SALT RIVER INDIANS LEASE SCOTTSDALE AREA TRACT
A group of Salt River Reservation Indians anticipates an annual income of $400 per acre from a 156-acre tract recently leased to the Arizona Stable Development Company. The lease runs for 25 years, with an additional 25-year option. The tract, composed of eight allotments and leased as a unit, lies immediately south of the Indian Bend Golf Course near Scottsdale, Arizona.
When the land is fully developed, the Indian owners will receive a guaranteed minimum rent of about $50,000 per year, plus three per cent of the gross proceeds from the planned development, and $360 per year for each house built on the property.
The Development Company plans a $6 million investment and is committed to build a riding arena, training track and deluxe stables this year. Future commitments call for a water and sewer system, 30-unit hotel, six houses, lake and pool by the first of next year, and construction of 72 apartment units by mid-1966.
PROJECT TO TRAIN NAVAJO GARMENT WORKERS
The B.V.D. Company, Inc. has announced its intention to cooperate with representatives of the Navajo Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in establishing a pilot garment sewing training project near Winslow, Arizona. The project, to cost an estimated $40,000 to $50,000, will commence October 1 and will determine the capabilities of Navajo women for high-speed sewing. If training proves successful, B.V.D. will establish a permanent manufacturing facility on the reservation.
The manufacturer will supply necessary machinery and supervisory personnel. Arrangements to house the project are not yet completed.
INDIAN CLAIMS
The Indian Claims Commission recently granted an award of $171,897 to the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma on behalf of the Peorias and the Piankeshaw, Wea, and Kaskaskia Nations. The award represents additional payment for 207,759 acres of land in Kansas disposed of under the Treaty of May 30, 1854.
The Commission also has approved a compromise settlement and granted an award of $520,000 to the Quechan Tribe of Indians. The award represents fair payment for 667,544 acres of land in California, taken in 1853, and 881,644 acres of land in Arizona, taken in 1884.
Attorneys for the Iowa Tribe have appealed the Commission's decisions in a case in which the Iowa Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas was granted an award of $633,193.77 on May 7, 1965. The appeal is based on the issues of the value of the lands ceded under the Treaty of August 4, 1824, and the reduced area to which the Commission found that the Indians held title.
ALASKA NATIVE VILLAGES RECOVER
Old Harbor and Point Lions, Kodiak Island native communities that were hard hit by the Alaska earthquake, are steadily returning to normal.
Working with specialist from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, energetic villagers have completed reconstruction of power transmission systems in both communities restored sewer and water systems at Old Harbor. Two 100-KW power generators have been installed in a new central power plant to serve both villages.
INDIAN-ESKIMO ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION
The Museum of Contemporary Crafts of the American Craftsmen's Council at 29 W. 53rd Street, New York City, will continue through September 12 to exhibit a remarkable collection of contemporary Indian and Eskimo arts arid crafts. The show consists of work by Indian students at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and of Alaskan Eskimo craftsmen-trainees.
Paintings, sculpture, metal crafts, ceramics, textiles and other art objects from the Santa Fe Institute reflect some of the new art forms developed by Indian artists who link the best in traditional Indian culture to contemporary life. The Institute is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and is now in its third year. It offers an accredited high school program and a post-high school vocational program in preparation for colleges, technical schools and arts vocations. Its student body of 350 is drawn from 88 tribes in 25 States.
The Alaskans represented in the current exhibit are members of a group of 40 unemployed craftsmen and hunters ranging in age from 16 to 65 who were selected to participate in a Federal training project. Working in wood, stone, ivory, metals, and lapidary, they combine contemporary designs and techniques with subjects drawn from Eskimo life.
NORTHERN CEDARCRAFT REACHES FULL PRODUCTION
Officials at Red Lake Indian Mills recently reported that Northern Cedarcraft Products, Inc. is now in full production on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. The plant, which produces cedar fence posts, employs 48 Chippewa Indians in two full-time shifts. Only recently completed, it has bolstered the economy of the entire Red Lake area.
Northern Cedarcraft is one of many companies established on Indian reservations across the country through the cooperative efforts of tribal governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
