Headquarters for the Menominee Indian Agency in Wisconsin will be transferred as soon as possible from Neopit to Keshena, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.
Primary reason for the move, which has been discussed with Menominee tribal representatives over the past several months, is to separate the Indian Bureau's governmental functions at the agency from the operations of the Menominee tribal lumber mill located at Neopit.
The agency, which has been situated at Neopit since 1942, was transferred at that time from Keshena in order to facilitate Bureau supervision of the mill operations. Under legislation enacted by Congress last June, however, Bureau supervision over Menominee tribal affairs is boing gradually withdrawn and will be fully terminated by the end of 1958.
As part of this process, the Governmental operations of the agency were organizationally separated from the business activities of the mill last January and several important service functions of the Bureau were simultaneously transferred to tribal management. While the physical separation of mill and agency was scheduled to take place at the same time, it was held up because tribal officials handling the service functions were making use of the old headquarters building at Keshena.
The agency move was authorized only recently after alternative government quarters at Keshena became available.
