MULTIPURPOSE CONSERVATION PROJECT AT FORT HALL
A multipurpose project on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho will combine a 12,000-acre bird refuge on Grays Lake with efficient irrigation and flood control. The project was made possible through joint agreement of the Fort Hall Indians, the Grays Lake Protective Committee, and the Department of the Interior.
Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service will create a controlled nesting area in a 12,000-acre diked section of Grays Lake on the Reservation. An additional 9,000 acres outside the diked area will be set aside for controlled water drawdown in spring and early summer. The diked area will have a water storage capacity sufficient to deliver an annual increase of 30,000 acre-feet of water to the Fort Hall Indian tribal lands for irrigation and to provide flood control benefits to the entire Blackfoot River Drainage Basin.
In announcing the agreement, which has been 10 years in the making, the Grays Lake Protective Committee stated that the multiple-purpose conservation project is totally self-contained and no land, water, or grazing rights have been jeopardized. The project is unique in that there have been no exchange costs for lands or water use, the Committee added.
PUEBLO CHILDREN TO TEST WESTINGHOUSE TEACHING SYSTEM
Westinghouse Laboratories, a division of Westinghouse Corporation, has selected San Felipe Elementary Day School in New Mexico for a test of a new system of programmed language learning.
The test will be carried out under a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which operates the school on the San Felipe Pueblo. The Bureau is exploring new teaching techniques that might be adaptable to Indian education.
A small group of Pueblo Indian preschool youngsters will test the feasibility of a computerized system for teaching English to children who hear only an Indian language at home.
Heart of the computerized system is a $35,000 "talking typewriter," which flashes a letter on a screen and pronounces it electronically when a key is pressed.
PROPOSAL FOR SCENIC EASEMENTS
An amendment to existing law (Sec. 208 of Title 23, USC), recently proposed by Congressman George H. Fallon, would allow the Bureau of Indian Affairs to use up to 3 percent of its annual authorizations for road construction on Indian reservations to acquire and improve scenic easements near reservation roads.
A similar proposal was contained in the Bureau's 1965 proposed legislative program but did not provide for improving the easements and limited the funds for obtaining them to 1 percent of annual road construction authorizations.
TURTLE MOUNTAIN ORDINANCE PLANT EXPANDS
The Turtle Mountain Ordinance Plant at Rolla, North Dakota, has broken ground for a new plant building to cost more than $338,000 and to house nearly $500,000 worth of high-precision equipment for jewel bearing production. Completion is scheduled for August.
The Rolla Plant, which opened in March 1953, is the Nation's only domestic producer of jewel bearings for timing and other devices used in defense and space industries. Nearly 100 Indians from the nearby Turtle Mountain Reservation are currently employed in all phases of company operations.
INDIANS INCREASING USE OF CREDIT SOURCES
The credit and financing program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs backstops Indian efforts to develop their reservation economies.
This Bureau program places emphasis on helping Indian organizations and individuals to use the same financing sources as other citizens when starting or expanding agricultural operations, businesses and other enterprises. Current estimates indicate increased use of these sources by Indians.
In calendar year 1964 Indians borrowed an estimated $157 million from banks, the Farmers Home Administration, Production Credit Associations, and other financing institutions. This contrasts with the $103 million obtained in 1963--an increase of better than 52 percent.
FIRST JOB CORPSMAN TO BE EMPLOYED IS ASSIGNED TO WORK ON A RESERVATION
The first Job Corpsman to be placed in a permanent job on an Indian Reservation will start work in August as a cook at the Job Corps Center on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona.
Jerry Enfusse, 20-year old non-Indian born in Whitesburg, Kentucky, was one of the first 30 corpsmen recruited in the Nation and among the initial group trained at the Winslow Job Corps Conservation Center in Arizona.
Enfusse, who asked to be assigned to the kitchens at Winslow, has cooked his way through the recipe books of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the United States Army during his five months training period.
After dropping out of high school in his freshman year, he completed a brief period of military service and then worked as a part-time truck driver. His new skill, acquired in the Job Corps, paved the way to his first full-time job.
The Winslow Center was dedicated in March and the San Carlos Center is due to open this fall.
