The unparalleled development of human end natural resources that has taken place on the Navajo Indian Reservation since the end of World War II is "only a prologue:" to the further development that must be accomplished over the coming decade, the Commissioner-designate of Indian Affairs, Philleo Nash, told a predominantly Navajo audience today.
Speaking at the annual Navajo Tribal Fair at Window Rock, Ariz., the Commissioner-designate of the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs emphasized the need tor educational opportunities for all Navajo children; the need to equip adult Navajos with the knowledge and skills required for family betterment; and the need to improve economic growth throughout the entire reservation area.
"To anyone familiar with the conditions of deep poverty and dark despair that prevailed on Navajo lands in the late 1940’s,” Nash said, “the picture today borders on fantastic. Yet all of us must recognize that many of the problems of that earlier period still persist and much remains to be done. It will not be easy to create a climate of expanding opportunity so that a rapidly growing population can move toward full-scale sharing in the rewards and benefits of modern American life. It will require energy, imagination, a willingness to experiment, and the closest kind of working partnership between the Tribe and the Bureau. My pledge today is that the best possible efforts of the Bureau will be unswervingly dedicated to the achievement of this high objective.”
