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.
