INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR BIA TEACHER--Mrs. Iva Kingsley, the academic head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs School at Kayenta, Ariz., was recently honored as an Outstanding World Educator. The award was presented by the Society of International Educators, headquartered in London, and recognizes Mrs. Kingsleys skilled service in elementary education. Mrs. Kingsley has been a Bureau teacher for the past 26 years, with the exception of three years spent in teaching military dependent children at Flagstaff, Ariz. She began her career on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1940 and first went to the Navajo Reservation in 1948 as elementary supervisor for the area that includes Chinle and Tuba City, Ariz. She transferred to Kayenta in 1955.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ON WASHINGTON RESERVATION--The Quinault Indians of Western Washington are not going to be left behind when it comes to community planning. Recently begun at Queets Village on their reservation is a pilot project in total redevelopment for a community of about 31 families.
Planning includes new housing, roads, water and sewerage systems, and a variety of community improvements. While major planning is still in progress, the initial steps such as on-site lot surveys and land status determinations are nearly completed.
PHOENIX INDIAN SCHOOL AUDIOVISUAL PROGRAM--A demonstration by students from the Phoenix Indian School and their audiovisual aids teacher attracted much interest and comment at a recent convention in Phoenix of the Arizona Association for Audiovisual Education, attended by nationally known specialists in the field.
The concept of the Indian School's Instructional Materials Center was explained by the teacher, while students demonstrated the production of such study materials as graphic displays, filmstrips, films, slides, transparencies and photographs.
Dr. Mendel Sherman, Professor of Education from Indiana University's Audiovisual Center was among the interested viewers. Dr. Sherman, who heads a study under the National Defense Education Act to determine quantitative standards for audiovisual communications areas, indicated that the Phoenix School is under consideration for a case study.
TURTLE MOUNTAIN INDIANS PLAN TOURIST ATTRACTION-- Chipewyan Authentics, a tribal enterprise of the Turtle Mountain Reservation Indians, has announced plans to construct a replica Chippewa village near the company plant at Belcourt, N. Dak. Ground leveling and other preliminary site work is now in progress.
The village, an authentic model of a Chippewa community of the past, will be planned by Indian employees of the plant and will offer examples of the company's products--replica Indian artifacts such as weapons, games and peace pipes--for sale to visitors. The opening has been tentatively scheduled for June 1st.
The Belcourt plant is about fifteen miles from Peace Arch, the gateway between the United States and Canada through which about 225,000 travelers pass each year.
BIA HELPS ORGANIZE NEW ASSOCIATION--When a national association was recently organized for educators and linguists who teach English as a second language, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was among the founders.
The Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) adopted a constitution and elected officers at a conference held March 17-19 in New York City. A former chief of BIA's Education Branch, Mrs. Hildegarde Thompson, was elected to the Executive Committee.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs will take a special interest in the Association's activities because of the Federal school system it operates for American Indian and Alaska native children where other schools are unavailable or remote.
Many students in BIA schools first encounter the English language when they start to learn their ABC's, The Bureau, therefore, seeks new and effective English teaching methods for its own school system and encourages their adoption by other schools that serve reservation children.
TESOL plans to publish a journal for language teachers and hopes to provide a channel for expanding knowledge and sharing information among interested professional people in the field.
SANTA FE INSTITUTE STUDENTS PURSUE ADVANCED STUDY--A recent survey by the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, N. Mex., revealed that many former students engage in advanced studies in art fields at other institutions.
Of 65 former students polled, representing nearly 40 Indian groups, more than half were engaged in advanced work in such Subjects as sculpture, painting, textile design, commercial art and ceramics. They are enrolled in a wide variety of colleges and technical schools, from Central Washington State College at Ellensburg, Wash., to the School for American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State.
Five graduates in the past two years have won scholarships amounting to one-half of their tuition at the San Francisco Art Institute. Others have been able to continue their education with the aid of grants from tribal scholarship funds or from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Established in 1962, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the unique Santa Fe institution fosters the talents of budding artists who come from every Indian population area and from Alaska native villages. An accredited high school program with arts electives is offered in combination with a post-high school vocational arts program that prepares the student for employment or for further study.
CHIPPEWAS TO GET ON-THE-JOB TRAINING--The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the award of two contracts to provide job training for Chippewa Indians. A $14,300 contract with Habitant Shops, Inc., of Bay City, Mich., will train 61 Chippewas from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota in occupations that involve processing cedar logs into various kinds of fencing. Training will be conducted in their home State.
A second contract for $3,200, negotiated by the Bureau with Chippewayan Authentics of Belcourt, N. Dak., will provide on-the-job training for eight local Indians in the manufacture of replica Indian artifacts. The company is a tribal enterprise of the Turtle Mountain Chippewas.
INDIAN CLAIMS ACTIONS--The Indian Claims Commission has awarded $2,450,000 to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation. (Dockets Nos. 264; 264-A; and 264-B) The award represents additional payment for an estimated 3,559,000 acres of land in Washington and Oregon, ceded to the United States under the treaty of June 9, 1855; compensation for an estimated 12,000 acres excluded by erroneous survey from the reservation; and damages from the loss of fish and eel runs in the Umatilla River.
In a second case (No. 47567) involving a claim of the Confederated Bands of Ute Indians, the Court of Claims issued an order approving a compromise and awarding $4,479,498 as compensation for misuse of tribal funds.
