OPA

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst today urged congressional enactment of legislation to authorize extension of the irrigation distribution system of the Coachella Valley County Water District of Riverside County, California, to about 10,000 acres of Indian land on the Augustine, Cabazon and Torres-Martinez Reservations.

Under the bill, recently proposed by the Department, the extension would be constructed by the Department at an estimated cost of about $2,000,000. It would be operated and maintained after construction by the County Water District. Half of all the money collected by the District each year for delivery of water to the Indian lands would be paid to the United States until the Government is fully reimbursed for the construction costs.

The purpose of the legislation is to modify a plan originally embodied in a 1950 law. The 1950 act contemplated that adequate arrangements could be worked out between the District and the Department for extending the system to the Indian lands, but this proved not to be feasible. The plan embodied in the present bill has the approval of both the District and the Department.

Failure to extend the system to the Indian lands, Mr. Ernst pointed out, will result in extending the system to more non-Indian lands, and the Indian will be the loser.

Of the Indian acreage involved, about 600 acres are on the Augustine Reservation, 1,900 on the Cabazon, and 7,700 on Torres-Martinez. While the first two tribal groups have formally endorsed the proposed legislation, the Torres-Martinez position is not yet wholly clear. Mr. Ernst recommended that the latter group be omitted from the bill unless it indicates a positive wish to be included by the time the bill is considered in committee.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson today announced the signing of a 25-year contract with Colorado River Enterprises, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona, under which the corporation will complete the gravity irrigation system on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in western Arizona and develop approximately 67,000 acres of agricultural land at an estimated cost of $28,000,000.

During the last five years of the contract one-fifth of the developed land will be turned over each year for use by the Indians who are the beneficial owners of the property.

Acting Secretary Chilson signed the lease late in the day August 13 under authority of the Colorado River Leasing Act of 1955.

The Colorado River Enterprises proposal was one of three responses received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs following the offering of the property for agricultural development lease in May. The only other detailed offer was submitted by another Phoenix organization identified as River Valley Farms. Two individuals, Russell Giffen and Jack A. Harris, expressed a joint interest in leasing the land but indicated they had not had time to submit a detailed offer before the deadline of June 25. It was necessary to establish this deadline because the Secretary's authority to lease under the act expires August 14.

The property to be developed by Colorado River Enterprises under the lease consists of three main parcels: (1) an agricultural area of approximately 67,000 acres lying south of the presently developed portion of the Reservation and all on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, (2) an industrial area of about 500 acres located along the Santa Fe Railroad on the mesa, and (3) a residential area consisting of 886 lots in the town of Parker, Arizona.

The lessees are required to complete the agricultural development in the first five years of the lease. Annual rentals on this portion will be $7 an acre for land actually developed and ready for cultivation. On each of the other two areas the rent will be a flat $20,000 a year.

Rental proceeds will be deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the Indians determined to be the beneficial owners of the property. A controversy concerning the ownership is now pending before the Indian Claims Commission.

Development of the agricultural area will involve deepening, widening and lining work on about three miles of the main canal; installation of several pumping plants; construction of 230 miles of laterals, 374 miles of farm ditches, and necessary drainage and waste way structures; and clearing, leveling, and fine grading the land for cultivation.

In the 500-acre industrial area development is contemplated to include facilities such as a frozen food processing plant, a soy bean oil mill, an alfalfa dehydration plant, cotton gins, and packing sheds.

On the 886 town lots in Parker the lessees will build modern homes required for their employees and various types of community facilities that may be needed.

Under the terms of the lease Indians are to be given preference in all project jobs for which they are qualified. In addition, qualified Indians of the Colorado River and its tributaries who apply for subleases of crop or grazing lands of the project are to be given such subleases on terms "no less favorable" than those available to non-Indian sub lessees.

The proposal of Colorado River Enterprises was submitted by S. W. Barton, president of the corporation.

The proposal of the River Valley Farms group was similar in many respects to the offer of the Barton organization. It would have given the beneficial Indian owners either one-third of the profits from the enterprise or a minimum annual rental of $5 per acre on the agricultural land and $2 per acre on the residential and industrial area, whichever was greater. This proposal was considered less advantageous to the Indians than the offer of the Barton organization.

Reflecting the increasing Indian Bureau emphasis on encouraging the growth of industry around Indian reservations, Acting Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson today announced the appointment of Noel Sargent, a longtime principal staff member of the National Association of Manufacturers, as consultant on the Bureau’s industrial development program and creation of a new branch of industrial development in the Bureau’s Washington office.

As direct representative of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons, Mr. Sargent will establish contacts with the top management officers of industrial firms encouraging them to locate new plants in communities near the reservations and thus enlarge the opportunities for Indian employment. He will also develop contacts concerning these projects with local community leaders and local tribal groups.

Mr. Sargent is scheduled to leave August 19 for his first trip to tribal areas in Minnesota and North and South Dakota.

The new branch of industrial development is being established in the Bureau's Division of Tribal Programs and Relocation which has been renamed the Division of Economic Development to reflect its expanded functions. The head of the new branch has not yet been selected.

A native of Bellingham, Washington, and graduate of the University of Washington in 1915, Mr. Sargent now lives in Garden City, N. Y., and has been on the staff of the National Association of Manufacturers in a variety of top positions since 1920. During the national defense period prior to Pearl Harbor, he organized the NAM’s war production committee, which established the basis for subsequent cooperation between industry and many government agencies. Following Pearl Harbor, he organized the Association’s activities dealing with war contract termination and disposal of surplus government property.

In 1950 he assumed the duties of secretary of the United States Inter-American Council which is the United States section of a hemisphere organization with headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay, devoted to promoting the principles of free enterprise. In November that same year he participated as a voting delegate in the Cleveland meeting at which the new National Council of Churches was formed (replacing the Federal Council of Churches and eight other inter-denominational agencies). Since then he has been primarily associated with several different departments and branches of the National Council. He holds an honorary LL. D. degree from Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, and is a trustee of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N. J.

Contracts totaling $519,000 have been signed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with 15 States to provide agricultural extension services this fiscal year, the Department of the Interior announced today. The services are for Indian ranch and farm families on reservations.

The contracts were signed under authority of the Johnson-O’Malley Act of 1934, as amended in 1936. This law authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to contract with and pay States and political subdivisions for the provision of services such as education and agricultural extension to Indian people.

In most of the States covered this is the third year of contract relationships for Indian extension work. The contract in Oklahoma, however, is now in its 'fifth year.

Signing of the contracts is in line with the Department's policy of encouraging Indian participation in State and local governmental services to the fullest possible extent.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to provide direct extension services to Indian agricultural families in New Mexico outside of McKinley and Rio Arriba Counties, and in Arizona and Mississippi.

The 15 States covered by the contracts and the amounts of each are as follows

Promotion of Don Y. Jensen to superintendent of the Indian Bureau's Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Montana, effective September 8, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Jensen has been for the past year land operations officer at the Bureau's Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak. Previously he served for one year at Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Montana, and eight years at the Crow Agency in Montana as a soil conservationist and land-use planner. He was born at Castle Dale, Utah, in 1920 and is a graduate of Utah State College.

At Northern Cheyenne he succeeds Carl Pearson who resigned as superintendent June 30.

Award of a $351,746 contract for construction of enlarged dormitory facilities to accommodate 58 additional Indian children at Huerfano, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, near Bloomfield, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The successful bidder is Anchor Construction Company, Roswell, New Mexico. Eight higher bids ranging from $356,590 to $473,400 were submitted by contractors from New Mexico and Illinois.

The contract calls for a dormitory building, a multipurpose building, two duplex apartments, a storage building, some alterations, and outside utilities.

Originally a day school, Huerfano is now operated by the Indian Bureau as a boarding facility for Navajo children enrolled in the public schools at Bloomfield. The new construction work will enlarge its capacity from 38 to 96 children.

Award of two contracts for rehabilitation of dormitories at Cheyenne and Arapaho School, Concho, Oklahoma, and at Ft. Sill School, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

H. L. Grohne Company of Decatur, Illinois, with a price of $62,155.00, was successful bidder on the work at Concho. The job at Ft. Sill was awarded to Joe H. Choate, Lawton, Oklahoma, on its bid of $57,989.00. Five higher bids, ranging from $67,000 to $109,000, were received for the work at Concho. Three higher bids, ranging from $65,000 to $93,600, were submitted on the job at Ft. Sill. Four bidders also submitted bids for the total of both jobs ranging from $127,416.69 to $202,600.00.

Both schools are operated by the Indian Bureau for children who would otherwise have no educational opportunity due to the lack of adequate facilities in their home communities, or who for social reasons have need for boarding care.

The contracts call for major revisions to toilet and shower facilities, plastering, floor covering, roofing, painting, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilating, and other work.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson today announced the receipt of cashier's checks in the amount of $40,000 from S. W. Barton, president of Colorado River Enterprises, Inc., representing payment of advance rental on two tracts involved in the corporation's 25-year lease on 67,000 acres of the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona.

The checks were accompanied by a letter from Mr. Barton requesting a 90-day extension of time for the posting of a $5,000,000 performance bond which is required for effectuation of the lease. The lease, which was signed August 13, provided for posting of this bond within 30 days.

Mr. Chilson stated that no decision had yet been made on the request for an extension of time, and before a decision is made the Department of Justice, to which the matter was referred, will be consulted.

Conservation of timber resources on the Klamath Indian Reservation of south central Oregon is "of primary importance to the economy of the area and to the welfare of the public generally", Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said today in commenting on S. 2047, a bill that provides for Federal acquisition of all Klamath tribal lands.

In a letter of September 26 to Senator Richard Neuberger, chairman of the Indian Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Mr. Seaton outlined the Interior Department’s tentative views on S. 2047 and promised a report and recommendation on it early in the next Congressional session.

The two problems confronting both the Federal Government and the State of Oregon," the Secretary wrote, “are protecting the property rights of the Klamath Indians on the one hand, and providing for the sustained yield management of an important natural resource area on the other. Public ownership would accomplish both of these objectives. If there is any reasonable alternative to public ownership which would accomplish the same results, we believe such an alternative should be thoroughly explored.”

In connection with the Indians’ property rights, Secretary Seaton called attention to the Klamath Termination Act of 1954. As amended in the most recent Congressional session, this law provides for an end of Federal trusteeship over the Klamath Reservation by August 1960. It also gives individual members of the Tribe the right to withdraw the cash value of their pro rata share of tribal assets (consisting chiefly of the tribal forest) but provides that no sales of tribal timber land to satisfy this requirement shall be made until after the end of the next Congressional session.

“The essence of the 1954 Act,” said Mr. Seaton, “is that the Klamath Indians shall be freed of all Federal restraints because of their Indian origin, and ..... placed in the same status as other citizens …. Inasmuch as existing Federal and State laws do not require the owners of large forest resources to maintain them intact and to manage them on a sustained yield basis in the interests of conservation, the Klamath Indians should not be subjected to any such restrictions when the Fe

At the same time, however, the Secretary emphasized that the manner in which the Klamath Forest is managed will have "a vital impact on the life and economy of the entire Klamath River Basin."

"Kept intact through continued management according to principles of sustained yield, “his letter stated, lithe forest will remain a perpetually productive source of ponderosa pine and other commercial species e Such management would also insure continuation of its importance as a watershed. The large numbers of migratory waterfowl for which it now provides nesting and feeding grounds would be protected as would the deer and other species of wild animals that now find sanctuary within its boundaries, Further development of the forest's recreational potential would be made possible."

Referring more specifically to the problems that may arise under the law in its present form, Mr. Seaton had this to say: “lt is doubtful whether sustained yield management would be continued on a very large portion of the timber area if it is sold without restriction in small economic units. The management specialists, who have responsibility for the sales of these units, are obligated under the law to obtain on behalf of the withdrawing members the greatest possible return from these sales, This obligation means that a sizable portion of the area to be sold would have to be sold in small-sized units in order to obtain the greatest amount of competition possible. It is doubtful that such small units, within themselves, can furnish a sustained cut for even the smallest of sawmills."

The Klamath Tribal Forest comprises approximately 750,000 acres and has been described as one of the finest ponderosa pine stands in the country. The tribal property also includes marshlands which are highly important for waterfowl breeding and feeding p and constitute a key unit in the Pacific Flyway.

The wind-up of all Indian Bureau road maintenance responsibilities in Michigan has now been accomplished with the transfer of 18.3 miles serving the L'Anse Reservation and Potawatomie Indian lands to Barage and Menominee Counties, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The transfer, approved by the Indian Bureau September 20, is part of a nationwide program under which the Bureau brings the roads serving Indian lands up to county standards at Federal Government expense and the counties then take over maintenance responsibilities. Projects are now being turned over to the counties at the rate of over 400 miles each year.

Michigan is the second State where the Bureau has turned over all its road maintenance responsibilities. A similar transfer of final mileage was carried out in Iowa about five years ago,