OPA

Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the storm-stricken areas of Arizona, where snow depths, up to 79 inches are reported, said today everything humanly possible is being done for the affected Indians and their livestock.

Similarly, the Public Health Service's Division of Indian Health reported its staff in the storm area participating in rescue work and alert to possible heavy demands on personnel and facilities in the storm aftermath.

Dr. Ervin S. Rabeau, Assistant Surgeon General and director of the division, conferred by telephone with staff officials in the area.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is keeping all Federal agencies which may be of assistance fully informed of the developing situation.

Graham Holmes, BIA Navajo Area Director, said by telephone from Window Rock, Ariz., that all Navajo Indian schools apparently have sufficient supplies of food and fuel and the boarding schools will operate without any Christmas holidays to accommodate the some 22,000 children attending them.

W. Wade Head, Area Director at Phoenix, Ariz., said "things are under control."

Head said the latest reports put the snowfall since late last week at 79 inches north of Flagstaff and at five feet in upper elevations on the Fort Apache Reservation. He said some difficulties had developed in locations on the Hopi, Fort Apache, and some other reservations "but everything is being taken care of." Head said all schools in his area except for a few day schools closed because of muddy or snowy road conditions were reported all right. The Cibecue School on the Fort Apache Reservation, from which pupils were sent home yesterday because fuel was running low, was open again today after an oil delivery but with reduced attendance from the normal level. Holmes said arrangements had been made for movement today by truck from Phoenix of 60 tons of surplus commodities supplied by the Department of Agriculture. Head explained that additional surplus commodities also are available or en route, to be moved into the Navajo country as needed and when transportation is feasible.

The first three truckload carrying the 60 tons are designated for Tuba City, Window Rock, and Chinle. The foods will be distributed from those points by pickup trucks.

Focal points for supplies of both food and fuel are the schools and chapter houses on the vast Navajo Reservation, which is about the size of the State of West Virginia.

The schools and chapter houses usually become the places of refuge for the Navajos who run out of food or fuel, and concentration of supplies in them protects the students and benefits those Indians who make it to the schools for aid.

Air Force helicopters were out today on mercy missions and four planes were in readiness at Phoenix to start dropping hay again, five tons to the flight, as soon as visibility will permit.

The "choppers" in some instances carried staff members of the Division of Indian Health, and the division also was supplying emergency medical kits for dropping.

Hospitals and clinics in the storm-stricken areas were becoming crowded as patients ready to leave could not be discharged and other patients were continuing to come in. This was true even though the full impact of the effect of the storm and shortages of food and fuel is not expected to be felt until the storm conditions turn for the better, said Doctor Rabeau.

Indians from as far away as Idaho, Montana, Minnesota and the Dakotas are being flown with heavy snow removal machinery to help open some 2,000 miles of roads blocked by snow on the huge Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Reporting today on measures underway to aid the storm-stricken Navajos, and other Indians, the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs said six 40,000-pound gross weight four-wheel drive snow plow trucks are scheduled for movement by big C-124 Air Force planes today.

The huge snow removal machines were being loaded into the planes at Grand Forks (N.D.) Air Force Base, Ellsworth Air Force Base at Rapid City, S.D., Glasgow Air Force Base in Montana and Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The plows are being flown to Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, N.H. Their crews of Indian operators and mechanics were accompanying the plows, the Indians giving up their Christmas at home in order to help out the Navajos.

Tribes participating included the Red Lake Chippewas and Leech Lake Chippewas of Minnesota; Standing Rock Sioux of North Dakota and South Dakota; Blackfeet, Fort Belknap Sioux, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux of Montana; and Fort Hall Bannocks and Shoshones of Idaho.

The Indian operators are familiar with coping with snow depths of several feet, such as are blocking many roads on the big Navajo reservation, which is about the size of the state of West Virginia.

Original plans had called for movement of two of the machines and their crews yesterday but the number has now been increased to six. Two rotary snow plows loaned by the National Park Service in California are due in the Navajo area today, also.

A total of 437,000 pounds of surplus food commodities made available by the Department of Agriculture had been moved out of Phoenix to Navajo country through yesterday and an additional 160,000 pounds was scheduled for movement today. In addition to food dropped for Indians, airlift of 124 tons of hay was carried out yesterday with 200 tons scheduled for dropping today.

The Air Force established a rescue station at Tuba City after a convoy worked its way through from the east on the surface. This will enable loading and refueling of helicopters at Tuba City so they may make mercy missions over isolated areas which could not be covered with flights from the Window Rock area.

A plow opened a road to the rim of the Colorado River's Grand Canyon where the trail starts down to the Havasupai reservation and movement of food and hay to the Indians deep in the canyon was started by horseback.

The death of a new-born infant at a Bureau trailer school on the Navajo reservation was reported, increasing to four the number of storm-connected deaths reported by the Navajo area office.

Area Director Graham Holmes said at Window Rock that mercy missions are continuing to operate but he knew of no specific human disaster conditions. The temperature at Window Rock fell to eight degrees below zero this morning.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Indian vocational trainees and their families will begin arriving March 4 at the former Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, N.M., to begin a "family residential training" program that will teach them the skills and experience necessary to live comfortably in an urban setting.

The training program at the new Roswell Employment Training Center will be operated by the Economic Development Operations division of Thiokol Chemical Corp., Ogden, Utah, under a Bureau of Indian Affairs contract, the Department of the Interior announced today. Partial funding is furnished by the Department of Labor.

When the initial enrollment is completed in late April, there will be 65 families, each with an average of 4.5 children; 10 "solo" parents, each with one or two children; and 150 single persons, 75 men and 75 women, living in what was Base housing adjacent to the city of Roswell.

The adults -- usually both husband and wife -- will take vocational training in a field of their choice. They will receive basic educational training reading, writing, math -- related to their job training, plus family life and social skills training in fields such as home and money management, child care, community living, health care and food marketing.

Vocational course offerings include auto mechanics, small engine repair, welding, food processing, clerical skills, baking, nurse's aide work, and warehousing. For those who cannot drive, driver training will be offered. Courses will last from nine to 18 months.

Beyond the vocational instruction will be planned recreation and social activities. Nursery and pre-school care will be available for the young children while their older brothers and sisters attend the Roswell public schools.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said, "There has been an overwhelming response to this program from tribal leaders and members throughout the Southwest. We anticipate there will be far more applications for training than opportunities available. "

He noted that the "family residential training concept is a recent innovation developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and it is possible that it can be used to help other disadvantaged groups."

"Community leaders in Roswell are also enthusiastic about this project and have assured us of their full support," Bennett said.

A similar program is being operated under a Bureau contract by the Philco Ford Corp. at Madera, Calif.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that the Department's Distinguished Service Award will be presented June 4 to 42 outstanding employees and former employees and Valor Awards to 9 others for acts of bravery in which they risked their own lives in successful rescues. Award ceremonies will be in the Interior Building Auditorium, Washington, D.C., at 2 p.m.

Six of the Valor Awards will go to seasonal employees of the National Park Service, who formed a team that plucked Lorraine Hough, 21 years old, Sandwich, Ill., and Gaylord K. Campbell, 26, Mahopac, N. Y., from a narrow ledge on the sheer north wall of the Grand Teton, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, and last August.

Campbell suffered a broken leg and bruises when rock showered down from the peak as he and Miss Hough were within 600 feet of reaching the 13,766 foot summit. Miss Hough was not injured.

Those comprising the rescue team, which worked August 22 to 24, to bring the pair to safety, were: Hans M. Ermarth, 5419 University Ave., Chicago Ill.; Ralph H. Tingey, 789 8th Ave., Salt Lake City, Utah; Richard L. Reese, 2390 E. Ashbury, Denver, Colo.; Robert W. Irvine, 2002 E. 21st South, Salt Lake City, Utah; Leon R. Sinclair, University of Washington English Department, Seattle; and Ted L. Wilson, 2537 South 18th East, also Salt Lake City.

The Interior rescue group was aided by Leigh Ortenburger of Palo Alto, Calif., who was vacationing in the park.

A citation for the Interior employees noted that the rescue of Campbell "required an unprecedented stretcher evacuation down the precipitous North Face of the mountain, one of the longest, most difficult and dangerous mountaineering routes in the United States."

Richard J. Francis, principal teacher of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Elim Day School at Elim, Alaska, was named for a Valor Award for rescuing a fourth-grade pupil, Linda Nylin, from the frigid waters of Norton Bay of the Bering Sea after her small boat capsized last October 9.

Another Valor Award goes to Therman "Pat" Ingram, a BIA employee at Juneau, Alaska, for rescuing Susan Patterson, 13 years old, and her brother, Stewart, 3, from their burning home in Juneau on April 20, 1967. The fire took the lives of their mother and two other Patterson children.

James B. Garner, a Bureau of Land Management official, 2020 Sandy Lane, Bakersfield, Calif., will receive a Valor Award for risking his life in rescuing a small girl, April 16, 1967, from the heavy surf of the Pacific Ocean near Morro Rock, San Luis Obispo County, California. The girl vanished after the rescue and her identity was not determined.

Those who will receive Distinguished Service Awards are:

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AREA

Washington, D. C.

Eugene D. Eaton, Associate Director, Office of Water Resources Research, 4514 Davenport St., N. W.

Sidney D. Larson; Office of the Secretary, 3001 Beazey Terrace, N. W. (posthumous).

Mary A. McColligan, Office of the Solicitor, 1301 15th St., N. W. Clarence F. Pautzke, Commissioner, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Deputy

Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, 2121 P St., N. W. Robert A. Vaughan, Office of the Assistant Secretary-Public Land Management, 3311 Rittenhouse St., N. W.

Arlington, Va.

Ralph C. Baker, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 3027 N. John Marshall Dr. John A. Carver, Jr., Vice Chairman, Federal Power Commission, who served Interior as Assistant Secretary-Public Land Management and as Under Secretary, 4421 25th St., N.

Charles E. Remington, Bureau of Land Management, 2005 Columbia Pike. Harold G. Smith, National Park Service, 5629 34th St., N.

Falls Church, Va.

George F. Baggley, National Park Service, 6129 Leesburg Pike.

McLean, Va.

Gilbert G. Stamm, Bureau of Reclamation, 1049 Balls Hill Rd.

Oakton, Va.

John Ricca, Deputy Director, Office of Oil and Gas, 11342 Vale Rd.

Springfield, Va.

Newell B. Terry, Director of Personnel for Interior, 7411 Grace St.

Bethesda, Md.

Douglas R. Woodward, Geological Survey, 4603 Woodfield Rd.

Ernest F. Hom, Office of the Solicitor, 6711 Loring Court.

Robert C. Horne, National Park Service, 9432 Rose Hill Dr.

A. Bruce Wright, Office of the Solicitor, 6216 Wedgewood Rd.

Silver Spring, Md.

Ray C. Erickson, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, 13009 Collingwood Terrace

Rogersville, Ala.

R. Ethelyn Miller, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Juneau, Alaska

Urban C. Nelson, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife.

Phoenix, Ariz.

William W. Head, Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1342 E. Georgia Ave. Frederick J. Weiler, Bureau of Land Management, 724 E. Haywood.

DeQueen, Ark.

Norma C. Runyan, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 922 W. Vandervort Ave.

Los Altos, Calif.

Warren W. Hastings, Regional Hydrologist, Geological Survey, 551 Hawthorne Ave.

Fresno, Calif.

John M. Davis, National Park Service, 5052-B N. Wishon.

Sacramento, Calif.

J. Russell Penny, State Director, Bureau of Land Management, 3249 Clairidge Way. Joseph F. Poland, Geological Survey, 1357 4Qth St.

Golden, Colo.

Harold G. Arthur, Bureau of Reclamation, 1730 Zinnia Court.

Lakewood, Colo.

Graydon E. Burnett, Chief Research Scientist, Bureau of Reclamation, 22537 W. 26th Pl.

Largo, Fla.

Charles Butler, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 107 Oakwood Dr., Harbor Bluffs.

Watertown, Mass.

Edward P. Furber, former Chief Justice, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

Ann Arbor, Mich.

James W. Moffett, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 1204 Brooklyn (posthumous).

Stillwater, Minn.

Robert A. Uppgren, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Rt. 2, Boom Rd. (posthumous).

Winona, Minn.

Donald V. Gray, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, 67 E. Howard St.

Omaha, Neb.

Nelson Murdock, former Chief, U. S. Park Police.

Morristown, N. J.

Francis S. Ronalds, National Park Service, 2 Hamilton Rd.

Bartlesville, Okla.

Richard W. Hurn, Bureau of Mines, 802 Winding Way.

Portland, Ore.

Wade M. Ramsey, Bonneville Power Administration, 8414 N. E. Brazee.

Pittsburgh, .Pa.

Joseph H. Field, Bureau of Mines, 3177 Shady Ave.

Brigham City, Utah

Dorothy Hanlon, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 76 N. Fourth West.

Leetown, W. Va.

Stanislas F. Snieszko, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife.

Laramie, Wyo.

Gerald U. Dinneen, Bureau of Mines, 2040 Holliday Dr.

In the Navajo tongue December is the month of "increasing cold and wind." When that "increasing cold and wind" is accompanied by eight days of snow, as it was last December, the Navajos are in trouble.

From December 12 to 20 it snowed, and the wind blew, on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations. Farther south, more than seven inches of rain fell on the Papago Reservation, which normally gets 11 inches in an entire year.

Many Navajos live in small adobe or rock "hogan" scattered over a reservation the size of West Virginia. Under the best of conditions many homes are isolated by most American standards. Add snow that drifted up to seven feet on the level and to 40 feet deep in some highway cuts, and a real emergency situation exists.

That this emergency did not turn into a major disaster was the result of a widespread and concerted effort by tribal officials, the Federal Government civilian and military -- State and local governments, and a host of private organizations and individuals.

This is the analysis of a special Storm Evaluation Committee appointed by Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to survey the storm-buffeted reservations to check on the efficiency of emergency rescue programs.

The five-man committee, which included two Navajos, visited the areas early in January while final mop-up operations were still in progress.

"The consensus was that the program initiated had been needed and had resulted in saving lives and livestock," the committee said.

"There were some criticisms that it took some time to get the program rolling and c90rdinated and that some areas did not receive the emergency aid which they wanted, but the results achieved indicated that in general the most serious emergencies were adequately dealt with."

As of January 12, the date of the Committee report, known Indian storm connected deaths totaled nine, all on the vast Navajo Reservation and all as a result of exposure and freezing. The U.S. Public Health Service's Division of Indian Health reported that at least 10 more Indians would have died of illness or exposure if they had not been airlifted to safety.

­The Committee, in its report to Commissioner Bennett, said that leadership roles in the emergency were taken by the Navajo and Hopi Tribal Councils, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Division of Indian Health of the U.S. Public Health Service, in launching protective and life-saving programs.

The Committee noted that the "roll call of major participants in the emergency life-saving, food supplying, fuel providing and other actions is long. We would list as major participants the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, the Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Surplus Food Commodities, the Forest Service, the Soil Conservation Service, the Air National Guard, the Navajo and Hopi Tribal organizations, the Geological Survey, the National Park Service, the Farmers Home Administration, the Office of Emergency Planning, the General Services Administration, and various State and county agencies in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico."

Rescue equipment ranged from military helicopter and Air National Guard C-119 Flying boxcars through trucks, jeeps, and horses, to mechanical snow vehicles donated and supervised by their Wisconsin manufacturer.

More than 400,000 pounds of food were delivered by, air of a total of 900,000 pounds supplied the reservations. Several hundred tons of hay were airdropped to livestock. There were 2,578 helicopter sorties. The total rescue operation involved 2,000 people, including Air Force reservists from as far away as Oregon and Virginia.

The supply operations even managed to provide turkey with all the trimmings, a half-pound of candy and nuts, and a gift for each of the several thousand Indian children stranded in boarding schools over Christmas. Some of these children found time to stamp out a "Merry Christmas" message in the snow for passing airplane crews.

The Evaluation Committee noted that the full effects of the storm could not be assessed, and that further snows or rains could compound the problems created by the original emergency. On the Papago Reservation the heavy rains so eroded the walls of many adobe houses that their roofs caved in and the structures were completely destroyed.

The Committee met in Phoenix, Tucson, Window Rock, and Chinle, Ariz., with Navajo, Hopi, and Papago tribal officials and representatives; Bureau of Indian Affairs Area and Agency officials; a member of the staff of Governor Jack Williams of Arizona; traders and many others involved in the rescue operations.

Serving on the Committee: W. Joynes Macfarlan, Chief, Office of Public Information, Bureau of Indian Affairs, who was chairman; Thomas H. Dodge of Phoenix, former Navajo Tribal Council Chairman and retired BIA Agency Superintendent; Newton Edwards, staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Public Land Management, Department of the Interior; Arthur J. Hubbard, Sr., of Phoenix, a Navajo and Arizona State Indian Program Officer for the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration; and Ken Nishimoto, Chief, Management Appraisal Services, Division of Indian Health, USPHS.

The results of storm-related activities were expressed in these words to the Committee by Navajo Tribal Council Chairman Raymond Nakai:

"My position today is that we have done an outstanding job between the Tribe "and the Bureau here. We had a time getting some things going, and some technical difficulties. We were fortunate in making the moves as we did. We averted a major disaster. We did an outstanding job with the resources that we had on hand to do it with."

The internationally famous exhibition of American Indian arts and crafts which was shown in Europe at International Festivals of the Arts in both Edinburgh, Scotland and Berlin, West Germany, is to have a Latin-American tour, starting this spring.

The exhibit has also been shown in London, England; Ankara, Turkey; Santa Fe, N.M.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Alaska, during last year's centennial there.

The unusual show, containing 200 pieces of traditional and contemporary Indian and Eskimo arts and crafts is sponsored by the State Department, U.S. Information Agency, and the Department of the Interior.

Twenty-five different tribes from across the Nation are represented in the exhibit which includes the work of 45 individual artists.

The works, including paintings and sculpture, printed and woven textiles and pottery, will appear in Buenos Aires, March 29-Apri1 21; Santiago, July 14- August 17, and Mexico City, September 15-November 2. Ceramics, basketry, wood carving and jewelry will also be featured.

Demonstrations of Navajo weaving and sand painting will be given by Fred Stevens, Navajo sandpainter, and his wife Bertha. In addition, scheduled readings of ancient Indian legends and modern poetry- and prose will be given.

The exhibit has been compiled by James McGrath, art director and instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe. Eighty percent of the artists in the exhibition are either present or former students or faculty of the Institute.

The exhibit, according to McGrath, has as its intent showing "some of the mystery, some of the soul and much of the love of the American Indian for his communication between the spirit of man and the spirit of the cosmos."

Art students in the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools and post-high schools will enter a travel poster contest, beginning with the new school year, which has the theme: "Discover America with the First Americans."

The program is sponsored by the Education Division of the Bureau, and Arrow, Inc., a tax-exempt corporation which supports commercial projects that benefit the Indian people.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said that the poster theme is in line with President Johnson's request that Americans spend their tourist dollars in the United States to help solve the balance of payments problem.

"Many of our Indian reservations, the homelands of our First Americans, l.re ideal vacation spots," said Bennett, observing that this was a good and lignified way to help the Indian economy.

"In addition, the poster contest offers an outlet for our Indian art student talent."

The winning poster designers will receive cash prizes of $150, $100, and $50 for first, second, and third place, respectively. All entrants also may be considered for expense-paid trips to major cities to visit art schools and museums.

An exhibition of all the entries is planned in Washington, D.C. in 1969. The winning posters will be printed in quantity and sold through retail outlets, both here and abroad.

Profits from the poster sales arranged by Arrow will be applied to Indian projects sponsored by the corporation.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today award of a $2,369,756.55 contract to construct 25.076 miles of 34-foot finished width, two-lane highway, between Lechee Rock and Kaibito, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation.

The work to be done under this contract and under two other contracts previously awarded will leave only 20 miles of construction needed to complete the connection between Page, Ariz., and State Route 164 south of Shonto, Ariz.

The new contract covers construction of the highway, drainage structures, cattle underpasses, right-of-way fencing and other minor construction.

The successful low bid was by S. S. Mullen, Inc., of Salt Lake City, Utah. Two other bids were received, ranging to a high of $2,541,235.65.

Chairman Nakai, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

It is exciting to represent the Department of the Interior on this occasion. An event such as this can only happen once in a lifetime, and I am very pleased to share it with you. I have looked forward to the opportunity to become better acquainted.

I believe a Navajo must have originated the saying: "The first hundred years are the hardest." Nowhere in the United States ... and perhaps nowhere else in the world -- have a people faced challenge more ener­getically than have the Navajo in the years since 1868.

We are here to observe the One Hundredth Anniversary of the signing of a treaty between the Navajo Nation and the United States Government. Events prior to the treaty could have left the Navajos forever in despair. But you did not despair, you turned misfortune into a triumph of will to survive and grow.

What we are really observing here today is victory -- Navajo victory over adversity. Today you number more than 100,000 -- ten times or more than in 1868. Along with your growth today your lands are pro­ducing coal, oil, gas, uranium, crops and livestock, and supporting a flourishing and expanding tourist industry.

Irrigation has turned your desert areas green. Roads carrying school buses loaded with children wind through your valleys. Schools, hospitals, stores, motels, industries, new homes and growing communities dot the landscape. There are also the chapter houses, and in Window Rock, the seat of Navajo democratic government, the handsome Tribal Council building. Soon there is to be a tribal shopping center.

Horse-drawn wagons are almost gone, and pickup tracks are giving way to station wagons and passenger cars. Striking changes have taken place in the dress and self-assurance of the young adults. Your tribal leaders are forward-looking. They are educated and have an understand­ing both of the world and the needs of their people. I am greatly im­pressed with their earnestness and ability and the way they go about things.

You are mastering your own fate and shaping your own destiny. But how different it all was in the months and years immediately following the­ Iong Walk to Fort Sumner, where the treaty was signed a century ago.

In those days the relationships between the Federal Government and the Navajo people were more in the nature of supervisor and supervised, than the partnership that exists today. The lands of the reservation were stark and wild. There were no roads. There were no schools.

There were no hospitals or other medical services. There was no organized tribal political structure to help strengthen and unify the Navajo people. There were a few thousand people, and there were a few thousand head of sheep and that was about all.

Although the lean years followed, the Navajos not only survived, but grew stronger. Many of your young men joined the armed forces of the United States in wars against our national enemies.' ·More and more, the Navajos became linked with the growing American Nation, and today you are an important and prominent part of it.

The Navajos have seized upon one aspect of American life in particular. You have stressed the value of education. One Navajo leader of old said to his people:

"Education is the ladder. Climb it, my children."

The Navajo people have climbed high. In 1885 the Navajo agent reported a regular attendance of 33 pupils, an increase of nine over the preceding years Following World War II the Navajo Council sent a special delegation to see the Secretary of the Interior and Congressional com­mittees in Washington to tell them that formal education was considered by the tribe to be its primary need.

The Navajos have been leaders among the Indian groups in their insistence upon educational opportunity for their children. Particularly in the Past 30 years, the demand for schools, and good ones, has been most in­sistent.

The Federal Government, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, responded with a vast program of school construction. Ten years ago there were thousands of Navajo youngsters who had no school to attend. Today this is no longer true. You have some of the finest schools to be found any­where in this country. But fine buildings are not enough. We are now working with you to improve the quality of educational programs that will benefit the Navajo students.

We are greatly impressed with your Tribe's $10 million scholarship fund to help train future leaders, as well as your plans for a junior college.

Next to education, perhaps the most significant progress has been the building of roads for vehicular use in this vast area. Not too many years ago the best travel was over little more than trails by horse and wagon.

As a result of the Anderson-Udall Bill, paved roads were pushed across the reservation. Today the school bus, the Navajo driving his own car, the grocery delivery truck, and the visiting tourist are familiar sights.

President Johnson, this spring, sent a special message on Indian matters to Congress. He called attention to the still inadequate roads for the Navajo Reservation and asked Congress to appropriate more money. The new roads will help the Indian people keep their children at home in­stead of having to send them far away to boarding schools. New roads will also aid economic development of the area/and allow other citizens of this country to visit your reservation. There are many good things that other Americans can learn from you, the richness of your past your love of beauty and nature, your arts, your steadfastness and tranquility.

Within the next few years the Navajos will face a new challenge, not only to themselves but to all the people in the southwest. This reser­vation is the very hub of the Four Corners area, which has been singled out for economic development through Federal assistance. The Navajo Reservation within this region can become the prime area for industrial, commercial, agricultural and social achievement.

Some of the groundwork already has been laid for such growth, in the establishment of vast tribal enterprises such as the Navajo Tribal Utilities Authority and the Navajo Forest Products Industries. The latter enterprise, I understand, has turned back a large sum into the tribal coffer this year. This is real progress -- and I am sure it is only the beginning.

The Navajo Tribe has also established industrial parks at Shiprock, and Fort Defiance. No less than 12 major private industries -- chiefly producers of coal, oil, gas and uranium -- are already contributing to the economic growth and sufficiency of the tribe.

But still there is high unemployment across the reservation. Even though several thousand jobs have been created by new industries, still there is poverty and the average educational level is lower than it is for the Nation as a whole. Resources are producing less revenue for the tribe than they might if they were more fully developed.

We are all interested in helping you make a better life for yourselves and your children. This administration believes that .you must be free to choose your own path of development, to find your own most satisfactory way of life with dignity and self-respect. We are pledged to help without coercion.

Today as we hail this One Hundredth Anniversary, we can look forward to another century of even greater progress, with more benefits to all of the Navajo population.

The ability to shape future events rather than rely on achieve­ments is the quality that enables a race or a Nation to survive be able to adjust to change, to grow with charge, is the quality that distinguishes the "doers" from the followers." Americans are confident that the Navajo will continue to make new history. It is with deep respect and admiration that I salute you on your 100th Anniversary.

The transfer of three Indian Agency superintendents in Arizona has been announced by Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Homer M. Gilliland, Superintendent at the Co1brado River Reservation, has been named Superintendent at the Hopi Reservation. He replaces Clyde W. Pensoneau who is retiring from Federal service.

Succeeding Gilliland at Colorado River will be John H. Artichoker, Jr., now Superintendent of the Papago Reservation. Artichoker will be succeeded by Joseph M. Lucero, now an administrative manager and acting superintendent at the Hopi Agency.

Gilliland, 56, was born in Tremont, Miss., and was graduated from Mississippi State College He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1943 as principal of the Cherokee school in North Carolina.

Artichoker, 38, was born at Pine Ridge, S. D., and is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from South Dakota State University. Artichoker was Director of Indian Education for South Dakota before joining the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1962 as a tribal operations officer at Billings, Mont.

Lucero, 51, was born in Koehler, N. M., and attended Albuquerque Business College. He entered Federal service as a clerk in the Forest Service in 1937. In 1962 he joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an administrative officer at the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona.

All three transfers are effective August 11.