OPA

Thomas H. Tommany, a Creek Indian from Oklahoma, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas.

Established in 1884 as a boarding high school, and the alma mater of numerous Indians prominent in public life today, Haskell moved into a new phase in its , history last year. The high school program was closed out, new curricula and facilities were created, and Haskell became the first Indian school offering vocational and technical training exclusively at the post-secondary level.

Tommany, 53, is a graduate of the University of Kansas who also holds a graduate degree in education from the University of Oklahoma. He has served as teacher, counselor and administrator in a number of BIA schools during the past 27 years. For two years prior to his new appointment he served as assistant general superintendent of schools and other community services for Navajos. He is a member of Phi Delta Kappa education fraternity and the American Association of School Administrators.

In announcing his appointment, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash said: “Mr. Tommany brings to Haskell, in this new period of the school's long history, not only the rich experience of his professional career but the special insight that an Indian can bring to the situation of teaching Indian young people."

Tommany succeeds Floyd E. Stayton, who served as Superintendent at Haskell for three years. Stayton will become Director of Schools in the Bureau's Anadarko, Oklahoma Area Office. From this post he will direct the shaping of curricula and goals for six boarding schools which serve Indian students from many parts of the Nation. In addition to Haskell, these include boarding high schools at Chilocco, Riverside and Fort Still, Okla.; an elementary boarding school at Concho, Okla.; and a demonstration school, also at Concho.

The Miccosukee Indians of Florida and the Red Lake Chippewas of Minnesota soon will have new agency heads, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash has announced.

Reginald C. Miller, the first superintendent of the four-year-old Miccosukee Indian Agency in Florida, leaves that post this month for a new assignment as superintendent of the Red Lake Chippewa Reservation.

Lawrence J. Kozlowski will succeed Miller at Miccosukee Agency headquarters in Homestead, Florida. Kozlowski formerly was assistant superintendent of the Great Lakes Indian Agency at Ashland, Wisconsin.

The Miccosukee Agency was established following organization of the Miccosukee - a band of Seminole-Creeks - into a tribal entity. This group of Indians had been the most isolated in the United States, living in the alligator-infested swamplands of southern Florida. Their forebears had fled to the area rather than be party to Seminole treaties with the United States during the era of Andrew Jackson.

Miller won a superior performance award in 1963 for helping the Miccosukees establish new homes on the dry fill bordering the Tamiami Trail and launch a business with a BIA-funded restaurant and motel. He also directed completion of a school for about 35 Miccosukee children, ranging in age from 6 to 16, who had never before attended school.

Kozlowski brings to the Miccosukee Agency a background of work of education. His 15 years of service in Indian affairs includes work among Alaska natives, a people as remote in environment as the Miccosukee have been.

At Red Lake, Minnesota, Miller replaces Jerome F. Morlock, who recently became Area Forester in the Bureau's Sacramento, Calif., Area Office.

The assignment is a return engagement for Miller. He was administrative officer of the Red Lake sawmill operations in the 1950's. A graduate of Haskell Institute, Miller's career with the Bureau began in 1938 and has taken him to numerous posts including duty tours at Albuquerque, New Mexico; Phoenix, Arizona; Billings, Montana; Aberdeen, South Dakota; Dania, Florida; and Washington, D. C.

Dale M. Baldwin, a career employee of 17 years' service, will head the Bureau of Indian Affairs area office in Portland, Oregon, the Department of the Interior has announced.

The transfer from his present post as Superintendent of the Nevada Indian Agency at Stewart, Nev., will be effective March 20, 1966.

In 1965 Baldwin was cited for outstanding performance during his five years of work with the 26 tribal groups throughout Nevada.

His advancement to Area Director will place under his administrative purview nearly all the Indian tribes of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. He will succeed Robert D. Holtz, who retired in December 1965.

A native of New Castle, Pa., Baldwin is a graduate of Oregon State College and has spent much of his career in the Northwest. His first post with the Bureau of Indian Affairs took him to the Colville Indian Agency at Nespelem, Wash., as a soil conservationist. Two years later he moved to the Umatilla Agency in Oregon, and later served at the Fort Hall Agency in Idaho.

In 1957 he joined the Washington, D. C., staff of the Bureau as a program officer and in 1959 was appointed superintendent of the Fort Peck, Mont., Indian reservation.

Baldwin is an Army veteran of World War II. He entered the service as a private in 1943 and was honorably discharged in 1946 with the rank of captain.

A four-day camp-in at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago is planned by Montana's Blackfeet Indians for March 9-12.

Tribal Chairman Earl Old Person and veteran Boy Scout Leader Francis Guardipee will preside over the event in the lobby of the windy city's biggest hotel as a promotion, not a protest.

The Tribe hired exhibit space for the national convention of the American Camping Association, hoping to interest camp owners and operators in establishing residential camps on the Blackfeet Reservation.

The reservation abuts Glacier National Park and faces the Canadian province of Alberta, in an area considered ideal for summertime swimming, boating, fishing and hiking.

An economic feasibility study by the Bureau of Indian Affairs showed that a parcel of land on the shores of Lake St. Mary, adjacent to Glacier National Park, has outstanding potential for this kind of use-and revenue from the lease of this property would help the tribe invest in further community improvements.

Lake St. Mary is 10 miles long and a mile wide. Nearby is Duck Lake, known the world over for its fishing and waterfowl. The annual North American Indian Days summer event at Browning is also within driving distance. Although the area is virtually unspoiled, transportation by bus and rail is good, and hospital and medical facilities are available nearby.

Blackfeet Indians are in tune with the times. Most of them speak English fluently; many are farmers or stockmen; others are employed in businesses or are in public service jobs.

It is not unusual to see older Blackfeet men with hair in braids, and women wearing shawls in place of coats. Some are still versed in the sign language of the Plains and can communicate with other Tribes in this fashion. Blackfeet names are sometimes as picturesque as the tribal name, but many families have French and Scottish surnames, a reminder of their early contacts and intermarriage with Canadian trappers and traders.

The Indian children of Montana generally attend public schools and a growing number are enrolling each year in colleges.

Young and old alike, all Indians are citizens of the Unites States, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship. At present there are many young men from the Blackfeet Tribe serving in the armed forces.

Mr. Guardipee, one of the old-timers, has been active in Boy Scouting since the Scout movement started in the United States in 1910. He was Tribal Chairman Old Person's Scoutmaster about 24 years ago when the Blackfeet Troop attended an International Jamboree in France. Both men are today ardent advocates of organized outdoor training and education programs for young people.

The Blackfeet Tribe is one of several Western Indian tribes interested in developing sites for residential youth camps.

John C. Dibbern, a career BIA employee and former university professor, is slated to head Bureau activities in connection with Missouri River Basin development, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash has announced.

With headquarters in Billings, Mont., Dibbern will head a staff of economist, soil scientists, and engineers engaged in continuing studies to protect the interests of Indian landowners in the multi-State Missouri Basin area.

Main activities of the office are: (1) to appraise lands to be taken for water development; (2) to determine irrigation potentials on Indian lands with a view to tie-ins with larger water development projects; and (3) to study the economic and social impact upon Indian communities of Missouri River Basin development in all its aspects--irrigation, flood control, river navigation, hydroelectric power generation, soil erosion control, and fish and wildlife conservation.

Dibbern's career in the Federal Government began with the Forest Service in 1945 While he was completing doctoral work in plant ecology. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

His first post with BIA was at Sells, Ariz., where he directed forestry operations and range management on about three million acres in the Papago, Gila Bend, and San Xavier Indian Reservations. He subsequently was transferred to a similar assignment on the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

In 1956 he became assistant to BlA's Assistant Commissioner for Resources in Washington, D. C., and a year later he was appointed Superintendent of the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona. Prior to his new assignment, he served five years as assistant director of economic development for the Gallup, N. Mex., Area Office of BIA.

Dibbern is a native of Los Angeles, Calif., and an Army veteran of World War II.

He succeeds Walter Fuhriman, who was BlA's Director of the Missouri River Basin Investigation Project for 15 years until his retirement in December 1965.

WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHES ESTABLISH PRIMITIVE AREA

The White Mountain Apache Tribal Council has voted to set aside a 7,400-acre tract on its Arizona reservation as a primitive area for the next five years. The area, which includes Mount Baldy on the east boundary of the reservation, will not be subject to any development, timber cutting, or vehicular traffic, except as needed for fire or insect control operations. It will remain under tribal control and-is not part of the National Wilderness Preservation system.

NDEA INSTITUTES FOR TEACHERS OF INDIAN STUDENTS

Six universities and colleges this summer will sponsor National Defense Education Act Institutes Which will be of special interest to teachers from schools that enroll Indian students. Bureau of Indian Affairs, public, and nonprofit private school teachers are eligible to attend. The programs are planned to improve education for the disadvantaged.

The sponsoring institutions are: Arizona State College, Flagstaff, Ariz.; University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans. ; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. Mex.; Utah State University, Logan, Utah; Western Washington State College, Bellingham, Wash.; and Western Montana College, Dillon, Mont.

SEMINOLES CONTRACT FOR ON-THE-JOB TRAINING

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., was recently awarded a $5,750 contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide on-the-job training for 20 tribal members at two South Florida reservations. The trainees will receive instruction in woodworking skills at Big Cypress Reservation and in textile machine operation at Brighton Reservation.

LAND DEVELOPMENT AT FORT HALL

An additional 2,300-acre tract on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho has been opened for irrigation. The project is a Bureau of Indian Affairs' supervised program of "unitization" - combining the property of various Indian owners for management purposes--and conversion from grass land to irrigated farming. The land, once depleted of good native grazing grasses, was reseeded "to crested wheat grass and has steadily increased in value and productivity since the program started. It has been leased by its owners for a 16-year period for irrigated farming.

Total annual cash income in 1951, when reseeding of the tract began, was $154; during the 1952-1965 period this figure increased to $462. Today, under a development type lease, the land is expected to bring an income of $55,000 annually to its owners.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SEEKS INDIAN WORKERS

Representatives of the Department of Defense's Contract Administrative Services Office met recently with Bureau of Indian Affairs employment assistance officers in several major industrial cities. Their aim is to seek ways of stimulating Indian employment with defense contractors.

A major responsibility of the Office is to ensure fair employment practices and nondiscrimination in hiring by defense contractors.

INDIAN CLAIMS COMMISSION ACTIONS

More than 850 claims against the United States have been filed with the Indian Claims Commission by various tribal groups. As of January 1, 1966, 177 were disposed of by awards.; 167 by dismissals for such reasons as the claimant's failure to prove entitlement, filing by an improper claimant, and lack of jurisdiction by the Indian Claims Commission. There are now more than 500 claims pending before the Commission.

NORTHERN PAIUTE CLAIMS CASE

United States Government attorneys are appealing the Indian Claims Commission decision of 1965 in the Northern Paiute Claims Case (Docket No. 87). The U. S. Court of Claims has been asked to review the issues of title, minerals and the right of the Northern Paiute Nation and Bands, as petitioner, to represent the 'Mono" group of Indians. The Northern Paiutes have filed a counter-appeal based on the question of land value.

In the orders previously issued, the Indian Claims Commission granted an award of $935, 000 as payment for 3.1 million acres of land in California and Nevada (the Mono Tract) taken in 1B53 and 1B63; $15, 790, 000 for 11.6 million acres taken in California and Nevada (Paviotso Tract) in IB53 and IB62; and $3,650,000 for 10.5 million acres in northern Nevada and southern Oregon, with small portions in Idaho and California, taken in 1872.

TWO SOUTH DAKOTA RESERVATIONS, TO GET PLANNING ASSISTANCE

The first Federal grant to an Indian area under the Urban Planning Assistance Program (Section 701) of the Housing Act of 1954 will go to aid two South Dakota Reservations, the Urban Renewal Administration has announced. The 1954 Act was amended in 1965 to include Indian reservations.

The State of South Dakota will receive a $44,190 grant to aid the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations in programs of comprehensive planning for growth and development. The funds will be used for population studies, economic analyses, planning community improvements, housing, roads, schools, and for other socioeconomic planning.

Because the two Reservations are in officially designated redevelopment areas, the Federal grant will cover three-fourths of the total costs of planning activities, expected to take two years. It will be supplemented by $14,731 in local funds.

Crow Creek is in Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde Counties; Lower Brule is in Lyman and Stanley Counties. There are approximately 1,700 Indians, mainly Sioux, living on or near the two reservations.

Acting Secretary of the Interior John A. Carver Jr. today announced the resignation of Philleo Nash as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, effective March 15, 1966.

Mr. Nash, a former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, was nominated by President Kennedy as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in August 1961.

Prior to this appointment he served for five months as a member of the Indian Affairs Task Force named by Secretary Udall.

In addition to serving as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin from 1959 to 1961, Nash was a special assistant to President Truman from 1946 to 1953. For four years prior to his White House assignment, he was a special assistant to the Director of War Information, the late Elmer Davis.

As a student and lecturer in anthropology, Nash has had an active interest in Indian affairs throughout his career. Born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., in 1909, he was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1932 and received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago five years later. From 1937 to 1941 he was a lecturer on anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Mr. Carver expressed appreciation for Nash's service to the Department and Indian people. "The last five years have been constructive ones, in education, in economic development, and in resource management," Carver said. "Mr. Nash has been a fine leader, and has enjoyed the confidence of the Indian people."

The text of Mr. Nash's letter of resignation to President Johnson and the President's response is attached.

United States Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20242

March 9, 1966

Dear Mr. President:

Respectfully I submit my resignation as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. If it is agreeable with you, I would hope that it could be effective on March 15.

I do this most regretfully; my five years' association with the Indian tribes and their reservations have been filled with the happiest of relationships with the Indian people and their leaders.

Your administration has been one marked with understanding of the Indian people and responsive to their need. It has been mindful of its opportunities and its obligations. I have been proud to serve it.

In recent months, we have been fully committed in the War on Poverty, particularly the War on Indian Poverty. Much has been accomplished; much remains to be done.

Although I have become convinced that the success of programs for Indian betterment throughout the whole government will be better served with different leadership, I nevertheless remain committed to you and to the program, and pledge my support to both.

Construction of a new elementary school at Cottonwood, Ariz., to accommodate upwards of 450 Indian children, is scheduled to begin soon, The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today the award of a building contract for $1,359,828.

Children in the area of Blue Gap, Tachee, Smoke Signal, Whippoorwill and Cottonwood, who have all been attending trailer schools, will use the new Cottonwood School when it is completed.

The construction contract calls for a 15-classroom building; multi-purpose building; fire station and garage; storage facilities; generator building and pump house and 18 homes and two duplex apartments for staff. Outside work includes a water system with 150,000 gallon reservoir, sewage system with lagoons, electrical system with a relocation of existing generators and site improvements.

The successful bidder was Medley Construction Company of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Seven higher bids, ranging from $1,392,000 to $1,568,500 were received.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has commended the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona for setting aside 7,400 acres of reservation land around Mount Baldy as a primitive area.

The effect of the tribal resolution is to preserve the Indian-owned lands against timber cutting and vehicular traffic for at least five years.

Affected by the resolution is a block of land in the Mount Baldy region which adjoins another 7,400-acre area in the Apache National Forest, currently under study by the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service for possible inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Formal designation of this national forest tract as a wilderness area can be accomplished only if the Secretary of Agriculture, the President, and Congress take affirmative action.

Secretary Udall noted that the Indian-owned tract includes lands long regarded as sacred by the White Mountain Apache tribe.

"I consider it highly appropriate that the tribe, under the leadership of Chairman Lester Oliver, has acted on its own to preserve its portion of this magnificent region,” Udall said. "As an Arizonan and a firm believer in the Wilderness concept, I hope the Government's adjoining lands will meet the necessary tests and become part of the National Wilderness Preservation System created by Congress in 1964."

The Mount Baldy area of the Apache National Forest has been designated as a Primitive Area by the Forest Service since 1932. In this status it has been undeveloped, but its future preservation does not have the full sanction which formal Wilderness designation would give.

The White Mountain Apache primitive area will remain tribally owned and managed.

In its resolution, the tribe specified that the designated Indian-owned primitive area "shall not be subject to any development or timber cutting and vehicular traffic, with the exception of fire control traffic." Tribal game wardens are to enforce the resolution. Another provision of the order states that retention of the area will not otherwise conflict with the management of the Fort Apache Timber Company, a major tribal enterprise which harvests timber on much of the 1.6-million-acre reservation.

The action was recommended by the Fort Apache Reservation Development Committee, a joint tribal-Federal body. A review at the end of five years is provided for.

With American families taking to the highways in greater numbers every year, often in search of a scenic trail or a restful campsite, Indian reservations are putting up welcome signs.

American Indians have discovered that they are the owners of some of the most scenic, unspoiled and undeveloped real estate to be found. As business men, they are turning these natural beauties into profits, with financial and technical aid from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Although there is small chance that another group of Indians like the Agua Caliente band of Southern California will suddenly find themselves the owners of a resort like Palm Springs, there unquestionably are opportunities for Indians to tap the increasing flow of American travel business.

The very remoteness of most Indian reservations may be making them more attractive to persons who want to escape the crowds which now besiege the better known parks and scenic wonders. Some reservations, moreover, have fishing and hunting resources which are still relatively untouched.

In many cases, facilities are simple campground accommodations. In other places visitors be installed in a luxurious lodge with every comfort.

Travelers are a familiar sight to the Cherokees of North Carolina, whose reservation boasts fine trout fishing, museums, a typical Indian village, and a tribally operated lodge and restaurant. The drama “Unto These Hills,” based on episodes in Cherokee history, is presented in an outdoor theatre during the summer months and is an outstanding production.

In Florida, the Seminoles exhibit and sell their natives arts and crafts on their reservation at Dania.

The Miccosukees, kin to the Seminoles are also in business. They are descendants of Seminoles and Creeks who hid in the Everglades to escape the armed forces sent by President Andrew Jackson to enforce a land exchange treaty moving Florida Indians across the Mississippi. The group still calls the Everglades home. Recently organized as a tribal group in order to receive Federal aid, the Miccosukees are now the proud and successful owners of a beautiful restaurant -- the only one on: the Tamiami Trail, a highway that slices across the State from Miami to Tampa. Soon they will provide motel accommodations as well.

Vacationers in the Western States have even greater choices. A traveler might swing through Oklahoma, once known as the Indian Territory, in time for the American Indian Exposition at Anadarko each July. Sponsored by the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, this event features dances, exhibits, and displays of arts and crafts, and attracts thousands.

Continuing on to the Southwest, there is an Indian welcome waiting in New Mexico and Arizona. States with a combined Indian population of about 140,000. The annual Inter-Tribal Ceremonials at Gallup, N.M., open August 12 for 4 days of fun and games, Indian style.

On the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona, the White Mountain Apache Tribe operates what may be the largest privately owned recreation area in the West. Continuously stocked trout streams and lakes offer fine fishing and there are more than 700 camping and picnic sites for outdoor living at its best. At Hawley Lake on the Reservation, the Indians have developed and leased hundreds of summer home sites on which vacation cottages have been built. There are first class guest accommodations at the Hon-Dah Motel. "Hon-Dah" means "Be My Guest" in the Apache language.

The Navajo Reservation to the north, home of the largest American Indian tribe, spills over from Arizona into New Mexico and Utah. The Navajos operate motels and restaurants at Shiprock, N.M., and at Window Rock in Arizona. Last summer the Monument Valley Inn, an 80-unit motel complete with swimming pool, restaurant and curio shop, opened at Kayenta, Ariz. This sparkling new guest house is located on the highway leading to fabled Monument Valley, a spectacularly scenic section of the reservation considered a "must" by most visitors.

The Mescalero Apaches of New Mexico have made ready for winter visitors by operating a ski facility just north of their reservation in the Lincoln National Forest on Sierra Blanca, one of the highest peaks in the State. They are planning to open a larger resort in the Sacramento Mountains within the reservation area, with a hotel, swimming pool, golf course and other facilities for outdoor sports.

The Apaches have been joined in the field of ski development by other tribes, including the Chippewa and Cree Indians of Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana.

And the Santa Clara Pueblos, north of historic Santa Fe, have established new camping facilities to make life easier for vacationers with a yen to explore the ancient Indian ruins adjacent to their scenic canyon area.

On the aptly named Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, not far from Portland, nature provides more than 300 sunny days each year. Here is Kahneeta, a hot springs spa opened by the Indians in May, 1964. The Kahneeta development features a swimming pool of Olympic dimensions which serves about 300 swimmers on week days and 1,000 on busy weekends. There are attractive, furnished cabins and unfurnished teepees. A new restaurant built high on a rocky hillside soon will provide a spectacular view for diners.

While these are some of the major Indian tourist developments, other tribes are entering the field.

Beautiful Pyramid Lake, an unspoiled 175-square-mile body of water in the Pyramid Lake Reservation in Nevada, is just beginning to attract developers. While overnight accommodations are now limited, there is fishing, boating and swimming in an incomparable setting. The Pyramid Lake Indians expect motel or lodge accommodations to be available before long.

For the traveler who prefers a vacation with simple surroundings there are ample camping facilities in Indian country. The Rosebud Sioux in western South Dakota now operate a large camping area with hunting and fishing privileges. On the reservation of the Cheyenne River Tribe of South Dakota, a picnic area to be known as Forest City is being developed on the shores of the Oahe Reservoir.

It is not for recreational opportunities alone that travelers return each year to be the guest of Indian tribes. Though the American Indians are adapting successfully to many 20th Century ways, they still hold dear their ancient customs, ceremonials, and tribal ties. Today, in fact, their reluctance to lose their cultural identity may be stronger than ever before.

The traveler who has observed the dances and ceremonials of Indian America carries away a priceless memory. For the Indian, progress has not brushed aside timeless values or stored away enduring traditions on the back shelf of history's closet. That is probably the real fascination of a vacation in Indian country.