OPA

INDIAN LAND TRUST RESTRICTIONS EXPIRING IN 1961 EXTENDED FIVE YEARS Trust restrictions on allotted Indian lands, scheduled to expire in calendar year 1961, have been extended for an additional five years, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today.

This order, and similar orders issued in December of 1958 and 1959, reverse a custom started in 1951 of limiting such extensions to a maximum of only one year. In 1951, the then Acting Secretary was considering terminating trust status individual Indian lands on a year-by-year basis. Each trust case would be subject to review every year.

Secretary Seaton said the new orders reemphasize the Department's stated p01icy of taking all precautions against ending Federal supervision over Indians before they are competent to end their status as Federal wards.

The General Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, authorized trust restricted allotments of land for individuals both on reservations and on the public domain.

Homesteads for Indians off-reservations, similarly restricted, were also authorized by an Act of February 28, 1891.

The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act extended trust restrictions over lands of Indians who accepted the Act's provisions. Tribes and groups which were not so covered--so-called "unorganized" Indians--have had their trust protection extended for varying periods, until the 1951 decision established the one-year rule.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said that it had DC accurate estimate of the acreage covered by the new order, but that it would run into the thousands.

Appointment of James E. Hawkins, former executive director of the Alaska Rural Development Board, as Area Director at Juneau for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in charge of its Alaskan operations, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

He succeeds William H. Olsen, who resigned May 12, and will report for duty in Juneau around August 1. Born at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1922 of American parents, Mr. Hawkins has spent much of his adult life in Alaska. From 1950 to 1953 he was principal of the Territorial Government’s school at Ninilchik which had an enrollment of both Indian and non-Indian children. Later, after a year of advanced graduate work in education at Stanford University, he served from 1954 to 1956 as superintendent of the Dillingham Territorial School with an enrollment mainly of Eskimo children.

In his post with the Alaska Rural Development Board over the past two years, he worked directly under Territorial Governor Mike Stepovich to improve living conditions in remote and rural areas. The work brought him into close contact with the Indian and Eskimo populations and with the operations of the Indian Bureau.

In his new assignment, one of his most important responsibilities will be to supervise the Indian Bureau's educational program for the natives of Alaska and work toward its gradual integration with the Territorial public school system. The Bureau operates two large boarding schools in Alaska at Mt. Edgecumbe and Wrangell, 69 regular day schools scattered throughout the Territory, and 12 instructional aid schools in particularly remote areas. It also has programs for assisting the native population of approximately 35,000 in welfare, law and order, relocation, and resources development.

Mr. Hawkins has both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education from Pennsylvania State University and served as a First Lieutenant with the Army in Italy during World War II. In addition to his work with the Department of Education and the Alaska Rural Development Board, Mr. Hawkins and his family homesteaded during the same period on the Kenai Peninsula near Clam Gulch. During several summers, he fished, commercially in Cook Inlet and Kodiak waters. Mr. Hawkins’ wife, Mary, and two sons, Charles, 12, and Richard, S, will accompany him to Alaska.

Award of three school construction contracts on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona totaling $1,224,334 and increasing pupil capacity by more than 50 percent was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The contracts involve the replacing of a trailer school with permanent facilities; construction of a new school replacing one destroyed by fire; and construction of new facilities replacing two old schools on the reservation which are beyond rehabilitation.

School facilities at Red Lake (Tonalea), Arizona--presently enrolling 40 day pupils--will be completed to accommodate 60 day pupils. Red Lake has been a temporary trailer school, and will now be replaced with permanent facilities consisting of a two-classroom school with kitchen-multipurpose room; quarters for five employees; a storage and generator building; and necessary utilities. The contract was awarded to F. H. Antrim, and Schermann Construction Companies, of Phoenix, Arizona, on their low bid of $305,000.

At Hotevilla, approximately 40 miles west of Keams Canyon on the Hopi Reservation, a $424,671 contract has been awarded to the low bidder, Wilson, Hockinson, and Cantrall, Inc., of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to provide adequate facilities serving the Hotevilla and Bacabi communities. The old school building was destroyed by fire in 1945 and classes are now held in scattered, old buildings. The new facilities will provide accommodations for 150 day pupils--an increase of 53 students. The contract includes provisions for a new 5-classroom school with multipurpose room and kitchen; quarters for 4 employees; and all new utilities.

The third contract, for $494,663, provides for construction of new school facilities at Second Mesa, Arizona, also in the Hopi area. They will replace two present schools which have been in operation for over sixty years and are beyond repair. The two schools, located three miles apart, have a present enrollment of 156 pupils. Two hundred and forty students will be accommodated at the new site near Route 3 Highway. Accommodations will include an 8-classroom school; multipurpose room and kitchen; quarters for 8 employees; and new utilities. Successful low bidder for the contract was Wilson, Hockinson, and Cantrall, Inc., of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Indian Bureau’s program for stimulating the growth of industry and industrial jobs in the vicinity of Indian reservations in line with over-all Interior Department objectives will be considerably broadened in scope during the fiscal year 1959, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

Three new field offices at Cleveland, Denver, and St. Louis will be opened to serve as contact points with industrial concerns in addition to the office at Los Angeles which has been operating in this capacity for the past year under O. E. Whelan. The Cleveland office will open September 1 and will be headed by Kurt Dreifuss, former chief of the Bureau’s relocation service in Chicago. Plans for opening and staffing the Denver and St. Louis offices have not yet been completed.

The Bureau will also have industrial development specialists at six of its ten area offices to work directly with tribal organizations and local community groups. Four have already been assigned. They are Presley T. LaBreche at Phoenix, Ariz. (covering both Phoenix and Sacramento areas); Stanley R. Thomas at Aberdeen, S. Dak.; Edward T. Kerley at Gallup, N. Mex.; and Edgar L. McVicker at Anadarko, Okla.

Similar appointments will be made later for the area offices at Minneapolis, Minn. and Portland, Oreg. The Portland appointee will also cover the Billings area.

Contracts for on-the-job vocational training of Indians are being continued in effect with plants near Indian reservations at Cherokee, N. C., Gallup, N. Mex., Casa Grande and Kingman, Ariz., McAlester and Holdenville, Okla., Rapid City, S. Dak., and Lac du Flambeau, Ashland, and Manitowish Waters, Wis..

Award of a $309,000 contract for the construction of a gymnasium at the Cherokee Indian School operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Cherokee, North Carolina was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new gymnasium, to contain 14,000 square feet of floor space, will replace an old wooden structure built in 1938. The gym will be used for the school athletic program, the Annual Cherokee Fair, and other activities of the school. The Cherokee Indian School has a present enrollment of approximately five hundred pupils. Cherokee is at the main North Carolina entrance to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

The successful low bidder was William B. Dillard, of Silva, North Carolina. Other bids ranging from $360,000 to $382,188 were received.

Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Craig, both members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, have been awarded a $59,000 contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide hot lunches for 900 Cherokee school children in North Carolina next winter, the Department of the Interior announced today. The couple, who operate Craig’s Restaurant and Motor Court at Cherokee, North Carolina, were the low bidders for the contract. They agreed to provide the noonday meals at 36.5 cents each, the lowest price offered since the private contract system was initiated at Cherokee in 1955.

“Although the dollar total of the, contract is relatively small, its award to Mr. and Mrs. Craig is of considerable significance to us," Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons commented. "First, it provides clear evidence of the increasing ability of Indian people to manage economic enterprises and to compete successfully with other people on a business basis. Second, it demonstrates again the Bureau1s desire to promote participation by local enterprises, both private and public, in its programs and services for the Indian people."

Under the terms of the award, each bidder had to submit a menu for the first month of the 1958-59 school year, beginning September 2. The lunch, which is sometimes the heartiest meal an Indian child receives during the day, must be a well-balanced, hot meal of high nutritional value. It invariably includes meat or fish, vegetables, bread, milk, and dessert. After the first month, the contractor agrees to submit his menus in advance to the Superintendent of the reservation for his approval or modification.

The Craigs, in addition to being in the restaurant business, are familiar with the school lunch program as Mrs. Craig was employed by the Bureau at the Soco School on the Cherokee Reservation for 11 years. The other four schools covered by the contract are situated at Cherokee, Big Cove, Birdtown, and Snowbird, all in North Carolina.

Ten Indian high school graduates will soon be attending the North Dakota School of Science at Wahpeton, North Dakota l through scholarship program made possible by a grant of Federal land to the school, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst recently signed a quitclaim deed conveying 70 acres of land previously used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school at Wahpeton to the State-controlled school in the same city with the understanding that the scholarship program would be established.

The land, purchased for $8,000 by the Federal Government in 1929, became excess a few years ago when the Bureau discontinued a farm training program at its school for Indian children. At about the same time the School of Science, a State educational institution, obtained approval of a building program requiring additional land for completion. State and Federal officials conferred and negotiated arrangements for transfer of the land, which is conveniently situated near the science school's present buildings. Congress formally authorized conveyance of the land, now valued at $20,000, by Public Law 85-205 of August 28, 1957.

The North Dakota State School of Science, which now has about 950 students at the college undergraduate level, has agreed to make available free tuition to 10 qualified Indian students each year for a period of 10 years. To qualify for a scholarship the prospective student must be at least 17 years old, be a high school graduate, be recommended by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and meet the entrance standards of the School of Science.

Students awarded these scholarships may also receive working scholarships at the nearby Wahpeton Indian School which will provide them with room and board in return for 14 hours of work per week.

According to the act, the ten-year scholarship program must begin not later than two years after its date of approval by the President on August 28, 1957.

Mounting interest in the leasing of lands on the 475-acre Dania Indian Reservation about 25 miles north of Miami, Florida, for commercial and industrial development was reported today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior.

"Increased housing and business development activity has been taking place recently on lands around the undeveloped Dania Reservation,” Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons pointed out. "And this has stimulated a considerable number of inquiries from business firms and individuals about the possibilities of leasing the reservation lands. About 365 acres will probably be available for leasing. Under existing law they can be leased for 25 years with a possibility of a 25-year renewal."

The lands are located immediately west of Dania, Florida, and are bisected by the four-lane State Highway No. 7 with about a mile and a quarter of frontage directly on the highway. Thus they would make, said Mr. Emmons, an excellent location for a shopping center or for various other types of business or light industry developments.

One proposal that has been received and is now being considered calls for the development of an amusement center featuring a “western frontier town” on a 60-acre tract.

Like other Indian tribal lands, those on the Dania Reservation are held in trust by the Federal Government with the Bureau of Indian Affairs functioning as trustee. The interests of the Indian owners are directly represented by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., a corporation charted under Federal law.

Interested parties are invited to submit lease proposals or inquiries to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Ina., care of Superintendent Virgil Harrington, Box 157, Dania, Fla.

Selection of Glenn R. Landbloom, a veteran Indian Bureau employee, as general superintendent of the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Ariz., was announced today by Glenn L. Emmons, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Landbloom, assistant area director for the Bureau at Aberdeen, S. Dak., since 1954, is expected to report for duty at Window Rock around September 1. He succeeds G. Warren Spaulding, who retires August 31 after more than 30 years of service with the Bureau and four years as head of the Navajo Agency.

Mr. Landbloom's career with the Bureau began in 1938 at the United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, N. Mex., where he joined the staff as a field aid. About a year later he was transferred to the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota and promoted to farm agent. After four years in this position and three years of military service in World War II, he moved to the regional office at Billings, Mont., as credit officer in 1946. Four years later he was put in charge of both extension and credit activities for the Aberdeen area and in 1954 was named to his present position as assistant area director in charge of resources.

Born at Fargo, N. Dak., in 1909, Mr. Landbloom has both a bachelor's and a master's degree from North Dakota Agricultural College. Before joining the Indian Bureau, he worked for the Soil Conservation Service and the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the Department of Agriculture. He is married and has two children.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the first set of four awards which will hereafter be made annually "in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

The 1958 awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, are being presented today in Gallup, New Mexico. Recipients, and the categories for which they won, include:

1. The Gallup Intertribal Indian Ceremonial Association, of Gallup, New Mexico--Nonprofit organizations.
2. Mr. Fred Wilson, Phoenix, Arizona--Dealers in arts and crafts.
3. Mr. Ambrose Roanhorse, Gallup, New Mexico--Indian craftsmen.
4. Mrs. Leslie Van Ness Denman, San Francisco, California--Collectors or patrons of Indian arts and crafts.

Actor Vincent Price, 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:

James W. Young, retired vice-president of J. Walter Thompson Company, New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Frederick J. Dockstader, Assistant Director, Museum of the American Indian, New York City; Erich Kohlberg, dealer in Indian crafts, Denver, Colorado; and Mr. Price.