News by Year

Appointment of Robert D. Holtz as area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., was announced today by Acting Secretary of the Interior Clarence A. Davis. He succeeds E. Morgan Pryse who retires from the Bureau December 31, after 35 years of service.

Holtz has been assistant area director at Minneapolis since last July. He first came with the Bureau in 1931 as a forest ranger with the Klamath Agency in Oregon and later served in the same capacity at Zuni Agency in New Mexico, and as forest supervisor at the Papago Agency, Sells, Ariz.

The American Indian set an all-time record this past year in accepting job opportunities off his reservation, Acting Secretary of the Interior Clarence A. Davis announced today. According to figures received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, almost 3,500 Indians moved away from their reservation homes to areas that offered greater employment advantages.

The figures go on to show that most of the Indians who make the voluntary relocation move make a success of their new ventures.

The aim of the present Administration in the field of Indian affairs is not to "detribalize" the Indian or deprive him of his identity but to give him a wider range of choice and a greater opportunity for fulfilling his own potentialities than he has previously enjoyed, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay emphasized today in making public a letter he wrote November 30 to Oliver La Farge, president of the Association on American Indian Affairs, Inc.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons today wired his and the Bureau's congratulations to the Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado as they prepared to sign a contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield to provide health protection for the Southern Ute Indians.

In his telegram to Tribal Council Chairman Sam Burch, Commissioner Emmons praised the Council for its far-sightedness and progressive attitude.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today that Allan M. Adams will move on November 20 from Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota, where he has been real property officer, to be superintendent of the Winnebago Agency, Nebraska, replacing Victor E. Godfrey.

Godfrey, who has been in charge at Winnebago for nearly two years, will transfer on the same date to be real property officer in the Bureau's area office at Aberdeen, S. Dak.

Three Indian Bureau superintendents will interchange assignments in Arizona and Utah on November 20, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

John O. Crow will move from Fort Apache Agency, Whiteriver, Ariz., to Uintah and Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah.

Albert M. Hawley will shift from Papago Agency, Sells, Ariz., to Fort Apache.

Harry W. Gilmore will transfer from Uintah and Ouray to Papago.

Adult Indians on reservations who missed the advantages of education in their youth and are now handicapped by lack of ability to read, write, speak or understand the English language will be given an opportunity to develop these basic skills under a new Indian Bureau Program announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today that five of the Indian Bureau's key personnel will move to new assignments on November 1.

James W. Kauffman, superintendent of the Minnesota Agency, Bemidji, Minn., will take over the comparable position at Pine Ridge, S. Dak. This job has been vacant since last August when former Pine Ridge Superintendent Benjamin Reifel was promoted to Area Director for the Bureau at Aberdeen, S. Dak.

Wendell W. Palmer, superintendent at Klamath Agency, Oregon, will move to Bemidji replacing Kauffman.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the reappointment of Floyd E. Maytubby, Oklahoma. City, Okla., as Principal Chief of the Chickasaw Indian Tribe tor a two-year term beginning October 18.

The Indian youths of America are going to college and other institutions of higher learning in ever-increasingly numbers, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glen L. Emmons said today.

According to a nationwide Indian Bureau survey, there are over 2,300 young Indian men and women who are now taking courses in schools above the high school level. The total twenty years ago was about one-third that number.

Many of these education-seeking youngsters are able to pay their own ways; others are being aided by scholarships, grants and working in nonclass periods.

Robert Bruce McKee, Administrative Officer at the Sisseton Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was named today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood to be the new Superintendent at Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Mr. McKee succeeds Ralph M. Shane who resigned effective July 29 to go into the newspaper business in New Town, North Dakota.

The vacancy at Sisseton caused by Mr. McKee's promotion will be filled by Wray P. Hughes who is now Administrative Officer at Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today awarded a contract to Southern Cafeteria Operating Company, Birmingham, Alabama, for the provision of noonday meals during the coming school year at five Federal day schools on the Cherokee Reservation in western North Carolina.

Southern Cafeteria’s bid of 44 cents per meal was the lowest of those received in response to invitations issued by the Indian Bureau on July 22. The bids were opened August 15.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Clarence A. Davis today announced the appointment of Roley Buck, Wetumka, Oklahoma, to a two-year term as Principal Chief of the Creek Nation, one of Oklahoma's Five Civilized Tribes.

Chief Buck, a full-blood Creek Indian, has long been active in tribal and church affairs. He is the father of seven children, two of whom are now serving in the United States Army. The new chief himself served in the Army along the Mexican border in 1916 and 1917 and with the infantry in France in 1918.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Clarence A. Davis today announced that a public hearing will be held at the Osage Indian Agency, Pawhuska, Okla., on September 6 to consider four proposed amendments to the Federal regulations governing the leasing of Osage Reservation lands for oil and gas development.

Designation of Carl Beck to supervise Indian Bureau activities aimed at giving Indians wider opportunities for improving their economic status was announced today by Acting Commissioner W. Barton Greenwood.

Appointment of Thomas M. Reid as Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. Mr. Reid has been serving as staff assistant to the Commissioner since December 1953, specializing in the field of resources (extension, forest and range management, irrigation, management of trust land, roads, and soil conservation) and program development.

The consolidation of two Choctaw Indian schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oklahoma was announced today by Acting Commissioner W. Barton Greenwood. Wheelock Academy, established in Millerton in 1832, will be closed and its students will use dormitory facilities at Jones Academy and attend public schools in nearby Hartshorne.

The move will reduce operating costs per pupil to about half of the present figure and will provide better educational opportunities for the children.

Removal of Federal restrictions which have operated for years to hold the lands of a limited number of admittedly competent Indians in compulsory trusteeship against the owners' wishes was announced today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood.

The effect of the move, which applies only to Indians actively seeking unrestricted title to their lands, is to equalize the status of all competent Indians in their dealings with the Bureau.

Promotion of Benjamin Reifel, a Sioux Indian and doctor of philosophy in public administration, to be area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, S. Dak., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

He will succeed William O. Roberts, area director at Aberdeen since February 1954, who retires on August 31 after 38 years of continuous and progressively responsible service with the Indian Bureau.

Clarence W. Ringey, superintendent of the Umatilla Indian Agency, Pendleton, Oreg., will move to the comparable position at Western Washington Agency, Everett, Wash., on July 17 and will be replaced on July 31 by William E. Ensor, Jr., administrative officer of the Cherokee Agency, Cherokee, N.C., the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

At Western Washington Mr. Ringey succeeds Melvin L. Robertson who transfers July 14 to be superintendent of the Menominee Agency, Keshena, Wis.

Broader educational opportunities for Indian youngsters from the primary grades through the university level and more effective conservation of Indian soil and water resources are two of the prime benefits expected to result from increased Indian Bureau appropriations for the fiscal year which began July 1.

Important, though less sweeping, improvements are also in prospect in the fields of relocation, trust property management, forestry and law enforcement.

Agreement has been reached between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the commissioners of Klamath County, Oregon, covering future maintenance and improvement work on the 764-mile road system of the Klamath Indian Reservation, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that he has appointed a three-man team to investigate the collapse of a footbridge on the East Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina on July 3.

Members of the team left today to confer with James H. Baley, Jr., United States District Attorney at Asheville, No Co, Richard D. Butts, Superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, and Frank Parker, General Counsel for the Cherokee Indians.

Transfer of Melvin L. Robertson, superintendent of the Western Washington Indian Agency, Everett, Wash., on July 14 to the comparable position at the Menominee Agency, Keshena, Wis., was announced today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood.

Robertson replaces Raymond H. Bitney who moves to the position of assistant director in the Bureau's area office at Anadarko, Okla.

In a major step designed to improve and expand Federal health services to Indians in the United States and Alaska, the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior will transfer its entire health program to the Public Health Service on July 1.

Involved in the transfer will be about 3,600 Indian Bureau employees and about 970 buildings. The real property inventory, estimated to be worth about $40,000,000, includes 56 hospitals, 21 health centers, 13 boarding school infirmaries, and numerous other structures used in the health program.

Rollins Fleet Leasing Inc. of Rehoboth Beach, Del., was the lowest bidder for two contracts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for leasing of 39 passenger cars and station wagons for two field installations, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Nine bids from six bidders were received by the Bureau for the rental contracts for the vehicles for use at its offices in Cherokee, N. C., and Albuquerque, N. Mex.

Full independence from Federal supervision is being extended to an Indian Tribal group in the United States for the first time since 1909 under terms of a proclamation signed by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, it, was announced today.

The affiliated Alabama and Coushatta Tribes of Polk County, Texas, under terms of the proclamation, will be removed effective July 1, from the scope of all Federal laws specially applicable to Indians.

Headquarters for the Menominee Indian Agency in Wisconsin will be transferred as soon as possible from Neopit to Keshena, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Primary reason for the move, which has been discussed with Menominee tribal representatives over the past several months, is to separate the Indian Bureau's governmental functions at the agency from the operations of the Menominee tribal lumber mill located at Neopit.

This joint meeting of officials of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Public Health Service of the Department of Health, Educations and Welfare will begin at 9:30 A.M., May 16, at the Shirley-Savoy Hotel. The conference was called for the purpose of advancing the orderly transfer of the Indian Health Program from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Public Health Service in accordance with Public Law 568, 83rd Congress. This transfer of responsibility becomes effective July 1, 1955.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a report recommending against enactment of S. 401, a bill that would require forced sale of all Indian tribal lands and complete liquidation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in three years, Secretary Douglas McKay said today. ''

Commenting on the departmental report, which was prepared under his supervision, Indian Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons expressed particular opposition to the requirement for mass liquidation of tribal land holdings in Federal trusteeship.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, following consultation with officers of the Klamath Tribe of Oregon and in line with their wishes, will take over preparation of a tribal membership roll under applicable provisions of the Klamath Termination Act - Public law 587 of the 83rd Congress.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that steps will be taken immediately at the Navajo Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Window Rock, Ariz., looking toward the establishment of five new subagencies covering the 15 1/2 million acre Navajo area in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Appointment of Richard D. Butts as superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Agency, Cherokee, N. C., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today cxmow.1ced the selection of three prominent Oregonians--Thomas B., Watters of Klamath Falls., William L. Phillips of Salem, and Eugene Favell of Lakeview - as management specialists for the Klamath Indian Tribe. They will supervise the program of property appraisal, subdivision and management under the tribal termination law enacted last August.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that the Department of the Interior has proposed to Congress an amendment of Public Law 280 of the 83d Congress which governs the extension of State criminal and civil jurisdictions to Indian reservations and other similar Indian areas.

A proposed draft of legislation that would terminate Federal supervision over a two-year period in four Indian communities of southern Minnesota with a combined population of roughly 300 has been submitted to Congress for consideration, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

Groups covered by the proposal are the Lower Sioux Community in Redwood and Scott counties, the New Upper Sioux Community in Yellow Medicine County, the Prairie Island Community in Goodhue County, and about 15 individuals living on restricted tracts in Yellow Medicine County.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced an extension in the term of office of John F. Davis as principal chief of the Creek Indian Tribe of Oklahoma until a successor can be duly qualified and appointed. The maximum period of extension is six months.

Appointment of Fredrick M, Haverland as area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Phoenix, Ariz., succeeding Ralph M. Gelvin, who died last September, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Haverland, now assistant area director for the Bureau at Muskogee, Okla., will take over his new duties on January 17. In the Phoenix position he will have charge of all Bureau activities in Arizona, Nevada and Utah outside of the Navajo Reservation,