OPA

The first leasing of California Indian-owned land for oil and gas development in about a decade was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

On January 18, bids were opened at the Sacramento area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the oil 8nd gas leasing of two tracts of tribally owned land which comprise the entire acreage of the Colusa Indian Reservation in Colusa County. One tract is 214.5 acres, the other 54.53 acres.

The high bid on the larger tract was a bonus of $2,944.56 or $13.75 per acre offered by G. E. Kadane and Sons. On the smaller tract the high bidder was Gulf Oil Corporation of California with a bonus offering of $1,988.36 or $36.46 per acre. Both of these bids have been accepted.

Offering of the lands for oil and gas leasing was approved by the Colusa Indian Community Council in a resolution adopted December 5, 1960.

In keeping with the usual practice on oil and gas leasing of Indian lands, the tribal organization will receive, in addition to the bonus money, annual rentals of $1.25 per acre on the leased land and royalties of 12.5 percent on production.

The only previous leasing of California Indian lands for oil and gas development took place about 10 years ago and involved acreage on the Agua Caliente Reservation at Palm Springs.

The Justice Department has concluded after an F.B.I. investigation that allegations of brutality against students at the Chilocco, Okla., Indian School by some staff members were without foundation, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Harrison Loesch said today.

A program review team of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which operates the school, had reported brutal treatment of some students. Assistant Secretary Loesch in April asked the F.B.I. to investigate the situation. At the same time he directed that Dr. Leon Wall, superintendent of the school, and Principal Clarence Winston be placed on temporary duty in the area office.

Mr. Loesch said today that Dr. Wall has returned to his job as superintendent. Mr. Winston earlier went back to his position as principal.

The Assistant Secretary said the F.B.I. investigation found no foundation for the allegations of brutality or for any other invasion of civil rights of any students.

High bonus bids totaling nearly one and a third million dollars for oil and gas leases on Indian-owned lands of the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

At an opening of bids on January 17 at Poplar, Mont., offers were received for leases on 149 tracts covering approximately 32,500 acres. For 97 tracts comprising 24,046 acres owned by individual tribal members the high bonus bids totaled $943,771. For 52 tracts of tribally owned land with a combined area of 8,458 acres, the high bonus offerings added up to $375,310.

Over all the average of the high bids received was $40.58 per acre.

The bids have not yet been accepted by the owners or their trustee, the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Award of a $34,193 contract for improvement to the water supply system at Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract provides for approximately 2,000 feet of water main, and for the construction of a water treatment plant with a capacity of 750,000 gallons per day. This work is the second phase of a project to provide adequate water supply at Shiprock for a recently completed Indian hospital, a 1,000-pupil Indian boarding school and a sub-agency headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The successful bidder was Western States Construction Company, Inc. of Loveland, Colorado. Two higher bids, ranging from $37,485.00 to $44,130.00 were received.

Award of a $398,800 contract for the construction of a dormitory and related facilities at Aztec 1 New Mexico that will make it possible for 128 additional Navajo Indian pupils to attend the public schools at nearby Farmington was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of one 128-pupil dormitory; a 256- pupil kitchen-dining-multipurpose building; and a utility building. Sidewalks utility connections and other site improvements are also included in the contract.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs now maintains a 128-pupil dormitory at Aztec. This contract will double the capacity of the installation. The successful bidder was H. R. McBride Construction CO., of Farmington New Mexico. Four higher bids 1 ranging from $4191869 to $4491409 were received.

The Department of the Interior announced today approval of a final membership roll of 631 persons who will be entitled to share in division of the assets of the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina that have been held in Federal trusteeship.

The roll was prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with the advice and assistance of the Catawba Tribe under the terms of a 1959 law which provides for division of the tribal assets in Federal trust among the qualified members. A majority of the adult tribal members voted to accept the provisions of the law in balloting announced last June.

In accordance with previously announced procedures the final roll as now approved was put on display for a period of 30 days at several points ne8r Rock Hill, S. C., frequented by Catawba Indians to allow for protests against the inclusion or omission of names. No such protests were received.

The property to be divided among the tribal members has been estimated to have a value of about $190,000. It consists of 3,263.8 acres of land under trusteeship in York County, S. C., near Rock Hill; $6,000 cash proceeds from the sale of a tribal herd of 85 beef cattle; and nearly $5,000 of cash on deposit with the United States Treasury.

Once the division of assets is completed, the Catawba tribal members will no longer be eligible, under terms of the 1959 law, for special Federal services because of their status as Indians. Under Federal law they will be in exactly the same status as other citizens of the United States.

The Department of the Interior announced today the transfer of Homer M. Gilliland, superintendent of the Fort Berthold Indian Agency at New Town, N. Dak., for the past two and a half years, to the post of superintendent at the Colorado River Agency, Parker, Ariz.

Gilliland succeeds John C. Dibbern, who has headed the Colorado River Agency for the past six years and is now moving to the Indian Bureau's area office at a11up, N. Mex., as assistant area director for economic development.

Before moving to Fort Berthold as superintendent in the fall of 1960, Gilliland served for six years at Colorado River first as soil conservationist and later as agency land operations officer. From 1943 to 1954, he worked as principa1- teacher and later soil conservationist at the Cherokee Agency in North Carolina. He was born at Tremont, Miss., in 1912 and has an agricultural degree from Mississippi State College. Before joining the Bureau, he worked as a public school teacher and in private industry in Mississippi.

Born at Los Angeles in 1919, Dibbern had 12 years experience in teaching and in range jobs with the Soil Conservation Service and the Forest Service before joining the Indian Bureau as range conservationist at Sells, Ariz., in 1950. After four years in this position, he was appointed land operations officer at Whiteriver, Ariz., and one year later moved to the Bureau's Washington office as program officer. In 1956 he was designated assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Resources and one year later was given the appointment as Colorado River superintendent. He holds a doctor's degree in plant ecology received from the University of Chicago in 1947.

An offering of oil and gas leases on Indian lands of the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah has brought high bonus bids totaling nearly $650,000 to the Indian landowners, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Bids were received on about 13,800 acres of tribally owned land and nearly 3,700 acres owned by individual Indians. The average bonus per acre on the tribal land was $34.65 and the highest bonus for these lands was $107.27 per acre. The comparable figures for the individually owned lands were $44.14 and $107.27. The total of the high bonuses on all tribal tracts was $481,078.56; on the individually owned tracts it was $162,399.93.

Rental on the leased acreage will be $1.25 per acre per year and the royalty rate on production will be 16-2/3 percent.

The sale of the oil and gas leases is part of the Indian Bureau's continuing program to promote greater economic development on Indian reservations through more effective use of Indian owned resources.

Award of a $283,675 contract for the construction of a community recreation building on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation at Fort Hall, Idaho, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a multipurpose building with a total floor area of 20,660 square feet. The main floor will consist of a full-sized basketball court and stage. The basement will contain a kitchen-dining room, a library and reading room, hobby rooms and toilet and shower rooms.

Financing for the project is being provided by the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation and through the use of both regular and accelerated public works funds of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. When completed, the building will serve as a recreational and cultural center for the Reservation.

The successful bidder was Hunter-Saucerman Construction Co., of Idaho Falls, Idaho. Five higher bids, ranging from $290,231 to $327,400 were received.

Appointment of James P. Howell, assistant personnel officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, South Dakota, as superintendent at the Fort Berthold Indian Agency in New Town, effective July 14, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Howell succeeds Homer M. Gilliland, who has been appointed head of the Colorado River Agency, Parker, and Arizona.

Howell, of Indian descent, is a graduate of the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, and has attended Kansas University in Lawrence; George Washington University in Washington, D. C.; and Everett Junior College in Everett, Wash. After graduating from Haskell in 1940, Howell joined the staff there as an assistant clerk and later that year transferred to the Potawatomi Agency in Horton, Kansas.

In 1942, he left the Bureau for military service and returned to the Potawatomi Agency four years later. After 10 years of progressively responsible service there and at Haskell, he moved in 1956 to the Western Washington Agency, Everett, Wash., as an administrative officer. In 1957 he was transferred to Fort Belknap Consolidated Agency in Harlem, Montana; and four years later moved to his present position at the Aberdeen area office.