News by Year

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay has extended through June 30, 1954, the terms of office of three principal chiefs of Oklahoma Indian tribes - William W. Keeler, Cherokee, Harry J. W. Belvin, Choctaw and Marcy Cully, Seminole. Mr. Keeler’s present term expired on November 30, while the terms of the other two would expire December 31.

Appointment of Knute H. Lee as Superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Consolidated Indian Agency, Belcourt, N. Dak., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Transfer of Frell M. Owl on January 26 from the position of superintendent of the Northern Idaho Indian Agency, Lapwai, Idaho, to the same position at the Fort Hall Agency near Pocatello was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Appointment of Leon V, Langan, Gallup, N. Mex., and Thomas M. Heid, Albuquerque, N. Mex., as assistants to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and of Carl Beck, Springerville, Ariz., as the Commissioner 1s field representative was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. They have been serving as consultants.

Appointment of Percy E. Melis, Window Rock, Arizona, as Chief of the Indian Bureau’s Branch of Forest and Range Management, to replace Leroy D. Arnold who retired on July 31, 1953, was announced by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Melis has had many years of experience in forest and range management work in the Bureau and other Federal agencies. He has been forester in charge of range management at Window Rock area since July 7, 1952.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that Don C. Foster, area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., has been designated, effective November 16, to serve as acting area director for the Bureau's operations in Alaska with headquarters in Juneau, pending the selection of a successor to Hugh J. Wade. Mr. Wade, who has been area director for the Bureau at Juneau since 1950, was recently advised that for administrative reasons his services will no longer be required.

Recommendations designed to eliminate certain management practices and to strengthen the organizational structure of the Washington headquarters Office of Territories, Department of the Interior, have been approved by Under Secretary Ralph Tudor.

A four man survey team which was assigned the task of surveying the operations of the Office said in its report that its recommendations would correct internal operating procedures by clarifying lines of authority and improving organizational relationships.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today named three businessmen from outside the Government to make a survey of the operations and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Walter Bimson, chairman of the board, Valley National bank of Phoenix, Arizona, was chosen as the chairman of the team. The other non-Government members are Robert D. Lutton, Santa Fe Railroad, Chicago, Illinois, and J.R. Johns, Sears Roebuck Company, Dallas, Texas.

Three officials of the Department will assist in the survey.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons will leave Washington, September 30 for a. trip of approximately five weeks which will take him into the major Indian areas of 11 western States, it was announced today.

This will complete the assignment given to Commissioner Emmons by President Eisenhower in a letter of September 2 directing him to "meet with each of the major tribal groups of the country" in the near future.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons will visit the major Indian areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota the week of September 14, immediately following his trip through Oklahoma.

On the 14th he will meet with the Menominee Indians in general council at Keshena, Wisconsin, and will also inspect the tribal garment factory and the tribal forest. In the afternoon he will leave for the Lac du Flambeau Reservation passing through the Stockbridge and Crandan Reservations en route,

Appointment of Leon V. Langan, Gallup, N. Mex., and Thomas M. Reid, Albuquerque, N, Mex., as consultants to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L, Emmons was announced today by Acting Secretary or the Interior Ralph A. Tudor.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons will leave Washington, D.C., September 5, for a trip to the major Indian areas of Oklahoma. He is acting under broad instructions from President Eisenhower.

Headquarters of the Fort Berthold Indian Agency is being moved from Elbowoods to Newtown, North Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The move, part of the readjustment and relocation at Fort Berthold made necessary by construction of the Garrison Dam and Reservoir Project of the Missouri River Basin Development, was originally scheduled to take place later. Because of an emergency need to use the agency buildings at Elbowoods for school purposes, however, the move is being undertaken at the present time and should be completed in the next few weeks.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay has announced departmental decisions and clarifications on questions recently raised by a number of South Dakota livestock operators about the sale of grazing privileges at, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the five-year period beginning next November 1.

A 36-year career in the Bureau of Indian Affairs ended on July 31 when Leroy D. Arnold, Chief Forest and Range Managemen, retired, Mr,. Arnold who lives at 2110 Hildarose Drive, Silver Spring, Md., began work with the Indian service as a forest fire guard at Warm Springs Indian Agency, Oregon, June 1917. He has served as forest ranger at Warm Springs and Yakima agencies and was deputy forest supervisor at Tulalip Agency, Washington. He also served for a time as superintendent of Klamath Agency, Oregon and since 1941 has been chief of the Bureau's Forest and Range Management branch.

Transfer of the Southwestern Range and Sheep Breeding Laboratory at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, on August 1, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, to the Bureau of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. The move fa part of the broad program aimed at narrowing the scope of Indian Bureau operations and transferring responsibilities, wherever possible, to other agencies of Government for to the Indians themselves.

Dr. James Raymond Shaw has been assigned from the United States Public Health Service to serve as chief of the Branch of Health of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Dr. Shaw comes to his new assignment from the position of Chief of the Division of Hospitals, Bureau of Medical Services in the PHS. In this position, which he has held for the past year, he has been responsible for the supervision and management of the entire system of PHS hospitals and outpatient clinics.

Glenn L. Emmons, Gallup, New Mexico, today nominated by President Eisenhower to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs, is 570 He was born at Atmore, Alabama in 1895. His family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he attended public school and the University of New Mexico, leaving the University in 1917 for military service. He was a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.

Discharged from the Army in 1929, he went to Gallup, New Mexico, to enter the banking business in which he has continued until now.

Competitive bidding for oil and gas leases in the rich Williston Basin field, under supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is bringing higher financial returns to Fort Peck Indians than if direct negotiations with the Indians for the lands were permitted, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

Two good illustrations of the value of Bureau supervised sales were revealed this week at a competitive sale on the Fort Peck reservation in eastern Montana.

Legislation is being drafted in the Bureau of Indian Affairs which will authorize transfer to the State of Texas complete trust responsibility over the affairs of the 410 Alabama-Coushatta Indians living on an approximately 4,000-acre reservation in Polk County, Texas, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the transfer of a 45-bed Indian hospital at Hayward, Wisconsin, to a local nonprofit corporation for future operations and maintenance.

The hospital was turned over to the Hayward Memorial Area Hospital Association. It will continue to provide services primarily for members of the Lac Courte Oreilles tribe, and will also serve non-Indians of the area. The hospital will be operated under a policy of equality of treatment and non-segregation.

Public school enrollment of Indian children is increasing at a fast rate a Bureau of Indian Affairs survey released by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, shows. Comparative figures for the years 1942 and 1952 show that while the number of Indian children enrolled in all schools rose some 25 percent in that decade, the number attending public schools in their home states rose approximately 40 percent.

The largest oil and gas mining lease sale ever made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be offered prospective bidders at a sale to be held at Window Rock, Arizona, April 21, May 1, May 12, and May 22, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the appointment of Carl W. Beck of Apache County, Arizona; as a special consultant on Indian Affairs.

A former official of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mr. Beck resigned in 1948 to enter private business.

He served in the Indian Service for 23 years in a number of responsible positions including the superintendencies of the Western Shoshone Agency, Owyhee, Nevada, and Fort Hall, Idaho. He entered the Navajo Indian Service in 1929.

Hopi farmers who have cooperated with conservation and livestock technicians of the Indian Service and increased the productivity of their farm and ranch operations were honored at a recent ceremony at Polacca school on the First Mesa in Arizona.

W. Barton Greenwood, Federal career man today became acting commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the resignation of Dillon Myer became effective, the Department of the Interior announced.

Mr. Greenwood, a resident of Washington since early boyhood is a veteran official of the Indian Bureau where he has been executive officer since June 1949.

Appointment of Ralph M. Shane as superintendent of Fort Berthold Indian Agency, New Town, N. Dak., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Shane has been supervising highway engineer at Fort Berthold for three years. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in November 1936, as an engineering draftsman at the same agency and a year later was promoted to junior road engineer. In January 1939, he transferred to the Sacramento, California agency as chief of road survey party.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay will present the Special Award in Human Relations of the American Public Relations Association to the community of Sheridan, Wyoming, at 7 p.m., Monday, March 2, 1953, at a banquet to be held in the ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel. The APRA is holding its annual convention here, March 1-3.

Increased emphasis on the ultimate goal of transferring basic Indian Bureau functions either to the Indians themselves or to State and local highlighted the 1952 work of the Bureau, Commissioner Dillon S. Myer said today.

Among the major moves during the year were Indian Bureau-sponsored bills introduced in the last Congress to transfer civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indians to the States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, California, Oregon and Washington;

Benefits accruing to the Navajos go beyond. the physical rehabilitation features of the long range program and reach many people through employment opportunities, Allan G, Harper, Navajo Area director reported.

Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman today announced the appointment of Mr. Marcy Cully, Bowlegs, Oklahoma, as Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma for the period beginning December 10, 1952 through December 31, 1953.

Mr. Cully, who was elected Assistant Chief at a tribal election held June 3, 1952, fills the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. George Harjo, Sasakwa, Oklahoma, principal chief, on December 9, 1952.

Authority for the appointment of a principal chief of the Seminoles is contained in the Act of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 137).