OPA

Award of a $163,641.18 contract to Roy Kindt of Winner, South Dakota, for 7.2 miles of grading, drainage and crushed gravel base construction on the road from Rosebud to U. S. Highway 18 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, S. Dak., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Roy Kindt was the low bidder. Three other higher bids were received ranging from $172,744.84 to $175,142.18.

Asphalt paving is proposed next year to complete the improvement of this road and provide for all-weather travel to and from the community and Indian Agency located at Rosebud in Todd County, South Dakota.

The principle work under this contract is 258,000 cubic yards of excavation, 28,000 tons of crushed-gravel base, 3,000 linear feet of culvert pipe and 70,000 gallons of asphaltic material for bituminous treatment of base course.

The work is being undertaken as a part of the Indian Bureau's broad program of bringing reservation roads up to approved standards so that they can be transferred to county highway systems.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded contracts totaling $51,582 to furnish transformers, substation equipment and steel framework for a substation at the Portneuf pumping station of the Michaud Irrigation Division near Pocatello, Idaho.

The contracts were for $31,187 to the R. E. Uptegraff Manufacturing Company, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and for $20,395 to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Portland, Oregon.

The Uptegraff and Westinghouse combination bid compares with the next lower acceptable bid of $60,300.

The $5,500,000, Michaud Division is located on the Fort Hall Indian reservation and when constructed will be a unit of the Fort Hall Irrigation project. It adjoins the Michaud Flats project of the Bureau of Reclamation. The Michaud Division of the Indian irrigation project was originally authorized by Congress in 1931 and reauthorized in 1954.

When completed the project will irrigate 21,000 acres of which 17,443 acres are in Indian ownership. The project facilities include the Portneuf pumping station with a 3,200-foot discharge pipe, 31.8 miles of open main canals and approximately 75 miles of concrete pipe laterals. Three secondary pumping stations will be located in the distribution system.

Under Secretary of the Interior James A. Joseph announced today that the ceremonial installation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett, will be held on December 14, 1979, in Denver, Colorado.

Joseph will administer the oath of office to Hallett in a 10:00 a.m. ceremony at the Denver Marina Hotel. Denver was chosen for the ceremony because of its central location.

In addition to tribal leaders, attendance is expected from the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest J. Gerard, BIA employees, the media, other Interior officials, and the general public.

Hallett, a Red Lake Chippewa, was nominated by President Carter on

September 28, 19 79, to be the 42nd Commissioner. He was confirmed by the

U.S. Senate on November 16, 1979.

Hallett was born May 18, 1942 in Red Lake, Minnesota. He graduated in 1960 from the Red Lake Indian High School. After two years at Brigham Young University, Hallett completed studies for a Bachelor's degree in business administration at Bemidji State College, Minnesota in 1965. He did post-graduate work in public administration at the University of New Mexico under the HUD Career Education Program.

To enable the Navajo Tribe to expand its industrial development program, Under Secretary Hatfield Chilson has signed an order transferring 75 acres of the Coconino National Forest, near Flagstaff, Arizona, to the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The withdrawal was arranged by the Department's Bureau of Land Management.

From its income from oil and gas leases the Navajo Tribe has appropriated $600,000 for industrial development to provide additional employment opportunities for its members. Under this program Lear, Inc., of Santa Monica, California, recently established an electronics assembly plant at Flagstaff. This plant, already in operation, is known as Lear-Navajo and employs Indians in all but supervisory and technical positions. In its agreement with Lear, Inc., the Navajo Tribe is furnishing a building rent free for an initial period, with a stipulation that a new building will be erected according to the needs of Lear-Navajo under a long-term rental arrangement.

The tract acquired lies close to the city of Flagstaff and adjacent to the Santa Fe railroad's main line. It thus provides a splendid site for industrial development either by Lear, Inc., or by other concerns, according to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons, and should materially increase full-time employment for Navajo people living on or near their reservation.

The Secretary of the Interior's approval of the original request by Paul Jones, Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, makes the land available to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which, in turn, through its area office in Gallup, New Mexico, will make the tract available to the Navajo for development as an industrial site. The exclusion will affect only slightly the area of the Coconino National Forest which consists of 1,802,990 acres.

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

Harold W. Schunk, superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency at Belcourt, N. Dak. for the past three years, was transferred June 30 to the comparable position at Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak. He succeeds Joseph W. Wellington whose transfer to the superintendency of the Wahpeton School, Wahpeton, N. Dak., was previously announced.

At Turtle Mountain Mr. Schunk will be replaced July 8 by Herman P. Mittelholtz, now realty officer for the Bureau at Bemidji, Minn.

Mr. Schunk has been with the Bureau since 1933 when he was appointed camp manager at Rosebud, S. Dak. His duties with the Bureau have included a principal ship at the Cherry Creek, S. Dak., Cheyenne Agency, agricultural instruction, and education specialization. In November 1954 he was promoted to the position of superintendent and assigned to Turtle Mountain. He was born July 25, 1907 at Philip, S. Dak., and is a graduate of Southern State Teachers College, Springfield, S. Dak., where he received his B. S. degree in 1931.

Mr. Mittelholtz has been with the Bureau since 1941 when he was appointed teacher at the Fort Berthold Agency Community School at Elbowoods, N. Dak. Since that time he has served in various capacities with the Bureau ranging from a principal ship of the Jicarilla Apache Agency School to realty work with the Great Lakes Consolidated Agency. He has been realty officer at Bemidji, Minn., since February 1956.

He was born in 1909 at Munich, N. Dak., and is a graduate of Bemidji State Teachers College, Bemidji, Minn.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced awarding of a $70,395 contract for base course road surfacing on the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, to Allison &Haney, Inc., of Albuquerque.

The project begins at the junction of New Mexico Highways 32 and 53 south of Gallup and runs 9.833 miles westward along Route 53 to the Zuni Pueblo. Allison & Haney, Inc. was the low bidder. Higher bids ranged from $74,520.94 to $95,153.

The job is part of the Indian Bureau's broad program of bringing reservation roads up to acceptable standards so they can be transferred to county highway systems. When completed, the road will be transferred to the New Mexico State Highway Department for further improvement and maintenance.

The principal work under this contract will involve 23,857 tons of select borrow base and 28,536 tons of crushed gravel. The highway department has agreed to place a bituminous surface.

The completion of this section will provide a bituminous surfaced highway all the way from the Zuni Pueblo to Gallup. Improvement was made necessary by the increased volume of traffic which rendered the old gravel surface almost nonexistent.

Forrest J. Gerard, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today announced his resignation effective January 19, 1980, to re-enter private business.

Gerard, a Presidential appointee who has served since September 1977 as the Department's first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said in a letter to President Carter: ''My decision to re-enter private business was not easily reached. In these difficult times, however, my responsibility to assist two of my daughters with their college education left me but a single choice."

"As I return to private life, I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to have served the public and the Indian people as the first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. I wish to commend your Administration for creating this important position to address the essential policy issues and direct the overall approach to the complex and intricate field of Indian Affairs.''

Secretary of the Interior Resignation but understood the has served with distinction as

Indian Affairs," he said. "As assignment he has proven himself an alert executive in handling Cecil D. Andrus said he greatly regretted Gerard's considerations which led to the decision. “Forrest has first Assistant Secretary of the Interior for expected when he was selected for this difficult to be a vigorous advocate of Indian causes and the administration of Indian issues."

Gerard was nominated by President Carter in July 1977 as the culmination of a selection process involving more than 40 persons who were recommended by tribal leaders and others. A member of the Blackfeet Tribe, Gerard was staff assistant for the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs from 1971 through 1976. He was involved in the development of the Indian Self-Determination and Education

Assistance Act and other major legislation involving Indian affairs. He opened his own consulting office after leaving the Senate Subcommittee staff in December 1976.

Legislation that would restore about 65,000 acres of land now in Federal ownership to five Indian tribal groups in California, Idaho, Montana and Washington is needed 1tin simple justice 11 to these people, the Department of the Interior said today in announcing endorsement of H. R. 3490 and S. 1757, bills that would accomplish this purpose.

The tribal groups and acreages involved are Fort Peck Reservation, Montana, 41,450.13 acres; Coeur d'Alene Reservation, Idaho, 12,877.65; Crow Reservation, Montana, 5,480.95; Spokane Reservation, Washington, 5,451; and Klamath River Reservation, California, 159.57.

All of these are scattered lands which were ceded by the tribes to the United States many years ago with the understanding that they would be sold and the proceeds deposited to the credit of the tribes in the United States Treasury. Since they have not been sold, the Department believes that they should now be restored to tribal ownership and held in trust by the United States like other reservation lands.

Similar action, the Department pointed out, was taken over 20 years ago in the case of tribes organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and last year in the case of the Colville Reservation of Washington. Restoration of these lands would complete the process. It would also terminate the Federal Government's right to dispose of them under the cession statutes and assure the Indians of their continued use.

The Department recommended four minor technical amendments and one substantive amendment which would authorize the tribes to sell or exchange the restored lands with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

Regulations governing a new vocational training program for Indians between 18 and 35 years of age and residing on reservations ware announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new program is being initiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with an appropriation of $1.5 million, contained in the Department’s fiscal 1958 appropriations measure signed by the President on July 1. Authorization for the program was provided by the 84th Congress in Public Law 959.

The regulations cover three types of training--courses at vocational schools, apprenticeship training, and on-the-job training.

To be eligible for participation in the program, a vocational school must be accredited by a recognized national or regional agency or approved by an appropriate State agency and must be able to show "reasonable certainty" of employment for its graduates in their fields of training.

Apprenticeship training may be approved if (1) it is either supervised or recognized and approved by an appropriate State or national agency, (2) leads to an occupation requiring skills normally learned through apprenticeship, and (3) is expressly identified as apprenticeship training by the establishment offering it.

On-the-job training programs may be approved when the training is recognized by industry and labor as leading to skilled employment.

To be eligible, potential Indian trainees must be in need of vocational training in order to obtain satisfactory employment. Approved trainees will be provided with transportation to the place of training and subsistence during the course of training, which is limited to a maximum of 24 months.

Public Law 959 authorizes annual appropriations of $3,500,000 for Indian vocational training. The Department requested $2 million less than that to get the program under way in its initial year.

Further information about the projected program may be obtained from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington 25, D. C.

Award of a $271,570 contract for construction of day school facilities at Borrego Pass on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico to Wilson Hockinson & Cantrall, Inc.; of Albuquerque was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Two other New Mexico firms submitted higher bids of $279,900 and $283,630.

The new four-classroom school will serve 120 Indian children living in the Borrego Pass area. It will be erected at the site of the present trailer school operated by the Indian Bureau.

A number of trailer schools have been established by the Bureau as temporary educational facilities for Navajo children living in isolated parts of the reservation. These units are being replaced by adequate school buildings wherever the population and daily attendance warrant.

Kitchen and dining facilities are included in the school building. The contract also calls for three two-bedroom duplexes, utilities, walks, and roads.