WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHES ESTABLISH PRIMITIVE AREA
The White Mountain Apache Tribal Council has voted to set aside a 7,400-acre tract on its Arizona reservation as a primitive area for the next five years. The area, which includes Mount Baldy on the east boundary of the reservation, will not be subject to any development, timber cutting, or vehicular traffic, except as needed for fire or insect control operations. It will remain under tribal control and-is not part of the National Wilderness Preservation system.
NDEA INSTITUTES FOR TEACHERS OF INDIAN STUDENTS
Six universities and colleges this summer will sponsor National Defense Education Act Institutes Which will be of special interest to teachers from schools that enroll Indian students. Bureau of Indian Affairs, public, and nonprofit private school teachers are eligible to attend. The programs are planned to improve education for the disadvantaged.
The sponsoring institutions are: Arizona State College, Flagstaff, Ariz.; University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans. ; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. Mex.; Utah State University, Logan, Utah; Western Washington State College, Bellingham, Wash.; and Western Montana College, Dillon, Mont.
SEMINOLES CONTRACT FOR ON-THE-JOB TRAINING
The Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., was recently awarded a $5,750 contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide on-the-job training for 20 tribal members at two South Florida reservations. The trainees will receive instruction in woodworking skills at Big Cypress Reservation and in textile machine operation at Brighton Reservation.
LAND DEVELOPMENT AT FORT HALL
An additional 2,300-acre tract on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho has been opened for irrigation. The project is a Bureau of Indian Affairs' supervised program of "unitization" - combining the property of various Indian owners for management purposes--and conversion from grass land to irrigated farming. The land, once depleted of good native grazing grasses, was reseeded "to crested wheat grass and has steadily increased in value and productivity since the program started. It has been leased by its owners for a 16-year period for irrigated farming.
Total annual cash income in 1951, when reseeding of the tract began, was $154; during the 1952-1965 period this figure increased to $462. Today, under a development type lease, the land is expected to bring an income of $55,000 annually to its owners.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SEEKS INDIAN WORKERS
Representatives of the Department of Defense's Contract Administrative Services Office met recently with Bureau of Indian Affairs employment assistance officers in several major industrial cities. Their aim is to seek ways of stimulating Indian employment with defense contractors.
A major responsibility of the Office is to ensure fair employment practices and nondiscrimination in hiring by defense contractors.
INDIAN CLAIMS COMMISSION ACTIONS
More than 850 claims against the United States have been filed with the Indian Claims Commission by various tribal groups. As of January 1, 1966, 177 were disposed of by awards.; 167 by dismissals for such reasons as the claimant's failure to prove entitlement, filing by an improper claimant, and lack of jurisdiction by the Indian Claims Commission. There are now more than 500 claims pending before the Commission.
NORTHERN PAIUTE CLAIMS CASE
United States Government attorneys are appealing the Indian Claims Commission decision of 1965 in the Northern Paiute Claims Case (Docket No. 87). The U. S. Court of Claims has been asked to review the issues of title, minerals and the right of the Northern Paiute Nation and Bands, as petitioner, to represent the 'Mono" group of Indians. The Northern Paiutes have filed a counter-appeal based on the question of land value.
In the orders previously issued, the Indian Claims Commission granted an award of $935, 000 as payment for 3.1 million acres of land in California and Nevada (the Mono Tract) taken in 1B53 and 1B63; $15, 790, 000 for 11.6 million acres taken in California and Nevada (Paviotso Tract) in IB53 and IB62; and $3,650,000 for 10.5 million acres in northern Nevada and southern Oregon, with small portions in Idaho and California, taken in 1872.
TWO SOUTH DAKOTA RESERVATIONS, TO GET PLANNING ASSISTANCE
The first Federal grant to an Indian area under the Urban Planning Assistance Program (Section 701) of the Housing Act of 1954 will go to aid two South Dakota Reservations, the Urban Renewal Administration has announced. The 1954 Act was amended in 1965 to include Indian reservations.
The State of South Dakota will receive a $44,190 grant to aid the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations in programs of comprehensive planning for growth and development. The funds will be used for population studies, economic analyses, planning community improvements, housing, roads, schools, and for other socioeconomic planning.
Because the two Reservations are in officially designated redevelopment areas, the Federal grant will cover three-fourths of the total costs of planning activities, expected to take two years. It will be supplemented by $14,731 in local funds.
Crow Creek is in Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde Counties; Lower Brule is in Lyman and Stanley Counties. There are approximately 1,700 Indians, mainly Sioux, living on or near the two reservations.
