OPA

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, following consultation with officers of the Klamath Tribe of Oregon and in line with their wishes, will take over preparation of a tribal membership roll under applicable provisions of the Klamath Termination Act - Public law 587 of the 83rd Congress.

Under Public law 587 the Tribe was given six months after the enactment date (August 13, 1954) in which to prepare a roll for the purpose of determining individual entitlement to a share in the tribal property. A roll -was prepared by the February 13 deadline date, certified by the tribal enrollment committee, and submitted to the Secretary. More recently, however, the enrollment committee withdrew its certification and thus in effect, called upon the Secretary to take over the responsibility for roll preparation.

Public Law 587 provides for the elimination of all special trust and service relationships between members of the Klamath Tribe and the Federal Government on or before August 13, 1958. The pertinent section of the law reads as follows:

“Sec. 3. At midnight of the date of the enactment of this Act the roll of the tribe shall be closed and no child born thereafter shall be eligible for enrollment: Provided, That the tribe shall have a period of six months from the date of this Act in which to prepare and submit to the Secretary a proposed roll of the members of the tribe living on the date of this Act, which shall be published in the Federal Register. If the tribe fails to submit such roll within the time specified in this section, the Secretary shall prepare a proposed roll for the tribe, which shall be published in the Federal Register. Any person claiming membership rights in the tribe or an interest in its assets, or a representative of the Secretary on behalf of any such person, may, within ninety days from the date of publication of the proposed roll, file an appeal with the Secretary contesting the inclusion or omission 6f the name of any person on or from such roll. The Secretary shall review such appeals and his decisions thereon shall be final and conclusive. After disposition of all such appeals, the roll of the tribe shall be published in the Federal Register, and such roll shall be final for the purposes of this Act."

Among the people claiming membership in the Klamath Tribe are about 50 or 60 currently residing in Oklahoma.

Jess T. Town, 39, Choctaw Indian from Talihina, Okla., was today named Superintendent of the Rosebud Agency, Rosebud, His appointment is effective August 8. Town will move to this post from one as Area Field Representative of the Bureau in Riverside, Calif.

Town was graduated from Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma in May 1950, and attended Phoenix College, Phoenix, Ariz. He began his Federal service in the Phoenix Indian School in 1954.

He became a fiscal accountant with the Uintah and Ouray Agency of the Bureau at Fort Duschene, Utah, and then a supervisory administrative officer at the San Carlos Agency, San Carlos, Ariz. After serving as tribal operations officer at the Western Washington Agency, Everett, Wash., he held that same post at the Sacramento Area Office. He became Area Field Representative, Riverside Field Office of the Bureau in 196'7, a post he held until his present appointment.

He served in the United States Army from September 1952 to that same month in 1954.

Alonzo T. Spang, 38, director of Indian Studies Program and assistant professor at the University of Montana and a member of r the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe has been named superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquartered at Lame Deer, Mont. He will assume the post within the coming month.

Spang replaces John White, who has taken the position of Commonly Development Officer in the Billings Area Office of the Bureau.

Spang is former provost and dean of students of Navajo Community College, the first college to be established on an Indian reservation and to be owned by an American Indian tribe. He has also served as director of education at Arizona State University. ,

The new Northern Cheyenne Superintendent has a Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Montana College, Billings, and a master’s degree from Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz. He was director of the Cook Christian training School, Tempe, Ariz., and taught in the Bureau of Indian Affairs school at Busby, Mont.

Spang is married and the father of a daughter.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton and Civil Service Commission Chairman Robert E. Hampton announced today the creation of a National Indian Training Center to be located at Brigham City, Utah.

The Center will provide in-service and preparatory training for Indian men and women seeking employment and advancement in Federal, State and tribal government jobs.

Secretary Morton made the announcement while visiting Salt Lake City today on a leg of his month-long tour of Western States. He said:

"This unprecedented, large-scale management-and-operations training program for Indians is hopefully designed to bridge the gap between the dream and the reality of Indian direction of Indian affairs. We will be seeking to uncover and develop enough Indian talents to assure that tribal government and other government programs are providing the maximum in benefits to the Indian people.

"We are grateful to Chairman Hampton and the training experts of the U. S. Civil Service Commission for smoothing the way for this program to be put into effect," Secretary Morton added.

It is expected that upwards of 500 Indians may be enrolled annually in the program. Plans calls for continuing expansion of the curricula as new personnel needs emerge.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Civil Service Commission will jointly operate the Center. Scheduled to open September 1, 1971, it will be located on the campus of Intermountain School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs facility.

Modern, well-equipped classrooms, a 25,OOO-volume library, and extensive audio-visual equipment will be available through the BIA's Instructional Services Center at Intermountain, where educational materials are produced and teacher training programs are developed for BIA schools.

The Indian Training Center will offer a broad range of training and re- training courses, with particular emphasis being given to preparing Indians for management jobs in government and tribal agencies. Courses will also be available to Federal, State and local government employees who are non-Indian and whose agencies have direct involvement with various aspects of Indian affairs.

Training opportunities will also be provided at tribal sites as well as at Brigham City. Tribal leaders will be consulted in determining training needs and developing courses to meet those needs and developing courses to meet those needs.

Technical manpower for course development and instruction will be provided by the Denver Regional Training Center of the U. S. Civil Service Commission and by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Personnel of both agencies, and of other Federal agencies, tribal groups and educational institutions, will conduct the classes.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced that Richard S. McDermott is Sacramento Area Field Representative for the Bureau of Indian Affairs with offices in Palm Springs, California. In this position he will work closely with the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians. He has served in the acting capacity since the fall of 1971.

Commissioner Bruce said in announcing the appointment: "We feel particularly fortunate to have Richard McDermott in this post. ‘The Palm Springs office carries the burden of the negotiation of leases in concert with the Indian owners of Agua Caliente land, and the management and, investment of their assets. - McDermott is an attorney who has practiced law privately and has also been chief of the branch of real property management for the Crow Indian Agency, Montana. This is an unusually suitable background for the post he fills.

McDermott received his A.B. from Western State College, Gunnison, Colorado and his J.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

He was an attorney-at-law in Las Animas, Colorado and County Attorney for Bent County for seven years. He then was attorney adviser to the Office of the Solicitor, Department of the Interior, Gallup, New Mexico. He was a member of the law firm of Perry & McDermott, Gallup, New Mexico for six years and joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be chief of the branch of real property management, Crow Indian Agency, Montana in 1965.' He then became chief of the realty branch of the Bureau at Palm Springs.

He served in the United States Army, is married and the father of three children.

Stanley D. Lyman, 58, former Superintendent of the Fort Peck, Montana and Uintah and Ouray, Utah, Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies was today named Superintendent of the Bureau's Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, borne of the Oglala Sioux Indians, by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce, himself a member of the Oglala Sioux as well as the Mohawk Indian tribe.

Lyman will assume his post October 17.

He replaces Brice L. Lay, who recently became Chief of the Bureau’s Division of Public School relations in Albuquerque.

Said the Commissioner in announcing the appointment: "We are pleased that we have a man with' a solid background in administration and in dealing with Indian people assuming the Pine Ridge post."

Lyman received his BA in 1936 from Yankton College, S. Dak., and his MA in 1944 from Colorado State University.

He began his government career with the Department of agriculture in 1941 as an assistant rehabilitation supervisor at Pine Ridge, S.D. He then became a farm labor assistant and program supervisor for the Department of Agriculture at Belle Fourche, S. Dak. Returning to Pine Ridge in 1952 to join the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a placement officer.

He became a placement and relocation officer at the Aberdeen Area Office, Aberdeen, S. Dak., and Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1953 and a field relocation officer at Denver in 1954. He moved from Denver to Chicago to become a supervisory relocation officer in 1958 and was named Superintendent of the Fort Peck Agency in 1962 and the Uintah and Ouray Agency in 1967.

He is married and the father of a son and a daughter.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced the award of a $1,040,677 contract to Skousen Corporation, Albuquerque, N. M. to build 10.838 miles of road on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation. It 'will open up a recreation complex at stone Lake that is to include a 20 room lodge, trailer camp, boat docks, and wild game park.

The contract is for grading, draining, plant-mix bituminous base and seal coat surfacing of a road beginning at New Mexico state Road 537 and going to stone Lake. It is scheduled for completion late in 1972.

The 13,620 acre enclosed wild Game Park and improvements in the airport facilities at Dulce, N. M. that are part of the Stone Lake Recreation Area project have already been completed.

Now under construction is the lodge, which will include dining facilities and a gift shop. The lodge will be completely air conditioned and self-contained with its own sewage system, water supply system, and bake shop. The stone Lake Recreation Complex is financed by the Economic Development Administration.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced the appointment of William L. Benjamin, 54, an enrolled member of the Wisconsin Band of Chippewa Indians, to the post of Superintendent of the Fort Peck, Montana, and Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He assumed his duties October 31.

Benjamin replaces Anson A. Baker who has been transferred to the position of Superintendent of the Crow, Montana, and Agency of the Bureau. He comes to the Fort Peck Agency from the Wind River, Wyoming, and Agency of the Bureau where he was supervisory civil engineer.

Benjamin was born at Winifred, Montana, and attend the university of North Dakota and Montana State University. He received a superior performance award for Bureau service in 1969.

Benjamin began his career with the Bureau in 1948 as an engineering aid at the Blackfeet, Montana, and Agency. He then served as soil conservation engineer and agricultural engineer with the same agency. He moved to the Hind River Reservation in 1962 as a civil engineer and stayed with that agency until he was appointed to his new post.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced the award of an $808,000 contract for construction of a graphic arts building at Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kans., to Constant Construction Co., Inc., of Lawrence, Kans.

Haskell Indian Junior College, a Bureau of Indian Affairs school, has an enrollment of about 200 American Indian students in its college program an 1,000 in its trade-technical and business training program.

The new building, to be built of brick along contemporary lines, is scheduled for use at the beginning of the 1972 school year. The one-story building will include four printing laboratories each with a classroom, darkroom, and storeroom for materials. Equipment to be used for training is expected to reflect a cross-section of printing and type composition methods used commercially today.

Commissioner Bruce said, in announcing this milestone: “We are seeking to make Haskell Indian Junior College a junior college and vocational school the equal of any in the nation. This takes first class facilities.

"This new graphic arts building will do much to move courses in the field of graphics at this school into concepts that reflect today’s methods and today's thinking."

(Following is a statement delivered by Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton during a visit to the Uintah-Ouray Indian preservation in Utah Tuesday evening, October 5, 1971.)

I am very pleased to report to you that before I left Washington, a Secretarial Order was signed that revokes a 1930 oil shale withdrawal order as it pertained to your Indian lands.

Thus, we have erased any doubt that might have existed as to the Tribe1s ownership of lands and minerals affected by the 1930 order.

I have instructed the Bureau of Land Management to note this action on their land records. In a few days, the new Secretarial Order will also appear in the Federal Register for public notice.

The problem cleared up by the new Order was complex. Let me explain it. In 1930 an Executive Order was issued that withdrew from disposal all the deposits of oil shale and the lands containing those deposits that are owned by the United States within the State of Utah and several other States.

Then, in 1945, the Secretary of the Interior restored to the Uintah and Ouray Tribe the undisposed of opened lands on the reservations, including some lands withdrawn by the 1930 order.

However, in the 1960's the Geological Survey issued an oil shale classification order that appeared to have a possible effect upon certain of the Indian lands restored to Indian ownership in 1945. The validity of the 1945 order, with respect to lands classified as oil shale lands, was in doubt. These included grazing reserve lands; timber reserve lands; over 200, 000 acres of land and minerals restored to the Tribe in 1945; mineral rights for another 200, 000 acres; and certain individual allotments.

Now the doubts are removed by my new order. There is no longer any question that these lands and minerals in question are in Tribal ownership.