Ground has been broken for the AMI-Zuni Computer Parts Plant, the first factory on the new B1ackrock Industrial Park of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, which will employ 100 Zuni Indians by the year's end.
The groundbreaking took place August 23, exactly three months from the day officials of the parent company, Aircraft Mechanics, Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colo., first set foot on the reservation.
The plant is being built by the tribe with tribal funds and a loan from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' revolving loan fund. It will be leased to the computer company. The industrial complex is being created by the tribe with $268,000 in funds obtained through Economic Development Administration grants and loans and construction funds from the Federal Water pollution Control Administration. The water pollution control funds will be used to build adequate sewage facilities for the complex at a total cost of $79,000, of which $23,700 is Federal money.
The tribe is actively seeking other industrial and commercial tenants for the park, located just east of the Pueblo.
Twenty Zunis, both men and women, have been picked for two-week training sessions at Colorado Springs to learn the intricate art of assembling computer memory cores, made of tiny wires woven through minute silicon "donuts."
The work is so precise and the materials so small that the final operations must be performed with the aid of high powered microscopes.
Aircraft Mechanics officials say they are well pleased with the aptitudes displayed by the first trainees and feel that the "quality and productivity" of the Zuni labor force will be a decided advantage in a highly competitive industry. They said there is a good possibility that operations may be expanded and broadened in future months.
The officials also complimented the tribe and representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, New Mexico Emp10yement and Security Commission, Economic Development Administration and Public Health Service for the speed with which construction and training details were completed.
