Past News Items

This building we are dedicating today is testimony to the enterprising spirit of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Tribe, the business wisdom of the men who recognized a market for low-cost authentic reproductions of Chippewayan handicraft, and the concern of congress, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for economic improvement among the Indian people.

In an effort to resolve tribal and non-tribal allocations of Klamath River salmon, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown today agreed to a management plan designed to improve conservation measures while providing for additional salmon harvest now and in the future for Klamath River tribes.

In addition, the agreement by the two secretaries ensures that a definitive legal ruling on future allocations of Klamath River chinook stocks will be issued before Sept. 30 of this year.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today called for a ten-year plan "to raise the standard of living on Indian reservations above the poverty line."

In a memorandum transmitted through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to reservation superintendents and other top administrators of the Bureau, the Secretary restated the goals of manpower and resource development on reservations that have characterized the Department's administration during the past three years.

The course of American Indian history was drastically changed, fifty years ago, by the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith told Indian leaders in a letter marking the act's fiftieth anniversary. Smith, a Wasco Indian from Oregon, is the Reagan Administration's top Indian official.

Smith noted that the act "marked a turning point in Federal-Indian relations. It halted or reversed prior policies which had cumulatively proved disastrous for Indians."

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today petitioned the Federal Power Commission seeking to intervene on behalf of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in Montana in their application for increased payments from the Montana Power Company for use of tribal lands at Kerr Dam.

The Secretary is trustee for lands owned by the Confederated Tribes. The Kerr license specifically provides that any change in terms of the license that may affect the Indians' interest shall be subject to his approval.

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith announced today new assignments for four Bureau of Indian Affairs area directors all of them members of the Federal Government's senior executive service.

The new appointments are as follows:

Sidney Mills, the Albuquerque area director, has been named director of the Bureau's Office of Trust Responsibilities in Washington, D. C.

Vincent Little, director of the Bureau's Portland, Oregon area office, replaces Mills in Albuquerque.

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.

Public hearings to obtain comments on a proposed reservation plan for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah have been scheduled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). This plan has been recommended to the Secretary of the Interior by the Paiute Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commissioner Philleo Nash summarized the past year's accomplishments of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a publication released today entitled "Indian Affairs 1964".

Emphasis is upon education and economic development," Nash said in announcing the new publication. "We are striving toward greater Indian participation in their own affairs--activity rather than passivity--with the end goal of maximum self-sufficiency for the Indian population.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced a series of hearings throughout Indian country on its proposed plans to close all but three of its off-reservation boarding schools. Notice of the hearings is being published in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith said today.