RECOLD CORPORATION TO OPEN OKLAHOMA PLANT
There will be a new source of employment for Cherokee Indians in the Pryor, Oklahoma, area when Recold Corporation opens a branch plant, scheduled for immediate construction there. The new plant will hire 25 workers initially, increasing to 75 employees within a year and one-half. Company officials plan to negotiate an on-the-job training contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to prepare Indian workers for employment in the plant.
Recold, a Los Angeles manufacturer of commercial refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat exchange equipment, plans to manufacture finned tubing at Pryor. The finning process adds additional steel insulation to steel tubing, a product used in oil field equipment and heat exchange equipment.
The new plant will be housed in a 50,000-square-foot building, to be erected on a 60-acre tract seven miles southeast of Pryor. Selection of the site was the result of combined efforts by the company, community leaders, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the State Department of Commerce and Industry.
WEST COAST TIMBER INDUSTRIES EMPLOY MORE INDIANS
Indian employment in timber industries located on or near the Pacific Coast Reservations has more than doubled in the past five years, according to a recent report from the Portland Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Today, there are about 690 Indians employed in timber activities and mill work, while in 1960 there were a few more than 300. Preliminary reports indicate that there is increased Indian employment in other forested areas.
OPERATION "PETER PIPER" ON SCHEDULE AT ISLETA
Isleta Pueblo, an Indian community just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the pickle business.
The C &S Packing Company at Isleta has been receiving the 1965 cucumber crop from five growing areas in the State and stowing it away in brine vats for pickle production beginning in September. The plant, which started construction in May, will eventually have 80 wooden curing tanks with a total capacity of 400,000 bushels of cucumbers. Financed by a combination of Federal, private, and tribal funds, C &S is due to employ 45 Indians at the outset, increasing that number to 135 when full capacity is reached. Established with the aid of industrial development specialists in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the enterprise also provides area employment and income indirectly, through crop production for sale to the packing company.
ALASKA NATIVES ATTEND FIVE WEEK CLASS
It was back to school again for a group of 18 Alaska Native plant maintenance men recently. The group, employees of BIA's Juneau Area Office, attended a five-week course at Mt. Edgecumbe that ended with presentation of diplomas from the Interior Department and the State of Alaska.
The trainees participated in "Learning-by-doing" demonstrations and received standard classroom instruction in a variety of subjects geared to improving their chances for job promotion. Some of their classes included basic radio maintenance, meter reading, maintenance and repair of diesel motors for power plants, principles of an electrical circuit, care and use of electrical and other hand tools, and basic building maintenance.
While qualifying for Disaster Training completion certificates, they heard Bureau safety personnel discuss first-aid techniques, watched fire fighting and fire rescue demonstrations, and listened to a U. S. Coast Guard officer lecture on boat and water safety.
BLACKFEET SEEK RESIDENTIAL CAMP DEVELOPMENT
Fresh air, fine scenery and ample opportunities for outdoor sports make Indian reservations prime locations for boys' and girls' residential camps. So said a recent study conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Blackfeet Indians of Montana agree.
The Blackfeet Tribal Council and Lakeshore Development Committee have endorsed a program designed to attract professional camp operators to four likely sites on their reservation near Glacier National Park. Working with BIA specialists they will prepare site information and promotional materials.
Residential camp development is one of the newer activities going on through joint Bureau-tribal efforts to promote economic development of Indian reservations.
EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE FOR INDIANS
A sampling based on the six month period from November 1964 through April 1965 indicates the opportunities that are opening to skilled Indian workers through BIA's Employment Assistance Program.
During the period, 925 Indians were placed in 250 different occupations, from junior accountant to poultry processor. Of total placements, 80 percent were for men and 20 percent for women. The workers were employed in fields ranging from auto mechanics to library services, with numerous jobs in the service occupations, transportation, sales, management and manufacturing.
