OPA

Award of a $393,202 contract for the construction of about nine miles of highway on Navajo Route 1 in northern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The section of road begins at Tuba City, Arizona 1 and extends northeast past the Rare Metals Uranium Mill, towards Kayenta, in the northern part of the Navajo Reservation.

This nine-mile section is the first project on Navajo Route 1 to be constructed or immediate takeover by the State of Arizona after the Bureau of Indian Affairs contract is complete.

Funds for the improvement of Navajo Routes 1 and 3 were authorized under legislation passed by Congress late in the 1958 session.

Extensive interest has been generated throughout the Southwest for the improvement of this important road which crosses the Navajo Reservation and northern Arizona. The rapidly growing Four Corners oil development now borders the route to the north. Indications are that the development area will eventually spread to the south of the highway.

The low bid was submitted by C. R. Davis Contracting Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Four other bids were submitted, ranging from $395,670 to $545,850.

Under Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced approval of Federal regulations governing the enrollment of members of the Rincon, San Luiseno Band of Mission Indians of California. Adoption of such regulations was requested by the band.

Under the regulations, which will be published shortly in the Federal Register, anyone who believes that he or a minor or incompetent should be enrolled is given a period of 90 days after publication to file an application with the Area Field Representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Riverside, California.

The regulations provide that the membership roll shall include persons alive on July 21, 1957, who were not enrolled with any other Indian tribe or band and who fall in one of the following four categories:

(1) Indians whose names appear as members of the band on the census roll,

(2) Indians who have received allotments on the Rincon Reservations,

(3) persons descended from Indians in category

(1) and having one-eighth or more San Luiseno Indian blood, and

(4) persons descended from Indians in category

(2) and having one-eighth or more San Luiseno Indian blood.

A notice of intention to adopt these membership regulations was published in the Federal Register on February 14, 1959. In the following 30-day period a number of suggestions for amendment were received and these have been incorporated in the regulations as finally approved.

Full details on the procedure to be followed will be included in the forthcoming Federal Register publication.

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 310,000 acres on four Indian reservation areas in three States.

The lands that would be affected are the Columbia-San Poil Divide Area of 155,000 acres on the Colville Reservation in Washington, the Mission Range Area of 125,000 acres on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, and the Fort Charlotte Area of 19,000 acres and the Grand Portage Area of 11,000 acres on the Grand Portage Reservation in Minnesota.

The first two were designated as “roadless" areas and the latter two as "wild' areas by administrative action of the Department during the 1930's without consulting the Indians. All four areas consist not of Federal land but of tribally owned property held in trust by the United States. However, about 700 acres of the land on the Grand Portage Reservation is scheduled to be set aside in the near future as the Grand Portage National Monument under legislation enacted last year with the full concurrence of the Indians.

All of the tribal groups involved have requested removal of the restrictions to facilitate economic development of the areas.

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 of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation that would add nearly 350,000 acres to the land holdings of 18 Indian tribes or communities in 9 States, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

All of the lands affected are located within or adjacent to Indian reservations. All were bought by the Federal Government as “sub marginal lands” during the 1930's to retire them from private ownership and correct maladjustments in their use. Nearly all have been used by the Indians for upwards of 20 years. Under present law, however, the full legal and equitable title is in the United States.

The total original cost of these lands to the Government was over $1,600,000. The present-day value, although not definitely known, is undoubtedly many times this figure.

“These sub marginal lands,” Mr. Ernst said, “are needed by the Indians in order to obtain maximum utilization of their tribal lands and in order to augment their other income. If the lands are not turned over to the Indians, proper utilization will not be possible and the loss of the 'use of such lands would seriously affect the economic standards of· many Indians. If the title is transferred to the Indians, further consolidation into acceptable ranch units for grazing purposes will be possible.”

Because some of the sub marginal lands are in the taking areas of the Fort Randall, Oahe and Big Bend Reservoirs on the Missouri River and will continue to be needed for this purpose, the proposed bill exempts these lands, totaling nearly 3,000 acres, from its provisions. The proposal also reserves to .the Government the right to continue using for military purposes about 6,400 acres of sub marginal land embraced within the Ellsworth Air Force Range on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Under a 1947 law all receipts from mineral leasing of the sub marginal lands have been deposited in a special fund of the U. S. Treasury pending final congressional action. The fund now amounts to $844,928.33. Under the Department's proposal, all monies accumulated in the special fund prior to enactment would be retained by the United States. Future income from mineral leasing, however, would be the property of the respective tribes.

The Department made no specific recommendations whether the lands should be conveyed to the Indian groups in fee simple title or Federal trust status. Either alternative, Mr. Ernst said, would be acceptable to the Department.

The following tabulation shows the sub marginal land projects proposed for transfer, the reservations affected, the acreages involved, and the original cost of the lands.

1. Includes 650.09 acres located within the Oahe Dam and Reservoir Project authorized under acts of December 22, 1944 (58 Stat. 887, 891) and September 2, 1958 (72 Stat. 1762).

2. Includes 495 acres located within the Fort Randall Dam and Reservoir project.

3. Includes 294 acres located within the Fort Randall Dam and Reservoir project.

4. Includes 1509 acres located within the Oahe Dam and Reservoir project.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation that would adjust Indian and non-Indian land use on some 266,000 acres near the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New Mexico, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

Jurisdictions of three Federal agencies--the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, and the United States Forest Service--are involved in the proposal. The basic aim is to eliminate the present confusing and intermingled pattern of jurisdiction in the area and to promote more effective land use and better conservation practices.

The proposal calls for transferring to the Navajo Tribe, in Federal trust, approximately 100,000 acres of public domain, about 3,000 acres of National Forest land, nearly 61,000 acres of sub marginal lands purchased in the 1930's that have been administered for the benefit of the Tribe, and some 80,000 acres of reconvened railroad grant lands that are being administered for the Tribe's benefit under a 1939 Secretarial order pending the enactment of legislation.

In addition, some 17,000 acres held in trust for the Navajo Tribe and about 5,000 acres of sub marginal land administered for its benefit would be transferred to the public domain and approximately 2,000 acres of the sub marginal land would be transferred to the Cibola National Forest.

The minerals in the tribal lands that would be added to the public domain and in the Federal lands transferred to the Tribe would be excluded from the transfers.

This legislative proposal was prepared with the active collaboration of the Navajo Tribe, and it has the Tribe's support.

Enactment of the proposed bill, Mr. Ernst pointed out, will not result in dispossession of any present users of the area. Although some non-Indians are in the area to be consolidated for use by the Navajo Indians, substantially all of the grazing resources of the area are now in Navajo use.

Award of a $1,176,800 contract for construction at the Wingate School at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, to provide facilities that will increase the school's capacity by about 325 Indian students, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project will greatly expand the Indian Bureau's existing boarding school plant at Fort Wingate, and will include replacement of a dormitory which has been found unsafe for further use. It involves the construction of a school building containing 17 classrooms, construction of three new dormitories and rehabilitation of a fourth, and the remodeling of a kitchen and dining room and student recreation room.

For several months the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been stepping up its school construction program with the aim of providing classroom space for all Indian school-age children who are not already enrolled in public or mission schools.

This project at Fort Wingate, one of the historic outposts of the 19th century Southwest, will make the increase in enrollment possible especially at the high school level during the coming school year.

Necessary rehabilitation work to enlarge and improve kitchen and dining facili­ties and to repair the existing dormitory will be carried out first under the contract. Then construction will begin immediately on the new facilities so that the entire program will be completed and in full operation by December 1.

The new dormitories and classroom building will be of single-story construction.

The successful bidder was George A. Rutherford, Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico. Four higher bids were received ranging from $1,189,691 to $1,333,280.

A change in Federal regulations that will permit the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make loans to withdrawing members of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon regardless of their degree of Indian blood was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Under the former rules, loans could not be made to individuals of less than a quarter degree Indian blood.

The amendment of the regulation was made possible as a result of legislation recommended by the Department and recently enacted by Congress (Public Law 86-40).

The Bureau has been making loans to withdrawing Klamath members of one-fourth or more Indian blood since last December. The loans have been made without interest and have been set off against funds payable to the borrowers under the Klamath Termination Act. Sales of tribal forest lands to compensate the withdrawing members are being made over a two-year period which began last April.

Of the 1,659 withdrawing members of the Klamath Tribe, 253 or about 15 percent are of less than one-fourth Indian blood and in position to benefit from the rules change.

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of three contracts totaling $887,704 for road and bridge construction on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico.

The largest contract, for $366,431, involves the grading, drainage and bituminous surfacing of 4.1 miles of Navajo Route 1 running west from the Arizona-New Mexico State line.

This section is immediately south of the famous Four Corners oil field development and is at the extreme eastern end of the unimproved portion of Navajo Route 1. A 22-mile connecting section of the road in New Mexico was previously graded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and surfaced by the State.

The road is important as a link from southwestern Colorado through the Navajo country to the Grand Canyon and west. A growing volume of traffic is expected to use it as the Four Corners oil field is further developed and moves into northern Arizona.

Longenbaugh and Coe, Inc., of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was the .successful bidder. Four other bids were received ranging from $393,669 to $494,499.

A second contract, in the amount of $348,301, is for widening and surfacing 9.6 miles of Navajo Route 3 running west from the New Mexico State line near Window Rock, Arizona, the location of the Tribal and Federal Government offices for the Navajo Reservation.

The two improvements on Navajo Routes 1 and 3 were made possible through special legislation enacted by Congress in 1958.

James Hamilton Construction Company of Grants, New Mexico, was the successful bidder on the Route 3 contract. Four other bids were submitted ranging from $398,942 to $445,703.

The third contract, for $172,972, covers the construction of a 434-foot, 9-span steel and concrete bridge across the San Juan River at Farmington, New Mexico.

This structure replaces an obsolete steel truss bridge which now spans the San Juan River at Farmington but will carry only the lightest loads. Traffic bound for the Bisti oil field, lying south of the river, has for some time avoided using the present bridge. Completion of the new structure will provide the first link in the construction of a highway from Farmington through Bisti to a connection with New Mexico 56 at Crownpoint. This routing will also service Chaco National Monument.

Award of the contract represents the culmination of negotiations carried on over a period of several months. As a result of these negotiations, the Navajo Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs entered into an agreement with several oil companies, San Juan County, and the city of Farmington under which these latter parties pledged to furnish about half the funds that were expected to be needed for financing the structure, including the connecting approach with the city of Farmington. The State Highway Department and the El Paso Natural Gas Company will participate jointly in building a road from the bridge’s south approach to the Bisti field.

The low bid was submitted by M. C. Jacobs Construction Company of Denver, Colorado. Six other bids were received ranging from $177,837 to $228,295.

A $178,907.28 contract for construction of two bridges on Navajo Route 1 in New Mexico was awarded today by the Department of the Interior.

These bridges in San Juan County will replace two timber structures that no longer will carry the heavy traffic which the oil and mining operations in northern Arizona and southeastern Utah have generated.

One 2-span pre-stressed concrete box-girder bridge will be constructed across Rattlesnake Wash west of Shiprock, New Mexico, and one 6-spansteel-girder bridge with a concrete deck will cross the Red Rock Wash.

Funds will be provided from money appropriated for the improvement of Navajo-Hopi Routes 1 and 3.

These structures will carry the heavy traffic from State and Federal routes and traffic originating in the oil fields of Utah, as well as local and anticipated tourist traffic.

The Reeder Construction Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was the lowest of 8 bids received, the higher bids ranging from $179,294.47 to $238,409.59.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the third set of awards which are being made "in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

These awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, are being presented today in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Recipients, and the categories for which they on, include:

1. The Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, of Asheville, North Carolina-- Nonprofit organizations.
2. Mrs. Lottie Stamper, Cherokee, North Carolina--Indian craftsmen.
3. Allen H. Eaton, Crestwood, New York--Collectors or patrons of Indian Arts and Crafts.

Erich Kohlberg, a member of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, is making the presentation of awards today. The basis for selection of winners is the longstanding services over and above the normal activities of the recipients in each classification.

The Chairman of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board is Rene d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Other members of the Board, all serving without compensation and under appointment by the Secretary of the Interior, are:

Frederick J. Dockstader, Assistant Director, Museum of the American Indian, New York City; Vincent Price, actor and collector of Indian art, Los Angeles; and Mr. Kohlberg, dealer in Indian crafts, Denver, Colorado.