OPA

The United States National Bank of Portland, Oregon, has been selected as trustee to manage the property of the 474 remaining members of the Klamath Indian Tribe under the provisions of Public Law 587 of the 83d Congress, as amended, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The property to be managed comprises 144,960 acres. The major portion--some 34,000 acres--is forest land and has 971,000,000 beard-feet of ponderosa pine and mixed species. It will be managed under a plan previously approved by the Department and in accordance with sustained-yield principles.

In addition to the timberland, the residual tribal estate includes nearly 8,000 acres of marshland and 675 acres of farmland. The remainder is classified as open range.

Another Oregon bank also submitted a proposal to the Department to serve as trustee for the tribal property. However, the United states National Bank was chosen since its offer involved lower service fees to be paid by the tribe for the same service.

Bonus bids running as high as $5,505.55 per acre have been received for oil and gas leases on lands of the Navajo Indian Tribe in Utah and New Mexico which brought tribally rejected bids of only $257 an acre just 13 months ago, the Department of the Interior announced today.

These were part of the results of a January 13 bid opening at Window Rock, Arizona, involving 36 Navajo tracts with a total of 72,370 acres. The total of the high bids received was $3,603,927.54.

Nearly half of this was bid on one group of four tracts totaling 640 acres. Two of the tracts brought bids of $511.75 per acre each in contrast with bids of o.pl05 per acre on one and $257 per acre on the other in December 1957. Bids on a third tract were $4,555 per acre as compared with $318.75 and on the fourth they were $5,505.55 in contrast with $257.

On the 32 other tracts the highest bid was $178.91 per acre and the average was $25.62 per acre.

Over the past 10 years the total income received by the Navajo Tribe and individual Navajo landowners from oil and gas leases on their lands has been more than $90,000,000. Of this amount, more than $59,000,000 represents bonuses received by the tribe in the past two and a half years prior to the January 13 sale.

Both educational and economic opportunities for Indian people were significantly increased by Federal Government action in fiscal year 1958, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said in the Department's annual report released today.

One of the most important developments, the Bureau of Indian Affairs section 'f the annual report points out, was the launching of a new vocational training program designed to improve the job skills and earning capacity of adult Indians. During the year the Bureau reviewed and approved for purposes of the program 165 occupational courses in 65 trade or vocational schools throughout the country and 376 adult Indians were enrolled in these courses. An additional 325 applications from potential Indian trainees were on file and awaiting action at the end of the fiscal year.

Shorter-term training for specific jobs was also provided during the year for 168 Indians in industrial plants near the reservations under contracts between the Bureau and the employing companies.

Another major development was the further expansion of the adult education program which the Bureau initiated on five reservations in 1956 for the benefit of Indians who missed the advantages of schooling in their youth. By the end of the fiscal year 1958 courses of this kind were being regularly given at 72 locations on Indian reservations in the United States and among the native villages of Alaska.

Enrollment of Indian children of regular school age increased by over three recent as compared to the preceding year and reached a record high of 130,000. the total, 61 percent were enrolled in public schools, 30 percent in Federal schools operated by the Bureau, and 9 percent in mission or private schools. During the year the Bureau operated 80 boarding schools and 214 day schools including 23 trailer schools on the Navajo Reservation and 10 instructional aid school’s conducted without professional teachers in the remoter localities of Alaska. Classes were conducted for student patients in three Public Health Service Indian hospitals. Dormitory facilities were furnished by the Bureau for 2,900 Indian students who attended public schools in communities bordering the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

For the benefit of Indians seeking jobs away from the reservations, the Bureau continued providing financial help and guidance in community adjustment. Offices for this purpose were maintained in Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Joliet and Waukegan, Illinois; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, California; Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri; and Dallas, Texas. At the end of the year the Joliet and Waukegan offices were closed and merged with the office in Chicago. Help in moving was provided during the year to 5,728 Indians. This included 4,331 individuals in 976 family units, 1,023 unmarried men, and 374 single women.

Income to Indian tribal groups and individual Indians from the leasing of their lands for oil and gas development dropped considerably from the record-breaking figure of more than $72,000,000 for 1957 but still reached the second- highest level in history at $55,210,467. Of this amount, more than $28,000,000 represented bonuses in a single lease sale involving lands in the Four Corner portion of the Navajo Reservation.

On the Klamath Reservation in Oregon several important steps were taken leading toward the eventual termination of Federal trust supervision in accordance with a 1954 congressional enactment. An appraisal of the tribal property was completed. Slightly over three-fourths of the tribal members elected to withdraw and receive cash payments for their individual shares of the assets. A management plan for the residual tribal estate was drawn up. At the very end of the fiscal year a division of the property between the remaining and withdrawing members was completed.

Award of a $53,878 contract for flood control work on the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract covers construction of 32 earth-filled flood control structures and the placement of about 3,000 linear feet of metallic pipe of varying diameters.

The structures, when completed, will prevent and minimize flood damage to Indian homes, roads, farms and rangelands on the Papago Reservation. In addition, the flood waters thus contained will be provided for beneficial consumption by livestock and wildlife.

Don Hastings of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was awarded the contract. Nine higher bids, ranging from $58,800 to $319,690, were received.

Completion of the final membership roll of the Wyandotte Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, following the disposition of all appeals, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The preliminary membership roll, published in the Federal Register April 5, 1957, included 1,159 individuals. The net result of additions and subtractions made as a consequence of appeals to the Secretary of the Interior is a final roll of 1,154 names.

All persons on the final roll, which will be published in the Federal Register shortly, are entitled to an equitable share in the tribal property, including the cemetery owned by the tribe in Kansas City, Kansas.

Under a 1956 congressional law, Federal trusteeship of the Wyandotte property is to be ended by next August 1. Before that time members on the final roll will decide whether the property should be sold and the proceeds distributed or whether it should be transferred to a tribally organized corporation or a tribally selected trustee.

The Department of the Interior today announced a proposed revision of Federal regulations to remove restrictions against road construction that have applied for more than 20 years on 2,935,000 acres of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and Utah.

The acreage affected is in three parts of the reservation--Painted Desert, Rainbow Bridge, and Black Mesa--which were designated as "roadless areas" by administrative action of the Department, in 1937, without consulting the Indians. All three areas consist not of Federal land but of tribally owned property held in trust by the United States.

The proposed removal of the areas from the roadless category is in line with the wishes of the Navajo Tribal Council which has pointed out that 922 families with 3,600 school-age children live in the three areas and need better roads for educational and health protection purposes. Mining activity is already intense throughout much of the affected acreage.

Interested parties may submit their comments to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington 25, D. C., within 30 days after publication of the proposed revision in the Federal Register.

The Department or the Interior today announced the award of a $331,445 contract for construction or new dormitory facilities at Magdalena, New Mexico, that will make it possible for 128 Navajo children from the surrounding area to attend the local public schools.

Some of the children to be accommodated in the new dormitory are now enrolled in the nearby Indian Bureau boarding school at Alamo. Others currently living in Bureau facilities at the Albuquerque Indian School will be brought closer to home. Some will be able to attend school for the first time with the completion of the new facilities.

The project consists of a one-story building that will contain not only sleeping quarters but kitchen and dining facilities. The children, ranging in age from 6 to 16, will attend the Magdalena public schools under arrangements that have been worked out with the local school board.

The successful bidder was Taylor and Medley Construction Company of Albuquerque. Fourteen higher bids were received ranging from $332,888 to $386,241.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst today announced approval of the action of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation of Oregon in leasing 344 acres at McNary Dam town site for industrial development purposes to two California trailer manufacturing companies.

The land being leased was formerly surplus Federal property and has just recently been turned over to the Umatilla tribes by the General Services Administration under a law enacted by Congress in 1957. It will be used as the location for new trailer manufacturing or assembly plants that will provide jobs for Indian workers.

The actual lessees are two brothers, Robert and William Schultz, and their wives. They are the owners of R. S. Engineering and Manufacturing Company, Los Angeles, Calif., and S. and S. Steel Products Corporation, Compton, Calif. Both are trailer manufacturing companies.

The lease will run for five years with an option for two additional terms of five years each. First preference in employment will be given to enrolled members of the Umatilla Tribes and second preference to other qualified Indian workers.

The Schultz brothers have indicated that they will employ “approximately 20 production workers as soon as the buildings are ready, and will increase the production workers as rapidly as business conditions will permit." They have also agreed to provide Indians with on-the-job training that will equip them for employment in the plants.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs played a part in facilitating negotiation of the lease in line with its broad objective of developing job opportunities for Indian people on or near the reservations.

The Bureau's Branch of Industrial Development works toward this objective in conjunction with Indian tribes, local community organizations, and State industrial development or planning groups.

The Department of the Interior today announced completion of a trust agreement under which the United States National Bank of Portland, Oregon, replaces the Bureau of Indian Affairs as trustee for the tribal property of the remaining members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon.

Under terms of the agreement, the Indian Bureau’s Area Office in Portland, yesterday (March 3) conveyed to the Bank deeds for a total of approximately 140,000 acres of land together with $737,608.61 of tribal funds. The major portion of the tribal land is forested and will be managed by the Bank in accordance with sustained yield principles under a plan previously approved by the Department.

The Bank also took over full authority and responsibility formerly vested in the Secretary of the Interior in connection with timber contracts and grazing permits on the tribal lands which have not yet expired.

A roll of the 473 remaining members of the Tribe was turned over to the Bank along with the other documents on March 3.

In addition, the Bank has taken over responsibility for deciding on a request which the remaining tribal members have recently made for a $600 per capita payment from their available funds. Because the request was made at a time when negotiations with the Bank were well along toward completion, no action was taken on it by the Department prior to final execution of the trust agreement.

The 130,000 man-days of recreational fishing which a fishery management program provided to visitors alone on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Ariz., in 1958 is creating considerable interest in similar programs on other Indian reservations, especially in the West, the Department of the Interior reports.

The successful recreational enterprise program on Fort Apache was based upon fishery management spearheaded by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Similar programs have been in effect in other areas--the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and on other reservations--for a number of years.

Sport fishing programs are just getting underway on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah, with its 23 miles of trout streams; on the Navajo Reservation which is in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, with its 4 trout lakes, 30 warm water lakes and 32 miles of streams; on the Yakima and Colville Reservations in Washington, and on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina.

Providing such assistance to Federal agencies and institutions is part of the over-all responsibility of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Programs are in effect in other areas and on Federal lands other than those on Indian reservations.

Very little has been done in the past on the development of the fishery potentials on Indian lands. State Departments of Fish and Game have not been able to service the Indians in most instances since State fishing licenses are not required of the Indians and no protection was afforded the fish.

As a result of the assistance and encouragement provided by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indians are realizing the value of their sport fishery resources as a means of recreation and food and revenue.

Some of the tribes in the Southwest don’t eat fish to any great degree but the younger Indians are eager for them, both for the fun of catching them and as a highly desirable food. There are practically 53 million acres of Indian land in the United States exclusive of Alaska and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife is giving limited advice and services on reservations occupying about 16 million acres.

The task of the Bureau at Fort Apache has been to supply the fish and the "know how" - help develop plans, conduct field surveys and layout development programs. The Apache tribe carried on from there. The Indians have assisted in making counts of fishermen, in the actual stocking of the fish, in providing the wardens or investigative force and in the development of picnic areas and campgrounds especially for fishermen. They have developed new ponds and protected streams against erosion and overgrazing in some instances.

The Indians benefitted by having better fishing and by adding to their tribal funds through the sale of permits to those who fished in the waters on the Reservation. The sale of supplies and food and rental of overnight accommodations adds to the revenue.

Fish for the Fort Apache program was furnished by the Bureau's McNary, Arizona, Fish Cultural station. About 40,000 pounds, or about 250,000 catchable sized fish, were planted on the project. This represents slightly more than half of the 1958 output from the McNary hatchery. The balance of the production was allotted to the state.

When the fishing potential on that Reservation is completely developed, there will be 11 trout lakes having 374 surface acres, three warm-water lakes with 155 surface acres and 320 miles of streams.

Potentials on other Indian reservations, some of which are developed, but most of which are not, include:

• Wind River, Wyoming: 300 trout lakes, 4,000 surface acres, and 1,200 miles of streams.
• San Carlos, Arizona: 45 miles of streams.
• United Pueblo Tribes, New Mexico: 16 trout lakes, 76 surface acres, and 35 miles of streams.
• Mescalero Apache, New Mexico: 12 miles of streams.
• Jicarilla Apache, New Mexico: one trout lake, 35 surface acres, some warm water lands and reservoirs.
• Ute Mountain, Colorado and New Mexico: three trout lakes, six surface acres; four warm water lakes and 11 surface acres.