OPA

Appointment of Paul L. Winsor as area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He succeeds James E. Hawkins, who recently transferred to the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which the Interior Department administers for the United States under a United Nations trusteeship.

Winsor has been assistant area director at Minneapolis since February 1963. He first joined the Bureau in 1951 as a principal-school teacher at Hooper Bay, Alaska. Later he transferred to Juneau, Alaska, as an administrative assistant and subsequently was named assistant to the area director of the Juneau Area Office. He held increasingly responsible positions with the Juneau offic8 until 1959, when he left Federal service to accept a cabinet post as Commissioner of Health and Welfare for the State of Alaska.

In his new post, Winsor will supervise all Indian Bureau operations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan.

"Through the years, Paul Winsor has demonstrated great ability," Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash said. “His work has received wide acclaim from the Indian people he serves."

A native of Oneida, Kansas, and a World War II veteran, Winsor received his 'bachelor of arts degree in education administration from Whittier College, Whittier, California, in 1950.

Appointment of Clyde W. Pensoneau as superintendent of the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Arizona, was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash. The assignment is a recall for Pensoneau, who served as superintendent at Hopi from 1954 to 1956. Increasing economic development and education activities on the Hopi Reservation "demand a superintendent with intimate knowledge of Hopi affairs," Nash said.

The new appointee will take over January 3, 1965, succeeding Herman O'Harra, "who is retiring after 33 years of Federal service.

Pensoneau has been assistant director of the Bureau's Gallup Area Office in New Mexico since September 1962. He has had over 20 years of experience with the Bureau in extension and credit work.

He joined the Bureau in 1941 as a farm aide at Uintah and Ouray Agency in Utah and was promoted to farm agent a year later. In 1944, he transferred to the Nevada Agency, as principal agricultural aide and after a year was named farm management supervisor at the Pyramid Lake Sub agency, Nevada. In 1948, he was given supervision of extension and credit work at Fort Berthold Agency, North Dakota, and remained in that position until he transferred to Colorado River Agency, Arizona, in 1952. Two years later, he was named superintendent of the Hopi Agency. He transferred to the Central Office in Washington as agricultural extension supervisor in 1956, and later became supervisory finance specialist in the Bureau's branch of credit.

Born in Jones, Oklahoma, in 1914, Pensoneau is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe. He graduated from Oklahoma A &M College in 1941 with a degree in animal husbandry.

The award of a $139,712 contract for the construction of utilities at Sherman Institute, Riverside, California, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Sherman offers a special program for Indian youth whose educational background is severely limited. Most of the 1,000 students in attendance come from reservations in the Southwest. Many have had only a smattering of elementary schooling--some because there have not been enough public or Bureau-operated classroom seats to accommodate them, and some because they live in remote areas inaccessible to school buses.

The school is staffed with a faculty trained in teaching English as a second language, counselor’s expert in helping the shy and the bewildered to adjust to the discipline of daily classes, and vocational instructors to prepare the Indian youth for gainful occupations.

One of its most urgent needs has been for modernized utilities. The new construction contract calls for installation of modern water and sewer lines and fire hydrants and related work. Successful bidder was Longley Construction Company, Inc., of Las Vegas, Nevada. Two higher bids were in the amounts of $144,725 and $155,446.

New high levels of conservation accomplishment designed to meet the unprecedented and still increasing demands being placed on America’s basic natural resources by the Nation’s rapid growth were outlined today in the Department of the Interior’s annual report entitled “New Horizons in Natural Resource Conservation.”

"The conservation crisis of the 1960’s, “secretary of the Interior Steward L. Udall says in the report, “has resulted neither from ignorance nor folly, but from our very success as a Nation the rush of progress symbolized by our burgeoning cities and thriving industry, and hastened greatly by expanding population.”

Highlights of the report include the following:

Parks and Recreation: The president’s consistent support of programs to provide adequate recreational facilities to meet our growing needs has been a major factor in outstanding two year record of accomplishments.

Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Point Reyes in California, and Padre Island in Texas have been authorized as new National Seashore Areas as part of a comprehensive program to provide outdoor recreation areas adjacent to metropolitan centers.

Under revised regulations effecting the construction of federally financed reservoirs, sufficient land can now be acquired to preserve the recreational potential of large water impoundments.

A Bureau of Outdoor Recreation has been established in the Department to coordinate Federal Recreation programs stimulate and provide assistance to the States in the development of recreation programs; sponsors and conduct research; encourage interstate and regional cooperative recreation projects; conduct recreation resource surveys; and formulate a national plan on the basis of State, regional and Federal plans.

The president, by Executive order, established a Cabinet level Recreation Advisory Council consisting of Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Defense, Health, Education and Welfare, and the Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency – to facilitate coordinated efforts among the various Federal agencies concerned with outdoor recreation.

Preliminary hearings have paved the way for congressional action on the president’s request for establishment of a “pay as you go” land conservation Fund to finance acquisition of lands for conservation and recreation purposes.

Congress authorized use for recreation of facilities at wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries provided it use does not recreation interfere of with facilities at primary conservation wildlife refuges objectives.

Important new legislation will permit the orderly movement of millions of acres of agricultural land not needed to produce food and fibers recreational and other uses.

Water resources: The second session of the 87th Congress authorized the $171 million Fryingpan – Arkansas project in Colorado and the $220 million San Juan Chama and Navajo Indian irrigation projects in Colorado and New Mexico the first time in the 60 year history of the Department’s Bureau of Reclamation that Congress has approved two water resource projects of this magnitude in single.

The Reclamation program reached its highest level in history with total expenditures of $347 million for all activities in fiscal year 1962.

Congressional approval was given to Federal participation in the Delaware River Basin development program on a partnership basis with the States of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania involving a potential billion dollar investment in water conservation projects.

Congressional authorization of a $75 million expenditure through fiscal years 1962-1967 made possible a considerably accelerated research and development program by the Department’s office of the Saline water.

Electric Power: The department has moved forward more rapidly in electric power development including significant innovations until recently considered impractical or impossible than at any other time in many years.

Today in the United States, and throughout the world, we are met at a “new frontier” in electricity. Giant new generators are being built with a capacity of a million or more kilowatts, one of which alone can produce enough power to supply a city the size of Washington D.C.

Work is being accelerated by the Bonneville Power Administration on tests relating to high voltage direct current transmission. Significantly different from any tests previously undertaken in the United States, they will, in fact, provide data not yet available either here on Europe. While direct current transmission is used in Europe, notably in Sweden, most of it is under ground or under water. The Bonneville tests will be performed on insulators and conductors strung on towers in a manner similar to alternating current transmission lines.

Approval was given at the close of the second session of the 87th Congress to construction of world's largest atomic power plant at Hanford, Washington, to utilize steam from the Atomic Energy Commission's new production reactor.

Sport Fisheries and Wild life: It is estimated that one man in every four goes fishing today, one in every five goes hunting, end the percentage it still rising.

With an authorized 7-year advance of $105 million to acquire lend ahead of rising prices, the Department has been enabled to move forward with a greatly accelerated program for the preservation of wildlife as a major recreational resource.

Four new wildlife refuges have been established--in Ohio, Michigan, Mississippi, and Georgie. In all, a total of well over 100,000 acres is scheduled to be added to the Nation's wildlife and waterfowl sanctuaries.

Public Land Resources: An 18 month moratorium on most types of non-mineral locations of public land, ordered in 1961, permitted time to reduce an overcoming backlog of such applications. To move forward with a long needed inventory, evaluation, and classification of public lands and to review and revise departmental regulations and initiate legislative proposals necessary to modernize the nations land laws.

The Department has considerably expanded its cooperative efforts with the Department of Agriculture to improve on timber sale practices end achieve a further standardization of forest inventory procedures. As a result, increases of some 175 million board feet in the annual allowable harvest of western Oregon timber lands administered by the Department of the Interior have been made possible.

The Department has submitted to Congress a comprehensive program for modernization of public land laws, establishing new authority to manage and develop the public land's natural resources. The five-year program--with projections to 1980--recommends major expansions of conservation projects on the public land reserve and accelerated efforts to provide recreational facilities; halt soil erosion, and protect forest resources.

For the first time the need to reverse the trend of, deterioration and to build toward full sustained yield production of the 194 million scores of range resources administered by the Department has been placed in perspective as a major national problem. Over 500,000 acres of range lends have received conservation treatment in the form of such projects as brush water, seeding, control structure, stock water developments and fences.

Mineral and Energy Resources: While there are no easy resources in the field of energy, major moves have been taken in recent months with the intent of expanding uses of the Nation's great coal reserves, One of the most significant steps in this direction was taken with establishment in the Department of a new Office of Coal Research, designed to complement the continuing research programs of the Bureau of Mines with the particular aim of achieving break through where possible on a short range, rather than long range basis. The interest stimulated by this action is shown in the fact that, since its establishment, the office has received more than 250 research proposals from private companies, individuals, research organizations, and educational institutions. In fiscal year 1962, contracts with a total value of nearly $3 million were granted for research in the fields of coal production, utilization, processing, equipment, and transportation.

The first Federal mineral leasing on the Pacific Coast Outer Continental Shelf marked a conservation landmark when some 80,000 acres of submerged lands off the coast of Southern California were offered for competitive oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf of Texas and Louisiana--the largest in terms of acreage offered and in the value of revenue earned .for the Federal Government.

Fiscal year 1962 applications for minerals exploration assistance increased 175 percent over 1961 following the revision and streamlining of its regulations by the Department's office of Minerals Exploration, including the addition of gold, silver, and iron are to the eligibility list.

Other Accomplishments: Secretary Udall lists similar advances, assisted by significant increases in appropriations, in Indian Affairs, Territorial, Oceanographic and other scientific programs and concludes:

"The world has undergone mighty changes since the days of the early conservationists. Enormous population gains and swift technological development have combined to create resource pressure which would have been totally inconceivable even a few decades ago.

"In the past it was sufficient to concentrate on resource management, to curb waste and destruction. Today, while these elements or conservation remain essential, a vital new factor has been added the need to apply the great discoveries of science to the task of. · · 'creating new resources and enlarging the use of those existing.

Obviously, a great deal remains to be done in fulfilling our national conservation goals.

“But the progress of the past two years has placed us well on our way toward a record of achievement unmatched since the administration of the two Roosevelts.

“If current momentum is maintained and it appears certain that it will be in the years immediately ahead the nation can feel a new confidence in the adequacy of natural resource supplies to meet the rapidly growing needs, both of today and tomorrow.”

The Department of the Interior has issued an administrative order restoring to the San Carlos Apache Tribe full ownership of, approximately 200,000 acres of land known as the "mineral strip," ceded to the Government in 1896.

The land, lying along the southern border of the tribe's Arizona reservation, was ceded by the tribe with the understanding that the Government would supervise mineral recovery on the lands and return all mineral revenues to the tribe.

However, because of insignificant financial returns to the Indians and the tribe's desire to have the land returned, the strip was closed to further mineral patents in 1934 and all mineral rights were returned to the tribe by Secretarial action in 1963.

The restoration order followed a recommendation by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett. The order excludes lands already patented or to which there are other valid existing rights.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced steps are being taken to implement a ,new law which
provides for payment to the Southern Paiute Indians for lands taken from them in 1860. Regulations are being amended to permit
preparation of a tribal roll.

An Act of October 17, 1968, authorized the distribution of funds derived from a judgment by the Indian Claims Commission,
and directed the Department to prepare a roll to serve as a basis for paying the money.

Southern Paiutes who will share in the $7,253,165.19 judgment are those born on or before and living on October 17,
1968, who establish affiliation with the Southern Paiute Nation through rolls of the Kaibab, Moapa, Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem,
Indian Peaks, Cedar City, and Las Vegas Bands or other documents satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior. The members of
these bands are primarily located in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

The award represents payment for almost 26 1/2 million acres of land in southwestern Utah, southeastern Nevada, and an
adjacent small area in California, taken from the Southern Paiutes in 1860.

Persons desiring to be enrolled to share in the funds, may file applications with the Area Director,' Bureau of Indian Affairs,
P.O. Box 7007, 'Phoenix, Ariz. 85011. Applications must be postmarked no later than June 30, 1969.

Funds to cover the award were appropriated by Congress April 30, 1965.

The Department of the Interior said today a petition from the combined tribal councils of the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Indian Tribes that the Bureau of Indian Affairs split up the Consolidated Ute Agency at Ignacio, Colo., into the Ute Mountain Agency, Towaoc, Colo., and the Southern Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., has been approved.

No additional funds or employees will be needed to accomplish the changes. The division into two separate agencies will give both of the Ute tribes better service, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said. The change was made effective December 29.

The Ute Mountain Agency will have a staff of 15 permanent positions, of which five will service the Southern Ute Agency on request.

The Ute Mountain Agency will serve a population of 1,068 Indians who have tribal trust lands in Colorado, 448,029 acres; in New Mexico, 107,520 acres; and in Utah, 2,328 acres. There are an additional 9,458 acres of Ute individually owned trust lands in Utah.

Espeedie G. Ruiz, who has been assistant superintendent in charge at Towaoc since July, 1967, is the new superintendent of the Ute Mountain Agency.

Raymond J. deKay will continue as superintendent at Ignacio, of the new Southern Ute Agency.

The Southern Ute Agency will service a population of 757 Indians, with 299,443 acres of tribal trust land and 4,967 acres of individually owned trust land in Colorado. This agency also will provide some services to the Ute Mountain Agency, such as plant maintenance when required.

The Southern Ute Agency will have a staff of 67 permanent positions, including 29 people in school dormitory operations at Ignacio.

Regulations governing the preparation of rolls for the payment to Creek Indians of two Indian Claims Commission judgments, totaling
more than $4 million, have been approved and published in the Federal Register, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.

Those eligible to share in the awards must be able to prove direct Creek Indian lineage, Bennett said. A list of the various tribal
rolls and other acceptable proofs of such lineage plus complete application instructions will be supplied with application forms which may be obtained from the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Building, Muskogee, Okla., 74401.

Bennett emphasized that the deadline for filing is Dec. 31, 1969 and that there is no fee for any part of the application procedure.

One award, $3.9 million less attorney's fees and other expenses, represents payment for 8.9 million acres of land in southern
Alabama and Georgia ceded the Federal Government under a treaty in 1814.

A second award, of $1 million less expenses, is additional payment for two million acres of land in east central Oklahoma ceded
under the Treaty of Aug. 7, 1856. Only descendants of Creeks removed to Oklahoma early in the 19th Century may share in this award.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation to provide for disposition of a $29.1 million award to the Mission Indians, the Pitt River Indians, and certain other eligible Indians of California to be identified later should a bill be passed by Congress.

The judgment was made by the Indian Claims Commission and represents additional compensation for lands in California to which the Indians involved held aboriginal title and which were taken by the United States March 3, 1853.

Funds to cover the award were appropriated by Congress in 1964 and are on deposit in the United States Treasury, drawing four percent interest.

As proposed, the bill would also authorize the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a roll and make a per capita distribution to those Indians concerned in this judgment. A roll of Indians of California listing 36,094 names of persons living on May 24, 1950 may be used in preparing the new judgment rolls.

Under the bill, as recommended by Interior, those who apply for enrollment must be living on the date it becomes law; and must present proof that their name or that of an ancestor appeared on anyone of the previous California Indian rolls prepared pursuant to the Act of May 18, 1928; or must establish descent from an Indian ancestor residing in California on July 1, 1852, prior to taking of the land by the United States.

Ineligible to share under the terms of the award are those whose Indian ancestry is derived solely from the Northern Paiute, Southern Paiute, Mohave, Quechan (Yuma'), Chemehuevi, Shoshone, Washoe, Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Band of Snakes, groups sometimes considered in the past to be Indians of California.

Those whose Indian ancestry is derived partly from one of the groups listed and partly from other Indians of California may elect to share in judgment awards to one or the other, but not both.

The Department said the $29.1 million award should not be confused with a $5 million award made in 1944 by the Court of Claims in favor of the Indians of California. The proposed legislation also provides for distribution of more than $1 million remaining from the 1944 award after a $150 per capita distribution was completed June 30, 1955.

RECOLD CORPORATION TO OPEN OKLAHOMA PLANT

There will be a new source of employment for Cherokee Indians in the Pryor, Oklahoma, area when Recold Corporation opens a branch plant, scheduled for immediate construction there. The new plant will hire 25 workers initially, increasing to 75 employees within a year and one-half. Company officials plan to negotiate an on-the-job training contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to prepare Indian workers for employment in the plant.

Recold, a Los Angeles manufacturer of commercial refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat exchange equipment, plans to manufacture finned tubing at Pryor. The finning process adds additional steel insulation to steel tubing, a product used in oil field equipment and heat exchange equipment.

The new plant will be housed in a 50,000-square-foot building, to be erected on a 60-acre tract seven miles southeast of Pryor. Selection of the site was the result of combined efforts by the company, community leaders, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the State Department of Commerce and Industry.

WEST COAST TIMBER INDUSTRIES EMPLOY MORE INDIANS

Indian employment in timber industries located on or near the Pacific Coast Reservations has more than doubled in the past five years, according to a recent report from the Portland Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Today, there are about 690 Indians employed in timber activities and mill work, while in 1960 there were a few more than 300. Preliminary reports indicate that there is increased Indian employment in other forested areas.

OPERATION "PETER PIPER" ON SCHEDULE AT ISLETA

Isleta Pueblo, an Indian community just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the pickle business.

The C &S Packing Company at Isleta has been receiving the 1965 cucumber crop from five growing areas in the State and stowing it away in brine vats for pickle production beginning in September. The plant, which started construction in May, will eventually have 80 wooden curing tanks with a total capacity of 400,000 bushels of cucumbers. Financed by a combination of Federal, private, and tribal funds, C &S is due to employ 45 Indians at the outset, increasing that number to 135 when full capacity is reached. Established with the aid of industrial development specialists in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the enterprise also provides area employment and income indirectly, through crop production for sale to the packing company.

ALASKA NATIVES ATTEND FIVE WEEK CLASS

It was back to school again for a group of 18 Alaska Native plant maintenance men recently. The group, employees of BIA's Juneau Area Office, attended a five-week course at Mt. Edgecumbe that ended with presentation of diplomas from the Interior Department and the State of Alaska.

The trainees participated in "Learning-by-doing" demonstrations and received standard classroom instruction in a variety of subjects geared to improving their chances for job promotion. Some of their classes included basic radio maintenance, meter reading, maintenance and repair of diesel motors for power plants, principles of an electrical circuit, care and use of electrical and other hand tools, and basic building maintenance.

While qualifying for Disaster Training completion certificates, they heard Bureau safety personnel discuss first-aid techniques, watched fire fighting and fire rescue demonstrations, and listened to a U. S. Coast Guard officer lecture on boat and water safety.

BLACKFEET SEEK RESIDENTIAL CAMP DEVELOPMENT

Fresh air, fine scenery and ample opportunities for outdoor sports make Indian reservations prime locations for boys' and girls' residential camps. So said a recent study conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Blackfeet Indians of Montana agree.

The Blackfeet Tribal Council and Lakeshore Development Committee have endorsed a program designed to attract professional camp operators to four likely sites on their reservation near Glacier National Park. Working with BIA specialists they will prepare site information and promotional materials.

Residential camp development is one of the newer activities going on through joint Bureau-tribal efforts to promote economic development of Indian reservations.

EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE FOR INDIANS

A sampling based on the six month period from November 1964 through April 1965 indicates the opportunities that are opening to skilled Indian workers through BIA's Employment Assistance Program.

During the period, 925 Indians were placed in 250 different occupations, from junior accountant to poultry processor. Of total placements, 80 percent were for men and 20 percent for women. The workers were employed in fields ranging from auto mechanics to library services, with numerous jobs in the service occupations, transportation, sales, management and manufacturing.