OPA

The award of a $139,712 contract for the construction of utilities at Sherman Institute, Riverside, California, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Sherman offers a special program for Indian youth whose educational background is severely limited. Most of the 1,000 students in attendance come from reservations in the Southwest. Many have had only a smattering of elementary schooling--some because there have not been enough public or Bureau-operated classroom seats to accommodate them, and some because they live in remote areas inaccessible to school buses.

The school is staffed with a faculty trained in teaching English as a second language, counselor’s expert in helping the shy and the bewildered to adjust to the discipline of daily classes, and vocational instructors to prepare the Indian youth for gainful occupations.

One of its most urgent needs has been for modernized utilities. The new construction contract calls for installation of modern water and sewer lines and fire hydrants and related work. Successful bidder was Longley Construction Company, Inc., of Las Vegas, Nevada. Two higher bids were in the amounts of $144,725 and $155,446.

The Department of the Interior today announced that all Tillamook Indians who consider themselves eligible to participate in a judgment distribution totaling approximately $149,000 should contact the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office in Portland, Oregon, regarding applications.

The funds cover a 1962 judgment of the Indian Claims Commission in favor of the Nehalem and Tillamook Indian Bands. Money was appropriated by Congress in May 1963. Public Law 88-506 of August 30, 1964 provides for disposition of the funds.

The preparation of a roll to serve as the basis for the distribution will be under the direction of the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Box 3785, Portland, Oregon. March 1, 1965 has been set as the deadline date for accepting applications, in accordance with the 1964 Act.

Public Law 88-506 directs that each person of Tillamook Indian ancestry is eligible to apply for enrollment providing:

1. He was born on or prior to and was living on August 30, 1964, and

2. His name or the name of an ancestor through whom he claims eligibility appears either on the census roll of the Nehalem Band of Tillamooks of January 28, 1898, or the annuity payment roll of the Tillamook Band of Tillamooks prepared in 1914.

Some of the Tillamooks are today found on and near the former Grande Ronde and Siletz Reservations in Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, both terminated in 1956, included Tillamook Indians among their membership. Former members are now widely scattered throughout the Pacific Northwest. Until applications have been received and evaluated, there is no way of determining the number of persons who will be eligible to share in the award.

Specific regulations to be followed in effecting the distribution are being published in the Federal Register. They include provisions for appealing rejections, handling the shares of minors and insuring that persons in the armed forces overseas will not be overlooked.

Approval of a coal-mining lease to the El Paso Natural Gas Company covering 8,762 acres of tribally owned land on the New Mexico portion of the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.

The Texas Company has indicated its intention to use the strip-mined coal in a conversion plant, to be located on the reservation that would produce motor-fuel components and gaseous hydrocarbons. If the plan proves feasible, up to 200 jobs would be provided, mainly for Navajos.

The acreage being leased is part of a larger area of 85,760 acres on which the company was granted an exclusive prospecting permit by the Navajo Tribe nearly four years ago. Exploration by the company has shown about 519,000,000 tons of strippable coal in the whole area and approximately 135,000,000 tons in the acreage being leased.

Details of the lease were worked out jointly by tribal and company representatives. The royalty rate is 15 cents per ton for all the mined coal consumed as fuel in the coal-conversion plant or converted into motor fuel components on the reservation. The rental is $1 per acre per year, the standard rate for such leases on Indian tribal land. The lease provides for restoration and rehabilitation of coal-stripped areas.

Approval was also given to the company's offer of a $90,000 bonus for a three-year option to lease an additional 13,880 acres in the prospecting area. P.N. 21894-63

Promotion of Floyd E. Stayton from principal to superintendent of the Haskell Institute for Indian students at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

He succeeds Solon G. Ayers who is also being promoted. Ayers has moved from Haskell to the position of director of schools in the Indian Bureau's area office at Portland, Oreg.

Born at Urich, Missouri, in 1904, Stayton has been at the Haskell Institute for the past 15 years and has been principal since 1956. He joined the staff in 1948 as a teacher of business and commercial studies and was named head of the department in 1954. Before coming with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he had extensive experience as a teacher and administrator in the public school system of Missouri and served for about two years as training officer for the Veterans Administration at Kansas City.

During World War II Stayton served as a battalion commander in the Army and achieved the rank of colonel. He holds A.B., B.S. and M.A. degrees, all from the University of Missouri, and is a member of Phi Delta Kappa, the national honorary education fraternity.

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of proposed Federal legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands on the Fort Mojave Reservation in Arizona, California, and Nevada 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 a bill pending in Congress, John A. Carver, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Public Land Management, said legislation is needed to permit leases with a term long enough so a lessee can obtain financing for the type of real-estate development contemplated on the Fort Mojave Reservation. The lands have a high potential for recreation and a lease proposal is now under consideration.

"Difficult problems arise under present laws limiting leases to what is the equivalent of a 50-year period, “Assistant Secretary Carver 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 added. "This does not mean that all leases will be for the maximum term allowed by law. As a matter of policy, the Department will not approve leases for terms longer than needed to get the best return for the Indian owners."

The Department's report also pointed out that 99-year leasing authority has been provided by Congress for the Palm Springs, Navajo, Seminole, Colorado River, and Southern Ute Indian reservations.

Award of a $126,550 contract for the construction of a municipal center at Lame Deer, Montana, on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new center, when complete, will provide space for tribal meetings and activities. It will also furnish a replacement for the old tribal jail building.

The successful bidder was Thrif-T Const. Co., Miles City, Montana. Seven higher bids, ranging from $126,600 to $199,000, were received.

Award of a $12,500 contract to study the economic feasibility of manufacturing a wide variety of building materials on or near the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The study will be conducted by the Armour Research Foundation of Chicago, Ill., and is, in effect, an expansion of a study initiated last December. Under the first contract, which was for $15,700, the Foundation was to study the feasibility of manufacturing concrete blocks and was required to submit a report in four months. Under the new contract, the study will be broadened to include other building materials such as cement, ready mixed concrete, brick, structural clay tile, gypsum products, concrete pipe, concrete beams, and stone facing. The completion date has been extended for five months from May 16.

The study is one of 39 which the Bureau of Indian Affairs has initiated under contract during the past 10 months to explore the feasibility of various types of economic developments on or near Indian reservations. Forty-seven reservations in 19 States are involved in these studies. Nine of the studies have been completed and are now under review.

Award of a $398,800 contract for the construction of a dormitory and related facilities at Aztec 1 New Mexico that will make it possible for 128 additional Navajo Indian pupils to attend the public schools at nearby Farmington was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of one 128-pupil dormitory; a 256- pupil kitchen-dining-multipurpose building; and a utility building. Sidewalks utility connections and other site improvements are also included in the contract.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs now maintains a 128-pupil dormitory at Aztec. This contract will double the capacity of the installation. The successful bidder was H. R. McBride Construction CO., of Farmington New Mexico. Four higher bids 1 ranging from $4191869 to $4491409 were received.

Award of a $5,597,900 contract for construction of a high school plant to accommodate 1,200 Navajo Indian students at Fort Wingate, N. Mex., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

It will be the first high school of the Bureau of Indian Affairs located in the near vicinity of the Navajo Reservation.

The contract calls for construction of a 27-classroom school, six dormitories accommodating 168 pupils each, a kitchen and dining room for all )1,200 students, and related facilities. The basic school complex will include three typing classrooms, a language laboratory, two home economics rooms, a lecture room, two rooms for general science and biology, a chemistry laboratory, a physics laboratory, an industrial drawing classroom, a woodshop classroom, an electricity-radio classroom, a metal shop classroom, a 1,250-seat gymnasium with boys' and girls' dressing rooms, an instructional materials center, an administrative unit, and an auditorium with band and music rooms.

The successful bidder was Kaufman and Broad Building Co., 3033 N. Central, Phoenix, Ariz. Two higher bids were received, one for $5,773,800 and the other for $6,119,111.

Appointment of Don Y. Jensen to the post of superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Agency, Cherokee, North Carolina, effective August 3, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Jensen, superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Mont., for the past six years, succeeds Darrell T. Fleming, who is transferring to the Gallup area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as assistant area director. A successor for Jensen at Lame Deer has not yet been selected.

A native of Castle Dale, Utah, Jensen joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947 as a soil conservationist at Crow Agency in Montana, simultaneously serving the Northern Cheyenne Agency in the same capacity. In 1955 he transferred to the Blackfeet Agency, Montana, as soil conservationist and a year later was made land operations officer at the Standing Rock Agency in North Dakota.

Jensen is a graduate of Utah State College and had 4 years of service in the Army during World War II.