OPA

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced appointment of George W. Hubley, Jr., Director of the Maryland Department of Economic Development, to the post of Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Hubley, 56, has 25 years’ experience in public and private resource development and planning programs in Maryland, Kentucky, New Mexico, Georgia, and Ohio. He developed Maryland's first State-wide program of economic development and in his previous post of Kentucky Commissioner of Economic Development worked extensively with programs to reduce economic distress in the Appalachian areas of that State.

Udall said that Hubley's "overall experience, and particularly his work in the Appalachian area, will enable him to continue the programs the Bureau has in operation and to initiate more realistic, progressive, venturesome, and farsighted projects so urgently needed by our Indian people."

The BIA Division Hubley will direct is responsible for development and use of Indian resources; the promotion of locations in Indian areas for industrial plants, commercial endeavors and tourist enterprises; the encouragement of Indian-owned and operated economic ventures; mobilization of credit and financing for these activities; and improved management of Indian lands and resources.

Hubley is a director and past president of both the National and Southern Associations of State Planning and Development Agencies, a member of the National Council of the National Planning Association, the American Industrial Development Council and the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.

A native of Louisville, Ky., he has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Louisville and has done graduate work in the same subject at the University of Chicago. Hubley succeeds E. Reesman Fryer, who retired recently after 34 years of Government service.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior announced today renewal of a number of contracts for job-training for Indians. Contract value totals nearly $3 million.

Affected are contracts for the year beginning July 1 for programs in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi and New York. Only programs, funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are involved.

These programs include training for whole families, on-the-job work in electronics, garment and textile industries, and a nationwide program of adoptive placement for Indian children.

The largest dollar contract for fiscal 1968 renewals went to the Philco-Ford Corporation's Education and Technical Services Division for their Madera, Calif., Employment Training Center. A new concept in Indian training, the Center prepares entire families for assimilation into the economic, social and political life of America by way of job-training, formal education and instruction in home economics. The contract is for $1,728,600.

Other contract renewals: RCA Service Co. for a community-wide training program for Choctaw Indians at Philadelphia, Miss., $722,131; General Dynamics at Ft. Defiance, Ariz., for on-the-job electronics training being given 223 Indians, $204,044; Burnell and Co., electronics training for 138 Indian trainees at Laguna Pueblo, N. M., $157,088; First Seneca Corp., on-the-job training in textile mill products on the Cattaraugus Reservation near Irving, N. Y., $78,002; a nationwide adoptive placement service by New York's Child Welfare League of America, Inc., $30,800, and on-the-job training in the garment industry, the BVD Co. at Winslow, Ariz., $16,108.

The award of a $143,750 contract for construction of a power substation and installation of equipment at the Colorado River Indian Agency, Parker, Ariz., was announced today by the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The contract calls for construction of a 20,000 kilowatt substation and installation of equipment. The substation will receive electronic power from a Bureau of Reclamation 161,000-volt transmission line and reduce the power to 34,500 and 69,000 volts for transmission through the Colorado River Indian Irrigation Project power system.

The system provides electricity for project pumps and water control structures and for customers on the rapidly developing Colorado River Indian Reservation and nearby area. A steadily increasing load has been placed on the system in recent months and additional power requirements are foreseen as need continues for additional pumping to irrigate reservation lands.

The present substation facilities at the Bureau of Reclamation's Parker Dam Power Plant have a capacity available to the Colorado River Irrigation Project of 6,000 kilowatts. The system's power requirements will exceed this capacity by the summer of 1967 when the new substation will be completed. The increased capacity will provide for future irrigation growth, especially for pumping to irrigate Indian lands for which water rights were decreed in recent Supreme Court Case.

Successful bidder was Kinetic Engineering and Construction, Inc., and B&A Electric Co., a joint venture, of Sacramento, Calif. Three higher bids were received ranging to $177,926.

Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall today congratulated the Zuni Indian Tribe of New Mexico for their initiative in passing one of the first Indian Sales Taxes collected primarily from Indians.

In placing a one percent tax upon themselves, Udall said, in a letter to Zuni Tribal Governor Robert E. Lewis, the Zuni Tribe has realized "that its local government cannot be a potent force for improvement unless it is able to carry its fair share of needed educational, industrial, social, health and community development program costs."

The Zuni's willingness to tax themselves will encourage those working with them in Federal and State Government programs "to new and greater effort to meet your goals," Udall said. "Your actions should stand as a guidepost for many other tribes who share your aspirations for Indian development."

Udall noted that the new tax was one of 24 goals cited in a recently released tribal plan for 24 improvement projects over the next 24 months. The plan, he said, is further evidence of "a Zuni desire to build a Pueblo into a place of beauty, opportunity, dignity, and security for all who would continue the heritage of an ancient and honored culture."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded a $98,750 contract to Twinco-Enki Corp. of San Fernando, Calif., to review and evaluate projects undertaken by the Bureau under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

The Act, which was amended in 1966 to provide funds for Indian education, requires a broad-based evaluation of projects carried out under its provisions. Twinco-Enki will direct the evaluation from its Muskogee, Okla., branch office, which is centrally located for a number of BIA education projects currently operating.

Some typical current projects include:

• A program for teaching English as a second language involving 18,450 youngsters on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
• Enrichment of the educational program and related services for 1,170 Indian children by the Bureau's Choctaw Agency in Oklahoma.
• An elementary guidance program for 1,380 day and boarding school children by the United Pueblos Agency in New Mexico.

Approximately 65 projects will be monitored and an additional six projects will be selected for study and analysis in depth. Twinco-Enki also will supply assistance in implementing the six projects in the control study.

An essential part of the work to be done under the contract will be a centralized testing program to determine the effectiveness of the projects in meeting the Bureau's education goals.

The contract calls for completion of the evaluation and analysis by June 30, 1967 and submission of a final report to the Bureau of Indian Affairs within 45 days after that date.

The Radio Corporation of America has informed the Department of the Interior it is offering a $1,300 scholarship 'to a Choctaw Indian trainee from the Philadelphia, Miss. area for computer system work, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said today.

RCA Service Coo, an RCA subsidiary, is conducting for the Bureau of Indian Affairs an occupational training, basic literacy education, and job placement program for the Choctaws of Mississippi.

Scholarship candidates will be chosen by the Bureau and tested by RCA, Bennett said. The most promising person will be given an intensive, 48-week course at RCA's Cherry Hills, N. J o, Technical Institute, including work with electronic computer systems and digital computer techniques.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will pay living costs of the scholarship winner during the II-month training period at RCA.

A new industry to employ Navajo Indians is being established in the former administration building of the Bureau of Reclamation in Page, Ariz., and Secretary-of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

Reclamation transferred the building to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as it is no longer needed for Reclamation's activities. The building was the center of activity at Page during construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.

Under a $27,568 on-the-job training contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, EPt-Vostron of Anaheim, Calif., will use about half of the 12,500 square foot building as an electronic assembly plant and later may use more of the structure. The company is providing its own financing and machinery.

Initially, 28 Navajos will be trained and employed by EPI-Vostron. Employment is expected to expand to as many as 60 Navajos during the first year of operations. Two young Navajo men are employed by EPI-Vostron and undergoing training so that they can function as lead men at the company's facility in Page when it becomes operational. The company was attracted to a Navajo Reservation location by publicity on the decision of General Dynamics Corp. to establish a missile components manufacturing facility at Fort Defiance.

Through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, arrangements were made for a meeting with tribal officials. Raymond Nakai, Navajo Tribal Chairman, sent a personal representative to Anaheim to negotiate with company officials.

Navajo Indians are engaged in similar employment in the Fairchild Semiconductor plant at Shiprock, N. M.

Reclamation transferred the building for projected industrial use under its policy of encouraging the early conversion of government towns, established in connection with construction projects, into self-sufficient communities.

Establishment of such industries in Page, and the benefits resulting from the payrolls, are expected to help form a sound basis for transition of the community from government town to municipal status. In a further effort to stimulate such conversion, the Bureau of Reclamation recently contracted with Arizona State University for a study of problems involved in incorporation. The report and A.S.U. recommendations are expected by December, 1967.

Nearly $200 million in new school construction and school improvement projects were approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal years 1962-1967, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

The projects funded represent intensive efforts by the Department, during the six years beginning July 1, 1961, and continuing through next June 30, to expand and upgrade Federal school facilities serving young Indians who do not have access to public schools. Bureau schools and dormitories serve about 55,000 youngsters in 18 States.

Most of the schools built and operated by the Bureau for Indians are elementary schools located on reservations, serving isolated communities far from public schools. In addition, there are a number of BIA dormitories established near public schools for children who live beyond school bus routes.

Many Bureau facilities, both on or off reservations, must include such services as kitchens, dining halls and dormitories, in addition to classroom buildings. The larger high schools, such as the new Fort Wingate school near the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, consist of a campus-style complex of buildings and serve enrollments numbering over a thousand students.

During the six-year period, construction projects in 14 States will have built classroom spaces for a total of nearly 30,000 Indian youngsters. Some of this total represents replacement of inadequate old structures; some represents additional spaces.

The largest number of projects, adding 10,655 new classroom spaces and replacing an additional 3,000, have been carried on in Arizona, the State with the largest Indian population. For fiscal years 1962-1967, a total of more than $84.3 million was approved for projects within Arizona. Of this total, more than $57 million was earmarked for projects on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations.

Next in line was New Mexico, for which projects totaling more than $34.5 million were approved to improve or construct classrooms for 5,600 youngsters. Again, most of the money -- $32.6 million -- went for projects on the vast Navajo Reservation.

In Alaska, where the Bureau recognizes responsibility for the education of Eskimos, Aleuts, and Athapaskan Indians, over $33 million was budgeted for construction of new schools and replacement of dilapidated or outmoded buildings.

The following amounts were approved for specific projects in all States for each fiscal year since 1962:

• 1962 - $29.4 million
• 1963 - 37.9 million
• 1964 - 44.9 million
• 1965 - 29.9 million
• 1966 - 14.5 million
• 1967 - 39.1 million

The following figures indicate total funding for school construction and improvement and numbers of classroom spaces added or replaced in each State during the entire six-year period:.

* General improvements to Sherman Institute which serves an enrollment of over 1,000

** General improvements to Haskell Institute, a post-secondary vocational and technical institute with an enrollment of over 1,185

*** Completion during 1962 of an earlier project at Cherokee School

**** Aneth School project in Fiscal Year 1963

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said today he is scheduled to discuss soon with H. H. Mobley, executive vice president of Quality Courts Motels, Inc., of Daytona Beach, Fla., .details of a program which could place swank tourist motel facilities on Indian reservations.

The talks will be an outgrowth of intensive investigations by the industrial development department of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, and in keeping with the recent appeal to Congress by the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Bennett for imaginative, new approaches to the use of Indian land and resources.

A meeting is planned for August 9, in Washington, D.C.

Although the idea is still in the discussion stage, as proposed by Quality Courts Motels, a nationwide franchise operation, Indian tribes would be helped to plan, finance, construct and staff a series of motels across Indian country, each with its own distinctive architecture, reflecting the various tribal heritages.

"The fact that the motels would be Indian owned and operated, and on or near reservation land, will make them a 'plus' tourist attraction," Mobley said. "In addition, they can act as an outlet for tribal arts and crafts, and where possible, for use of other features of the reservation area, such as fishing, boating, swimming and hunting."

But it would be the tribes, themselves, which would negotiate with Quality. Bennett pointed out that the heart of current Bureau policy is to give the Indians a chance to move ahead on their own.

The financing of each project would vary with the tribe. Costs of motel construction, nationally, vary from $6,500 to $7,500 per unit, exclusive of land and furnishings, and as Quality's minimum requirements call for at least 40 rooms, some tribes would have to look about for private loan sources or Federal agency loans. Some tribes may draw on their own treasury. A bill now before Congress would give the tribes access to an increased revolving loan fund and other means of raising capital.

Mobley said locations will be analyzed for economic feasibility prior to final site determination. Quality Motels would then work with the tribes on design, financing, construction and staff training.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today the appointment of Lloyd H. New as Superintendent of the Institute of American Indian Arts, a school operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Santa Fe, N. M. New has been the Institute's Arts Director.

His promotion is effective August 13.

A member of the Cherokee Tribe and a native of Fairland, Okla., New operated his own fabric and commercial design organization in Scottsdale, Ariz., prior to 1962 under the name Lloyd Kiva. His designs and fashion items have been featured in national publications and exhibited in many museums. In addition he served on museum boards, did field research in a variety of Indian Art forms, and was President of the Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale. He joined the Institute staff in 1962.

Prior to that he had served as an arts and crafts instructor in the Bureau's Intermountain Indian School at Brigham City, Utah, and from time to time as a consultant on matters dealing with arts and crafts.

New was graduated from the Chicago Art Institute. He served as a Navy Lieutenant during World War II. He is married and the father of two children.