News by Year

Indians from as far away as Idaho, Montana, Minnesota and the Dakotas are being flown with heavy snow removal machinery to help open some 2,000 miles of roads blocked by snow on the huge Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Reporting today on measures underway to aid the storm-stricken Navajos, and other Indians, the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs said six 40,000-pound gross weight four-wheel drive snow plow trucks are scheduled for movement by big C-124 Air Force planes today.

Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the storm-stricken areas of Arizona, where snow depths, up to 79 inches are reported, said today everything humanly possible is being done for the affected Indians and their livestock.

Similarly, the Public Health Service's Division of Indian Health reported its staff in the storm area participating in rescue work and alert to possible heavy demands on personnel and facilities in the storm aftermath.

The Department of the interior said today it has proposed to Congress that a 1931 Act regarding the acceptance of gifts by the Secretary of the Interior for the benefits of Indians be broadened.

The present act authorizes the Secretary to accept contributions or donations for Indians for the benefit of Indian institutions or for the advancement of the Indian race. However, the language of the Act seems to limit the use of funds to institutions or to individual Indians, the Department added.

Robert Schoning, Oregon State Fisheries Director, and Thor Tollefson, Director of the Washington State Department of Fisheries, conferred this week with top officials of the Department of the Interior in Washington to explore possibilities of cooperatively developing regulations that would recognize and provide for Indian off-reservation treaty fishing rights.

Governor Tom McCall of Oregon, at whose request the meeting was held, was unable to attend because of adverse flying weather.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today approval of a program proposed by the Navajo Indian tribe to invest up to $10 million of tribal scholarship funds in selected stocks to increase the annual income available for education purposes.

The net annual income from the scholarship funds will be devoted to scholarships for needy Navajo youth, as has been done in the past with income from scholarship funds held in banks or the U.S. Treasury.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today he is sending Robert E. Vaughan as a personal representative to Alaska to assist in drafting legislation related to Alaska Native land claims against the United States.

Vaughan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior for Public Land Management, will meet with the legislative drafting committee of the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage December 6 and 7.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today approved an agreement between the Crow Indian Tribe and the National Park Service under which some of the Crow Tribal lands in Montana will be included in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

The action was requested by the Crow Tribe and concerns reservation land in Montana adjacent to the Recreation Area, which surrounds the reservoir formed by the Yellowtail Dam on the Bighorn River in South Central Montana and North Central Wyoming.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett today announced preparation of a roll of Upper and Lower Chehalis Indians of Washington State entitled to share in a $754,000 Indian Claims Commission judgment.

An amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations provides that "all persons who were alive on Oct. 24, 1967, who establish that they are descendants of members of the Upper and Lower Chehalis Tribes as they existed in 1855 shall be entitled to be enrolled to share in the distribution of the judgment funds."

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett announced today an Adult Education Training Seminar for Bureau of Indian Affairs personnel, November 27 through December 2, at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

The Seminar will be held at the Oklahoma Center for Continuing Education on the university campus. It will be the first national effort by the Bureau to train its adult educators intensively about the current problems of the profession.

Professional Indian artists and artisans have received 12 first place awards and student Indian artists and craftsmen nine first place awards plus other honors, in the 1967 Biennial Exhibition of American Indian Arts and Crafts. The exhibition is sponsored by the Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit organization.

The exhibition is open to the public through December 15 at the Department of the Interior Art Gallery, Interior Building, 18th and C Streets, N. W., Washington, D.C.

A new program designed to help Indians buy homes in off-reservation locations has been launched by the Employment Assistance Branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett announced today.

The plan is another building block in the Bureau's efforts to develop a real sense of belonging in the off-reservation Indian who decides to settle in the city.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will prepare a roll of Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin who are entitled to share in the distribution of over $1 million in judgment funds awarded these Emigrant New York Indians by the Indian Claims Commission, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Emigrant New York Indians are those Indians who voluntarily left the New York area for Wisconsin in the 1800's. They include the Oneida Tribe and the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Community of Wisconsin.

A new course of study for young American Indians, based on the strengths and historical significance of their heritage will be used in schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior reported today.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is learning that one of the best ways to get work done on reservations and for Indian tribes is to have the Indians do it themselves, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today.

Increasingly Indian contractors are getting a growing variety of contracts. These result in more employment for Indians, savings for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and newly developed skills for tribal members, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported to the Secretary.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced appointment of Eugene W. Barrett, Agricultural Extension Officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to superintendency of the Seminole Agency, Hollywood, Fla.

Barrett brings to his new post a varied background as a ranger, conservationist and agricultural extension officer. His most recent assignment has been at BIA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Lawrence J. Kozlowski, formerly superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs· Miccosukee Agency, Homestead, Fla., has been appointed superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency, Dulce. N. M.

He will fill the position left vacant by the recent transfer of Ralph Bo Armstrong to the post of Project Engineer in the Navajo area. The transfer is effective October 22.

Our American society as a whole has assumed new dimensions within the past few years. The place of minority groups has been redefined -- or, rather the inherent rights of citizens, whatever racial minority groups they may represent have been reinforced. But civil rights remain only theoretical as long as economic exclusion continues. This is frequently the situation in localities where American Indians constitute a significant and socially conspicuous minority.

Formal dedication of the Chippewa Ranch Conservation Center, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs near Mahnomen, Minn. is scheduled for Sunday, October 29. Principal speaker for the event will be Will Rogers. Jr., assistant to Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

In announcing the dedication of the Job Corps Center on the White Earth Reservation, Commissioner Bennett said it is the eighth center to be established on or near an Indian reservation.

A coordinated effort to develop more effective leadership for Indian community development has been launched by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner Robert Lo Bennett said today.

"We hope th4t the group spirit and cultural strengths which have enabled many Indian groups to survive and maintain their identity against tremendous odds may be translated into new community actions which can generate the social and economic progress necessary to bring Indians into their rightful place in American society." Bennett said.

A cooperative agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Board of Parole and the Federal Probation System to provide rehabilitation and employment services for Indians just released from Federal prisons has been signed, it was announced today.

The agreement calls for a "concerted" effort to unify court, prison and parole procedures and the many educational, vocational and employment services provided Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A $2,187,000 contract for school facilities construction at Santa Rosa, on the Papago Reservation in Southern Arizona, has been awarded to the F. H. Antrim Construction Co., of Phoenix, Ariz., the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The maximum development of Indian economic, industrial and employment potential on a nationwide basis, and the problems involved, will be considered at a meeting sponsored by the Department of ~he Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oklahoma late this month.

Officials from the Bureau's 11 area offices in the Midwest, West and Alaska and the Washington headquarters will meet with business and industrial leaders and representatives of the Economic Development Administration and Small Business Administration.

Will Rogers, Jr., son of the humorist and grandson of Cherokee leader Clem Vann Rogers, has been given a temporary appointment as Special Assistant to Indian Commissioner Robert L. Bennett, it was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. Rogers took the oath of office September 18.

An agreement designed to speed the creation of a self-sustaining Alaskan reindeer industry has been signed by the Interior Department's Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Land Management and the State of Alaska, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The agreement, Udall said, sets forth areas of responsibility in "a united effort to improve the economic base for the Native peoples of Alaska by making the reindeer industry a continuing and increasing source of jobs and income."

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.

William B. Benge, Chief of the Branch of Law and Order, Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been given a temporary assignment as Special Liaison Representative to the Seneca Indian Tribe of Western New York, Commissioner Robert L. Bennett announced today.

Bennett said that Benge's appointment is effective immediately and is expected to last only a few months while a successor is being chosen for Sidney M. Carney, who has been named BIA Area Director for the Anadarko (Okla.) Area.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today submission to Congress of a proposed bill to authorize disposition of close to $4 million to pay off an Indian Claims Commission judgment to the Creek Nation of Indians.

In September 1962, the Commission awarded $3,913,000 to the Oklahoma Creeks and to the Eastern Creeks, a group scattered throughout areas east of the Mississippi River.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that, in keeping with a Congressional directive, a proposed bill to end Federal supervision over the Seneca Nation of Indians of New York has been sent to the Congress.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall next week will be in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona on water resource and park missions and to see some Indian achievements.

Udall will fly to Denver Tuesday morning, September 5, and will hold a news conference there upon his arrival.

The secretary then will be flown to Cheyenne, where he will meet with Gov. Stanley Hathaway of Wyoming at a noon luncheon.

Arizona Indians have formed the first organization in the country designed to involve all of the Indian reservations in a State in a program for mutual planning and economic development help, Secretary Udall said today.

Called the Indian Development District of Arizona, the group initially is made up of nine of the 17 reservations in Arizona, combined into a statewide corporation that will enable Indian tribes to qualify for Economic Development Administration districting funds.

Vincent Price, the actor and art connoisseur, has accepted reappointment to another 4-year term on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and has been elected chairman by the other members, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The Secretary also announced the appointment to the Board of Royal Brown Hassrick, widely known anthropologist and former curator of American and American Indian art in the Denver Art Museum, to succeed Dr. Frederick J. Dockstader, director of the Museum of American Indians, New York.

Receipts from sales of Indian timber totaled a record high of $15.9 million in Fiscal Year 1967, which ended last June 30, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

This was an increase of nearly $1.6 million over Fiscal Year 1966, which was itself a record year, with an increase of $2 million over Fiscal Year 1965.

The Bureau also reported that in the last five years, the volume of Indian timber cut increased by 258 million board feet and stumpage receipts increased by $7.6 million, as shown by Fiscal Year 1967 and 1962 totals.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett has endorsed in principle the construction and operation of Indian-owned motels under franchise arrangements with interested regional or national motel groups, the Department of the Interior reported today.

The actual celebration -- the throwing of a switch to turn on electric power at Puertocito -- takes place August 26, but the real significance of the event extends both ways in time from that date, according to the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Puertocito is a remote Indian reservation in west central New Mexico, the home of the Alamo Navajos, a tribal group separated from the main or "Big Navajo" Reservation 100 miles to the north during the Navajo's struggles with Kit Carson and the U.S. Cavalry 100 years ago.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that Charles N. Zellers, Deputy Associate Commissioner, Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, has been named Assistant Commissioner for Education in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has approved changes in Federal regulations governing conduct of certain tribal elections authorized under the Indian Reorganization Act. The changes, which are being published in the Federal Register, are designed primarily to facilitate tribal government.

Comments received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since proposed changes were announced in February have been considered in preparation of the new regulations.

Millions of dollars’ worth of brainpower, representing a "who's who " of management, labor, higher education, and science, is helping guide the administration of America's natural resources, the Department of the Interior said today.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today the appointment of Lloyd H. New as Superintendent of the Institute of American Indian Arts, a school operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Santa Fe, N. M. New has been the Institute's Arts Director.

His promotion is effective August 13.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said today he is scheduled to discuss soon with H. H. Mobley, executive vice president of Quality Courts Motels, Inc., of Daytona Beach, Fla., .details of a program which could place swank tourist motel facilities on Indian reservations.

A new industry to employ Navajo Indians is being established in the former administration building of the Bureau of Reclamation in Page, Ariz., and Secretary-of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

Reclamation transferred the building to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as it is no longer needed for Reclamation's activities. The building was the center of activity at Page during construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.

The Radio Corporation of America has informed the Department of the Interior it is offering a $1,300 scholarship 'to a Choctaw Indian trainee from the Philadelphia, Miss. area for computer system work, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said today.

RCA Service Coo, an RCA subsidiary, is conducting for the Bureau of Indian Affairs an occupational training, basic literacy education, and job placement program for the Choctaws of Mississippi.

Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall today congratulated the Zuni Indian Tribe of New Mexico for their initiative in passing one of the first Indian Sales Taxes collected primarily from Indians.

In placing a one percent tax upon themselves, Udall said, in a letter to Zuni Tribal Governor Robert E. Lewis, the Zuni Tribe has realized "that its local government cannot be a potent force for improvement unless it is able to carry its fair share of needed educational, industrial, social, health and community development program costs."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior announced today renewal of a number of contracts for job-training for Indians. Contract value totals nearly $3 million.

Affected are contracts for the year beginning July 1 for programs in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi and New York. Only programs, funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are involved.

These programs include training for whole families, on-the-job work in electronics, garment and textile industries, and a nationwide program of adoptive placement for Indian children.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced appointment of George W. Hubley, Jr., Director of the Maryland Department of Economic Development, to the post of Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Department of the Interior has recommended that Congress pass a bill to increase appropriation authorization for Indian vocational education.

Labeling the current vocational training program as "one of the stable contributing factors in solving Indian problems," the Department said it is giving more emphasis to it. A bill now in Congress would increase the annual authorization from $15 to $25 million.

The Department of the Interior today announced issuance of new regulations dealing with off-reservation fishing by Indians under rights secured to them by Federal treaties. The regulations are intended to help assure that the Indians' rights will be protected and will be exercised in a manner consistent with conservation needs.

The new standards provide a framework to assist States and Indian tribes in regulating Indian treaty fishing to assure proper protection both to the Indians' treaty rights and to fish runs.

Indian tribal leaders throughout the Nation are now being kept advised of legislative developments in the Congress through new services instituted by direction of Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Last year Bennett initiated procedures for detailed consultation with Indian tribal leaders in the development of major legislation to be sponsored by the Bureau, such as the recently proposed Indian Resources Development Act.

A new era is beginning on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. For a long time Rosebud had exhibited most of the handicaps of an isolated reservation -- a land base inadequate to support its increasing population, an average family income of less than $1,500 annually, a 65 percent unemployment rate for its labor force and an estimated 90 percent of· its families living in substandard housing.

American Legion officials and Charles Reno have been invited, in recognition of the Legion's successful effort to correct the military record of Major Marcus A. Reno, to attend the ceremonies being held June 23, 24 and 25 at Crow Indian Agency, Mont.

The ceremonies include re-enactments of Custer's Last Stand.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, said today he extended the invitations at the suggestion of officials of the Crow Tribe to:

John E. Davis, National Commander of The American Legion;

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Sidney M. Carney, the BIA's special liaison representative to the Seneca Indians of New York State, has been appointed Director of the Bureau's Anadarko, Okla., Area Office.

Carney, 47, is of Choctaw and Creek descent and was born in Quinton, Okla. He joined the Bureau in 1957 as an administrative officer at the Fort Defiance Agency, Ariz. He also served at the Jicarilla Agency, N. M., and in the Washington office before his assignment to New York State in 1962.

A bill to provide a means of settling claims of Alaska Natives to lands in that state is being submitted to Congress today, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has announced.

The problem of Native Land Claims, in Alaska has been unsettled ever since an Act of May 17, 1894 provided that the Natives "shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use and occupation or now claimed by them, but the terms ono conditions under which such persons may acquire title to such lands is reserved for future legislation by Congress."

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, today hailed the agreement to provide electric power for the Quinault Indian village of Queets, Wash., as "the final step in bringing the basic comforts of adequate homes to this community."

A change in leadership of the Public Information Office of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by Commissioner Robert L. Bennett.

Virginia S. Hart, the Bureau's Chief of Public Information for the past three years, has been succeeded in that post by W. Joynes Macfarlan, for many years a member of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press. Macfarlan's appointment was effective May 29. Mrs. Hart was named Special Assistant (Communications) to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on May 7.

With the filing deadline only two months away, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported only 2,000 applications have been received from descendants of Miami Indians who believe they are eligible to share in more than $4 million in Indian Claims Commission awards to the tribe as additional payment for Ohio and Indiana land the Miami's sold the Government in 1818.

Virgil M. Harrington, BIA Area Director, Muskogee, Okla., said that he has issued 5,000 application forms and received only 2,000 back. All applications must be received at his office no later than July 31, 1967, he said.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of three bills affecting Indians now before Congress. One bill would- increase the appropriation authorization for Indian adult vocational education programs and the other two would permit tribes to issue long-term land leases for industrial and commercial development of reservation properties.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation to establish a special three-judge Federal District Court to settle a disputed boundary between the Navajo and Ute Mountain Indian Tribes in New Mexico. Several millions of dollars are at stake.

The disputed area is a strip of land immediately south of the Colorado border approximately two miles wide and ten and one-half miles long. The United States holds the title to the area in trust for one of the two tribes and both claim it.

The dispute developed from the following facts:

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today issued the following statement on the restoration of Fort McDowell in Arizona:

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today that recent weeks had brought "heartening examples of solid economic gains for American Indians as the result of a determination to put tribal resources and energies to work for the benefit of all."

Udall approved plans last week for a multi-million dollar forest product complex on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon that will create 250 jobs for Indians and bring about $2 million in annual revenues to the tribe.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today issued the following statement on education programs for Indian children:

"Indian children in Federal schools are handicapped educationally, economically and geographically through physical and social isolation from the mainstreams of American life. Many are further handicapped by an only partial understanding of the English language, if, indeed, they speak English at all.

The Department of the Interior has recommended to Congress enactment of legislation designed to amend the Indian Long-Term Leasing Act of 1955.

Art objects by the famed San Ildefonso Pueblo, N. M., potter, Maria Martinez, her son, Popovi Da, and her grandson, Tony Da, have been assembled for showing in the Department of the Interior's Art Galleries in Washington, D. C., May 16-June 30, Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, president of the Center for Arts of Indian America, announced today. The artists will be present in the Galleries at various times during the first week.

SALT RIVER SPONSORS TRADE FAIR -- The first National All-Indian Trade Fair sponsored by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indians will be held May 4-7 on the Salt River Reservation near Scottsdale, Ariz.

More than 40 Indian tribes have been invited to participate in the program, which will feature products of nationally-known industrial firms employing Indian workers.

A group of 120 Papago Indian children will join spring visitors to Washington on May 15 as the result of a lot of hard work and a determination to learn a little more about life beyond the reservation.

The children, junior high students from Oasis School in Sells, Ariz., on the Papago Reservation, will spend four days sightseeing, performing Indian dances and explaining Papago history, religion and culture to school and YMCA "Indian Guide" groups in the Capital area.

American Indians, who still prize eagle feathers for ceremonial status, are joining the fight to save the national bird from extinction. The Red Lake Band of the Chippewa Tribe has designated its 400,000-acre reservation in north-central Minnesota as a Bald Eagle Sanctuary.

The Chippewa lands are on an important eagle migration route and have several active nests. Rare except in Alaska, bald eagles are one of the species Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has designated for management and study under the Endangered Species Act of 1966.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has signed a $12,000 contract with Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity, a non-profit organization with headquarters in Norman, Okla., to finance the recruiting of Indians for Peace Corps work in South America.

In announcing the contract today, Robert L. Bennett. Indian Affairs Commissioner, said: "We are. pleased to cooperate in a joint venture by the Peace Corps and the Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity that will open the doors to many American Indians for Peace Corps service."

Sixty-seven Indian children found adoptive homes in 1966 through the Indian Adoption Project of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America. It was a record year for the project, which is conducted by the two agencies in cooperation with State and local welfare services and voluntary agencies.

The. Department of the Interior announced today a proposed revision of that part of the Code of Federal Regulations governing the process for obtaining rights-of-way over Indian lands.

The most important change would be the substitution of the methods of conveyance used in the commercial world -- recordable deeds -- for the archaic practice of granting rights-of-way by endorsing approval on a plat or map of definite location.

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.

The Navajo Indian Tribe and the Pomona (Calif.) Division of General Dynamics Corp. have joined forces to establish a missile parts plant at Fort Defiance, Ariz., it was announced today by the Tribe, the Company and the Department of the Interior.

Operations will consist mainly of electronic component and circuit assemblies for flight and guidance of the Standard Missile, a tactical weapon for use in U.S. Navy vessels.

The Department of the Interior has recommended that Congress amend certain provisions of "the Act of March 1, 1933, which added lands in southern Utah to the Navajo Indian Reservation.

The act provides that 37.5 percent of net royalties from tribal oil and gas leases on these lands be paid to the State of Utah. The State, in turn, is required to spend the money for “tuition of Indian children in white schools" and for road construction.

As of May 18, 1966 the special fund totaled more than $5 million.

Three American Indians, including Miss Indian America and the curator of the Navajo Tribal Museum. will fly to Germany April 1 as part of the first European promotion of Indian-made merchandise.

They will take part in an "American Week" series being launched in several foreign countries by the Department of Commerce in cooperation with the State Department.

The promotion will test the European sales potential of American Indian merchandise. It is sponsored by two German department store chains, Klingenthal and Gebreuder-Lefferso

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman this week commended the cooperation of citizens in communities across the country where 85 Job Corps Conservation Centers are operated by the Departments of Interior and Agriculture.

March 26 to April 2 has been designated by the Job Corps as "Salute to Communities Week." Open house celebrations and other activities will be held by Job Corps Centers throughout the country during the week.

The Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida, which once sent all its messages by runner, soon will become landlord for a plant that will be the world's largest manufacturer of electronic connectors for the telecommunication industry.

The Tribe today took part in ceremonies for the new plant at its Hollywood, Fla., reservation. The facility will be operated by Amphenol Corporation of Chicago. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs served as the liaison agency that brought the Seminole Tribe and the company together.

The States we know as Nevada, Utah, and Colorado were once the hunting and warring grounds of numerous Indian tribes. Their stories are told in an illustrated, 24-page booklet just issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs -- Indians of the Lower Plateau.

The Department of the Interior is proposing amendments in the Federal regulations that govern elections to adopt or amend tribal constitutions for tribes organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Proposals also are being made to standardize procedures under which some 97 Indian tribes may petition the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to authorize elections to amend their tribal constitutions.

The Department of the Interior announced today several proposed amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations governing the election of Osage Tribal officers.

Under the proposed rule changes, the requirement for a nominating convention in Osage County, Okla., would be eliminated and nominations would be accepted from any group of at least 25 qualified Osage voters. Write-in candidates would be barred.

From Alaska to Florida, resource managers for the Department of the Interior are watchfully scanning snow and rainfall figures as the first signs of spring appear- - -hoping that last year's disastrous fire record will not recur in 1967.

Over most of the 550 million acres managed by Interior agencies, 1966 was called the worst fire year since 1957, year of the great Alaska fires. Paradoxically, 1965 had been one of the lightest years on record for fire damage. And the prime factor, as usual appeared to be the weather.

Yeffe Kimball, an Osage Indian artist, will have an exhibition of her work beginning March 1 through April 7 in the Art Gallery of the Department of Interior.

Sponsored by the Center for Arts of Indian America of which Mrs. Stewart L. Udall is president, the show is entitled, “A 30 Year Retrospective of an American Woman Painter.” It is the first one man showing of Indian art to be sponsored by the Center.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of a bill which would amend the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, extending its life for five years beyond the present expiration date of April 10, 1967.

The Commission was established as an independent tribunal to hear and decide all tribal claims against the United States that existed before 1946. Over half the claims cases are still undecided.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the assignment of new supervising engineers for two major Indian irrigation projects w_ the Navajo project on the New Mexico side of the reservation, and the nearly completed Wapato project on the Yakima Reservation at Wapato, Wash.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the recent reassignment of three officials to posts in its field installations.

Fred H. Massey, Assistant Commissioner in the Bureau's Washington, D.C., central office, has been temporarily assigned as acting area director for the Bureau's Anadarko, Okla., area office. He will fill the post left vacant by the assignment of Leslie P. Towle, former area director, to the Portland, Ore., area office. The assignment, which is for an indefinite period, became effective January 29.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has ordered rolls prepared for use in distributing judgment funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commission to six tribes.

To share in the awards~ which were ordered in five separate cases, are the Miami Indians of Oklahoma and Indiana; the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska; the Quileute Tribe and the Hoh Indians of Western Washington; and two other Western Washington Tribes -- Nooksack and Duwamish.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded a $98,750 contract to Twinco-Enki Corp. of San Fernando, Calif., to review and evaluate projects undertaken by the Bureau under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

The Act, which was amended in 1966 to provide funds for Indian education, requires a broad-based evaluation of projects carried out under its provisions. Twinco-Enki will direct the evaluation from its Muskogee, Okla., branch office, which is centrally located for a number of BIA education projects currently operating.

Wilma Louise Victor, a Choctaw Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs' top-ranking woman educator, has been selected as one of the six women in Government to receive the coveted 1967 Federal Woman's Award.

A native of Idabel, Oklahoma, Miss Victor is Superintendent of Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah, which is a home away from home for 2,100 Navajo youngsters from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

She was selected for her “exceptional creative and executive ability in the administration of a unique and complex school program for disadvantaged Indian youth".

Nearly $200 million in new school construction and school improvement projects were approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal years 1962-1967, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

The projects funded represent intensive efforts by the Department, during the six years beginning July 1, 1961, and continuing through next June 30, to expand and upgrade Federal school facilities serving young Indians who do not have access to public schools. Bureau schools and dormitories serve about 55,000 youngsters in 18 States.

The award of a $143,750 contract for construction of a power substation and installation of equipment at the Colorado River Indian Agency, Parker, Ariz., was announced today by the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The contract calls for construction of a 20,000 kilowatt substation and installation of equipment. The substation will receive electronic power from a Bureau of Reclamation 161,000-volt transmission line and reduce the power to 34,500 and 69,000 volts for transmission through the Colorado River Indian Irrigation Project power system.

Ernest Childers, an Oklahoma Indian who holds the Congressional Medal of Honor for Valor in World War II, has joined the Department of the Interior's Job Corps staff as a regional coordinator, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Two newly-appointed members of the Department of the Interior's Indian Arts and Crafts Board--Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., and Dr. Mitchell A. Wilder-- attended their first Board meeting Friday, January 27, with Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. The five-member Board promotes the development of Indian arts and crafts by providing professional advisory and technical assistance in production, promotion and marketing.

The five members (commissioners) are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior and serve four-year terms without salary or fee.

This year's Miss Indian America, Wahleah Lujan, 18, from Taos, N. Mex. will pay her first visit to Washington today through Tuesday, Jan. 31, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today.

While here, the Ft. Lewis College (Colorado) sophomore will meet members of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee; will be welcomed to the District by Commissioner Walter Tobriner, Friday at 2:00 P.M. in the District offices; and feted at a reception given Saturday night by the American Indian Society at the home of its president, Mitchell Bush, Jr.

Federal supervision over the 600-acre Quartz Valley Indian Rancheria in California has ended, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Located in Siskiyou County, the rancheria is owned in common by 49 American Indians descendants of Karok, Shasta and Upper Klamath Indian groups. Termination of Federal responsibility is in accordance with the California Rancheria Act of 1958 as amended in 1964.

The Quartz Valley area is the 32nd Indian land parcel in California to be relieved of Federal trusteeship.

Five awards totaling more than $709 million were granted to seven American Indian groups in judgments by the Indian Claims Commission during 1966, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

In addition, case that was filed Indians of Utah and Commission in 1946 0 the year brought final settlement of a long-pending in the United States Court of Claims by the Ute Colorado prior to establishment of the Indian Claims The Court of Claims awarded $4.4 million to the Utes.

The reassignment of two Indian Agency superintendents and the appointment of a third was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

William W. Grissom will move from the Superintendent's post at the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., to Superintendent of the Anadarko Agency, Anadarko, Okla. He succeeds Robert Meshaw, who died Aug. 30, 1966.

Born in Noble, Okla., Grissom served in the Coast Guard during World War II. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 as a soil conservationist at Anadarko after being graduated from Oklahoma A & M College.

Theodore S. Hoffman, president of Hoffman Information Systems, Inc., Hoffman Electronics, Corp., of El Monte, Calif., has accepted an appointment as a consultant on economic development with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett today announced that two new Indian employment assistance centers will be opened in Oklahoma within the next two weeks.

To be located in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the centers will serve as adjuncts to the vocational training and job placement services provided through the Bureau's area offices in Muskogee and Anadarko. Referrals to the new centers for services will be made by the Muskogee and Anadarko offices.

A concentrated attack on chronic unemployment and hard core poverty among American Indians will begin next April in Madera, Calif., with the opening of an Employment Training Center directed by Philco-Ford Corp. under a $497,846 contract with the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has authorized a $44,000 contract with the Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, D.C., to examine the needs in English language teaching programs for American Indians.

In announcing the contract, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said:

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the reassignment of three career officials to posts in the Southwest.

Theodore B. White will move to the post of superintendent of the Bureau's San Carlos Agency (Apache) at San Carlos, Ariz. The appointment becomes effective January 1, 1967. For the past year he has been employed as a community living and housing guidance specialist in the Washington, D.C., Central Office of the BIA.