OPA

The Department of the Interior announced today two personnel moves involving superintendents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in North Dakota and South Dakota.

Owen D. Morken, who has been superintendent of the Fort Berthold Agency, New Town, N. Dak., since 1957, will move on October 13 to the comparable position at Pierre Agency, Pierre, S. Dak. He will replace Christian H. Beitzel who retired August 31.

At Fort Berthold Agency Mr. Morken will be succeeded on October 16 by Homer M. Gilliland who has for the past six years been land operations officer of the Colorado River Agency, Parker, Arizona.

Mr. Morken first joined the Indian Bureau as educational adviser in ACCC camp at Bemidji; Minn. in 1939. Subsequently he served in both educational and highway work at various locations in Minnesota and Arizona before his appointment as Fort Berthold superintendent three years ago. He was born at Bemidji in 1911 and graduated from the State Teachers' College there in 1934. Prior to coming with the Bureau, he worked for five years with the Minnesota Highway Department.

Mr. Gilliland has been with the Bureau since 1943 when he was appointed as principal-teacher at the Cherokee Agency in North Carolina. After two years in this post he was named soil conservationist at the same agency and served until 1954 when he transferred to Colorado River. He was born at Tremont, Miss., in 1912 and graduated from Mississippi State University in 1934.

Mr. Beitzel joined the Bureau in 1936 as school principal at Fort Berthold Agency, and was later named superintendent of that agency. Subsequently he served as superintendent of the Pipestone Agency, Minn.; the Turtle Mountain Consolidated Agency, N. Dak,; the Winnebago Agency, Nebr.; and the Pierre Indian School.

Award of a $1,119,100 contract for the expansion and improvement of Federal Indian school facilities on the Navajo Reservation at Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project involves an enlargement in the capacity of the existing boarding school at Teec Nos Pos to provide space for 334 Indian pupils. When completed, it will relieve the present overcrowding and furnish educational opportunities for 252 additional Navajo youngsters.

The work is scheduled for completion in the fall of 1961.

The contract provides for the construction of two dormitories for the pupils, an 11-classroom school building, a kitchen-dining hall to seat 160 students and 28 employees I quarters.· The job also includes remodeling of the existing school to nine bedroom apartments for staff personnel, as well as necessary utilities, roads, and other site work.

The successful bidder was H. R. McBride Construction Co. of Farmington, New Mexico. Eleven higher bids were received ranging from $1,179,900 to $1,358,088.

Sales of timber from lands belonging to Indian tribes and individual Indians brought the owners a record high income of $12,388,000 in the fiscal year 1960, or 23 percent more than the 1959 income, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The volume of timber cut under contract was also at the record level of 597 million board feet, an increase of 63 million board feet over the 1959 total. Not included in these figures are the data for Klamath Indian Reservation, in Oregon, where sales are affected by the approaching termination of all Federal trust responsibility.

Sawmills owned by four Indian tribal groups--the Menominee of Wisconsin, :the Red Lake Chippewa of Minnesota, the Navajo of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and the White River Apache of Arizona--converted to lumber about 50 million board feet of the total cut.

Over the country as a whole, there are nearly six million acres of commercially valuable Indian timberland, exclusive of the Klamath Reservation. Eighty-two percent is owned by tribal groups and the balance by individual Indians.

The record of commercial logging operations on Indian lands extends back over a hundred years. The concept of sustained yield and multiple-use became controlling factors in the management of these forests at the turn of the century.

The forests are factors in the economy of many Indian tribes and individual Indians. They provide cash income to the Indians from sales of the standing timber, and employment in the timber harvest. The timber sales, under sustained yield management, are also a stabilizing influence on the dependent wood using industries and the communities that serve them.

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a contract for construction of 10.056 miles of roadway from Betatakin Turnoff to Marsh Pass on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona.

This section of road is part of Navajo Route 1, for which authorizing legislation was provided by Public Law 85-740 enacted in 1958.

Completion of this 10.056 mile addition to the Indian Bureau's extensive road construction program on the Navajo Reservation will provide a total of approximately 70 miles of paved highway from U. S. 89 north of Flagstaff, extending northeast through Tuba City toward Kayenta.

Construction of Navajo Route 1 has aroused wide interest because of the rapid development of the Four Corners oil field to the northeast and the fact that the northern part of the Reservation and State of Arizona had no improved highway. When complete, this route will be a short cut from southwestern Colorado to the Grand Canyon, the West Coast and the entire northern part of the Navajo Reservation.

C & R Paving Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico was the successful bidder, with a low bid of $590,818.88. Nine other bids were submitted, ranging to a high of $843,519.37.

The Department of the Interior today (December 9) invited leasing and development proposals on a 3440·-acre tract of undeveloped Indian land in Nevada with a shore frontage of 6.4 miles on Pyramid Lake, an inland body of deep-blue fresh water in a desert-mountain setting.

The tract being offered is on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation about 33 miles north of Reno and offers excellent possibilities for business, recreational or residential development.

About 30 miles long and 12 miles across at the widest point, Pyramid Lake is the largest body of fresh water in Nevada and one of the biggest in the West. It is situated roughly 3,800 feet above sea level and is surrounded by mountains that rise to nearly 8,000 feet. Much of the shoreline particularly in the area being offered for lease, consists of sandy beaches.

The lake is well stocked with cutthroat and rainbow trout as well as Sacramento perch and is famous for its cui-ui, a prehistoric fish found nowhere else in the world. Boating has become popular in recent years.

The lease is to be for 25 years with an option for 25-year renewal.

Interested parties are invited to write the Superintendent, Nevada Indian Agency, Stewart, Nevada. He will provide full details and a copy of the lease form that is to be used.

Each bid must be accompanied by the following:

1. A preliminary planned schedule of general development. This is to include proposed annual development expenditures over the first five years of the lease term.

2. A proposal for the payment of a fixed annual ground rental. This must be not less than $50,000 and is to be submitted as one amount for the entire area and not on a per-acre basis.

3. A proposal for the payment of a percentage of the gross income from commercial and recreational operations such as hotels, motels, apartment buildings and trailer or mobile home tracts and food and service enterprises.

4. A proposal for the payment of minimum annual rental for residences apart from those specified in 3 above.

Bids will be received at the Nevada Indian Agency in Stewart until 2 p.m., March 9, 1961. Each bid must be accompanied by a cashier is check or certified check made payable to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the amount of the bidder's proposed ground rental for the first year.

The award will be made to the highest responsible bidder, rental and all other factors considered, provided the bid is reasonable and it is to the interest of the Pyramid Lake Indian Tribe, beneficial owner of the property, and the United states, as trustee of the property, to accept it.

Offering of the Pyramid Lake lands for long-term leasing was made possible by the Act of August 9, 1955 (69 stat. 539) which authorized leasing of Indian lands for terms up to 25 years with a possibility of a 25-year renewal. Under previous law such leases were generally limited to a five-year term,

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced approval of two agreements between the Navajo Indian Tribe and the Arizona Public S8rvice Company which provide for large-scale development and sale of electric power on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

One of the agreements is a lease of tribal land on the San Juan River across from Fruitland, New Mexico, to the company as a site for the construction of steam generating facilities, a reservoir for cooling purposes, and other facilities. Two units of 175,000 kilowatts each are planned immediately and later expansion is contemplated.

The first two units, together with transmission lines and other related facilities, are expected to cost approximately $100,000,000. Ultimate cost of the total development may run as high as $180,000,000.

The lease is for 25 years with an option to renew for as long as authorized by law.

The second agreement covers the delivery of power by the Company to the Tribe at wholesale rates. The Tribe has plans for distributing this power to its individual members and other persons residing on the reservation.

Both the agreements approved today are closely tied in with a 1957 contract between the Navajo Tribe and the Utah Construction Company which covers the mining of coal in an area of approximately 24,000 acres of tribal land. Under a recent supplement to this lease the company is obligated to mine a minimum tonnage of coal each year or pay the Tribe a royalty for this tonnage. The minimum is 800,000 tons annually for each of the years from 1963 through 1967; 1,500,000 tons for each year from 1968 through 1974; and 2,500,000 tons per year thereafter. The royalty is 15 cents per ton.

Utah Construction Company and Arizona Public Service Company have already altered into an agreement under which Utah will sell the coal mined from the Navajo lands to Arizona as fuel for the steam generating plants.

“The Navajo Tribe," Secretary Seaton said, "will receive large and far-reaching benefits from these agreements. First, the agreements provide the Tribe with a market for immense deposits of subbituminous coal which might not otherwise be marketable. Secondly, these contracts open the door for electrification of Navajo homes, development of new industries and other economic enterprises and vast future improvements in the living standards of the Navajo people."

Under the lease contract for the generating plant site and cooling reservoir, the Company will pay the Tribe a rental of $1,115,000 over the 25-year period in annual installments of $44,600.

The Department of the Interior today announced the completion of negotiations between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Harn Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio, for the establishment of a quilting plant that will provide employment for Indian workers on the Standing Rock Reservation at McLaughlin, South Dakota.

Under terms of the agreement between tribal and company officials, the Tribe will construct a factory with 25,000 square feet of floor space on tribal land in McLaughlin at a total cost of $200,000. The building will be leased to the Harn Corporation for 25 years with a renewal option. The target date for initial operations has been set for January 1, 1961.

The contract between Tribe and Company provides that preference in employment will be given to qualified members of the Tribe. It is expected that the company will employ an initial work force of from 25 to 30 workers, and this number will be expanded as demand warrants it.

The local community of McLaughlin is making the project a joint tribal community effort by pledging to underwrite an unannounced portion of the total cost of the new plant.

The new plant will be similar to the Harn plant already in operation on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, and is another outgrowth of the Indian Bureau's nationwide industrial development program to encourage the establishment of job-providing industrial plants on or near the reservations.

The Cherokee plant has just completed its first year and already has nearly 100 Indian employees on the payroll. An additional 50 employees are expected to be added within the next few weeks. The plant was constructed by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians at a cost of approximately $300,000 and leased to the Harn Corporation for 25 years, with a 25-year renewal option. It was opened in October 1959.

Award of a $1,600,000 contract for construction of a new school building and two dormitories on the campus of the Haskell Indian Institute at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The school building will contain twelve standard classrooms, two science rooms, an audio-visual room and a library and general administration unit. One dormitory will provide facilities for 400 boys; the other for 256 girls. Both dormitories will be two-story reinforced concrete, steel and brick construction; the school building will be one-story reinforced concrete, steel, brick and structural glazed tile construction. These buildings, when complete) will replace outmoded school and dormitory structures.

Haskell Institute is a vocational training school for approximately 1,000 Indian boys and girls in high school and post-high school grades from all parts of the United States.

The successful bidder was Harmon Construction Company, of Oklahoma City, Okla. seven higher bids were received, ranging from $1,685,000 to $1,990,000.

INDIAN LAND TRUST RESTRICTIONS EXPIRING IN 1961 EXTENDED FIVE YEARS Trust restrictions on allotted Indian lands, scheduled to expire in calendar year 1961, have been extended for an additional five years, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today.

This order, and similar orders issued in December of 1958 and 1959, reverse a custom started in 1951 of limiting such extensions to a maximum of only one year. In 1951, the then Acting Secretary was considering terminating trust status individual Indian lands on a year-by-year basis. Each trust case would be subject to review every year.

Secretary Seaton said the new orders reemphasize the Department's stated p01icy of taking all precautions against ending Federal supervision over Indians before they are competent to end their status as Federal wards.

The General Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, authorized trust restricted allotments of land for individuals both on reservations and on the public domain.

Homesteads for Indians off-reservations, similarly restricted, were also authorized by an Act of February 28, 1891.

The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act extended trust restrictions over lands of Indians who accepted the Act's provisions. Tribes and groups which were not so covered--so-called "unorganized" Indians--have had their trust protection extended for varying periods, until the 1951 decision established the one-year rule.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said that it had DC accurate estimate of the acreage covered by the new order, but that it would run into the thousands.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, in its fiscal year 1980 budget request, has asked Congress for Federal funding of $948,120,000 -- approximately $86.5 million less than the 1979 funding.

Most of the decrease, reflecting the President's anti-inflation concern will be in the new construction of buildings, utilities and roads. For the operation of Indian programs, the Bureau has asked for $792,020,000 -- about $3.3 million less than the 1979 funding.

The 1980 budget request asks for substantial increases for higher education assistance funds, social services, Indian rights protection, real estate and financial trust services and management and administration. Of the $948,120,000 requested $46.2 million is for irrigation system construction; $21.5 million for construction of buildings and utilities; $58.4 million for road construction; and $30 million for payments under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The balance, for the operation of Indian programs, includes $262.1 million for education programs; $207.2 million for Indian services; $77.2 million for economic development and employment programs; $64.7 million for natural resource development; $49.3 for trust responsibilities and $131.5 for general management and facilities operations.

The Bureau's education program includes the operation of 15 dormitories and 210 schools some of them managed by Indian community groups under contracts with the Bureau. The Bureau also provides funding for special programs for 175,000 Indian students attending public schools and it will provide grants in 1980 to approximately 20,000 Indian college students.

The request for Indian services includes an increase of $6.7 million for social services to provide for increased unit costs in general assistance, child welfare assistance and miscellaneous assistance.

The $19.2 million requested for housing programs will provide for the building of approximately 395 new homes and the renovation or enlargement of 2,600 homes. The funding for Self-Determination Services includes $23.7 million for tribal overhead costs associated with P.L. 93-638 (Self-determination Act) contracts.

Of the $77.2 million requested for economic development and employment programs, about $50.2 million is for direct employment programs, institutional vocational training and Indian Action teams. $9.5 million will go to the business enterprise development fund to provide assistance to Indian tribes and individuals.

The request of $64.7 million for natural resource programs will support programs in mineral and energy resources, forestry, agriculture, irrigation project operation and maintenance, water resources, multi-discipline natural resource efforts, and wildlife and parks and fishery operations. The agriculture element of this part of the budget includes responsibilities for soil and moisture conservation and range management.

Another major initiative in FY 1980 is the implementation of the water policy announced by the President in his July 12, 1978 message to the Congress and the public. Among other items, the President called for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to develop a ten-year plan for the review of all Indian water right entitlements. This plan will be developed in 1979, and funds to under­take this review are requested in the 1980 budget. This initiative is expected to resolve many long- standing Indian water rights issues over the next, several years without resort to the expensive, protracted litigation which has characterized these issues in the past.

Strengthening the trust responsibilities role continues to be one of the primary goals of the Bureau. The FY 1980 request of $49.3 million for programs to carry out the Federal trust responsibilities represents an increase of $7.8 million over FY 1979. 1Initiatives for which the increases are requested in 1980 include: $3.0 million for Lease Compliance to provide improved lease and permit compliance to adequately protect the Indian landowner and the Indian trust estate; $0.9 million for Land Records Improvement, essential for the preservation of current chain of title to land held in trust which is a fundamental responsibility in teal property management and $1.0 million for Fish and Game Enforcement, to assure that tribes have the capability, develop scientifically sound fish and game management plans, to enforce compliance with these plans, and to promote better understanding between Indian and non-Indian citizens regarding treaty rights to fish and hunt on reservation or in treaty- covered areas.