OPA

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today that he has asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs to send one of its forestry experts immediately into northern Idaho for an investigation of timber sale prospects on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Members of the Nez Perce Tribe recently met with Secretary Seaton in Idaho and urged the need for a public offering of tribal timber at the earliest possible late. After hearing their presentation, the Secretary assured them that he would ask the Indian Bureau to investigate the problem at once and provide him with a report on the situation.

A new emergency program for distributing feed grains to Indian stockmen in previously designated drought-stricken areas of the Southwest was announced today by the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed October 16 by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton and Acting Secretary of Agriculture True D. Morse, the Commodity Credit Corporation will deliver the grains in carload lots to designated rail points in accordance with orders submitted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Indian tribal organizations will be responsible for storage, handling and distribution to tribal members who require such help to maintain livestock on which they depend for subsistence.

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood indicated that the Indian Bureau is asking the tribes to survey the feed grain requirements of eligible Indian stockmen immediately and that the Bureau will be submitting orders to the Commodity Credit Corporation in the near future.

Among the major southwestern Indian groups which will be eligible under the program are the Navajo Tribe of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and the Pueblos of New Mexico.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today that he has asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs to send one of its forestry experts immediately into northern Idaho for an investigation of timber sale prospects on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Members of the Nez Perce Tribe recently met with Secretary Seaton in Idaho and urged the need for a public offering of tribal timber at the earliest possible late. After hearing their presentation, the Secretary assured them that he would ask the Indian Bureau to investigate the problem at once and provide him with a report on the situation.

Bonus bids of over $27,000,000 were received for oil and gas leases on about 103,000 acres of' Navajo Indian land near the “four corners" area of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today.

The bids, which were opened November 11 at the Indian Bureau's Window Rock (Ariz.) agency office, represented the highest offering ever made for oil and gas leases on Indian lands at a single sale, Acting Bureau Commissioner W. Barton Greenwood reported.

The total bonus offered for 101,856.73 acres of tribally owned land was $26,927,642.57. For 1,079,34 acres of "allotted" or individually owned lands the aggregate bid was $548,574.38.

All lands included in the offering are in San Juan County, Utah, and San Juan and McKinley Counties, New Mexico, and are in the general vicinity of Ute Mountain Indian lands in southwestern Colorado which brought total bonus bids of $7,600,891.20 for 53,120 acres in a sale held just a month ago.

The November 1 opening is the first of' three scheduled on Navajo lands in this general area this month. The other openings are scheduled for the 13th and the 23rd.

Under the regulations which govern oil and gas leasing of Indian lands, the annual rentals are fixed at $1.25 per acre and royalties on production at 12 1/2 percent. The competition, therefore, comes in the bonuses, which are offered for the leases.

At the two major sales, which have been held on Indian lands since July 1, on the Ute and Navajo lands, the total bonus offered was over $35,000,000. This compares with the record-breaking total of approximately $41,000,000 received in bonuses, rents and royalties on all Indian lands in the United States for the 12-month period which ended June 30, 1956.

In the second of three bid openings this month, the Navajo Indians received total bonus bids of $3,247,094.91 for oil and gas leases on 82,200 acres of tribally owned land in San Juan County, New Mexico, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today.

In a previous bid opening November 1 for leases on other lands in the "four corners" area of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico the Navajos received $27,476,212.95 on approximately 102,000 acres of tribal land and 1,100 acres of "allotted" or individually owned land.

The second lot of bids was opened November 13 at the Indian Bureau's Window Rock (Arizona) agency office. Under the regulations which govern oil and gas leasing of Indian lands, the annual rentals are fixed at $1.25 per acre and royalties on production at 12 1/2 percent. The competition therefore comes in the bonuses which are offered for the leases. In the November 13 opening the highest bid per acre was $207.97, and the average high bid was $39.50. A third and final lot of bids on other Navajo lands is to be opened November 23,

The second opening brings the total paid in bonuses for oil and gas leases on Navajo and Ute lands in the "four corners" area to almost $38,350,000 since July 1, This compares with the record-breaking total of approximately $41,000,000 received in bonuses, rents and royalties on all Indian lands in the United States in the year ended June 30, 1956.

Awarding of a $409,300 negotiated contract to the Department of Public Instruction, State of South Dakota, was announced today by W. Barton Greenwood, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Indian education in the public schools or South Dakota has been partially supported by Federal funds under a contract with the State since 1949. To qualify for these funds under the Johnson-O’Malley Act or 1936, school districts must show chat Indian students and nontaxable Indian land within the boundaries of their district constitute a financial burden. The amount received by each district is based on a computation or several need factors. The first State contract aided 61 school districts, enrolling 919 Indian students.

Working in close cooperation with the State, the objective or the Bureau of Indian Affairs is to develop public school opportunities for all Indian children on the same basis that public schools are available for non-Indian children in the State.

Between 1907 and 1953, 65 federally operated Indian schools in South Dakota were closed and the schools transferred to public school jurisdiction or the Indian children integrated into the existing public school system.

The purpose of the present contract is to provide financial assistant to affected school districts when there is a showing of need for this aid.

During the 1955-56 school year, Johnson-O’Malley aid was provided to 76 South Dakota school districts enrolling 1,821 Indian children.

Top elected officers of 29 Indian tribes from Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi have been invited to meet with Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons at Dallas, Texas, in a series of sessions beginning December 3 and ending December 13, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The twofold purpose of the meetings is to give the tribal representatives an Opportunity for discussing local problems with Commissioner Emmons and to afford the Commissioner an opportunity to explain more fully the present aims and policies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The first series of meetings will be held from December 3 through 5, inclusive, and will include representatives of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache, the Cheyenne and Arapaho, the Pawnee, and the Ponca Tribes of Oklahoma and the Potawatomi and Kickapoo Tribes of Kansas.

Further meetings are scheduled for December 7 through 9, inclusive, and will involve representatives of the following tribes, all from Oklahoma: Wichita (including Delaware), Caddo, Fort Sill Apache, Otoe and Missouri, Tonkawa, Absentee Shawnee, Citizen Band of Potawatomi, Iowa, Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox.

The third meeting series will take place December 11 through 13, inclusive, and will be attended by representatives from the Eastern Shawnee, Quapaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, Osage, Kaw, and Seneca Cayuga Tribes of Oklahoma; the Iowa and Sac and Fox Tribes of Kansas; and the Choctaw Tribe of Mississippi.

All the meetings will be held in the Statler Hilton Hotel and time will be provided both for general sessions and for each of the tribal delegations to confer individually with the Commissioner.

To preserve an informal "round table" atmosphere and avoid a “convention” type of meeting, attendance is limited to three delegates from each tribal group. In the great majority of cases, invitations have been extended to the chairman, the vice chairman, and the secretary of the tribal council.

The Dallas meetings are the ninth and last in a series of sessions which Commissioner Emmons has been holding with tribal representatives throughout the country since last July. The eight earlier conferences were as follows: (1) at Omaha, Nebr., July 19 through 25, with tribes of North and South Dakota and Nebraska; (2) at Denver, Colo., July 28 through August 2, with tribes of Colorado and New Mexico (including Navajo); (3) at El Paso, Tex., August 20 through 25; with tribes of Arizona (except Navajo); (4) at Salt Lake City, Utah, September 6 through 11, with tribes of Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana; (5) at Seattle, Wash., September 13 and 14, with tribes of western Washington; (6) at Portland, Oreg., September 17 and 18, with Oregon tribes; (7) at Boise, Idaho, September 20 through 22, with Idaho tribes; and (8) at Des Moines, Iowa, October 15 through 20, with tribes of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Commenting on these earlier meetings, Commissioner Emmons said that they have been “tremendously helpful in bringing about a better understanding of what the Bureau is aiming to do and how we are going about it.“

“At all of these meetings,” he added, “we have emphasized our threefold objective of better health, adequate education, and economic and social development. After participating in these discussions, the tribal representatives in the great majority of cases have adopted resolutions, entirely on their own initiative, expressing approval of these objectives and support for the program.”

At the Dallas meeting the Bureau will be represented not only by Commissioner Emmons but also by key members from the Washington staff and the area office staffs at Anadarko and Muskogee, Okla.

Commissioner Emmons will hold a press conference in his suite at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Dallas at 3 p.m., Sunday, December 2. All interested parties will be welcome.

Appointment of three new relocation officers to take charge of the Indian Bureau’s field relocation offices in California at San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

At San Francisco George M. Felshaw from the Bureau’s area office at Muskogee, Okla., will move in January 13, 1957, replacing H. M. Mathiesen who retires November 30.

In the Los Angeles office Miss Ola Beckett, who has been in charge of the community adjustment section there, has been designated to take over the top position in an acting capacity when Mrs. Mary Nan Gamble leaves January 13 to join the Bureau’s relocation services staff in Washington, Mrs. Gamble will specialize in community adjustment work.

At San Jose Rudolph Russell, who has been on the staff at San Francisco, will take charge of the office December 16 replacing Edward T. Kerley who joins the staff at Los Angeles.

Mr. Felshaw first joined the Bureau in 1938 and has been engaged in relocation or job placement work for the past eight years. Before coming to the Muskogee office as area relocation officer in 1955, he was engaged in similar work at the Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Ariz. He was born at Pima, Ariz., in 1913 and attended Gila Junior College, Thatcher, Ariz.

Award of a $201,750 contract for Indian education to the Department of Public Instruction, State of North Dakota, was announced today for the Department of the Interior by W. Barton Greenwood, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Indian education in the public schools of North Dakota has been partially supported by Federal funds under a contract with the state since 1948. To qualify for these funds under the Johnson O'Malley Act of 1936, school districts must show that Indian students and nontaxable Indian land within the boundaries of their district constitute a financial burden. The amount received by each district is based on a computation of several need factors. The first contract aided 16 school districts enrolling 239 Indian students.

Working in close cooperation with the State, the objective of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is to develop public school opportunities for all Indian children on the same basis that public schools are available for non-Indian children in the State.

Between 1911 and 1945, 12 Federally operated Indian schools in the State were closed and the schools transferred to public school jurisdiction or the Indian children were integrated into the existing public school system. The Bureau still operates 13 Federal schools for Indians in the State,

During the 1955-56 school year, Johnson O'Malley aid was provided to 37 public school districts enrolling 729 Indian children.

Award of a $230,677 construction contract for Indian school facilities at Round Rock, Ariz., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract was awarded to 'Wilson, Hockinson & Cantrall, Inc., of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Five other contractors from Colorado and New Mexico submitted higher bids, ranging from $238,990 to $294,000.

The Round Rock project is one of several which the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior is undertaking under its long-range program of providing school facilities for all school-age Indian children.

Similar expansions of school plants are underway in other localities to provide facilities for out-of-school Indian children and to relieve severe overcrowding in existing Federal Indian schools. Under the Bureau's program enrollment of Navajo children has been increased from 14,106 in 1953 to 24,163 in 1956.

The Round Rock contract calls for the erection of a five classroom school building to accommodate about 150 students. Three duplex quarters buildings and other required facilities will also be constructed.