OPA

Indian income from minerals other than oil and gas seems headed for a record high total in the fiscal year which ends June 30, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons said today in an informal report to Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

The Commissioner's forecast was largely based on a bid opening of May 13 at Sells, Arizona, which produced high bonus offerings of $1,066,007.04 for exclusive prospecting permits, with leasing privileges, on three tracts totaling 15,360 acres on the San Xavier (Papago) Reservation in Pima County, Ariz. Total income received by all tribal groups and individual Indians from such mineral permits or leases in the fiscal year that ended last June 30 was $848,426.

High bidder on all three tracts of the Papago land was American Smelting and Refining Company of New York City. Three other companies submitted lower bids on one or more of the tracts.

Since the great bulk of the lands involved are held in trust by the Bureau for individual members of the Papago Tribe, the approval of these owners will have to be obtained before the permits are actually granted. The successful bidder is given 60 days for this purpose.

The permits will grant for a two-year period an exclusive right to prospect in the area covered for minerals other than oil and gas as well as the privilege of leasing up to 2,560 acres of the land embraced in the permit at any time during this period. Leases will be for 10 years and as long thereafter as minerals are produced in paying quantities. Annual rental will be $1 per acre.

Royalty called for under the leases is generally 10 percent of the net smelter returns; for uranium the royalty is on a sliding scale from 12 percent for lower grade ore to 25 percent for those of higher grade.

The interest shown in the mineral potentialities of the Papago lands, Commissioner Emmons said, is a "most encouraging development."

The Department of the Interior announced today award by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of a $256,932 contract for permanent dormitory facilities at Holbrook, Arizona.

The contract was awarded to Bryant Whiting of Springerville, Arizona. Eight higher bids, ranging from $277,777 to $309,941, were received.

The Holbrook project is a part of the Bureau's long-range educational program. One of the objectives of this program is to arrange for the transfer of Indian children from Federal to public schools as rapidly as feasible.

When completed the facilities will house 120 school-age children from the Navajo Reservation and thus permit them to attend the public schools at Holbrook.

Slated for construction are a dormitory and a multipurpose building, utility connections, perimeter fencing, graveled drive, and paved play areas.

Black Hills Ditching Company, Inc., has been awarded a $46,370 contract for improvements to sewerage systems at the Indian Bureau's Northern Cheyenne Agency in Lame Deer, Montana, and at Tongue River School in Busby, Montana, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The Black Hills bid was the lowest of seven received for the work. Other bids ranged from $46,700 to $67,585.76.

There are approximately 245 Indian children enrolled in the Tongue River School.

Included in the work are new sewer lines and manholes and new sewage lagoons complete with connecting piping.

Portland area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the retirement of Jasper W. (Jap) Elliott, superintendent of Warm Springs Indian Agency, and transfers of three other Oregon and Idaho agency superintendents.

The vacancy at the Warm Springs Agency will be filled by transfer of Allan W. Galbraith, Klamath Agency superintendent since November, 1955. Galbraith's post at Klamath will be filled by the promotion and transfer of Elmo Miller, Superintendent at the Northern Idaho Agency, Lapwai, Idaho, since January 1955, and Miller's position will be filled by promotion and transfer of William E. Ensor, Umatilla Agency superintendent.

Don C. Foster, Portland area director, said the transfers will be effective June 30, and that the Umatilla agency vacancy will not be filled immediately.

“I regret the loss to our area staff of Jap Elliott who is a long time personal friend as well as fellow worker in the Indian Service,” Foster said.

"I know that Al Galbraith will do a fine job at Warm Springs, as he has done at Klamath. I have the greatest confidence that Bill Ensor and Elmo Miller will continue their unstinting devotion to the job of bettering the status of our Indians," he said.

Foster said that during Elliott's tenure at Warm Springs the "Warm Springs Indians have made excellent progress in assuming the responsibilities of tribal government. There has also been significant progress in education and resources management.

“Eleven young Warm Springs Indians are enrolled in colleges. All 26 of this year's junior high graduates will enroll at Madras high school next fall. The economic conditions of the tribe have been improved through judicious handling of tribal timber resources.

"Much of the credit for these advances must be given to Jap Elliott for his work and his understanding of the Warm Springs Indians," Foster said.

He explained that the size and resources of the various agencies determine the rank of their superintendents and that the changes represent a promotion for both Miller and Ensor. Klamath and Warm Springs agencies are of equal rank.

Elliott is retiring after almost 43 years of Federal service. He started his career, the records show, as a "typewriter” (typist) with the General Land Office (now the Bureau of Land Management) in 1914 and came to the Indian Service as a clerk at the Uintah-Ouray agency in Utah in 1915. He is a native of Utah, a graduate of Ogden high school and attended Smith Business College at Ogden. His service with BIA has included posts at San Juan, New Mexico, and Fort Belknap, Montana. He became superintendent at Warm Springs in October 1936, but his service there was interrupted from November 1951, to August 1954, while he served as an administrative officer for the Corps of Engineers, Portland District, on Indian matters involved in the construction of The Dalles Dam.

Galbraith, who was born at Wellpinit, Wash., started his career with the Indian Bureau while he was a student at the University of Idaho. He worked on the Colville reservation in various summer positions until his graduation in 1940 when he became permanently employed as a forest guard. Subsequently he held various forestry and range positions - Klamath, Colville, Fort Belknap and Rosebud, South Dakota, before becoming superintendent of the Jicarilla agency in New Mexico in 1952. He was transferred to Klamath as superintendent in November 1955. Galbraith is the brother of William A. Galbraith, assistant to the Bonneville Power Administrator.

Miller came to the Pacific Northwest via Utah, his native State, and Alaska where he served as administrative officer for BIA at Nome. A graduate of Utah State Agricultural college, he was a farmer and rancher before joining the Indian Service as a field aide in May 1941, at the Cheyenne River agency in South Dakota. He also did agricultural work at Tongue River agency, Montana, and at Colville agency in Washington. He was at Nome for four years and became Northern Idaho Indian Superintendent in January 1955.

Ensor, a native of Maryland, and a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, has served the majority of his time in the Indian Service with one of the last remaining tribes of eastern Indians, the Cherokees of North Carolina. He started his Federal Service with the Veterans Bureau in 1924 and joined BIA at the Western Navajo Agency, Arizona, in 1926. He transferred to the Cherokee agency in 1928 as clerk and remained there through successive promotions to administrative officer. He was transferred to Umatilla agency as superintendent in July 1955.

Award of a $393,000 contract for construction of a central heating plant at Haskell Institute located at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced by the Department Of Interior today.

C. L, Mahoney Co. of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was awarded the job on the basis of its low bid. Eight other bids, ranging from $407,390 to $450,000, were received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The new plant is to replace present manually operated boiler equipment, some of which has been in service since 1921.

Haskell Institute is a vocational school whish provides regular high school work, special Navajo courses, and vocational training for post-high school students. Over 970 Indian students are enrolled.

Slated for construction is a new plant building of approximately 5,000 square feet in floor area, together with boilers, piping, equipment, tunnels, parking area, and access drives.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton has submitted a proposed bill to Congress that would equalize the value of tribal property divided among members of the Ague Caliente Band of Indians on the Palm Springs Reservation in California.

The legislation was developed after numerous conferences with the Ague Caliente Band. It would affect 92 Indians, 31 adults and 61 minors," who live in and around the resort community of Palm Springs. Also affected would be undivided tribal properties estimated to be worth over $12,000,000.

Under the proposed legislation the title to this property would be transferred from the Secretary of the Interior, who now holds it in trust for the Band, to a tribal corporation to be organized under State law. Income from the corporation would be used to equalize the divisions or “allotments" of tribal property previously made. They range in estimated value from $22,200 to $164,740, According to the best available estimates, about $9,000,000 would be needed to accomplish the equalization.

In the background of the Department’s legislative proposal is a long history of litigation extending back to the late 1930's. The litigation culminated in a United States District Court order of 1956 directing that an equalization program be formulated and carried out.

Allotment of the land on the Palm Springs Reservation, originally established under 1891 law, to individual members of the Agua Caliente Band was begun in 1923. Because of various complications in legislation, administration and litigation, however, the first allotment schedule was not formally approved by the Secretary of the Interior until 1949 and the process is still going on. Meanwhile many property values in the area have soared tremendously. So far 101 allotments have been made and five are currently pending.

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 today greatly in value and this has given rise to the litigation. With a little over 4,700 acres so far allotted, about 26,000 acres remain in tribal ownership.

Full consideration, Secretary Seaton said, was given to the possibility of accomplishing equalization by making additional allotments from this tribal acreage. However, since the land at Palm Springs has to be developed in relatively large blocks to realize its full value, the Department and the Indians jointly came to the conclusion that the basic approach embodied in the proposed legislation would be more advantageous to the tribal members.

The actual technique of equalization proposed would be through the issuance of stock certificates by the tribal corporation. Each member would be entitled to equalization stock in multiples of $100 in sufficient amount to make up the difference between the appraised value of his allotment and that of the allotment with the highest appraised value. Income realized by the tribal corporation would be used to redeem these certificates.

The tribal corporation would also issue membership stock in equal amounts to all present and future members of the Band. Through the ownership of this stock the members would share equally in any income realized by the corporation after redemption of all equalization shares.

Since the equalization stock would be issued as an alternative to making further allotments of the tribal land, both the equalization stock and the payments made to redeem it would be exempt from all taxation while in the hands of the original Indian owner or his Indian heirs or devisees.

An increase in fees which the Bureau of Indian Affairs charges to cover costs of preparing grazing permits on Indian rangeland was announced today by Under Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson.

Higher charges were recommended by the Comptroller General. In a report to Congress the Comptroller General said that the fees structure should be based on the objective of covering the cost of the services rendered, and that the former schedule was wholly inadequate to meet actual administrative costs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Indian landowners will save money under the new regulations. Formerly they had to contribute toward administrative costs. They were charged on a sliding scale based on the annual rental they received. The owner contribution is now eliminated since the user of the range, rather than its owner, benefits principally from the Bureau services.

The new regulations are effective June 30, 1957. Henceforth the fee charged each user of the Indian range to cover permit administrative costs will be three per cent annually of the minimum appraised annual rental of the range unit he is using. The old, inadequate schedule provided generally for a $5 fee on the first $500 of total rental - for the full term of the permit - plus $1 for each additional $500 or fractional amount.

The services performed by the Bureau, which are compensated by these fees, include not only preparation of the permits but also obtaining consent of the Indian owners and disbursing rentals to them. Since a single Indian range unit frequently includes many different allotments and a single allotment is often owned by literally dozens of heirs, this is a time-consuming and costly service. However, if the range user himself were required to locate the various owners, obtain their consent, and disburse the annual rentals to them; he would undoubtedly be burdened in the great majority of cases with a far heavier expense than the fees charged by the Bureau.

Construction of two new school buildings at Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, to accommodate 86 additional Indian children in an area where about 170 of school age were not enrolled last year, will begin soon under a contract awarded by the Indian Bureau, the Department of 'the Interior announced today.

The contractor awarded the job is Central Construction Co., Inc. of Philadelphia, Mississippi on its low bid of $209,881. There were three higher bids ranging from $210,520 to $267,613.

The contract calls for a four-classroom building, a two-classroom building, a multipurpose building, two two-bedroom duplexes, and other minor work.

Bogue Chitto school, with an enrollment of 154 Choctaw pupils, in grades 1 through 6, is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The new facilities will bring the capacity of the school up to 240 pupils and permit the addition of grades 7 and 8 to meet the needs in an area where facilities for education of Indian children beyond grade 6 have not previously been available.

Three personnel changes involving Indian Bureau positions in Montana and North Dakota were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Charles S. Spencer, superintendent of the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., for the past three years, moves June 16 to the comparable position at the Flathead Agency, Dixon, Mont., replacing Forrest R. Stone who recently retired.

At Blackfeet Mr. Spencer will be succeeded by Howard F. Johnson, who transfers June 23 from the Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Ariz., where he has been agricultural extension supervisor since 1951.

Joseph W. Wellington, superintendent of Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak., since 1954, will move June 23 to be superintendent of the Wahpeton School, Wahpeton, N. Dak., replacing Ole R. Sande who has transferred to the Bureau's area office at Aberdeen, S. Dak.

Mr. Spencer has been with the Bureau since 1931 when he was appointed farm agent at Crow Agency, Mont. He spent four years there. Then he worked for seven years as extension agent at Western Shoshone Agency, Owyhee, Nev., and for ten years as soil conservationist at Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyo. He was named superintendent at Rosebud Agency, Rosebud, S. Dak., in 1952 and transferred to Blackfeet in 1954. He is a native of Victor, Idaho, and was graduated from the University of Idaho with a B. S. degree in agriculture in 1929.

Mr. Johnson entered the Federal service in 1935 with the Department of Agriculture at Navajo Agency. Five years later he transferred to the Indian Bureau as a soil technologist at the same location and subsequently served as soil conservationist and agricultural extension agent before being appointed extension supervisor in 1951. He was born at Gravity, Iowa, in 1913 and is a graduate of Colorado A. and M. College.

Mr. Wellington first came with the Bureau in 1940 as a teacher at Carson Indian School, Stewart, Nev., and was appointed head of the school's agricultural department. He held that post until 1944 when he was named supervisor of Indian education for livestock raising and dairying with headquarters at Denver, Colo. Three years later he transferred to the position of superintendent at Fort Belknap Agency, Harlem, Mont., and in 1951, moved to Standing Rock. He was born at Lewistown, Mont., in 1907 and studied agricultural education and animal husbandry at Montana State College.

Award of a $73,494.33 contract for construction of additional floor space in the dormitory facilities for Indian children at Snowflake, Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The successful bidder is D. H. Walker Construction Co., Inc. of Phoenix. The only other bid was submitted by Bob Roberts & Associates in the amount of $87,430.

The dormitory is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Navajo children attending the public school at Snowflake. Approximately 120 Indian students above grade 5 or 12 years of age are enrolled there.

Included in the project are additions to existing buildings, relocation of quarters trailers, construction of a storage building, and minor utilities.