OPA

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation exempting from Federal and State income tax the payments of more than $26,000,000 which the Government has made to four Pacific Northwest Indian tribes to compensate them for the loss of their fishing rights at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River.

The tribes involved are the Yakima of Washington, the Warm Springs and Umatilla of Oregon, and the Nez Perce of Idaho.

Construction of The Dalles Dam by the Corps of Engineers on the Columbia River resulted in flooding of the Celilo Falls where members of the four tribes have fished for many years. Their rights to fish there were embodied in a treaty consummated between the United States and the Indians over 100 years ago. Under legislation enacted in 1953, agreements were worked out with the four tribal groups and payments deposited to their credit in the United States Treasury.

On the basis of comparative populations, the Yakimas received $15,019,640.00, the Warm Springs tribes $4,451,784.26, the Umatilla $4,616,971.06, and the Nez Perce $2,500,000.

The tribes intend to divide these funds among their members and make them available for use in accordance with plans approved by the Department of the Interior. While the Internal Revenue Service has regarded the funds as nontaxable in the hands of the tribes, it has taken the position that they will be taxable as capital gains upon distribution to the individual members.

In submitting its proposal, the Department of the Interior pointed out that it has been the practice of Congress, when authorizing distributions of tribal funds, to make the individual shares tax-exempt. This has been particularly true, the Department added, when the funds represent, as they do here, the value of a capital asset taken from the tribe by Federal action.

The Department's proposal would make the Celilo Falls payments tax-exempt both when in the hands of the tribes and when divided among the individual members.

The Department of the Interior announced today it has submitted to Congress two legislative requests providing for distribution of judgment funds resulting from awards by the Indian Claims Commission to three Indian groups.

The groups affected are the Quapaws of Oklahoma with a fund of about $820,000; the Citizen Band of Potawatomis of Oklahoma with a fund of $168,735.40 plus accrued interest; and the Prairie Band of Potawatomie of Kansas with a fund of $79,624.86 plus accrued interest. The last two groups are covered by one proposal.

All of the funds were awarded to the Indians in satisfaction of claims against the United States which they prosecuted before the Indian Claims Commission. Most of the claims were based on land transactions that took place in the 19th century. All of the funds are now on deposit in the United States Treasury and drawing interest at four percent.

Award of a $67,275 contract for construction of three bridges on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Dewey County, South Dakota, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract involves construction of concrete deck bridges over Beaver Creek, No Mouth Creek, and Swift Bird Creek on a road presently under construction from U. S. Highway 212 northwesterly to Promise to replace an existing road which will be flooded by the Oahe Reservoir. This replacement road on which the bridge construction will take place will directly serve 30 Indian families who have relocated from the Oahe reservoir area. It will also be used for school bus travel and by residents of the eastern part of the Cheyenne River Reservation for travel to Mobridge and other communities north of the reservation.

The successful bidder was Dahl and Hollaway Contractors of Brookings, South Dakota. Six other bids were received ranging from $69,000 to $99,000.

The Department of the Interior today announced two actions looking toward a greater equalization in the value of extremely valuable individual Indian land holdings on the Agua Caliente Reservation at Palm Springs, California.

One was the recent submission to Congress of a report favoring the enactment, with amendments, of H.R. 5557, a bill that deals with the equalization problem.

The second action taken was the adoption in final form of a set of administrative instructions for equalization. These were published as a proposal in the Federal Repository last January 23.

The widely varying values of the lands allotted to individual members of the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians have been the subject of litigation extending back over a period of many years. Under a 1956 court order the Department is required to formulate and carry out a program of allotting additional lands from the common tribal holdings in a way that will equalize the value of the individual allotments to the fullest feasible extent. In view of the high values of the Indian lands within the city of Palm Springs, very substantial sums of money are involved.

H. R. 5557, the bill recommended by the Department for enactment, would confine the equalization to living members of the tribe and base it on 1957 and 1958 appraisals of the property valuations. The bill would remove the present legal limitation of 160 acres on allotments to individuals, would exclude certain specified tribal lands from the equalization process, and would require allotment of the remaining tribal lands so as to achieve the highest feasible level of equalization.

Under the bill the site of the Palm Springs Airport would be included in the allotment plan. The city, however, would be given a limited time in which to buy the site at its appraised value. If the city exercises this option, any Indians o have chosen allotments in the airport would receive proportionate shares of one price paid by the city instead of land.

The bill also permits the tribe to form a State corporation or other legal entity for holding the reserved tribal lands and requires the Department to transfer such property to this entity on the request of a majority of the adult members.

The Department recommended two amendments to H. R. 5557. One would reduce the tribal reserve containing the mineral spring from an area of about eight acres as described in the bill to a tract of less than three acres immediately surrounding the spring. The spring itself has been described by tribal members as religiously significant to them.

The second amendment would give the Department discretion in transferring reserved tribal properties to a new legal entity instead of requiring such transfer on the petition of a majority. The purpose would be to assure that the legal entity is fairly organized and does not discriminate against a minority of the tribal members.

While reporting favorably on H. R. 5557, the Department also took steps to proceed immediately with its own plan of equalization in view of the uncertainties of the legislative process. The regulations adopted today provide for (1) the preparation of a map showing the areas of tribal land available for allotment, (2) the compilation of a list of tribal members entitled to participate in equalization in the order of their entitlement, (3) selection of land parcels by the eligible individuals in their order of preference in each group, and (4) the filing applications for the selected parcels with the Sacramento Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"The process of making allotment selection on the basis of the present law will begin shortly," the Department pointed out, "but we shall not approve the actual allotment schedule before summer, and if the pending legislation should be enacted during the first session of the 86th Congress the allotment procedure can be modified to comply with the new law."

The Palm Springs Reservation was originally established for the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians under a law enacted in 1891. Allotment of the land to individual members was begun in 1923. Because of various complications in legislation and litigation, however, the first allotment schedule was not formally approved by the Secretary of the Interior until 1949.

Under the allotment procedure used, each Band member has been entitled to 47 acres consisting of a two-acre town lot, five acres of irrigated land, and 40 acres of dry land. Although the allotments are thus all equal in acreage, they vary in appraised value today all the way from $74,500 to $629,000. So far 115 allotments have been made. This includes allotments to some members who have since died. Five of the recently born minors have not yet received allotments.

The present membership of the Band is 101 persons--33 adults and 68 minors. The remaining unallotted property, exclusive of the areas recommended for reserves, consists of 23,660 acres valued at approximately $12,800,000. On this basis it is estimated that an equalization value of about $350,000 can be achieved for approximately 80 persons now having the lower valued allotments.

Because H. R. 5557 would remove the 160-acres limitation on allotments, a greater degree of equalization will be possible under its provisions than can be accomplished administratively under existing law.

High bids totaling $866,695 have been received by the Uintah and Ouray Indian Tribe of Utah for oil and gas leases on 14 tracts of tribally owned land comprising nearly 31,000 acres, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The high bidder on all 14 of the tracts was Standard Oil Company of California.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has asked the Department's Geological Survey for technical recommendation prior to acceptance of the bids

Award of a contract for construction of two dormitories to house 512 Indian school children at Albuquerque, New Mexico was announced today by the Department of the Interior. The total cost or the structures will be $579,530.

The new one-story structures will be located on the grounds of the Albuquerque Indian School and will be ready for occupancy by the next school term. Each will contain over 31,000 square feet of floor space and will accommodate 256 pupils.

Some of these will attend the federally operated Albuquerque Indian School while others will probably be enrolled in the local public schools. All will be provided with food as well as lodging by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The successful bidder on the contract was Robert E. McKee, Inc., of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Seven higher bids were received ranging from $593,733 to $652,000.

Plans for a change in the Federal regulations to permit more extensive leasing of Indian lands for underground storage of oil and gas were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The proposal covers both tribally and individually owned lands in Federal trusteeship or restricted status and could include lands which are currently under oil and gas production lease as well as those which are not. Under present regulations storage leases have been possible only for lands not under lease for oil and gas development.

Rentals or storage fees to be paid the Indian owners would be established at a rate considered adequate in each individual case. Safety provisions would also be included, where necessary, in each of the storage leases.

Broadened authority to lease Indian lands for underground oil and gas storage was provided in a congressional enactment of August 1, 1956 (70 Stat. 774).

Interested parties are invited to submit their comments or suggestions to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington 25, D. C., within 30 days after publication of the proposed amendment in the Federal Register.

Award of a $663,330 contract for a major road construction project that will provide the final paved link on Route 3 across the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Route 3 is the connecting road between Highway 666 in New Mexico and Highway 89 in Arizona.

The contract is the first to be awarded under special legislation enacted last year which authorized appropriation of an additional $20,000,000 for road construction on the Navajo Reservation. This contract covers widening and paving 28.7 miles of Route 3 between Dinnebito Wash and Coal Mine Mesa.

The road will be built to State highway secondary standards specified by the Arizona Highway Department and will eventually be incorporated into the State system for maintenance.

The successful bidder was Northwestern Engineering Company of Denver, Colorado. Fourteen other bids were received ranging from $676,427 to $1,257,136.

The Department also indicated that surveys have been completed and bids will be invited in the near future by the Gallup (New Mexico) Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on portions of another road covered by the special authorizing legislation. This is Route 1 which will ultimately be a paved highway from Tuba City and Route 89 in Arizona through the oil-rich "four corners" area to Highway 666 near Shiprock, New Mexico.

Like Route 3, this will be improved with Federal funds to State highway standards and then taken over by the State of Arizona for maintenance.

The Department of the Interior today invited lease proposals on two tracts of undeveloped Indian land in Nevada with a total shore frontage of nearly 14 miles on Pyramid Lake, an inland body of deep-blue fresh water in a desert-mountain setting.

The lands are on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation about 33 miles north of Reno and offer excellent possibilities for business recreational or residential development.

One of the tracts comprises about 3,880 acres with a frontage of approximately seven miles on the southwest shore on Pyramid Lake. The other consists of approximately 31 200 acres and has about 6.4 miles of frontage on the southeast side of the Lake. They are to be leased separately and bidders interested in both must submit a separate bid for each.

The leases are to be for 25 years with an option for 25-year renewal.

Interested parties are invited to write the Superintendent, Nevada Indian Agency Stewart 1 Nevada. He will provide full details and a copy of the lease form that is to be used. Each bid must be accompanied by the following:

1. A preliminary planned schedule of general development. This is to include proposed annual development expenditures over the first five years of the lease term.

2. A proposal for the payment of a fixed annual ground rental. This is to be submitted as one amount for the entire area and not on a per-acre basis.

3. A proposal for the payment of a percentage of the gross income from commercial and recreational operations. Hotels, motels, apartment buildings and trailer or mobile home tracts should be included with commercial and recreational operations.

4. A proposal for the payment of minimum annual rental for residences apart from those specified in 3 above.

Bids will be received at the Nevada Indian Agency in Stewart until 2 p.m., PDT, June 26, 1959. Each bid must be accompanied by a cashier's check or certified check made payable to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the amount of the bidder's proposed ground rental for the first year.

The award will be made to the highest responsible bidder on each tract, rental and all other factors considered, provided the bid is reasonable and it is to the interest of the Pyramid Lake Indian Tribe, beneficial owner of the property and the United States, as trustee of the property, to accept it.

Offering of the Pyramid Lake lands for long-term leasing was made possible by the Act of August 9, 1955 (69 stat. 539) which authorized leasing of Indian lands for terms up to 25 years with a possibility of a 25-year renewal. Under previous law such leases were generally limited to a five-year term.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today said he will send a representative of his office to Kansas City, Kansas, to participate in a hearing to be held soon by the House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs on bills affecting the future status of the community's controversial Huron Cemetery. The date for the hearing ill be announced later.

Subcommittee Chairman James A. Haley, who will conduct the hearing, invited the Secretary to send a representative.

The 1.9-acre cemetery, located in the heart of Kansas City, is the property of the Wyandotte Indian Tribe of Oklahoma and has long been the subject of controversy. Under a 1956 law providing for termination of Federal trust supervision of Wyandotte tribal property on or before August 1, 1959, the Department may put the cemetery property up for sale if the tribe so wishes.

One of the bills to be considered at the forthcoming hearing would eliminate the Department's authority to sell the cemetery. Another would require the Department to investigate the advisability of establishing the cemetery as a national shrine or monument.

Lewis Sigler, Assistant Legislative Counsel, will represent the Department at the hearing.

Three years ago Secretary Seaton said that before approval of any' plan for sale of the cemetery, a hearing would be held at Kansas City so that interested historical groups might express their views. The Haley Subcommittee hearing, he said, will fulfill that promise.

August 1 has been set as a deadline for removal of Federal trust supervision the Wyandotte tribal property. Therefore, Secretary Seaton said steps are being taken, looking toward disposal of the tribal property in compliance with the provisions of existing law.

First of these steps is a poll by mail of the adult members of the Wyandotte Tribe to learn their wishes on the disposal of the tribal property.

In questionnaires that will be sent out shortly by the Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Muskogee, Oklahoma, each tribal member will be asked to express himself for or against three possible methods of disposition.

One would involve the transfer of the cemetery to a private trustee or cemetery association so that the property could be preserved intact. This would mean that the only income to be received by the tribal members would be that realized from sale of one small tract of tribal property located in Oklahoma.

Secondly all of the tribal property might be sold by sealed bids to the highest bidder regardless of proposed future use. This would require removing the bodies from the Huron Cemetery and the purchase of a new cemetery site. Such costs would be deducted from the proceeds of the sale and the net balance would be distributed equally among the members.

Under the third proposal, the members will be asked whether they would approve sale of the cemetery to a civic body or other legal entity at the appraised value less the cost for removing the bodies in the event such an offer should be received. Under this plan the net income from the sale would also be distributed equally among the members.

Before the referendum vote could be initiated, three important steps had to be taken.

One was the compilation of a final roll of the tribal members. This was recently completed and the roll consists of 1,154 individuals--697 adults and 457 minors.

Second was a survey of the Huron Cemetery by the Bureau of land Management. This revealed certain encroachments and unauthorized occupation of certain areas by the municipality and certain private parties.

Third was an appraisal of the cemetery based on the legal description. This was recently completed. The value of the site, with all graves removed, is estimated at $291,000.

Because no accurate records of burials have been kept, only a rough estimate can be made of the costs of reinterment. From the information on hand, the Department indicated that there may be between 800 and 1, 000 interments and the reinterment costs could conceivably be about $130,000. Allowing for the cost of a new site and a monument, this would mean that the share of each Wyandotte member would probably not exceed $130.

In addition to arranging for the referendum among the tribal members, the Muskogee Office of the Indian Bureau is also being directed to (a) start negotiations with the city of Kansas City, Kansas, and abutting property owners on the sale of the areas of encroachment, (b) invite sealed bids from all potential purchasers of the cemetery site, (c) secure contract proposals for removing and reinterring the bodies and for other items incident to such relocation including a suitable site for reinterment, and (d) advertise for sale and solicit sealed bids for the small tract of tribal property in Oklahoma.