OPA

The Department of the Interior today announced cffi1cellation of an April ) sale of oil and gas leases on the 27,000-acre Tyonek Reserve (Moquawkie Reservation) near Cook Inlet, Alaska, coupled with the beginning of negotiations for an alternative method of leasing that will be more favorable to the native village of Tyonek.

The Tyonek Reserve was withdrawn from the public domain by executive orders in 1908 and 1915 for the use and benefit of the Alaska natives of Tyonek Village.

The April 3 sale was authorized under a procedure which would have held the proceeds in escrow pending a later determination as to disposition. More recently, however, a reexamination of the purposes for which the Reserve was established under the 1915 executive order has led the Department to conclude that the lands can be leased pursuant to the Act of March 1, 1927 (44 stat. 1347, 25 USC, sec. 398a) under which the proceeds of the sale would accrue to the benefit of the natives.

Robert L. Bennett, Alaska area director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been instructed to begin consultations with the Tyonek Village Council on leasing of the lands under the 1927 statute.

Owen D. Morken, career employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, will take over as new Director for the Bureau at Juneau, Alaska, January 2, 1966, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Morken has been assistant area director for economic development at Aberdeen, South Dakota, since the spring of 1962. At Juneau he succeeds Robert L. Bennett, who is now the Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, D. C.

A native of Brainerd, Minnesota, and a social science graduate of Bemidji State Teachers College, Morken joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps program in 1939. After working in various assignments at the Pipestone School, the Hopi and Navajo Reservations and the Minnesota Agency, he was appointed Superintendent of the Fort Berthold Agency, New Town, North Dakota in January of 1957. While there he was given the Governor John E. Davis leadership award for community betterment and other recognition for his work in economic development.

In 1960 he was transferred to the Pierre Agency, Pierre, South Dakota, where his work in community development not only was effective with the Indian people, but was also singled out for praise by the Pierre, South Dakota, Chamber of Commerce. Since April of 1962, he has been the Assistant Area Director in Aberdeen in charge of Resource and Economic Development.

Secretary Udall said, "I believe that Mr. Morken's experiences in helping tribes to program judgment funds and in working with the Indian people, their neighboring communities, and local and State governments have demonstrated his ability to handle the important Alaskan assignment. These are all very important to the Tlingit-Haida people, who are awaiting settlement of their claim, and to the other native people of the State, whose future is an integral part of Alaska's future as a State."

Adoption of regulations for preparing a membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The roll is to be compiled under a 1962 law giving enrolled tribal members an opportunity to express themselves for or against division of the tribal assets among themselves. Those on the roll would be the beneficiaries if division of the assets is approved.

Those eligible for enrollment will include all persons living on September 5, 1962, whose names appear on the Ponca census roll of April 1, 1934 and the supp1ement of January 1, 1935, regardless of their degree of Ponca blood, descendants of such persons having one fourth or more Ponca blood, and children of tribal members adopted by non-Indians if they are otherwise qualified.

Proposed regulations on this subject were published in the Federal Register February 15, 1963, and several suggestions for change received from interested parties were accepted by the Department. The most important change is an increase in the time given descendants to file applications for inclusion on the roll. Under the proposed rules they would have been given two months after publication of the final regulations in the Federal Register. This period has been lengthened to six months. The full text of the regulations is being published in the Federal Register.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the establishment of new Bureau of Indian Affairs area offices at Window Rock, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

An administrative staff to serve both new offices will remain in Gallup, New Mexico and some of the personnel assigned to Window Rock will continue to have headquarters there.

The office at Window Rock, to be designated the Navajo Area Office will serve a reservation the size of the State of West Virginia. The Navajo Tribe of nearly 100,000 people constitutes over one-fifth of the total Indian population under Federal trusteeship.

The Albuquerque Area Office will serve the tribes located in New Mexico and Colorado now being served by the Gallup Area Office through the following agencies which will continue: The Consolidated Ute Agency at Ignacio, Colorado; the Jicaril1a Apache Agency at Dulce, New Mexico; United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Mescalero Agency at Mescalero, New Mexico; Zuni Agency at Zuni, New Mexico; and the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"The establishment of the Navajo Area Office is intended to provide better coordinated and more effective services to America's largest Indian group," Secretary Udall said. "Since the Navajos represent such a large part of the total Indian population of the United States, this move will be most helpful in advancing the overall programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was one of the recommendations of the Task Force on Indian Affairs which I appointed in 1961.”

Udall said that the other tribes presently combined with the Navajos under the jurisdiction of the Gallup Area Office include nearly 30,000 Indians, more than are covered by most of the Indian Bureau's nine other regional offices. “Considering their numbers and the opportunities for social and economic development which are available to them, these Indians also merit the special attention they will get through having an Area Office separate from the large Navajo tribe," Udall said.

The new Area Director at Window Rock will be Graham E. Holmes, currently Assistant Commissioner for Legislation in the Washington office of the Indian Bureau. Holmes previously served as Director of the Bureau's Area Office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and at one time was an Assistant Area Director in Gallup. He has been the Superintendent of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and Assistant Solicitor for Indian Affairs for the Department of the Interior. He is a native of Oklahoma.

Glenn R. Landbloom, who for the past seven years has been General Superintendent of the Navajo Reservation, will become the Area Director of the Indian Bureau's office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to joining the Navajo Agency staff, Landbloom was an Assistant Area Director in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He is a graduate of North Dakota State University.

Named as Area Director for the New Albuquerque office is Walter O. Olson, presently General Superintendent of the United Pueblos Agency. He is a former Assistant Area Director in Gallup and Superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico.

Fredrick M. Haverland, who has been Gallup Area Director since 1962 will join the Washington staff of the Indian Bureau for an assignment with the Commissioner's Office. He formerly directed the Bureau's Area Office in Phoenix and was an Assistant Area Director previously in Billings, Montana, and Muskogee, Oklahoma.

In order to begin staffing the new Albuquerque office, the Indian Bureau expects to transfer about 24 persons from Gallup. The total planned Albuquerque complement of 116 will be reached over the next 12 to 18 months, largely through the transfer of persons now employed in Gallup.

Although Window Rock will be the location of the Navajo Area Office, there is not expected to be any increase in the number of Bureau employees stationed there. Instead, Bureau personnel now on the Navajo Agency staff will be moved into positions with the new Window Rock office. Approximately 185 persons - out of the present total of 309 - will remain in Gallup, most of them to provide administrative and supporting services to both new Area Offices.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced an agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Radio Corporation of America which will provide young natives of Alaska and American Indians with broad opportunities for electronics training and for jobs in the worldwide RCA communications and defense warning systems.

The agreement, Secretary Udall said, not only opens new doors of economic advancement to Indians and Alaska natives but also will assist the defense of the United States.

Under the agreement technical training in electronics will be given to the qualified Indian and Alaska native students at two RCA institutes in New York City and Los Angeles, Calif. Job opportunities will be available to the graduates at missile tracking and other defense warning or communications installations operated by RCA throughout the free world.

The first contingent of seven Alaska natives is leaving Fairbanks by RCA plane, Friday, February 24, for New York City where they will be enrolled at the RCA Institute for the new term starting February 28, Those who complete the training successfully will be employed in Alaska to man the White Alice Communications System and the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS).

In addition, RCA plans to send personnel specialists to Alaska in the near future to interview native high school students concerning jobs and training following their graduation this coming spring.

Use of technically trained natives to staff the installations in Alaska, Secretary Udall pointed out, will be beneficial not only to the economy of the northernmost State but also from the standpoint of national defense. In the past, he added, technicians have had to be brought in from the other States at great expense.

An increase in the "standard" royalty rate for oil and gas leases on Indian lands from 12.5 to 16-2/3 percent was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The higher rate, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs John O. Crow explained, has been used for many years in the Osage area of Oklahoma and more recently in the Aneth area of the Navajo Reservation in southeastern Utah and on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Experience in these areas, he added, has shown that a 16-2/3 percent royalty is justified and will be generally beneficial to the Indian landowners. He also pointed out that during the past several years there has been an upward price spiral for oil and gas leases and royalty rates have been raised on much of the non-Indian land of the country.

In a memorandum of February 21 to all area directors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Acting Commissioner Crow advised them that "the royalty rate in future oil and gas leases shall be fixed at 16-2/3 percent except that a higher rate should be used in areas where there is strong competition.”

Upon notice that an order had been entered granting leave to appear in a New Mexico court action involving Navajo Indian voting rights, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today designated Max N. Edwards, Assistant to the Secretary and Legislative Counsel, to represent him at a hearing in the Bernalillo County District Court at Albuquerque, N. Mex., on March 14 in a suit brought there last December 23 by Joseph A. Montoya, defeated Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in last November1s general election.

Montoya lost by a margin of 287 votes to Thomas Bolack, Republican candidate, and filed suit to cancel all votes by members of the Navajo nation on the grounds they live on a reservation and are not residents of New Mexico. The State statute requires residency within the State for a period of at least one year.

Secretary Udall’s motion to appear as a friend of the court, with right to file a brief and participate in the oral arguments was airmailed last Friday, and Judge John McManus of the Second Judicial District received the motion and signed the order today.

Earlier, Norman Littell, Washington attorney who is general counsel for the Navajos, filed a motion for leave to appear for the Navajos as friends of the court, and this motion was likewise granted.

Judge McManus has fixed cost bonds of $25,000 to be required of both parties to the contest.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior George W. Abbott today announced approval of a public land order restoring to tribal ownership about 1,161 acres of scattered tracts on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

The lands being restored were ceded to the United States by the Indians many years ago and were opened to settlement and entry under the homestead laws in 1911. These particular tracts, however, have not been sold or disposed of over the 50-year period.

Their restoration to tribal ownership was requested by the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation - Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres - to meet the resettlement needs of tribal members displaced from their homes by construction of the Garrison Dam and reservoir project.

The restoration is effective immediately.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today the appointment of W. W. Keeler, Bartlesville, Okla., as consultant on planning policy and reorganization of functions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mr. Keeler, executive vice president of the Phillips Petroleum Company and principal chief of the Cherokee Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, has agreed to serve without compensation for a period of 90 days starting February 5.

Born in 1908 at Dalhart, Texas, where his parents were temporarily located in connection with his father's cattle business, Mr. Keeler grew up in Bartlesville and first joined the Phillips Company on summer vacation work in the engineering department at the age of 16.

In 1926 he was graduated from Bartlesville high school and entered the University of Kansas engineering school. Three years later he became permanently associated with Phillips, holding down a full-time job in the refinery at Kansas City, Kansas, while continuing his studies at the University. Over the years he rose steadily in the company's organization and was elected executive vice president in 1956.

Early in 1952 Mr. Keeler was appointed Director of refining in the Petroleum Administration for Defense, Washington, D. C., and served in this post one year without compensation. Since 1954 he has been chairman of the Military Petroleum Advisory Board.

Born of Cherokee Indian ancestry, Mr. Keeler has long been active in welfare and educational work among the Indians of Oklahoma. In 1948 he was elected vice chairman of the executive committee of the Cherokee Nation and late in 1949 was appointed principal chief of the tribal organization by former President Harry S. Truman. He is still serving in this post and is also a member of the Commission on the Rights, Liberties and Responsibilities of the American Indian, a study group sponsored by the Fund for the Republic.

In 1957 he received the All-American Indian Award, which is presented annually to an outstanding American Indian.

Mr. Keeler is extremely active in the civic affairs of Bartlesville and in numerous organizations connected with the petroleum industry.

He is married to the former Ruby Hamilton of Industry, Kansas, and has three sons.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced he has instructed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to take every possible action to assure that needy Indians benefit from the expanded distribution of surplus food ordered January 21 by President Kennedy.

The Secretary pointed out that the program is aimed at helping all underprivileged Americans, and stressed that a number of Indian reservations are among the hardest-hit economic areas of the Nation.

Secretary Udall said the Indian Bureau is working with the United States Department of Agriculture as well as with State and local agencies responsible for distributing surplus foods. He said all field offices of the Bureau have been instructed to cooperate in this effort.

Because of the remote locations of many reservations, and their lack of year round employment, American Indians are among the groups least protected against economic suffering, Secretary Udall said.

He pledged that new efforts, in addition to those now under way, will be made to insure that Indians benefit from those national programs designed to benefit underprivileged citizens.