INDIAN MONEY EARNS BETTER INTEREST -- Indian money has been earning more interest lately, thanks to cooperative investment agreements worked out by the Tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior. Over a year's time this increased earning power will put an additional $1 million into tribal treasuries.
Trustee by law of Indian funds, the Bureau has traditionally kept these funds in the United States Treasury where they are super-safe, but draw lower interest rates.
Recent increases in interest rates or yields in the general money market led to purchase of short term bank time deposits, Treasury notes, bonds, and bills with Indian trust monies. With principal and interest guaranteed by the Government, or through collateral backed by the Government, this type investment has provided bigger and faster returns on Indian capital.
At least 13 tribal groups have requested the Bureau to invest funds in Treasury securities and in banks across the Nation.
The latest of these investments was the placing of $14 million of Cheyenne and Arapahoe funds in six-month bank certificates of deposit in Oklahoma and California, at interest rates above five percent. The additional interest will give the tribes $97,000 more than they would have received at the four percent treasury rate.
The money came from an Indian Claims Commission award for Western lands the tribes had sold the Government in the 19th Century for which they did not receive full payment.
BIA CONTRACTS FOR JOB TRAINING -- The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the signing of two contracts to provide on-the-job training for American Indians.
A $16,160 contract with California Gir1swear, Inc. of Coolidge, Ariz. will enable 40 Pima and Maricopa Indians to learn skills used in the garment industry.
A $3,668 contract with the Black Lumber Co., Inc. of Lame Deer, Mont. will provide training for seven Northern Cheyenne Indians in jobs associated with the lumbering industry.
NEW BIA SUPERINTENDENTS -- The Bureau of Indian Affairs has named new superintendents for field agency offices in Montana, and Oregon.
Harold Do Roberson, 39, who became superintendent of the Flathead Agency, at Dixon, Mont., effective March 12, is a native of Goldthwaite, Tex. He holds the degree of B.S. in agriculture from Texas A &M and has been with the Bureau since April, 1958. His first BIA post was that of range conservationist on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. He has since served in the same capacity on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, No M. and the Cheyenne River Reservation at Eagle Butte, So Do Roberson was resources development officer on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana from May, 1963 until March, 1965 when he transferred to Fort Belknap Reservation at Harlem, Monto, where he has been superintendent until his latest reassignment.
Roberson will be replaced at Fort Belknap as superintendent by Maurice W. Babby, effective April 9.
Babby, 33, has been tribal operations officer for the Aberdeen, So Do area office since June, 1965. A Sioux Indian, he was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He holds a B.A. in public administration from Sacramento State College, Calif. and joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1956 as a clerk at the Aberdeen area office. He has since held posts of increasing responsibility at BIA offices in Aberdeen and in Sacramento, Calif. Prior to his last assignment to Aberdeen in 1965 he was tribal operations officer at the Sacramento area office.
Anson A. Baker was named to the superintendency of the Fort Peck Agency, Poplar, Mont. to fill the position vacated by the transfer last January of Stanley Lyman to Utah. Baker is a Gros Ventre Indian, born on the Fort Berthold Reservation at Elbowoods, N. D. He began his Bureau service in 1951 at the Aberdeen, S. D. area office and has since held positions in other BIA installations in the Dakotas. Prior to his present promotion he was assigned to the Blackfeet Agency office, Browning, Mont. as administrative manager.
Harold A. Duck, a native of Keystone, Okla. was appointed superintendent of the Umatilla Agency at Pendleton, Oreo Duck, who has been serving as assistant to the superintendent of the Warm Springs Agency, with responsibility for the Umatillas, was promoted when the Umatilla subagency was recently raised to full agency status.
The new superintendent has been with the Bureau since 1947. He began his career as a teacher and principal in Bureau schools and later assumed more general administrative responsibilities. He holds a B.A. degree from Northeastern State College, Tahlequah, Okla.
NEW HOUSING FOR LEECH LAKE CHIPPEWAS -- The Chippewa Indians of Minnesota's Leech Lake Reservation now are moving into new low-rent housing constructed under the Government’s Indian housing program. The program - conducted jointly by the Housing and Urban Development Department's Housing Assistance Agency and the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs -- accounts for 28 units already completed at Cass Lake on the reservation. Twelve of these units are earmarked for elderly Indians and the remainder are four, three, and two-bedroom units for single families. The housing units are equipped with complete kitchens, drapes and curtains. All housing is assigned, with the exception of six units for the elderly for which applications are now being processed.
In all, a total of 50 units of low-rent housing is planned for the Leech Lake Indians. Two other projects are under construction in the reservation communities of Ball Club and Inger, with completion scheduled for early spring.
