OPA

The Department of the Interior today announced the completion of negotiations between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Harn Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio, for the establishment of a quilting plant that will provide employment for Indian workers on the Standing Rock Reservation at McLaughlin, South Dakota.

Under terms of the agreement between tribal and company officials, the Tribe will construct a factory with 25,000 square feet of floor space on tribal land in McLaughlin at a total cost of $200,000. The building will be leased to the Harn Corporation for 25 years with a renewal option. The target date for initial operations has been set for January 1, 1961.

The contract between Tribe and Company provides that preference in employment will be given to qualified members of the Tribe. It is expected that the company will employ an initial work force of from 25 to 30 workers, and this number will be expanded as demand warrants it.

The local community of McLaughlin is making the project a joint tribal community effort by pledging to underwrite an unannounced portion of the total cost of the new plant.

The new plant will be similar to the Harn plant already in operation on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, and is another outgrowth of the Indian Bureau's nationwide industrial development program to encourage the establishment of job-providing industrial plants on or near the reservations.

The Cherokee plant has just completed its first year and already has nearly 100 Indian employees on the payroll. An additional 50 employees are expected to be added within the next few weeks. The plant was constructed by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians at a cost of approximately $300,000 and leased to the Harn Corporation for 25 years, with a 25-year renewal option. It was opened in October 1959.

Award of a $44,965.83 contract for construction of reinforced concrete box culverts on Oaks-Teresita road in Cherokee and Delaware Counties, Oklahoma, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

When completed, the project will provide an all-weather road which will be an important link in the highway system the Bureau of Indian Affairs is constructing to promote Indian economic advancement under Jurisdiction of the Muskogee Area Office. It will serve as a school bus route, both to grade school and high school in Oaks, and to grade school in Teresita, and as a mail and farm-to-market road to Indians and others in the area.

Successful bidder for the contract was Frank Newell and Son of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Five other bids ranging from $46,857.47 to $64,441.68 were received.

Award of five school-access road construction contracts totaling nearly half a million dollars on Indian reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

In North Dakota, Delzer Construction Company of Selby, South Dakota, received an $85,652.74 contract for 11.2 miles of road in the western section of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Sioux County. The road will be improved to meet adequate standards for all-weather travel needs, and will comprise a section of a bus route for transportation of children to the Becker Day School. Upon completion of the road, the responsibility for its maintenance will be taken over by Sioux County.

Also slated for improvement to meet travel needs of reservation residents for farm-to-market travel, school bus transportation, and mail routes, are 3.1 miles of the Martin Lake Road on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, 1.8 miles of the Crow Hill Road, and 3.2 miles of the East-West Road on the Fort Totten Indian Reservation, all in North Dakota. Archie Campbell and Joe Mayo &Son, a partnership of New Rockford, North Dakota, submitted the successful low bid of $117,034.37.

On the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota, a $107,132.33 contract for 11.5 miles of road was awarded to Bober Construction Company, Minot, North Dakota. The project begins at Lost Bridge on the Little Missouri River and runs northerly to a junction with the road to Mandaree where a day school and subagency headquarters are maintained for the section of the reservation lying west of the Missouri River. The road under this contract is on the route from Dickinson to New Town, and to the Tioga oil fields.

In South Dakota, a $105,796.84 school-access contract on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation to provide an all-weather road from U. S. Highway 212, near Red Elm, north to the Iron Lightning Indian community and Indian Day School in the Moreau River Valley was awarded to Roy Kindt of Winner, South Dakota. The contract calls for the grading, draining, and crushed-gravel surfacing of 9.4 miles of road, Ziebach County and Red Elm Township have agreed to take over maintenance responsibility for this road upon completion of its improvement by the Indian Bureau.

An $80,595.21 contract for eight miles of the Cedar Creek Road on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in Stanley County; South Dakota was awarded to Johnson Brothers, Inc., of Pierre, South Dakota. The work is a part of the improvement of some 43 miles of the Cedar Creek Road, extending from the Lower Brule community, north of Reliance, South Dakota, to a connection in the northwest corner of the reservation to a Lyman County road leading to U. S. Route No. 83 and on to Pierre, South Dakota. Besides benefiting mail delivery, farm and ranching operations, and education of Indian children in a large area along the south side of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley Counties, this road will also have recreational value. Eventually it will provide access to most of the south shoreline of the impounded lake that will be created when the Big Bend Dam across the Missouri River is completed.

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a contract for construction of 10.056 miles of roadway from Betatakin Turnoff to Marsh Pass on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona.

This section of road is part of Navajo Route 1, for which authorizing legislation was provided by Public Law 85-740 enacted in 1958.

Completion of this 10.056 mile addition to the Indian Bureau's extensive road construction program on the Navajo Reservation will provide a total of approximately 70 miles of paved highway from U. S. 89 north of Flagstaff, extending northeast through Tuba City toward Kayenta.

Construction of Navajo Route 1 has aroused wide interest because of the rapid development of the Four Corners oil field to the northeast and the fact that the northern part of the Reservation and State of Arizona had no improved highway. When complete, this route will be a short cut from southwestern Colorado to the Grand Canyon, the West Coast and the entire northern part of the Navajo Reservation.

C & R Paving Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico was the successful bidder, with a low bid of $590,818.88. Nine other bids were submitted, ranging to a high of $843,519.37.

The Department of the Interior today (December 9) invited leasing and development proposals on a 3440·-acre tract of undeveloped Indian land in Nevada with a shore frontage of 6.4 miles on Pyramid Lake, an inland body of deep-blue fresh water in a desert-mountain setting.

The tract being offered is on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation about 33 miles north of Reno and offers excellent possibilities for business, recreational or residential development.

About 30 miles long and 12 miles across at the widest point, Pyramid Lake is the largest body of fresh water in Nevada and one of the biggest in the West. It is situated roughly 3,800 feet above sea level and is surrounded by mountains that rise to nearly 8,000 feet. Much of the shoreline particularly in the area being offered for lease, consists of sandy beaches.

The lake is well stocked with cutthroat and rainbow trout as well as Sacramento perch and is famous for its cui-ui, a prehistoric fish found nowhere else in the world. Boating has become popular in recent years.

The lease is to be for 25 years with an option for 25-year renewal.

Interested parties are invited to write the Superintendent, Nevada Indian Agency, Stewart, 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 must be not less than $50,000 and 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 such as hotels, motels, apartment buildings and trailer or mobile home tracts and food and service enterprises.

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., March 9, 1961. Each bid must be accompanied by a cashier is 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, 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,

Award of a $1,600,000 contract for construction of a new school building and two dormitories on the campus of the Haskell Indian Institute at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The school building will contain twelve standard classrooms, two science rooms, an audio-visual room and a library and general administration unit. One dormitory will provide facilities for 400 boys; the other for 256 girls. Both dormitories will be two-story reinforced concrete, steel and brick construction; the school building will be one-story reinforced concrete, steel, brick and structural glazed tile construction. These buildings, when complete) will replace outmoded school and dormitory structures.

Haskell Institute is a vocational training school for approximately 1,000 Indian boys and girls in high school and post-high school grades from all parts of the United States.

The successful bidder was Harmon Construction Company, of Oklahoma City, Okla. seven higher bids were received, ranging from $1,685,000 to $1,990,000.

Award of three contracts totaling $1,024,915.10 for road improvement work on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and in Utah near the "Four Corners" area, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The "Four Corners" contract is for the construction of a 574-footsteel and concrete bridge across the San Juan River near Montezuma Creek in southeastern Utah. The bridge will provide a much needed crossing on the San Juan River in the “Four Corners" oil development region. With present facilities it is necessary to travel approximately 150 miles to get from one side of the river to the other. Gardner Construction Company of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, submitted the low and successful bid of $317,175.

A second contract is for construction of a school-access bridge and road section running north from Kayenta Arizona, in the north-central portion of the reservation. The 2.8-mile section, joining a 19-mile road now under contract, will serve an isolated trading center on the reservation where school facilities for approximately 500 children are being developed and maintained. The nearest developed highway providing near direct access is via Tuba City, Arizona, a distance of 75 miles. Successful bidder was Allison & Haney of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the low bid of $289,965.10.

The third contract, involving construction of 13.8 miles of road on Navajo Route 8, will provide an improved road from U. S. 666 to Chinle and Many Farms, Arizona. Chinle is at the gateway to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument. Navajo Route 8 leads into a vast central portion of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, an area of more than 2,500 square miles in which there are no existing improved roads. Successful bidder was the Northwestern Engineering Company of Denver, Colorado, with a low bid of $417,775.

When the last triennial conference of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers was held here at Estes Park back in 1955, it was a matter of real regret to me that I was unable to be with you in person. Those of you who attended that conference may recall that I had to be in Alaska at that particular time and that my speech was delivered for me by Assistant Commissioner Reid. This year I have been somewhat more fortunate in the scheduling of my time and I have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to be here and to sit in--although somewhat briefly--on your sessions and deliberations.

In the time you have given me here this evening I would like to present for the most part a kind of progress report. My thought is to hark back to some of the major points touched on in my 1955 speech and try to bring them up to date. Then I also want to present my personal views on why we have a so-called "Indian problem" in the United States today and how you people can help in bringing about a long-range solution. Thirdly and lastly, I plan to take just a brief look at the period ahead in Indian affairs.

Needless to say, I am not expecting any of you here this evening to remember the details of what I had to say in a speech delivered on my behalf before this organization three years ago. I have difficulty enough in remembering my own speeches over a period of three years. So I am fully prepared, after having checked back on the 1955 text, to refresh both your memories and my own.

One of the points I touched on quite early in the speech of three years ago was the question of Indian health. As it happened, the transfer of our Indian Bureau health program over to the United States Public Health Service was consummated on July 1, 1955, just 10 days before the date of my speech. So I naturally had quite a bit to say about this transfer and why we in the Bureau had felt it would be desirable and beneficial to the Indian people. I expressed confidence that the Indian health picture was “more deeply encouraging than ever before in the long history of our efforts to deal with this basic problem.”

In the light of all this, it is interesting, now in the summer of 1958, to review some of the highlights of progress in the Indian health program. Since the transfer took place, the appropriations for the program including construction~ have been substantially increased and are now nearly twice as large as they were in the fiscal year 1955. The number of doctors working on the program has been nearly doubled; the number of public health nurses has increased by one-third; and the health education and sanitation staffs have been significantly enlarged. Even more important perhaps, these increases in funds and personnel have begun to produce measurable results in the health of Indian people.

Take tuberculosis, for example, which was for so many years the Number One killer among the Indian population, Since the 1955 transfer the number of new cases among Indians in the continental United States has dropped by 30 percent and the Indian tuberculosis death rate has been reduced by approximately one fourth. The list of tuberculosis patients waiting for hospitalization, which numbered in the hundreds three years ago, has now been eliminated entirely. Beds are available for all. During this same period the death rate from gastro enteric diseases--one of our real Indian problems, as you probably know--has been cut approximately in half, from 50.4 to 26.5 per 100,000population, and the crucially important infant death rate has dropped by 17 percent.

These facts and figures and others like them that could additionally be cited do not mean, of course, that all Indian health problems have been solved and that nothing more remains to be done. Far from it. But they do represent an impressive measure of progress that has been achieved over the past three years and I am frank to say that the benefits accomplished in this period for the Indian people have exceeded even my most optimistic expectations. The only real grounds for regret we now have, as I see it, would be that this responsibility was not transferred to the Public Health Service some 10 or 20 years ago.

Another topic of major importance which I discussed in my 1955 speech was the need to provide the Indian people with broader and more adequate educational opportunities. At that time, as some of you may recall, we were focusing primary attention on the Navajo Reservation because of the tremendous problem in shortage of school facilities which had developed there as a kind of chronic situation. In my speech at Estes Park I pointed out that in June of 1953 "there were only about 14,000 Navajo children enrolled in school out of a school-age population of approximately 28,000" and that "almost exactly half of the rising generation was being condemned to illiteracy" under these conditions. Then I went on to describe the special emergency program that we had developed to enlarge the school opportunities and reported that the total enrollment of Navajo children in schools of all kinds had been increased from 14,000 in 1953 to approximately 23,000 in the spring of 1955.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced approval of two agreements between the Navajo Indian Tribe and the Arizona Public S8rvice Company which provide for large-scale development and sale of electric power on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

One of the agreements is a lease of tribal land on the San Juan River across from Fruitland, New Mexico, to the company as a site for the construction of steam generating facilities, a reservoir for cooling purposes, and other facilities. Two units of 175,000 kilowatts each are planned immediately and later expansion is contemplated.

The first two units, together with transmission lines and other related facilities, are expected to cost approximately $100,000,000. Ultimate cost of the total development may run as high as $180,000,000.

The lease is for 25 years with an option to renew for as long as authorized by law.

The second agreement covers the delivery of power by the Company to the Tribe at wholesale rates. The Tribe has plans for distributing this power to its individual members and other persons residing on the reservation.

Both the agreements approved today are closely tied in with a 1957 contract between the Navajo Tribe and the Utah Construction Company which covers the mining of coal in an area of approximately 24,000 acres of tribal land. Under a recent supplement to this lease the company is obligated to mine a minimum tonnage of coal each year or pay the Tribe a royalty for this tonnage. The minimum is 800,000 tons annually for each of the years from 1963 through 1967; 1,500,000 tons for each year from 1968 through 1974; and 2,500,000 tons per year thereafter. The royalty is 15 cents per ton.

Utah Construction Company and Arizona Public Service Company have already altered into an agreement under which Utah will sell the coal mined from the Navajo lands to Arizona as fuel for the steam generating plants.

“The Navajo Tribe," Secretary Seaton said, "will receive large and far-reaching benefits from these agreements. First, the agreements provide the Tribe with a market for immense deposits of subbituminous coal which might not otherwise be marketable. Secondly, these contracts open the door for electrification of Navajo homes, development of new industries and other economic enterprises and vast future improvements in the living standards of the Navajo people."

Under the lease contract for the generating plant site and cooling reservoir, the Company will pay the Tribe a rental of $1,115,000 over the 25-year period in annual installments of $44,600.

Award of three contracts totaling $152,508 on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona, and the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, for water drilling and water-storage development facilities was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Water development at the contract locations is necessary to sustain present schools and facilities and to determine feasibility of additional school facilities planned at these locations.

At Tuba City--approximately seventy miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona--the Tuba City Sub-Agency, boarding school, and Public Health Service Hospital will benefit from the construction of a 250,000 -gallon elevated water-storage tank. The new facilities will be adequate for a population of 2,500. The Bureau of Indian Affairs anticipates the population will reach approximately this number if school facilities materialize as planned. Demolition of the existing tank and the connecting of existing water mains to the new storage facility are also included in the contract. The $62,880 contract was awarded to the Chicago Bridge &Iron Company, of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Under a $66,823 contract, Cowley Brothers, of Saint Johns, Arizona, will carry out water exploration and development at or in the vicinity of the following locations:

Lukachukai, Arizona, approximately 70 miles north of Window Rock, Arizona;

Keams Canyon, Arizona, approximately 70.miles north of Holbrook, Arizona;

Polacca, Arizona, approximately 13 miles west of Keams Canyon, Arizona;

Oraibi, Arizona, approximately 33 miles west of Keams Canyon, Arizona;

White Horse Lake, New Mexico, approximately 25 miles east of Crownpoint, New Mexico; and

Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico, approximately 40 miles northeast of Crownpoint, New Mexico.

B &W Drilling Company, of Borger, Texas, was the successful bidder with a low bid of $22,805 for a water-drilling and development contract at Crownpoint, New Mexico, approximately 50 miles northeast of Gallup, New Mexico.

The water-drilling and development contracts provide for wells at specified depths ranging from 250 feet to 2,300 feet.