OPA

William B. Benge, Chief of the Branch of Law and Order, Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been given a temporary assignment as Special Liaison Representative to the Seneca Indian Tribe of Western New York, Commissioner Robert L. Bennett announced today.

Bennett said that Benge's appointment is effective immediately and is expected to last only a few months while a successor is being chosen for Sidney M. Carney, who has been named BIA Area Director for the Anadarko (Okla.) Area.

Benge, a member of the Cherokee Tribe, began his service with the Bureau in 1934 as a clerk at the Turtle Mountain, N. D. Agency.

From 1946 to 1949 he was Superintendent of the New York Agency, which was abolished in 1949 when responsibility for Indian affairs was turned over to the State. Federal contact was re-estab1ished when Carney was sent to assist the Senecas with a rehabilitation program after one third of one of their reservations was taken for the new Kinzua Dam Reservoir.

Ground has been broken for the AMI-Zuni Computer Parts Plant, the first factory on the new B1ackrock Industrial Park of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, which will employ 100 Zuni Indians by the year's end.

The groundbreaking took place August 23, exactly three months from the day officials of the parent company, Aircraft Mechanics, Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colo., first set foot on the reservation.

The plant is being built by the tribe with tribal funds and a loan from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' revolving loan fund. It will be leased to the computer company. The industrial complex is being created by the tribe with $268,000 in funds obtained through Economic Development Administration grants and loans and construction funds from the Federal Water pollution Control Administration. The water pollution control funds will be used to build adequate sewage facilities for the complex at a total cost of $79,000, of which $23,700 is Federal money.

The tribe is actively seeking other industrial and commercial tenants for the park, located just east of the Pueblo.

Twenty Zunis, both men and women, have been picked for two-week training sessions at Colorado Springs to learn the intricate art of assembling computer memory cores, made of tiny wires woven through minute silicon "donuts."

The work is so precise and the materials so small that the final operations must be performed with the aid of high powered microscopes.

Aircraft Mechanics officials say they are well pleased with the aptitudes displayed by the first trainees and feel that the "quality and productivity" of the Zuni labor force will be a decided advantage in a highly competitive industry. They said there is a good possibility that operations may be expanded and broadened in future months.

The officials also complimented the tribe and representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, New Mexico Emp10yement and Security Commission, Economic Development Administration and Public Health Service for the speed with which construction and training details were completed.

An agreement designed to speed the creation of a self-sustaining Alaskan reindeer industry has been signed by the Interior Department's Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Land Management and the State of Alaska, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The agreement, Udall said, sets forth areas of responsibility in "a united effort to improve the economic base for the Native peoples of Alaska by making the reindeer industry a continuing and increasing source of jobs and income."

Under the agreement's terms, all parties will work to encourage the Northwest Alaska Reindeer Herders Association to develop the reindeer industry.

The BIA will be responsible for the promotion and development of the ranching aspects of the program, until Native leadership develops skills to assume this responsibility.

The BLM will be responsible for the management of the habitat and for investigating the potential of new areas for grazing, consistent with the principles of multiple use.

The State of Alaska will assume the responsibility for advice, guidance and promotion of the slaughtering, processing and marketing phases of the industry.

The agreement calls for the establishment of an Alaska Reindeer Industry Advisory Committee of four members, one from each of the signatories plus the Herders Association. The Committee will provide general direction, supervision and leadership in the reindeer improvement program.

At present there are about 42,000 reindeer in 16 private and two government Alaskan herds. Not native to North America, reindeer were introduced to Alaska around the turn of the century. Under almost ideal conditions the herd increased to more than 630,000 by 1932. However, because of a depression caused falling market, over-grazing, inadequate herding, predator increase, losses due to straying off with closely related caribou herds, several severe winters in the late 1930's and the diversion of interest caused by World War II, the total number was reduced to a low of 26,000 in 1950.

All parties to the agreement see potential for an increased reindeer development in expanding demands for red meat protein in this country and the Far East. The Alaskan range land now available for use can support an estimated 500,000 reindeer.

Will Rogers, Jr., son of the humorist and grandson of Cherokee leader Clem Vann Rogers, has been given a temporary appointment as Special Assistant to Indian Commissioner Robert L. Bennett, it was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. Rogers took the oath of office September 18.

Udall noted that Rogers has been serving as a consultant to the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and "both Commissioner Bennett and I have been tremendously impressed with his knowledge of and concern for Indian problems and his ability to work with all kinds of Indian groups and inspire them to new efforts and insights."

Bennett said that Rogers would spend considerable time working with students and teachers in Bureau schools, and would represent the Commissioner at meetings of tribal organizations, exhibits, festivals and other events.

Rogers, 55, is a graduate of Stanford University and has been a Congressman, newspaper publisher, Army officer during World War II, motion picture actor, television commentator, writer and California State Parks Commissioner. He has homes in Los Angeles, and Tubac, Ariz. His wife, the former Collier Connell, helped found Arrow, Inc. an Indian interest organization. The couple has an adopted son, Clem, a full-blood Navajo, and a second son, Carlos.

The maximum development of Indian economic, industrial and employment potential on a nationwide basis, and the problems involved, will be considered at a meeting sponsored by the Department of ~he Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oklahoma late this month.

Officials from the Bureau's 11 area offices in the Midwest, West and Alaska and the Washington headquarters will meet with business and industrial leaders and representatives of the Economic Development Administration and Small Business Administration.

George E. Schmidt, chief of the Bureau's branch of industrial development, which is conducting the conference, said:

"All participants are supporting the tribal effort, and give guidance and support to tribal programs. We are aiming toward utilization of all opportunities and integration of every effort to bring about maximum development of the reservations.”

More than 50 people are expected to attend the meeting September' 26, 27, and 28 at Wagoner, Okla.

Speakers other than Federal officials will include: Governor Dewey Bartlett of Oklahoma; Richard Preston of Boston, executive director of the American Industrial Development Council; H. H. Mobley, executive vice president of Quality Courts Motels, Inc., Daytona Beach, Fla.; Ed Daley, vice president of the Public Service Company, Tulsa, Okla.; Arthur R. Fichter, manager of the Business Analysis Division of Amphenol Corp., Chicago; and Bud Heiser, director of planning in the Oklahoma Industrial and Park Department, Oklahoma City.

Federal officials who will speak include George W. Hubley, Jr., the new BIA assistant commissioner for economic development; Mr. Schmidt; Murray W. Kramer, director of office management assistance in the Small Business Administration; Coleman Stein, director of the office of business management in the Economic Development Administration; and a number of BIA officials.

A $2,187,000 contract for school facilities construction at Santa Rosa, on the Papago Reservation in Southern Arizona, has been awarded to the F. H. Antrim Construction Co., of Phoenix, Ariz., the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The contract calls for the construction of a 12-classroom school with multipurpose building, instructional materials center and administrative offices; a 360-pupil kitchen-dining hall; a 160-pupil dormitory; a plant management building with a fire truck garage; a mechanical equipment building and employee quarters. Related work includes water and sewerage utilities and extensions, a 150,000 gallon elevated water storage tank, sewer lagoon, site grading, drives, walks, curbing, gutters and paving.

The construction site will be approximately 4.5 miles from the present school location, which does not have enough land for expansion purposes. The existing dormitory will be converted to employees' quarters and the kitchen-dining building will be remodeled to provide a recreation facility.

This work, when complete, will provide modern school facilities for 160 boarding and 200 day pupils. Seven higher bids, ranging from $2,279,881 to $2,387,000 were received.

A coordinated effort to develop more effective leadership for Indian community development has been launched by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner Robert Lo Bennett said today.

"We hope th4t the group spirit and cultural strengths which have enabled many Indian groups to survive and maintain their identity against tremendous odds may be translated into new community actions which can generate the social and economic progress necessary to bring Indians into their rightful place in American society." Bennett said.

To begin this concerted effort he said, two seminars on extensive community development have been conducted for the BIA at the Southwest Center for Human relations and Studies at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

The two seminars one in September and the other this month, were designed to give BIA officials and representatives of cooperating agencies a broad perspective on both the problems of Indian community development and new approaches to finding their solutions.

"It is obvious that many of our programs have been and are community development programs. II Bennett said. "But we hope that by a careful analysis effectiveness and goals we can make all these programs work together for the development of the total community.”

Great progress has been made in recent years in the development of local leadership," he said. "This growing resource must operate in the most efficient manner possible - thus our concern that all who would assist India-risen see' the forest as well as the trees."

The seminars. Directed by Dr. Edward Ho Spicer of the University of Arizona, are the Bureaus first effort to bring its leadership together for intensive study and discussion of the community development problems and procedure so Participants included officials from the BIA Central Office in Washington and from Area offices throughout Indian' country including Alaska.

Follow-up meetings will be held in the near future in various areas and will involve tribal leadership as well as the participation of other Federal agencies and groups interested in Indian affairs.

A cooperative agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Board of Parole and the Federal Probation System to provide rehabilitation and employment services for Indians just released from Federal prisons has been signed, it was announced today.

The agreement calls for a "concerted" effort to unify court, prison and parole procedures and the many educational, vocational and employment services provided Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The agreement noted that "conviction on State or Federal criminal charges does not disqualify Indians from eligibility for assistance by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Conviction may, in fact, be an indication of a need for special assistance.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said the agreement "will allow those who determine if an Indian offender is ready for parole, those who supervise his parole activities, and those who operate programs designed to help Indians become productive members of modern society coordinate their activities for the benefit of Indians now obviously at odds with society."

The agreement was signed by: Bennett; William E. Foley, Deputy Director, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts; Myrl E. Alexander, Chief, U.S. Bureau of Prisons; and Homer L. Benson, member, U.S. Board of Parole.

Formal dedication of the Chippewa Ranch Conservation Center, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs near Mahnomen, Minn. is scheduled for Sunday, October 29. Principal speaker for the event will be Will Rogers. Jr., assistant to Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

In announcing the dedication of the Job Corps Center on the White Earth Reservation, Commissioner Bennett said it is the eighth center to be established on or near an Indian reservation.

"These young men are reversing the often cruel history of land-grabbing from the Indian," he said. "Job Corps trainees restore Indian lands by replanting burned forest areas, stop land erosion through dam building, repair and install Indian boundary and range fences, and construct new roads across vast reservation areas."

Nor has the Job Corps work gone unnoticed by the Indians who benefit by much of it, Bennett said.

A spokesman for the Navajo Tribe commended the Mexican Springs, N.M., Job Corps director for work the Corps did, installing a Canada goose pen at nearby Red Lake on the Navajo Reservation. A tree planting project of more than 5,000 trees drew praise from the Navajo forest managers and a tribute on the courteous conduct of the Job Corps members while on the reservation.

Recently, Wendell Chino, president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, complimented the Eight Canyon Job Corps Camp on construction work its members performed on the tribal ceremonial grounds, adding: ."The help these young men gave the tribe during the ceremonial helped us in handling the public. The men's neatness and politeness is a credit to themselves and their leaders."

Conservation centers operated by the Bureau include Fort Simcoe, near White Swan, Wash., on the Yakima Indian Reservation; Winslow, Ariz.; San Carlos on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, near Globe, Ariz.; Poston Center, Colorado River Reservation, near Yuma, Ariz.; Mexican Springs Center on the Navajo Reservation, near Gallup, N.M.; Eight Canyon Center on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, near Mescalero, N.M.; and Kicking Horse Center on the Flathead Indian Reservation, near Ronan, Mont. Planned for mid-November opening is the Swift Bird Center on the Cheyenne River Reservation, near Gettysburg, S.D.

“These centers with 1,653 young men enrolled, have accounted for more than $2.5 million worth of work in fiscal 1967 on conservation, Center and community projects, while at the same time offering new educational opportunities to high school dropouts and preparing others for work in many trades,” Bennett said.

The appraised value of work done by these corpsmen during the year ended June 30 was $1,543,038 on conservation projects, $939,308 in Center projects, and $120,747 on community projects, for a total of $2,603,093.

Projects at Chippewa are typical of those for most of the Centers. They include tree planting, construction of camp grounds and picnic areas, small bridge and dam construction, and development of wildlife habitat.

Shops are maintained for woodworking, automotive maintenance and repair, and heavy equipment work. Each corpsman receives from two to four hours of instruction per day in mathematics and reading while in the education phase of the program. Programmed materials allow each corpsman to progress at his own rate.

Firefighting, driver education and safety instruction round out center programs.

Bennett noted that the healthful, rugged outdoor surroundings of the centers contribute much toward the development of Job Corps youth, giving them a fresh viewpoint about their place and potential in the world around them,.

Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Lawrence J. Kozlowski, formerly superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs· Miccosukee Agency, Homestead, Fla., has been appointed superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency, Dulce. N. M.

He will fill the position left vacant by the recent transfer of Ralph Bo Armstrong to the post of Project Engineer in the Navajo area. The transfer is effective October 22.

Kozlowski is a native of Illinois and received his bache1or·s degree in Education from Roosevelt College. Chicago. There he also took graduate work.

In August of 1951 he joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a teacher with the Alaska Native Service, Wrangell. Alaska. In February, 1966. Kozlowski as promoted to the superintendency of the Miccosukee Agency.

He served with the U.S. Navy during World War II as a signalman aboard U.S. merchant ships.

Kozlowski is married and the father of two children.