OPA

Award of a $777,777 Bureau of Reclamation contract for the clearing of approximately 15,600 acres of land along the border of New Mexico and Colorado, to be inundated by the waters of Navajo Reservoir, was announced by the Department of the Interior today.

The contract went to Universal Grading Company, Incorporated, of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At the bid opening on May 18, the apparent low bid for this work under Bureau Specifications 400C-163 was the $237,000 offer of Edman &Company of 2070 Willow Lane, Denver, Colorado. However, after opening of the bids, but before award, the low bidder notified the Bureau's contracting officer that it had made a mistake in computation. The question was submitted to the Comptroller General and it was ruled that the Bureau could not permit a change in the bid after the time fixed for opening, Therefore, the Edman bid was disregarded in making the award to the New Mexico firm, second lowest of the nine bidders, said Assistant Commissioner N. B. Bennett.

The contract calls for clearance of 15,600 acres of reservoir land in San Juan and Rio Arriba Counties, New Mexico, and Archuleta County, Colorado. All trees, brush, stumps and other woody plants, all buildings, fences and other structures will be removed from approximately 9,800 acres behind Navajo Dam, from an elevation of 5,965 feet to an elevation of 6,085 feet. Selective removal and topping is permitted at lower elevations, according to the terms of the contract. Completion is required within 400 days.

Navajo Dam and Reservoir, a major storage unit of the five-State Colorado River Storage Project, is scheduled for completion in December 1962. Initial filling will begin early in 1962.

The 405-foot-high earth and rock fill dam, under construction on the San Juan River, approximately 39 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico, will be the second largest earth dam constructed by the Bureau. The 1,709,000 acre-foot Navajo Reservoir will store flows of the San Juan River for the 110,630-acre Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, now before the Congress for authorization. It will also provide important fish and wildlife, recreation, and flood control benefits.

Total estimated cost of the project, exclusive of recreational and fish and wildlife facilities, is $39,372,000.

Thomas H. St. Clair, industrial development specialist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Portland, Oregon, has been appointed superintendent of the Papago Indian Agency, Sells, Ariz., the Department of the Interior announced today.

The new superintendent will take office July 23. He succeeds Harry W. Gilmore who has been in charge at Papago since 1955 and now moves into a position as program officer in the Indian Bureau's area office at Phoenix.

Born at Steilacoom, Wash., in 1915, St. Clair first came with the Bureau in 1956 as relocation officer at the Northern Idaho Agency, Lapwai, Idaho. After one year he was promoted to relocation officer in the Bureau's field relocation office at Los Angeles and a year later was transferred to the industrial development position at Portland. Before joining the Bureau, he served eight years with the Employment Security Department of the State of Washington and eight years with the United States Army, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He graduated from high school in Tacoma, Wash., and later attended the College of Puget Sound in that city.

In line with a recommendation recently made by his task Force on Indian Affairs, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L, Udall has proposed to Congress the enactment of legislation to establish an Advisory Board on Indian Affairs.

The Board would consist of not more than 15 members and would include both Indian and non-Indian leaders in such fields as tribal government, State and local government, national civic organizations, religious organizations, industry, labor, education, forestry, mining, grazing, wildlife and recreation. Its function would be to advise the Department on existing and contemplated programs and policies in the field of Indian affairs.

Such a Board, Secretary Udall said, would serve much the same purpose as the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments, established under a law enacted in 1935. The Parks Board, he added, has proved "of great value and service to the Department and the country.”

Under the proposed bill members of the Indian Advisory Board would serve without salary but would be reimbursed for travel and expenses when on official duty. Annual cost to the Government is estimated at not more than $20,000.

New programs instituted by the Department of the Interior during 1961 to stem inroads on vital natural resources by this Nation's explosive growth were outlined today in the Department's annual report entitled "Resources for Tomorrow."

"Because so much of what is happening inside America today is drowned out by the clamor of an embattled world, “Secretary Stewart t. Udall writes in the report, is only recently that we have become aware of a growing internal crisis which deeply affects the lives of all Americans."

The Secretary lists the elements or this "Quiet Crisis" as polluted rivers and lakes, disappearing open space, overcrowded parks, declining mineral resources, threatened extinction of certain species or our wildlife, and "dwindling opportunities for the outdoor experiences which through the years have had profound influence in shaping the national character of America.”

“If our growth in the years ahead is to leave America a better, rather than a poorer, place in which to live," he says, "we must give far more attention to our uses of land and water, forests, fish and wildlife, parks and wilderness, minerals and fuels, and we must embark, while time allows, on an active preservation of the remaining open spaces which surround our populated areas.”

He pointed out that more than a million acres of cropland each year is being taken from “open space” into industrial and commercial developments, highways, and other uses at a time when our population by three million annually. Recognition of this fact was dramatically demonstrated by the creation of a new National Seashore Park on Cape Cod, he said.

"Through this action, “he said, "one of' the most beautiful of America’s remaining unspoiled open spaces will be preserved for all time for the use and enjoyment of this and the generations to come."

The Secretary listed these other highlights of conservation progress through the Department's programs in 1961:

Land and Recreation: The Departments national park service increased its efforts to preserve such outstanding and spectacular areas as Padre Island, Texas; Point Reyes, California, Oregon Dunes, Oregon; and pictured rocks and sleeping bear Dunes in Michigan.

While continued progress was made in the improvement and development of the Nation’s park facilities under the 10 year mission 66 program, the department began work—in cooperation with the National Conference on State Parks, the American Institute of Park Executives, and other groups and organizations—on the organization of a new program known as parks for America.

Parks for America represents a concerted national effort to seek authority money to bid successfully in the competitive land market while suitable parklands are still available, and to defend existing parks against the threatened encroachment of commercial development.

To provide still further recreational resources, the Department during the year inaugurated an intensive program for expanded recreational use of public lands. In the past, a stumbling block in the progress of State and local programs was their inability to finance expensive land acquisition. To remedy this, the Department introduced a new pricing schedule for the sale to state and local governments of public lands expressly for outdoor recreation. Such tracts and areas can now be purchased from the Department’s Bureau of Land management for $2.50 an acre.

Fish and Wildlife: America’s wildlife is facing its own subtle challenge. Large number of species can be maintained only if there are large areas of the habitat they require. For example, wetlands are a vital requirement of many forms of wildlife. Great flights of waterfowl are just some of the creatures which need these areas. A wetland inventory published during the year by the Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service listed 38 game and furbearing species reported by the various States as making use of one or more of the 20 types of wetlands.

Yet drainage and destruction over the years has taken a heavy and over-growing toll.

To meet this problem, the congress in one of its major conservation actions 1961 approved a departmental proposal that it be allowed to “borrow” funds against future duck stamp to speed up wetlands purchase.

With a seven-year advance of $105 million under this program, the Department of the Interior will make a major contribution to the preservation or wildlife as a recreational resource for tomorrow.

Simultaneously, the Department ordered an expanded research program-­utilizing twice the funds previously available--to solve the problem of fish passage at high dams in the Pacific Northwest, and greatly increased its oceanographic research programs.

Meeting our water problems: Today in the United States we are using more than 300 billion gallons of water a day. By 1980, we will need 600 billion gallons a day. Finding means to provide this enormous additional supply will be one of our most critical problems in the years ahead.

Acting on proposals introduced by the Department and the Kennedy Administration, the first session of the 87th congress approved a multipronged attack on this problem of growing national concern.

On major conservation action in this field was the authorization of an $SO million investment in 1962 for pollution control programs.

An equally important water conservation action came with the authorization of a. $75 million program which will permit the Department to greatly accelerate work toward development of' the best and most economical processes for inverting saline and brackish water into water suitable for beneficial consumptive purposes.

An example of the progress now being made in this Vital area may be seen in the fact that in June 1961 President Kennedy pressed a button at this desk in the White House which set the machinery in motion--across the Nation at Freeport, Texas--of the first saline water demonstration plant constructed by the Federal Government cooperation with private industry--a million.. gallon-a-day plant that is already in the Freeport municipal water system.

Within months, dedication ceremonies were held marking completion of construction of a 250,000-gallon ... a-day plant to demineralize the brackish well water at Webster, South Dakota, and construction was nearing completion on a second million-gallon-a-day sea water conversion plant at San Diego, California.. Building of two additional plants in New Mexico and North Carolina is scheduled to begin in 1962.

Perhaps the greatest emphasis to Administration efforts to meet the water challenge came in mid-July When President Kennedy delivered to the Congress his proposed "Water Resources Planning Act of 1961", the most far-reaching water policy legislation sent to the Congress by the White House in many years.

Having an important bearing upon all water and related land conservation and development activities, the proposed act pending in the current session of congress would establish a cabinet level water resources council to form the comprehensive structure for water resource planning with the river basins.

Electric Power: Early in the year, the President directed the Secretary of the Interior to develop Plans for the early interconnection of areas served by the Department's hydroelectric power marketing agencies with adequate common carrier transmission lines; to plan for further national cooperative pooling of electric power, both public and private; and to enlarge such pooling as now exists.

A first significant step toward achievement of these aims came during the year when the Department's Bonneville Power Administration, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and nine private and public owners of hydroelectric generating facilities signed a coordination agreement designed to produce maximum power at existing power plants on Pacific Northwest rivers.

The agreement provides that storage and generating facilities on Pacific Northwest rivers shall be operated in much the same manner as if all were under one ownership.

It also provides for interchanges of energy and power among the signers in order to conserve water in reservoirs, and for coordination of the transmission facilities of the parties to the agreement.

Informal coordination in varying degrees prior to the signing of the agreement had resulted in approximately one million additional kilowatts. A substantial added number of firm kilowatts is expected to result from the agreement.

A further step toward conservation and better utilization of electric power resources was taken with the beginning of studies looking toward the so-called "pump-back” storage systems which permit the use of generation capacity during slack demand periods to build power reservoirs which can be pumped back into use at peak periods of power demand.

Our Forest Resources: Of all our efforts to conserve vital natural resources for tomorrow’s needs, our forest lands present the sharpest challenge to our foresight. This can be realized more clearly when we consider that the trees we plant today will not reach the minimum sizes needed for lumber until the year 2000. Yet, somehow, we must be prepared to meet a projected doubling of our current plumber consumption within 40 years.

Early in 1961, President Kennedy called upon secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to coordinate programs and policies of their agencies for improved management of Federal forest lands looking toward greater productivity without diminishing the basic resource.

To help achieve this aim, the Departments of Interior and Agriculture have .undertaken an intensive joint study of existing timber sale and management.

Among recommendations adopted were orders to standardize inventory procedures, and to reconcile differences in determining allowable timber cut.

Mineral and Fuel Resources: One of the most important and dramatic conservation developments of the year came with the launching by the Department of its new helium conservation program.

The program, oil making many months of study and careful planning, is a cooperative undertaking by Government and industry through which privately built and operated plants will capture helium from certain natural gases destined for fuel markets.

Underlying the urgent need for this conservation effort is the fact that the equivalent of a year's supply of helium now is lost every 45 days. If such waste were permitted to continue, the Nation's limited helium reserves could not be relied upon to supply anticipated national requirements beyond 1985.

The new program provides for recovering and storing for future use 52 billion cubic feet of helium which otherwise would be wasted when natural gases containing this valuable element are burned for fuel.

In another important conservation action related to minerals and fuels, the Office of Coal Research was established within the Department to permit accelerated research efforts designed to find new and broader uses for that important fuel.

Improved management of public Domain lands: For 175 years, the public domain has furnished lands and natural resources to help meet the needs of a growing Nation.

Immediately after taking office in 1961, the Secretary of the Interior was fronted with an overwhelming backlog on incomplete applications for public lands, many of them filed three and four years previously. As a result, the Secretary ordered an 18-month moratorium on most types of non-mineral applications and petitions for land of the public domain.

The moratorium allows time for three critical activities by the Department: First: to eliminate the backlog applications.

Second: to conduct a comprehensive inventory, evaluation and classification of public lands, and,

Third: to review and revise regulations of the Department, and to initiate legislative proposals necessary to modernize and streamline the Nation's land laws. · In conclusion, Secretary Udall says in the annual report: "These, then, are a few examples of how the Department of the Interior is moving as speedily as possible to develop our natural resources for tomorrow. There are many others. For instance, new trails are being blazed for the American Indian through implementation of a Kennedy Administration force report calling for greater emphasis on Indian education and the wider use and development of natural resources on the reservations.

“Accelerated programs have been launched through the Department’s Office of Territories which are designed to improve political, social, and economic conditions in the territories for which it has responsibility, particularly in American Samoa.

In Reclamation, work is under way to schedule a progressive, orderly program of starting new projects to meet accumulated demands.

''The Department--at this challenging period in its existence--recognizes that the demands of a growing industrial society at home, as well as the Nation's commitments to defend freedom abroad; presents it with the most serious resource demands.

''Whether our physical and spiritual resources prove adequate to meet our needs tomorrow will be determined by the decisions we make--or fail to make—today.

"This is the moment of decision in resource conservation.

“Our actions toward this goal during the challenging 1960 's will determine the character--and the achievements--of this Nation for many years to come.”

Promotion of Otto K, Weaver, an II-year veteran of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to superintendent of the Crow Agency in Montana, effective August 6, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

He succeeds Clyde W. Hobbs who was recently transferred as superintendent to the Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyoming.

Weaver has been serving for the past four years as land operations officer of the Uintah-Ouray Agency in Utah. Prior to this he had seven years of service in soil conservation and land operations work at the Hopi Agency in Arizona. He was born at Sayre, Okla., in 1918 and graduated from Utah State Agricultural College in 1950, Before enrolling in college he was privately employed for eight years in Arvin, Calif. and Astoria, Oregon.

Job opportunities for American Indians in careers involving the land and its resources are discussed in "Careers for Indians in
Agriculture," a new eight-page leaflet just published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Aimed primarily at interesting high school students in furthering their education, the leaflet may be obtained from the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20242 or any Indian agency without cost.

The leaflet notes that, while many of the old traditional farm jobs are dwindling, new opportunities are being created in more
sophisticated areas of natural resource management such as water resource development, range and forest management and use, wildlife
conservation, and others.

Among the occupations described are: Farm and ranch operator, veterinary medicine, agricultural technician, agricultural research,
resource management, agriculture business and teaching.

A conference was held July 6-7 at Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border to discuss water needs of the area, including Lake Tahoe, the Truckee Carson River Irrigation District, and the water requirements of the Pyramid Lake Indians.

Joining Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel in the conference were Gov. Ronald Reagan of California; Gov. Paul Laxalt of Nevada; Representatives from the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation; Norman B. Livermore, Jr. Administrator, California Resources Agency; Roland ,B. Westergard, Nevada State Division of Water Resources; Elmo DeRicco, Director of the Nevada Conservation Department; and Mitchell Melich, Solicitor for the Department of the Interior.

At the conclusion of the conference July 7, and again in a statement issued today, Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel stressed that at no time has the Department of the Interior intended to raise the level of Lake Tahoe above the elevation of 6,229.1 feet, and "only in the event of an extreme emergency or an act of God would the Lake level be raised above that elevation."

The Secretary said this policy was reasserted "forcefully" in his consultation with the two Governors.

The Secretary also said today that "with respect to the water compact being considered between California and Nevada, I informed both Governors, and I again say, that my initial objections to it were based on my responsibility to protect the water rights of the Pyramid Lake Indians, and to work out a just solution to stabilize the level of Pyramid Lake.

Secretary Hickel and Governor Laxalt will appoint a task force to resolve the Pyramid Lake problem and to stabilize it in a manner that will "absolutely" protect the rights of the Pyramid Lake Indians.

"If the Department and Nevada agree to this we see no reason why the California Legislature should not approve the compact," the Secretary added.

The Secretary suggested that if the California Assembly approves the compact during its present session, the compact not be submitted to Congress for ratification until the Department of the Interior and the State of Nevada agree upon a plan for stabilization of the level of Pyramid
Lake.

The Nevada Legislature and the California Senate have approved the compact. It is presently being considered by the California Assembly.

The Secretary said the Governors agreed that discussions should be held as soon as possible and should incorporate a plan which would stabilize the level of Pyramid Lake. At present the lake is receding at a natural rate of approximately one foot a year.

Indian children in three Bureau of Indian Affairs schools will be given special education services and assistance next school year with the help of funding by the Office of Education.

Schools in which the programs will be initiated include Wahpeton Indian School, Wahpeton, N.D.; Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Ariz. and Intermountain School, Brigham City, Utah.

The three programs are intended to establish guidelines for Similar, future operations in other Bureau schools, where they are applicable.

In addition, a creative program to upgrade 58 teachers in special education is being made available to all such Bureau personnel with the help of cooperating colleges and universities, the Department of the Interior said.

The Wahpeton program is aimed at combating the handicap of functional retardation brought about by physical-psychological defects. About 94 per cent of the students at the school come from maladjusted homes.

Its purpose is to meet the unique and individual learning needs of the retarded and physically handicapped students by adding to the present Wahpeton staff special education teachers, experts on mental retardation, as well as counselors and social workers. Cost is estimated at $48,800 per school year.

Phoenix Indian School is launching an evaluation program that will provide developmental profiles on each student from his freshman year through graduation. The accent is on establishing a kind of data-bank for continuous evaluation of student progress.

This will involve not only subjective evaluation of the student by the school staff, but objective measures that will include parent and family interviews, complete physical and dental examination, even psychological tests, vision and hearing screening, and assessment of achievement and communication skills.

The plan for Intermountain School is much the same. It, too, will use the interdisciplinary approach to the educational evaluation of students. As at Phoenix Indian School, individual differences will be delineated, the total school staff will be oriented and participate in the clinical process, and teachers will modify existing curricula based on student needs.

Costs for each of the latter two projects will be $20,000 for the school year.

To supplement these and other Bureau education programs, special education plans for the upgrading regular teachers are being developed.

The new program--Project Pre/Set (Preparing Special Education Teachers) is an attempt to develop teachers prepared to work with exceptional children in the regular classroom--children who are mentally retarded, whose hearing or speech is impaired, who are visually handicapped, crippled or emotionally disturbed.

Selected applicants will attend a graduate school program at cooperating colleges and universities. Because many of them already will be teachers and aides in the Bureau system, a summer plan is being worked out so that teachers and aides currently employed can continue in the program on a graduate or undergraduate basis on full pay.

Tuition and similar costs will be paid by the Bureau and Office of Education.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel, on behalf of President Nixon, today announced the nomination of Louis R. Bruce, 6,3, of Richfield Springs, New York, as Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Bruce, a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe of South Dakota, was praised by the Secretary as "a man of unparalleled qualifications, with the leadership skills and the desire necessary to carry out the Administration's pledge to bring dignity, education and economic progress to all of our American Indian, Eskimo and Aleut citizens.

"Mr. Bruce's extensive experience in Indian activities, in community and youth relations, and in Indian housing programs will provide a solid foundation for advancing our programs to assure the Indian American is no longer the forgotten American."

Bruce served as special assistant commissioner for cooperative housing with the Federal Housing Administration until becoming executive director of the" Zeta Psi Educational Foundation and Fraternity in 1966.

He organized the first National Indian Conference on Housing in 1961,and was instrumental in changing regulations of the agency to provide more direct benefits to Indian Americans.

Early in his career, he was New York State director for Indian projects with the National Youth Administration.

He has served as public relations and promotions director of Mid-Eastern Cooperatives; community relations consultant with the New York State Housing Division; vice president of the Compton Advertising Agency of New York; and as a member.of the Board of Directors of the Dairymen's League Cooperative Association of New York.

He owns and, until recently, operated a 600-acre dairy farm in Richfield Springs.

His father, Dr. Louis Bruce, a Mohawk Indian, was until his death last year a leader in working for a better life for the Indian people. Hr. Bruce's mother was an Oglala Sioux of the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota.

Bruce was born on the Onondaga Indian Reservation in New York and grew up on the State's St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. He is a graduate of Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University.

He has received a number of awards including the American Indian Achievement Award and the Freedoms Award, presented by President Eisenhower for "outstanding contributions in promoting the American way of life."

A member of the Association of Indian Affairs, the Indian Council Fire of Chicago, and the National Congress of American Indians, he has served as executive secretary of the National Congress of American Indians.

He is married to the former Anna Jennings Wikoff. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Award of a $770,300 contract for the construction of a new elementary school for Indian students at Cherokee, North Carolina, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a 24-classroom building with a multipurpose room, office, kitchen and library. It will have a total floor area of approximately 65,000 square feet.

The contract also includes grading and utility connections.

When complete, the building will replace the present dilapidated school and allow the consolidation of a number of outlying Indian schools at the one location. The successful bidder was Boyd and Goforth, Inc., of Charlotte, North Carolina. Eight higher bids were received, ranging from $779,200 to $941,900.