bidder was Allison & Haney of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the low bid of $289,965.10.

The third contract, involving construction of 13.8 miles of road on Navajo Route 8, will provide an improved road from U. S. 666 to Chinle and Many Farms, Arizona. Chinle is at the gateway to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument. Navajo Route 8 leads into a vast central portion of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, an area of more than 2,500 square miles in which there are no existing improved roads. Successful bidder was the Northwestern Engineering Company of Denver, Colorado, with a low bid of $417,775.

When the last triennial conference of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers was held here at Estes Park back in 1955, it was a matter of real regret to me that I was unable to be with you in person. Those of you who attended that conference may recall that I had to be in Alaska at that particular time and that my speech was delivered for me by Assistant Commissioner Reid. This year I have been somewhat more fortunate in the scheduling of my time and I have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to be here and to sit in--although somewhat briefly--on your sessions and deliberations.

In the time you have given me here this evening I would like to present for the most part a kind of progress report. My thought is to hark back to some of the major points touched on in my 1955 speech and try to bring them up to date. Then I also want to present my personal views on why we have a so-called "Indian problem" in the United States today and how you people can help in bringing about a long-range solution. Thirdly and lastly, I plan to take just a brief look at the period ahead in Indian affairs.

Needless to say, I am not expecting any of you here this evening to remember the details of what I had to say in a speech delivered on my behalf before this organization three years ago. I have difficulty enough in remembering my own speeches over a period of three years. So I am fully prepared, after having checked back on the 1955 text, to refresh both your memories and my own.

One of the points I touched on quite early in the speech of three years ago was the question of Indian health. As it happened, the transfer of our Indian Bureau health program over to the United States Public Health Service was consummated on July 1, 1955, just 10 days before the date of my speech. So I naturally had quite a bit to say about this transfer and why we in the Bureau had felt it would be desirable and beneficial to the Indian people. I expressed confidence that the Indian health picture was “more deeply encouraging than ever before in the long history of our efforts to deal with this basic problem.”

In the light of all this, it is interesting, now in the summer of 1958, to review some of the highlights of progress in the Indian health program. Since the transfer took place, the appropriations for the program including construction~ have been substantially increased and are now nearly twice as large as they were in the fiscal year 1955. The number of doctors working on the program has been nearly doubled; the number of public health nurses has increased by one-third; and the health education and sanitation staffs have been significantly enlarged. Even more important perhaps, these increases in funds and personnel have begun to produce measurable results in the health of Indian people.

Take tuberculosis, for example, which was for so many years the Number One killer among the Indian population, Since the 1955 transfer the number of new cases among Indians in the continental United States has dropped by 30 percent and the Indian tuberculosis death rate has been reduced by approximately one fourth. The list of tuberculosis patients waiting for hospitalization, which numbered in the hundreds three years ago, has now been eliminated entirely. Beds are available for all. During this same period the death rate from gastro enteric diseases--one of our real Indian problems, as you probably know--has been cut approximately in half, from 50.4 to 26.5 per 100,000population, and the crucially important infant death rate has dropped by 17 percent.

These facts and figures and others like them that could additionally be cited do not mean, of course, that all Indian health problems have been solved and that nothing more remains to be done. Far from it. But they do represent an impressive measure of progress that has been achieved over the past three years and I am frank to say that the benefits accomplished in this period for the Indian people have exceeded even my most optimistic expectations. The only real grounds for regret we now have, as I see it, would be that this responsibility was not transferred to the Public Health Service some 10 or 20 years ago.

Another topic of major importance which I discussed in my 1955 speech was the need to provide the Indian people with broader and more adequate educational opportunities. At that time, as some of you may recall, we were focusing primary attention on the Navajo Reservation because of the tremendous problem in shortage of school facilities which had developed there as a kind of chronic situation. In my speech at Estes Park I pointed out that in June of 1953 "there were only about 14,000 Navajo children enrolled in school out of a school-age population of approximately 28,000" and that "almost exactly half of the rising generation was being condemned to illiteracy" under these conditions. Then I went on to describe the special emergency program that we had developed to enlarge the school opportunities and reported that the total enrollment of Navajo children in schools of all kinds had been increased from 14,000 in 1953 to approximately 23,000 in the spring of 1955.