OPA

The Department of the Interior today released $1,871,000 in Accelerated Public Works funds to stimulate employment through 28 projects. The allocation increases funds already approved for 14 of the projects. The new allocation will be invested in 12 States on a variety of forestry improvements. Most of the work will begin within 30 days, the Department said.

Approximately 2,100 man-months of on-site employment will be created by the newly approved projects. An equivalent amount is expected to be generated elsewhere in supplying materials and equipment.

Betterments to public lands, fish and wildlife habitat, and Indian reservations are included in the forestry improvements.

The Department thus far has received $63,000,000 in Accelerated Public Works money from the appropriations made by Congress and allocated by the President. The Area Redevelopment Administration has overall charge of the Accelerated Public Works program. All but approximately $2,000,000 has now been committed to specific Interior Department projects. The remainder soon is to be earmarked.

The 28 projects included in today1s announcement are in areas administered by three branches of the Department. Seventeen projects, valued at $1,219,000 will be on areas under jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has six projects, with an investment of $377,000, and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife has five, totaling $275,000.

Following is a description of the latest APW allocations on a State-by-State basis:

Canadian administrators of Indian affairs will be guests of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs at a three-day joint meeting starting October 7 in Phoenix, Ariz., the Department of the Interior announced today.

The conference is an outgrowth of a visit made to the University of Toronto last December by United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash. Its major purpose is to provide for an interchange of information between the administrators of Indian affairs in the two countries on a wide array of topics of mutual interest.

The group of Canadian visitors will number about 15 and will include both national and regional administrators of Indian affairs. Heading the contingent will be Colonel H. M. Jones, Director, Indian Affairs Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and Mr. Ben Sivertz, Director, Branch of Administration, Department of Northern Affairs.

The United States participants will include Commissioner Nash and others from the Washington office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as the Bureau's 10 area directors.

Following the business sessions the United States and Canadian conferees will divide into groups for visits on Thursday and Friday to the Hopi and Navajo Reservations in northern Arizona, to the Fort Apache Reservation in the eastern part of the State, and to Indian employment centers in Phoenix and Los Angeles.

The Monday morning session will feature introductory talks by Colonel Jones and Commissioner Nash and will set the stage for the meetings to follow. Monday afternoon will be devoted to a discussion of Indian local government in the two countries. On Tuesday morning the conferees will focus on economic development in Indian areas. Tuesday afternoon will be given over to the administration of service programs in the fields of education, welfare, housing and health. Wednesday morning's session will deal with programs of placement or employment assistance. The final session on Wednesday afternoon will be devoted to concluding remarks by the heads of the two delegations, evaluation of the conference, and plans for possible future meetings.

Transfer of Llewellyn Kingsley, superintendent of the Winnebago Indian Agency in Nebraska for the past three years, to the comparable position at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, effective September 15, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

At Pine Ridge, Kingsley replaces Leslie P. Towle, who was recently appointed area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Anadarko, Oklahoma successor at the Winnebago Agency has not yet been selected.

The new Pine Ridge superintendent first came with the Bureau in 1936 as an assistant clerk at the Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Arizona. Two years later he moved to the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Arizona, as foreman of water development. After 13 years in this post, he was named chief clerk of the Hopi Agency in 1951 and was then promoted to administrative officer of the same agency in 1953. Three years later, he transferred as administrative officer to the San Carlos Agency, San Carlos, Arizona, and in 1958 moved to the same position at the Uintah-Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah. He was appointed superintendent at Winnebago in 1960.

Before joining the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he was associated for nine years with an oil company in Oklahoma. He was born at Canton, Oklahoma, in 1904 and attended the University of Colorado from 1923 to 1926.

The Department of the Interior today announced adoption of regulations providing for the government of three Indian villages in Osage County, Oklahoma, which in the past have not had an effective form of local government.

The areas affected are Grayhorse Indian Village, Hominy Indian Village, and Pawhuska Indian Village, which lies just outside the city limits of Pawhuska. All three villages were reserved from allotment under the 1906 law which provided ~or the allotting of the surface of other lands in Osage County to members of the Osage Tribe. Subsurface or mineral rights were retained in tribal ownership.

Up to now the villages have been supervised under uncodified regulations which were approved in 1932 and have not adequately met their needs.

"Absence of well-defined regulations, the Department pointed out, has periodically resulted in situations that have threatened the welfare of the members of the Osage Tribe."

The new regulations were unanimously approved by the Osage Tribal Council at a meeting in Pawhuska on August 29. They provide for the organization of five member committees in each of the villages under regulations established by the Osage Tribal Council and for the drafting of constitutions and by-laws by these committees Subject to approval by the Tribal Council and by the superintendent of the Osage Indian Agency.

Provisions are also included to cover the issuance of dwelling permits, the sale or mortgage of improvements, the renting and inheritance of improvements, the setting aside of certain tracts for tribal use and benefit, and other related matters.

The full text of the regulations is being published in the Federal Register

Promotion of Alfred Dubray, a career employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 1938, to the position of superintendent of the Winnebago Agency, Winnebago, Nebraska, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

A Sioux Indian of Winner, South Dakota, Dubray has been in charge of budget and fiscal activities in the Bureau's area office at Muskogee, Oklahoma, for the past eight years. He first came with the Bureau as a clerk-typist at Rosebud, South Dakota, and Subsequently served in positions of increasing responsibility in the Bureau's national headquarters and in the field office at Anadarko, Oklahoma.

He is a graduate of Mitchell Business College, Mitchell, South Dakota, and served in the Army during World War II.

At Winnebago, Dubray succeeds Llewellyn Kingsley, who recently transferred to the superintendence at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

A number of outstanding events in the field of Indian Affairs occurred in the 1963 fiscal year as the Bureau of Indian Affairs continued its emphasis of greater development of human and natural resources on Indian reservations in line with policies recommended by the 1961 Task Force on Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Fiscal 1963 was a period of welcome employment for 4,418 previously jobless Indians who obtained wage work on projects initiated under the Accelerated Public Works Program on nearly 100 reservations in 18 States. Besides providing employment for a significant number of some of the Nation's neediest citizens, these projects have made important contributions to reservation life through road improvements, upgraded timber stands, the construction of community centers, and the prevention of soil erosion. A number are, in addition, promoting greater economic development on many reservations by expanding the relatively untapped, but extremely valuable, tourism potential of the reservations.

Early in the year 10 young Indians and Eskimos from Alaska completed an l8-month course in electronics training, made available under the auspices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to equip them for skilled employment in their native state, and were received at the White House by the late President Kennedy. These trainees, who received their instruction in New York City, were the first in what may be a long line of Indians and Eskimos from Alaska to take intensive courses in electronics instruction in preparation for jobs at defense and communications installations in their State. Training is financed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and by the Department of the Air Force, which contemplates employment of the trainees after completion of the courses. Subsequent groups of Alaskan natives will be trained in Los Angeles.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has approved an order extending until January 1, 1969, the period of trust on Indian lands, both tribal and individually owned, in cases where the trusteeship or restrictions would otherwise expire in the years from 1964 through 1968.

The order applies to Indian allotments or homesteads on the public domain, Indian lands in Oklahoma, and the lands of tribes and bands which voted to exclude themselves from the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. In the case of tribes which voted to accept the 1934 law, the trust period for their lands continues in force until otherwise provided by Congress.

In recent years the Department has been issuing an order toward the end of each calendar year extending for five years the trust periods that would otherwise expire in the following 12 months. The effect of Secretary Udall’s new order is to eliminate the need for these annual orders for the next five years.

The Department of the Interior has asked Congress for legislation that would make Indian tribes eligible to receive planning help under the Urban Planning Assistance Program of the Housing and Home Finance Agency.

The program is administered under Section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954 which authorizes grants to State planning agencies for the provision of planning assistance to smaller cities, counties and other local units of government.

“Indian tribes are not included as the law now stands. "Indian tribes on reservations are in fact units of local government," the Department pointed out, "although not political subdivisions of the States, and we know of no reason for excluding them from the Urban Planning Assistance Program."

The Department added that Congress has explicitly made Indian tribes eligible for assistance under other similar statutes such as the Area Redevelopment Act, the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962, and the Public Works Acceleration Act.

Normally such grants cover two-thirds of the total planning cost. Under the proposed bill, however, grants could be increased to three-fourths of the total planning cost if the reservation is located in a designated redevelopment area under Section 5 of the Area Redevelopment Act.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the ending of the legal relationship which the Government has had for nearly 20 years with the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina and with its individual members as Indians.

The Secretary’s action was taken in compliance with the provisions of a 1959 act of Congress (73 Stat. 592) which were accepted by a majority of the adult tribal members.

The 1959 law authorized distribution of the tribally owned assets among the individual members if such action was first approved by a majority of the adult members. Under this statute, a roll consisting of 226 adult members was established in late 1959. In the intervening months 127 of these members filed with, the Department individual statements accepting the provisions of the act and former Secretary Fred A. Seaton proclaimed the law in effect on July 2, 1960. By its terms two years were allowed thereafter for completion of the property distribution.

The tribal assets to be distributed consisted chiefly of 3,388 acres of land and some buildings. About 100 acres were set aside for community purposes and the balance of the property was appraised. Taken together with tribal funds already on deposit in the U. S. Treasury, it added up to a tribal estate of $187,774.40 or $296 for each of the 631 enrolled members including minors.

Each member was given the option of taking his share in land or in cash. Parents or guardians made the choice for the minors. A total of 345 chose land and 286 elected to receive cash. Tribal members were given a preference to select land they had been using as homesites and family members were allowed to select their share of land in a block. Title to the land so selected was conveyed to the members by quitclaim deed.

The land not selected was offered for sale under sealed bids and the proceeds were distributed among the members electing to take their share in cash.

On completion of the distribution, the constitution and bylaws of the Tribe were revoked. The Department's special responsibilities to the people as Indians are being ended as of July 1, 1962.

The Department of the Interior today announced several major changes in the Federal regulations governing the conduct of elections of officers of the Osage Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.

Owners of “headright” interests in the Osage Tribe’s mineral estate 21 years of age or over are eligible to vote in these elections. While most of the headright owners live in Oklahoma, a substantial number are residents of southern California.

One of the most important changes involves the method of computing the value of ballots cast which is tied to the number of headrights owned. Under the old rules, these values were frequently computed to many decimal places with the result that the counting of ballots became extremely complex and time-consuming. The revised regulations simplify this aspect of the elections by requiring full computation only for headright interests amounting to less than a hundredth of a share and computation merely to two decimal places in all other cases.

A second major change clears up an obscure point in the former regulations by providing explicitly that watchers and challengers are subject to the same rules as the election board with regard to leaving and returning to the polling place.

A third modification eliminates a section of the old rules providing for the presence of interpreters at the polling places. The deletion was made because practically all Osage tribal members now speak English and are well versed on election procedures.

Other significant amendments deal with compensation of election board members and the affidavits required for absentee ballots. The amended sections of the regulations are being published in the Federal Register.