OPA

Award of a $1,437,000 contract for the construction of school facilities at Toadlena, New Mexico, on the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new facilities to be constructed include two 192-pupi1 dormitories, a 360-pupi1 kitchen-dining room building, a 13-c1assroom school with a multipurpose from, a utility building, employees' quarters and a four-stall garage. The existing school will be remodeled, and the streets, walks and all utilities will be improved. These new facilities, when complete, will replace old, unsanitary, and unsound school facilities, and will permit an increase of 75 pupils in the school's enrollment.

The successful bidder was H. R. McBride Construction Company of Farmington, New Mexico. Twelve higher bids, ranging from $1,477,826.00 to $1,722,000.00 were received.

Appointment of George M. Felshaw, a veteran of more than 20 years' service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as superintendent of the Western Washington Indian Agency, Everett, Wash., effective May 1, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Felshaw, who has been in charge of the Bureau's field relocation office at Los Angeles since 1957, replaces Clarence W. Ringey who is transferring to the Bureau's area office at Aberdeen, S. Dak., April 29. Ringey has been superintendent at Everett since 1955.

Born at Pima, Ariz., in 1913, Felshaw first came with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a stockman on the Navajo Reservation in 1938. After four years in this position, he had three years of service with the Army during World War II. In 1945 he returned to the Bureau as district supervisor on the Navajo Reservation. Three years later he was transferred to placement work at Salt Lake City and subsequently served in this work at Phoenix and Window Rock, Arizona. In 1955 he was appointed relocation officer at Muskogee, Okla. After 18 months in this assignment, he was put in charge of the relocation field office at San Francisco where he served until his transfer to Los Angeles in 1957.

Before joining the Indian Bureau, he had service in Arizona with the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Soil Conservation Service. He is a graduate of the high school at Safford, Ariz., and attended Gila Junior College, Thatcher, Ariz., from 1931 to 1933.

Ringey, another veteran of the Indian Service, will be in charge of land operations in the Aberdeen area embracing North and South Dakota and Nebraska.

He joined the Bureau in 1931 as a farm agent at Ponemah, Minn., and served in positions of increasing responsibility in Minnesota and Wisconsin over a period of more than 20 years. In 1954 he was appointed superintendent of the Umatilla Agency, Pendleton, Oreg., and one year later was transferred to his present post, Everett, Wash. He was born at Clarissa, Minn., in 1904

Award of a $685,435 contract for construction and conversion of educational facilities at Santa Fe, New Mexico, into an Indian arts school was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a new academic building, an administrative building and a student center building. The present academic building will be remodeled into art studios and classrooms. In addition to the building construction, outside utilities will be improved, paved streets with curbs and gutters will be provided, and a chain link perimeter fence will be installed.

Students now attending the Santa Fe Boarding School will be transferred to other boarding schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The converted school at Santa Fe will be reserved exclusively for special art students of American Indian descent from throughout the United States.

The successful bidder was Pickens-Bond Construction Co., of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Six higher bids, ranging from $693,000 to $737,900 were received.

In response to wishes of the tribal membership, the Department of the Interior has proposed legislation providing for division of tribal assets of the Ponca Indians of northeastern Nebraska and discontinuing their special Indian relations with the Federal Government, Assistant Secretary John A. Carver, Jr., reported today.

Under a bill suggested to Congress by the Department, division of the assets would be made only if approved by a majority of the adult members of the tribe.

The bill provides that each member of the tribe would be given the opportunity of selecting not more than five acres of tribal land as a homesite, but would be required to pay the tribe its current market value. All tribal lands remaining after these homesite purchases would be sold by the Government and the proceeds distributed among the eligible tribal members.

The tribal land now consists of about 690 acres valued at approximately $70,000. In addition, tribal trust funds totaling about $28,000 and Federal property worth approximately $7,400 would be included in the distribution. Under the bill, individuals eligible to share in the property distribution would be those whose names appear on a tribal membership roll prepared in 1934 and 1935, together with their living descendants of one-fourth or more Ponca blood. Although the number of these eligible is not now known, the Bureau estimates it as approximately 525. About 130 of these live on or near the reservation.

In addition to the tribally owned land there are 13 tracts comprising about 2,180 acres on the reservation which were allotted years ago to individual tribal members. As a result of inheritance, 387 individuals now share the ownership of these tracts. Under the proposed bill, Federal restrictions against their sale would be removed three years after enactment. Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Interior would have authority to sell any tracts and distribute the proceeds upon application of those owning a one-fourth or more interest in the particular parcel.

Legislation to provide for property division has been requested by the Poncas at several tribal meetings beginning in early 1957. Terms similar to the proposed bill were unanimously approved by those present at meetings in 1959 and again in 1961, and were favored by a substantial majority of those responding to a mailed Questionnaire.

Selection of Dale M. Baldwin, superintendent of the Fort Peck Indian Agency, Poplar, Mont., as the new superintendent of the Nevada agency, Stewart, Nev., effective April 29, was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior.

Baldwin succeeds Burton A. Ladd, who is retiring after nearly 34 years' service with the Indian Bureau. A new superintendent for the Fort Peck Agency has not been selected.

A native of New Castle, Pa., Baldwin was graduated from Oregon state College in 1949 and entered on duty immediate thereafter with the Indian Bureau as a soil conservationist at the Colville Agency, Nespelem, Wash. Two years later he moved to the Umatilla Agency in Oregon and subsequently served at the Fort Hall Agency in Idaho and the Riverside Sub-Agency in California. In 1957 he joined the Washington staff of the Bureau as a program officer and two years later was appointed superintendent at Fort Peck. He had three years' service with the Army during World War II and attained the rank of captain.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior and the Federal Housing Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency today jointly announced the signing of an agreement opening up new possibilities for FHA-insured financing of home building and housing improvements on Indian reservations.

Such financing has been available in the past, but its availability has been limited by complications arising from the trust or restricted status of most Indian-owned land.

Under the new agreement, FHA, if its normal requirements are met, will insure mortgages on land owned by Indians in trust or restricted status as well as mortgages on Indian leaseholds. A procedure has been established to assist lenders in obtaining the necessary consent by the BIA to the execution of a mortgage by an Indian on trust or restricted property.

In the case of lands leased by Indian applicants, the lease must have an unexpired term of at least 50 years from the date of mortgage execution and must be in a form approved by FHA. A lease executed for 25 years and simultaneously extended for an additional 25 years will meet this requirement.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs agreed to furnish mortgagees or FHA, upon request, with available credit information on Indians applying for FHA-insured loans and to assist Indian borrowers in discharging their obligations under the insured mortgages.

The agreement was signed by Commissioner Philleo Nash of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Commissioner Neal J. Hardy of the Federal Housing Administration.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash, accompanied by other Indian Bureau officials, will travel extensively through Indian areas of North Dakota in early May, and Minnesota in early June, to consult with Government officials and Indian leaders and visit with Indian families in their homes.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, May 8, and the following morning, Commissioner Nash, Miss Selene Gifford, Assistant Commissioner for Community Services; Area Director Martin N. B. Holm and other area officials will attend a meeting at Bismarck, N. Dak., with Governor William L. Guy and members of his legislative research committee on proposed Indian programs and policies.

On the evening of Wednesday, May 9, Commissioner Nash and Area Director Holm, will attend a mass meeting at Devils Lake, North Dakota, with the Devils Lake Sioux and Fort Totten Indians. In traveling to the meeting from Bismarck by automobile Wednesday afternoon, they will visit Indian homes enroute.

On the morning of Thursday, May la, the party will leave for Fort Berthold Reservation. They will travel by automobile from Rolla to the Turtle Mountain reservation at Belcourt, and will attend a mass meeting with the Turtle Mountain Indians until noon. During the afternoon they will visit Indian homes, and hold a mass meeting with the Indians upon arrival at New Town that evening.

Following a breakfast with the Fort Berthold tribal council on May 11, they will leave New Town for a mass meeting with the Indians of the Standing Rock reservation at Fort Yates.

In returning to Bismarck that evening they will visit with Indians in their homes.

On Monday, June 4, Commissioner Nash will leave for a tour of the reservations in Minnesota, which will culminate in a conference at Bemidji with interested State, county, municipal, and tribal officials at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June la, and will conclude his plans to visit all major Indian reservations in Minnesota.

On Tuesday, June 5, Commissioner Nash in company with Area Director James E. Hawkins and other area officials, will visit the Fond du Lac and Grand Portage reservations.

On the morning of Wednesday, June 6, they will visit Nett Lake and Leech Lake reservations.

Thursday, June 7, will be spent at the Red Lake Reservation.

On the morning of June 8 they will tour the White Earth Reservation. That afternoon Commissioner Nash will leave for Madison, Wisconsin.

On Saturday, June 9, he will meet at Madison with State officials regarding Indian problems in Wisconsin.

From Madison he will return to Bemidji for the meeting on Sunday, June 10.

Award of a $758,802 contract for construction of school facilities at Kaibeto, Arizona, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, was reported today by the Department of the Interior.

Facilities to be built under the contract include a two-classroom and multipurpose room addition to the existing school, a 128-pupil dormitory, five one-bedroom apartments, and a multistory building containing two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments.

In addition, the existing kitchen-dining room will be remodeled, all utility systems will be expanded, and the streets, walks and play grounds will be improved. These facilities, when complete, will provide more adequate educational opportunity for the present enrollment and allow an increase of 82 pupils, beginners through the sixth grade.

The successful bidder was Lembke Construction Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico. No other bids were received.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced proposed rules today that would help several Pueblo Indian tribes in central New Mexico block up their land holdings and improve their livestock operations.

The new rules would carry out exchange provisions of a law passed last September. That law transferred 69,700 acres of the national land reserve to eight Pueblo Indian tribes in New Mexico.

The Indians have grazed livestock on the lands for the last two decades. The new rules would help the Pueblos consolidate the 69,700 acres into one management area by permitting the Bureau of Land Management to exchange public lands anywhere in New Mexico for non-Indian lands within the pueblo's management area.

The consolidation will take place in central New Mexico near Albuquerque. Benefitting from the consolidation will be the pueblos of Santa Ana, 2ia, Jemez, San Felipe, Cochiti, Isleta and San Ildefonso.

The Bureau of Land Management will exchange lands from the national land reserve outside the consolidation area for inho1dings now belonging to others. BLM is also authorized by the act to use tribal lands for exchange with inho1ders, subject to approval of tribal councils.

The text of the proposed amendments to 43 CFR, Part 149 will be published in the Federal Register. The Department is providing the public 30 days in which to comment on the proposal. Written comments should be sent to the Director, Bureau 0.1. Land Management Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C.

The Department of the Interior announced today that a contract for sawmill equipment for the Red Lake Indian Mills, Redby, Minnesota will be awarded to the Mater Division of the Appleton Machine Company, Appleton, Wisconsin.

The decision to award the contract on the basis of installation of the equipment by the manufacturer was determined to be in the best interest of the Federal Government and the Red Lake Indians. The contractor becomes responsible for correcting any operating difficulties resulting from improper installation.

The new equipment, which will be of the most modern and efficient type, will replace an obsolete tribal sawmill that has been operating on the reservation almost continuously since 1925. Over the period of 37 years it provided the Red Lake Tribe with a total operating profit and stumpage value of about $3.3 million. The average annual employment was 283, mainly Indian employees, and the average annual wage was $136,000.

Only two bids were received for furnishing and installing the equipment on which bids had been solicited. The Meter Division of the Appleton Machine Company was low bidder with a bid of $147,315. The other bid in the amount of $148,339 was submitted by the Northeast Ohio Machine Builders, Inc. of Columbiana, Ohio.