News by Year

Business, industry, and Government in the Washington, D.C., area now have a convenient source of Indian skill, talent and labor, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs said, in announcing the opening of a Field Employment Assistance Office, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs building, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW.

This is the eighth such "Indian Employment Agency" to be run by the Bureau, the Commissioner pointed out. The others operate in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Oakland-San Francisco, and San Jose, Calif.

The results of a cultural exchange of high school students as far apart as Alaska and Arizona, have turned out to be a happy success.

At the suggestion of a group of Navajo Indian high school students, selected student volunteer from Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska, High School exchanged classes at the beginning of the school year with their opposite numbers from two Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools in Arizona. The three schools are boarding schools to serve children from isolated homes in Alaska and in Navajo land.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today steps are being taken to implement a new law which provides for payment to the Delaware Indians for lands ceded under an 1818 treaty. He announced the amendment of regulations which will permit preparation of p tribal roll.

The Act of September 21, 1968, authorized the distribution of funds derived from a judgment by the Indian Claims Commission, and directed the Secretary to prepare a roll to serve as a basis for paying the money.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced issuance of a new publication of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board which he said gives added dimension to understanding of the unique contribution of the Institute of American Indian Arts.

The cultural heritages of over 80 different Native American groups are being creatively explored today by more than 350 artistically talented Indian, Eskimo and Aleut youth at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico," Secretary Udall said.

The booklet is entitled, "Institute of American Indian Arts."

Three leases covering approximately 120 acres of the Seminole Indian reservation in Florida under which Joseph L. Antonucci, mobile home manufacturer and trailer park operator, will establish both a plant site and trailer park were signed here today.

The leases between the Seminole Nation of Hollywood, Fla. and Antonucci were formalized in a ceremony at offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They call for an initial payment to the tribe of $70,000 for the first year, and escalations in succeeding years, including tribal participation in the profits in the future.

The Center for Arts of Indian America is presenting its Fourth Invitational Exhibit of Indian Arts and Crafts in the Gallery of the Department of the Interior, 18th and C Streets, N.W., in Washington, D. C.

Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, executive director of the Center, said more than 40 Indian tribes and Alaska Native groups are represented, including Eskimo, Spokane, Cherokee, Navajo, Delaware, and numerous Pueblo tribes.

The exhibit is open free to the public, through December 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, exception holidays.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced the appointment of Howard E. Euneau, a program staff officer in the Interior Department's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, as Superintendent of the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota.

Euneau, 45, was born on the Turtle Mountain Reservation at Belcourt, N.D., and is a member of the Chippewa Tribe. He received a B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of North Dakota in 1949 and prior to that served in the Army during World War II.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian. Affairs, announced today that Wallace E. Galluzzi has been named Superintendent of Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kan.

Haskell is a post high school vocational training school for Indians. Galluzzi was principal at the Institute and has been acting superintendent the past two months since the former 3uperintendent, Thomas Tommaney, became assistant area director for education at Muskogee, Okla.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced award of a contract for $1,098,491.74 to provide for bituminous surfacing of 11.28 miles of road on the Navajo Indian Reservation, from Indian Service Route 12 to Washington Pass, via Crystal, N.M.

This project is the first half of an eventual all-weather road from Crystal through Washington Pass to Sheep Springs, N.M., on U.S. Highway 666.

The successful low bid was submitted by Nielsons, Inc., of Dolores, Colo. Eight other bids were submitted, ranging from $1,199,481.91 to a high of $1,496,646.90.

Almost a year has elapsed since I last visited Alaska and met with many of you. It has been an eventful one during which you have made some notable progress.

While I welcome the opportunity to be with you, I regret that there must be a vacant chair at the head table because of the passing of Dr. Henry S. Forbes.

The award of a $3,386,999 contract for the construction of high school facilities at Sisseton, S.D., was announced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.

Owen D. Morken, 57, a native of Minnesota who has served in the Bureau of Indian Affairs almost 30 years, has been appointed Area Director for the Bureau at Minneapolis, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced.

Morken's appointment is effective October 6.

He succeeds Glenn R. Landb1Qom, who has been Area Director since January, 1966 and who will transfer to a position in the Division of Economic Development of the Bureau in Washington.

I remember Winslow from my boyhood. It was a busy town in those days, a rail center for an otherwise remote part of Arizona. In more recent years, however, Winslow became one of the many communities throughout America adversely affected by the transportation revolution and other changing patterns in our national economy.

In the summer of 1911 President Howard Taft was in the White House; the territory of Arizona was a frontier outpost, with a population of 205,000 scattered sparsely over its 113,575 lonely and arid square miles; and 34-year-old Sheriff Carl Hayden of Maricopa County, then a major in the National Guard, was at Camp Perry, Ohio, competing successfully in the national rifle matches.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has announced the appointment of Henry B. Taliaferro, Jr., of Oklahoma, as an Associate Solicitor to head the Division of Indian Affairs in the Office of the Solicitor in Washington, D. C.

Taliaferro, 36, is a native of Shawnee, Okla., who graduated from high school in Oklahoma City and holds a bachelor of arts and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Timber harvesting on Indian reservations set records during the 1967 calendar' year in terms of both cash and timber volume, a final tabulation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs shows.

Cash sales exceeded 900 million board-feet and provided gross receipts of $17.9 million. This compares with a total of 527 million board-feet and $10.7 million gross sales ten years ago, and about 802 million board-feet, with $15.4 million in cash sales for 1966, and 811 million board-feet and approximately $13 million in cash sales in 1965.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today award of a $2,369,756.55 contract to construct 25.076 miles of 34-foot finished width, two-lane highway, between Lechee Rock and Kaibito, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation.

The work to be done under this contract and under two other contracts previously awarded will leave only 20 miles of construction needed to complete the connection between Page, Ariz., and State Route 164 south of Shonto, Ariz.

American Indian schools, fortified with a recent $9 million grant from the U.S. Office of Education, are trying out new ways to overcome the communications gap between Indian customs and conventional school methods.

The transfer of three Indian Agency superintendents in Arizona has been announced by Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Homer M. Gilliland, Superintendent at the Co1brado River Reservation, has been named Superintendent at the Hopi Reservation. He replaces Clyde W. Pensoneau who is retiring from Federal service.

Succeeding Gilliland at Colorado River will be John H. Artichoker, Jr., now Superintendent of the Papago Reservation. Artichoker will be succeeded by Joseph M. Lucero, now an administrative manager and acting superintendent at the Hopi Agency.

Art students in the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools and post-high schools will enter a travel poster contest, beginning with the new school year, which has the theme: "Discover America with the First Americans."

The program is sponsored by the Education Division of the Bureau, and Arrow, Inc., a tax-exempt corporation which supports commercial projects that benefit the Indian people.

­A test group of young teacher interns -- most of them Indians and all of them undergraduates -- is breaking new ground to find ways that will motivate Indian pupils to stay in school and learn more.

In the process, the.20 interns are developing ideas that may stimulate more young people like themselves to stay in college, complete their teacher training, and go out and teach more Indian children,

What they and their professional mentors learn as they go along may prove to be valuable to disadvantaged non-Indians facing similar problems.

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Chairman of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, announced at the Council's first meeting, July 16 that a commemorative stamp saluting the American Indian will be issued by the Post Office Department.

Humphrey said he was informed of the new issue by Postmaster General W. Marvin Watson who said first sales of the stamp are planned for October.

The 6-cent stamp will carry a portrait of Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce warrior who reluctantly fought U.S. troops in 1877 as the Indian wars entered the last tragic phase.

Two major construction projects on Indian reservations are milestones in Indian American progress -- one emphasizing economic potential and the other human potential -- Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said.

He pointed to the recent ground-breaking ceremony for a $1.5 million Bottle Hollow Motel-complex on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah and completion of the $8.5 million Bureau of Indian Affairs residential school at Many Farms, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation.

The Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit corporation devoted to the advancement of Indian art, will present a showing of "Contemporary Indian Painting, Sculpture and Crafts" from the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from Wednesday, July,17 through Sept. 6.

The showing will be free to the public in the seventh floor Art Gallery of the Department of Interior building, 18th and C Streets, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

A new "exemplary" Indian school, set up to pioneer new teaching techniques; will open this fall at Concho, Okla., Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.

The 256 pupil boarding school, to be operated.in a new $2.5 million building complex, will be used to develop new educational method's' to overcome the cultural and linguistic differences which often handicap Indian children in a traditional learning experience, Bennett said.

Two contracts totaling $3.7 million for Indian family residential training programs in California and New Mexico have been renewed for 1968, Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian of Affairs, announced.

The two programs, operated at deactivated Air Force bases, give Indians the academic, vocational and urban life training they need to live and work effectively in modern society, Bennett said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today approval of a change in the Code of Federal Regulations regarding Indian college scholarships to conform to a new law recently signed by President Johnson.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said the new law eliminated a prohibition against Federal scholarships for Indian students at sectarian schools and the Code change carries out the intent of the law.

A new Instructional Service Center has been established in Brigham City, Utah, to direct a massive in-service training program for the education staff of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that Edgar L. Wight has been appointed director of the Center.

About 1,000 teachers, from Bureau of Indian Affairs schools and from public and private schools attended by Indian students, are scheduled for intensive training in new teaching methods this summer, the Department of the Interior announced today. The program is being conducted for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by the University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Ariz., under a c $399,800 contract, financed with a part of a $9 million grant from the Department, of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Chairman Nakai, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

It is exciting to represent the Department of the Interior on this occasion. An event such as this can only happen once in a lifetime, and I am very pleased to share it with you. I have looked forward to the opportunity to become better acquainted.

I believe a Navajo must have originated the saying: "The first hundred years are the hardest." Nowhere in the United States ... and perhaps nowhere else in the world -- have a people faced challenge more ener­getically than have the Navajo in the years since 1868.

The Education Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of four special conferences this summer to orient field personnel to recent developments in teaching American Indian children in BIA schools, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that he has asked for tribal ratification of a proposal to establish an "American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame," on the campus of Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kans.

"The Hall of Fame," Bennett said, "will not only memorialize the achievements of great Indian athletes but will be a source of inspiration for young Indians seeking to develop rewarding and productive lives in modern America."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today the release of a new, updated booklet, "Answers to Your Questions about American Indians."

Earlier editions have been popular with persons interested in the American Indian. The questions answered are chosen from the many thousands directed to the Bureau during the past years.

According to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett, the answers to some of the questions will startle those with preconceived ideas about Indians and their status in this country.

Twelve Indian high school students selected from schools all over the west will participate in "A Better Chance" program originating on the campus of Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., this summer, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that the Department's Distinguished Service Award will be presented June 4 to 42 outstanding employees and former employees and Valor Awards to 9 others for acts of bravery in which they risked their own lives in successful rescues. Award ceremonies will be in the Interior Building Auditorium, Washington, D.C., at 2 p.m.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today a Washington exhibit of a series of 17 Indian dance paintings by Phyllis H. Kellar of Lead, S.D., and Santa Fe, N.M., together with a display of turn-of the-century photographs, reproduced from original. "negatives" so old they are printed on glass slides.

The showing will be free to the public in the lobby of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., Monday through Friday, May 20 through June 7, except for the Memorial Day holiday.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today that a completely updated "American Indian Calendar" is available for purchase from the Superintendent of Documents in Washington, D.C.

The Calendar, a much-requested booklet, lists important Indian events primarily in the 25 states where there are Indian areas with an official Federal relationship, gives information on pow-wows, rodeos, dances, religious observances, and arts and crafts exhibitions.

New superintendents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Eastern Navajo Agency, Crownpoint, N.M., and Fort Totten Agency, Fort Totten, N. D., were named today by Commissioner Robert L. Bennett. Both superintendents are of Indian descent.

Edward O. Plummer, Tohatchi, N.M., was names to the superintendence of the Eastern Navajo Agency. He is now realty officer at the Navajo Area Office, Window Rock, Ariz. Plummer is the first Navajo Indian appointed by Commissioner Bennett to be superintendent of an agency in the Navajo area.

New superintendents have been named for two Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies -- the Zuni in New Mexico and the Fort Hall in Idaho -- Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, announced today. Both superintendents are Oklahoma men and transfer from North Dakota agencies.

I James D. Cornett, Superintendent of the Fort Totten, N. D., and Agency has been reassigned to head the Zuni Agency, and William A. Mehojah, Superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency, Belcourt, N. D., is to be Superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency.

"Three From Santa Fe" is the title of an exhibition of paintings, ceramics and sculpture to be shown May 7 through June 28 in the Department of the Interior Art Gallery, 18th and C Streets, NW, Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by Washington's Center for Arts of Indian America, the three featured artists are employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, working and teaching at the unique Institute of American Indian Arts, at Santa Fe, N. M.

Award of a $1,140,230 contract for construction of school facilities at Porcupine, S. D., located 26 miles northeast of Pine Ridge, S. D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that the construction, when complete, will provide classrooms adequate for a total enrollment of 330 elementary school children.

The facilities will include an instructional materials center, administrative offices, multipurpose-kitchen, a pump house building and quarters.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett will be the United States delegate to the Sixth Interamerican Indian Congress in Pátzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, April 15 through 21, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Commissioner Bennett will be accompanied by Indian leaders and other advisers.

The Congress meets quadrennial under provisions of a treaty to which most Latin American countries are signatories, for the purpose of exchanging information, views and experiences.

The internationally famous exhibition of American Indian arts and crafts which was shown in Europe at International Festivals of the Arts in both Edinburgh, Scotland and Berlin, West Germany, is to have a Latin-American tour, starting this spring.

The exhibit has also been shown in London, England; Ankara, Turkey; Santa Fe, N.M.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Alaska, during last year's centennial there.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported today that 119 Indian children were placed for adoption during 1967 through the Indian Adoption Project. The program is sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America.

The number of children placed in 1967 almost doubled that of the previous year and compares with a total of 400 children placed during the nine years of the cooperative project program.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that a new outdoor furniture plant to employee up to 300 workers will be established on the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona by Prest Wheel, Inc., of South Grafton, Mass.

Bennett said the firm will be located in an existing industrial building which the firm will purchase from the Economic Development Administration. Area Indians will be given on-the-job training to qualify for jobs in the new plant, he said.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Owen D. Morken, Area Director based in Juneau, Alaska, will be reassigned to Washington, D.C., as Special Assistant to the Commissioner" for Alaskan Activities.

Charles A. Richmond, Superintendent of the Bethel, Alaska, Agency, will be promoted to be Juneau Area Director, Bennett said. The changes become effective on April 7.

Five Bureau of Indian Affairs offices have been presented awards for rescue and supply operations following the December snow and rain storms in the Southwest, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Receiving the unit awards for excellence of service were staffs of the Navajo and Phoenix Area Offices and of the Hopi, Fort Apache and Papago Agencies, all headquartered in Arizona.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, today announced that Leonard M. Hill, Area Director for the Sacramento ' Area, has been reassigned as Special Field Representatives for the Southwestern United States.

Hill will be succeeded in the California assignment by William E. Finale, now serving as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Community Services. The reassignments are to become effective April 7. As Special Field Representative Hill will assist Indian groups in making plans and surveys for community development projects.

Although credit is more and more essential for the Indian individual or tribe as emerging economic units, the Bureau of Indian Affairs revolving fund for Indian loans was $18.5 million short of demands upon it during fiscal 1967, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reported today.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett will be in New York Friday, March 8, for an Indian Industrial Forum.

They will be among the guests of honor at a luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel sponsored by 14 industrial firms which have plants operating on or near Indian lands and by two banks interested in industrial development in Indian areas.

William W. Keeler, president of the Phillips Petroleum Company and Principal Chief of the Cherokee nation of Indians, will be master of ceremonies.

The National Council on Indian Opportunity will hold its first meeting Tuesday afternoon in Washington.

Vice President Hubert HQ Humphrey, Chairman of the Council established by executive order of President Johnson on March 6, announced today plans for the meeting. Establishment of the Council was announced in the President's unprecedented message to the Congress regarding Indian Americans. The Council was to have held its first meeting on June 5 in Albuquerque but the plans were cancelled due to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Sarah Ann Johnson, Miss Indian America XIV, will visit Washington March 3 through 7 for a round of meetings with Congressmen, Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials, and Indian leaders.

She will fly to New York March 7 for radio and TV appearances, to attend a coffee Friday morning given by the Girl Scouts of America Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett and Indian leaders will be a guest at a luncheon Friday given by industrialists who have plants on or near Indian lands.

New industrial development opportunities for the 16 largest Indian land areas should result from a recent Labor Department ruling, on their eligibility for Federal contracts, Robert L. Bennett, commissioner of Indian Affairs, Department f of the Interior, said today.

Bennett said the Labor Department's Bureau of Employment Security has designated the 16 areas eligible for the first preference in Federal procurement contracts as the result of negotiations conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Branch of Commercial and Industrial Development.

Howard F. Johnson, 54, a veteran of more than 32 years Federal service, has been appointed Special Liaison Representative to the Seneca Nation of Indians, it was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett.

Bennett also announced that John L. Pappan, 40, now superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency, Fort Hall, Idaho, will succeed Johnson as superintendent of the Osage Agency, Pawhuska, Okla.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett today hailed the amendment to the Adult Vocational Training Act as one of the most helpful pieces of legislation ever approved to assist the Indian people.

The amendment increases the authorization for annual appropriations from $15 million to $25 million o President Johnson announced February 5 that he had signed the legislation.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that a special scroll will be presented Mrs. Frank Stranahan of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in recognition of her many accomplishments in bettering Seminole Indian relations.

Secretary Udall said the press of government business will prevent both him and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett from being present when Mrs. Stranahan is honored during the Drake College Commencement on February 18, 1968.

A Navajo family enterprise in Arizona, a New Jersey medical doctor, and a prominent Colorado educator today were selected by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall to receive Conservation Service Awards from the Department for outstanding contributions in safeguarding natural resources.

The award to the Navajo conservationists was the first family group award in the Department's history.

Indian vocational trainees and their families will begin arriving March 4 at the former Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, N.M., to begin a "family residential training" program that will teach them the skills and experience necessary to live comfortably in an urban setting.

In the Navajo tongue December is the month of "increasing cold and wind." When that "increasing cold and wind" is accompanied by eight days of snow, as it was last December, the Navajos are in trouble.

From December 12 to 20 it snowed, and the wind blew, on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations. Farther south, more than seven inches of rain fell on the Papago Reservation, which normally gets 11 inches in an entire year.

Fourteen final awards totaling almost $33 million were granted 11 American Indian groups by judgments of the Indian/Claims Commission during 1967, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

In addition, six other Indian groups were given awards in 1965 and 1967 totaling another $21,363,355.33, but these have not become final because of appeal or other legal actions.

Congress has appropriated funds for $15.3 million of the total granted. The appropriated funds earn interest for the tribes involved, while awaiting Congressional action and final disbursement.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Buford Morrison, formerly superintendent of/the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Horton Agency, Horton, Kans., has been appointed superintendent of the Miccosukee Agency, Homestead, Fla.

He will fill the position left vacant by the recent transfer of Lawrence J. Kozlowski to the post of superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency, Dulce, N.M.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today appointment of Roy Peratrovich of Juneau, Alaska, as Superintendent of the Anchorage District of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Peratrovich is widely known in Alaska. His mother was a full blood Tlingit Indian.

The new superintendent has over 30 years of service with the territorial government of Alaska and with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

He also has been active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood, having served five terms as grand president and now being a life member of the executive committee.

Although many eastern Indian tribes are now decimated or dispersed, they left a rich legacy for the people who followed. So says an illustrated 28-page booklet, "Indians of the Eastern Seaboard,” just issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The booklet is the latest in a popular series of publications about the first inhabitants of what is now the United States. It describes relationships between the Indians and the Pilgrims, the Jamestown colonists, and the Florida missionaries, and the influence this interplay had on the Nation.

It is good to be back in Alaska where I spent three of the most memorable and worthwhile years of my life: worthwhile because the experience of working for and with the native peoples of this State gave me new and deeper insight into the nature of cultural differences among American peoples; and memorable because, as you know, this land of the frozen tundra can warm your heart while almost freezing your marrow.

The premier showing of the John Hoover collection of Eskimo art in bone, ivory and wood, is scheduled to open January 15 in the Department of the Interior's Art Gallery, 18th and C Streets, N.W.

The exhibit will be open free to the public, M6nday through Friday from 10:00 a. m. to 4: 00 p. m. and will run through March 29, according to Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, president of the Center for Arts of Indian America, exhibition sponsor.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett warned today that measures are being taken to prevent further damage and destruction of prehistoric ruins on the Navajo Reservation.

The 24,000 square mile Navajo Reservation extends into the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

“We have been informed that certain ruins on the Navajo Reservation have been souvenir-hunted and damaged, reportedly by both Indians and non-Indians,” said Bennett. “Timbers are being taken from these ruins, and artifacts stolen and sold to traders in the area.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that a purchase agreement has been reached with the owners of the last parcel of land needed to establish Piscataway Park on the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, today praised the wildfire-fighting Indians of seven tribal groups who were commended in a joint resolution by the Southwest Interagency Fire Committee for their work during last summer's fire season.

In the course of what experts have called the greatest fire outbreak in the history of organized fire-fighting, one of the Indian men lost his life.