OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the award of a $238,895 contract for improving the road that serves Kahneeta Hot Springs, a popular resort on the Warm Springs Reservation in central Oregon.

The contract calls for widening and bituminous resurfacing of approximately 11.5 miles of the existing Agency Simnasho and Hot Springs Deschutes road to serve increased traffic to the tourist mecca. A tribal enterprise of the Warm Springs Indians, Kahneeta resort features luxurious overnight accommodations, an Olympic-size swimming pool and thermal baths. The tribe has plans under way to expand facilities for the increasing numbers of visitors who come each year to vacation among the Indians.

Successful bidder for the road improvement contract was Babler Bros., Inc., of Portland, Oregon. Five bids were received, ranging to a high of $360,776.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today approval of a change in the Code of Federal Regulations regarding Indian college scholarships to conform to a new law recently signed by President Johnson.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said the new law eliminated a prohibition against Federal scholarships for Indian students at sectarian schools and the Code change carries out the intent of the law.

Other Federal college scholarship and loan programs do not differentiate between sectarian and non-sectarian schools, Bennett said. The bill changing the Indian scholarship provision, PL 90-280, was enacted March 30. The change becomes effective upon publication in the Federal Register.

Alaska is home to three native peoples. The Eskimos, although best known, share the vast land with their island relatives, the Aleuts, and with a large number of Indians.

The story of these native residents of the great northern peninsula that became a State in 1959 is told in a booklet just published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs--Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska.

Here is a sampling of some little known facts revealed in the new publication:

-- The 14,444 Indians, 23,323 Eskimos, and 5,755 Aleuts counted in the most recent census represent roughly one-fifth of the State population;

-- Aleut sea-hunters harvest about BO percent of the fur seal pelts taken each year on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

-- Alaska Eskimos do not live in igloos, but sometimes construct snow windbreaks when caught in storms;

-- Native jade and ivory carvings of remarkable beauty are sought by collectors throughout the world.

In the course of a tumultuous and colorful history, Alaska--or Alyeska, as the Aleuts call the region--has survived occupation by Russian fur traders; a Gold Rush; post-war land booms; the advent of Statehood; and a devastating earthquake. These and other historic highlights thread through the booklet just issued.

Amply illustrated, the 16-page publication may be purchased at 15 cents a copy from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402. A discount of 25 percent is allowed on quantity orders of 100 or more, to be mailed to one address.

This booklet is the third in a current BIA series. Two earlier publications, Indians of North Carolina and Indians of Oklahoma, are for sale at the same address and price.

Two contracts totaling $3.7 million for Indian family residential training programs in California and New Mexico have been renewed for 1968, Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian of Affairs, announced.

The two programs, operated at deactivated Air Force bases, give Indians the academic, vocational and urban life training they need to live and work effectively in modern society, Bennett said.

Families in the programs live in what was base housing. Single persons live in dormitories. Both take an active part in the life of the community; children are enrolled in local schools.

One contract, for $2 million, is with the Thioko1 Chemical Corp., Ogden, Utah, which operates the Training Center at Roswell, N.M.; and the other, for $1.7 million, is with the Philco-Ford Corp., which runs the Training Center at Madera, Calif. Total enrollment at both centers is 115 families and 315 single persons.

"These concentrated, individualized programs can help Indians overcome several educational and social handicaps in relatively short periods of time," Bennett said, "and help them become not only self-sufficient as wage earners but self-respecting as independent and contributing members of society."

A new "exemplary" Indian school, set up to pioneer new teaching techniques; will open this fall at Concho, Okla., Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.

The 256 pupil boarding school, to be operated.in a new $2.5 million building complex, will be used to develop new educational method's' to overcome the cultural and linguistic differences which often handicap Indian children in a traditional learning experience, Bennett said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has entered into a contract with Southwestern State College at nearby Weatherford, Okla., to provide consulting services to devise, test and evaluate new educational techniques under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The exemplary program, Bennett said, 'will continue the thrust of our present day educational planning, which seeks to emphasize the variety of experience and background that make up the American population, and the fact that the many Indian cultures in our land can and should make a contribution to our society. At the same time his own culture can provide the Indian student with the sense of personal identification and belonging so necessary for emotional growth and learning."

Southwestern State College has had considerable experience training teachers for public schools in western Oklahoma which have large Indian enrollments, Bennett said, and "it is enthusiastic about exploring these new means for breaking down the barriers which have slowed Indian learning, and creating new ways to prepare the Indian student for a productive and self-sustaining life in American society." The inquiry process which stresses thinking through a problem, rather than memorizing answers to the teachers' questions, will be stressed throughout the school's program, he said.

Part of the exemplary program will be a low pupil-staff ratio, a strong guidance program and the use by students of many of the college facilities. Both Southwestern staff and students will be working "seven days a week" with the Concho School students and staff, Bennett said.

The Concho School complex will contain 10 classrooms, special subject rooms for music, practical arts, home economics, multi-purpose activities and a kitchen and dining room in addition to administrative office and two dormitories, each housing 128 pupils.

“In this exemplary school we recognize that only through the development of the most effective educational tools and concepts will we be able to give Indian children the education they must have to live of their own choosing in 20th century America,” Bennett said.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has announced the appointment of new superintendents for three field Agencies.

Jose A. Zuni, a Pueblo Indian from Isleta, N. Mex., and former superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., will move to the position of superintendent of the Nevada Agency (mainly Paiute, Shoshone and Washo Indians) at Stewart, Nev. His appointment becomes effective June 26, 1966.

Zuni will fill the vacancy created by the transfer of Dale M. Baldwin to post of Director for the Portland, Oreg., Area last March.

Employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since September 1949, he has held administrative positions in the Gallup, N. Mex., Area Office and the United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, N. Mex.

He holds an A.B. degree in Business Administration from the University of New Mexico and has served as Lieutenant Governor of his home Pueblo of Isleta. From 1942 through 1945 he was with the United States Air Force in the South Pacific.

Theodore C. Krenzke, formerly a specialist in social welfare with the Bureau's area office in Juneau, Alaska, has been named superintendent of the Cherokee Agency in North Carolina. No effective date has been yet determined for his appointment. He succeeds Don Y. Jensen, who recently transferred to the Aberdeen, S. Dak., Area Office to become Assistant Director for Economic Development.

Krenzke, a native of Minnesota, began his career in Indianapolis, Ind., as a probation officer with the Marion County Juvenile Court and a social caseworker with the Lutheran Child Welfare Association. He joined the Bureau in January 1956, as a social worker at the Blackfeet Indian Agency in Montana. In 1958 he accepted a position with the Dakota Boys' Ranch Association at Minot, N. Dak., but later rejoined the Bureau in 1960 to take the Juneau, Alaska, post. His special responsibility in Alaska was an overall child welfare program in the Juneau area.

He received a Master of Arts degree in Social Services from Indiana University in 1954.

Joseph F. Otero, who has been administrative manager for the Mescalero Agency (Apache) in New Mexico, will transfer to the Zuni Agency as superintendent. The effective date of his appointment has not been determined.

Otero, who joined the Bureau in August 1953, as a soil conservation specialist, was employed in field offices on the Navajo and Jicarilla Apache Reservations until January 1960. He later served as land operations officer for the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., and in January 1963 transferred to the Fort Peck Agency (Assiniboine and Sioux) at Poplar, Mont., in the same capacity. He has been with the Mescalero Agency since October 1965.

Otero received a B.S. degree from New Mexico State University in 1953. Between 1946-1949 he served with the United States Air Force.

The Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit corporation devoted to the advancement of Indian art, will present a showing of "Contemporary Indian Painting, Sculpture and Crafts" from the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from Wednesday, July,17 through Sept. 6.

The showing will be free to the public in the seventh floor Art Gallery of the Department of Interior building, 18th and C Streets, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Scores of pieces of Indian artwork, in many cases recently returned from collections which have been shown in a number of foreign countries, will be featured. Typical is Hopi Otellie Loloma's bronze sculpture of a lonely little Indian child, titled, "Meditation", which has been on loan to the U. S. Embassy in Spain for the past two years.

Some of the newer artists are exemplified by Colville Indian, Lawney Reyes, of Bellevue, Wash., whose large wooden, carved panels have been hung on each side of the entrance to the Gallery. Using an oil on wood media, the artist has depicted a raven and eagle, respectively, on the panels, with effective use of abalone shell inlay work.

Over 30 different tribes are represented in the collection, including such professionals as Osage, Yeffe Kimball, now of New York; Fritz Scholder, California Mission Indian, how an art instructor at the Bureau of Indian Affairs' internationally famous Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, N. M.

Among the works of art students is that of a State of Washington Snohomish, Henry Gobin, now doing graduate work at the San Francisco Art Institute. He is represented in the collection by a ceramic jar, although he is equally famous as a painter.

Media used includes acrylics, tempera, oils, casein, sand (for a Navajo sand painting), wood, marble, soapstone, clay, and various materials used for basket weaving.

The Bureau's collection has been purchased from time to time materially to encourage Indian Artists. Working through the Center, those president is Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, wife of the Secretary of the Interior, exhibits have been formed which have been loaned to schools throughout the District's Metropolitan area; other displays have been put together for showing in various government buildings, including Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Center's "Arts and the Embassies" program has drawn high critical praise, as representative Indian art has been loaned to many U. S. Embassies.

Two major construction projects on Indian reservations are milestones in Indian American progress -- one emphasizing economic potential and the other human potential -- Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said.

He pointed to the recent ground-breaking ceremony for a $1.5 million Bottle Hollow Motel-complex on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah and completion of the $8.5 million Bureau of Indian Affairs residential school at Many Farms, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation.

The Motel-Complex, a commercial recreation project, will be close to the junction of Highways 121 and 40 near the north end of the Bottle Hollow Reservoir, which will have a surface area of about 420 acres.

The reservoir is being built under direction of the Bureau of Reclamation as a payment to the Ute Tribe for fishing waters lost in Rock Creek as a result of the Central Utah project.

The new Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school at Many Farms will draw 'dents from a 50-mile radius and also will be the home of the first tribal institute of higher learning on an Indian reservation -- the Navajo Community College -- scheduled to begin its first classes in January.

While noting these recent examples of Indian progress, Bennett announced availability of BIA’s latest annual report, "Indian Affairs 1967: A Progress Report from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs." The booklet tells of the Bureau's program to "Teach English as a Second Language" (TESL) on the Navajo Reservation. "This year saw the establishment of TESL programs in every one of more than 60 Bureau schools in the Navajo community, the Nation's largest Indian land area," the progress report said.

The report points out that the Bureau's Employment Assistance program provides cost-free vocational training and job placement services, as well as financial aid for family relocation to Indians seeking better opportunities off the reservation. In fiscal 1967 approximately 5,500 Indians received adult vocational training and 2,175 were given on-the-job-training.

The 16-page illustrated booklet is available for 15 cents from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. It enumerates other examples of progress both in concrete terms and in terms of attitudes, opinions, and expectations.

Since the report went to press, a $2 million summer winter tourism complex at Mount Ord on the Fort Apache Reservation; a tourist and recreation center on the Hopi reservation that will cost approximately $700,000; and a $70,500 multi-purpose comity building at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the Havasupai Reservation have gone on the drawing board for Indian reservations in Arizona.

The Commissioner said that in addition to the building or enlarging of tourist facilities, other progress is being made on Indian land areas.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North and South Dakota is well along in developing 110 acres of its land for irrigated farming. Future plans call for expansion to 845 acres.

Water has started flowing into the new sewage disposal plant on the Gila River Indian Reservation near Chandler, Ariz. The $1.68 million plant is a three-way cooperative project. Federal funds were supplemented by approximately $674,000 from the city of Chandler, with the land being given by the Gila River Indian Community.

A $3.4 million Housing and Urban Development contract has been issued to the Rosebud (S.D) Housing Authority for 400 units of new mutual-help housing on the Rosebud Reservation.

The Seminole Indians of the Hollywood Reservation in Florida this week signed a contract with Amphenol Corporation of Chicago to lease 10 acres of tribal property for industrialization.

This is the Tribe's first venture into economic development.

The Chicago firm, one of the Nation's largest electronics manufacturers, will erect a branch plant on the Seminole land to produce electronic connectors, and to employ upwards of 100 Seminoles by early next year. The lease with the Tribe is for 65 years. Plant construction will commence in August. The Bureau of Indian Affairs will contract with Amphenol for on-the-job training of Indian workers.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in making announcement today, said:

"Negotiations with Amphenol have been part of our stepped-up nationwide effort to develop business and industry in regions where Indian unemployment is high. This is the first major breakthrough in the battle to bring the Seminole Indians into the circle of economic growth enjoyed by the State of Florida in this decade. The total Indian community--and, indeed, the adjacent non-Indian community as well--will benefit from the locale of this industrial plant."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was instrumental in bringing the negotiations to completion. The Bureau's economic development division responded some months ago to Amphenol's 50-State canvass for a new site by introducing the firm to the Seminole Tribe's newly formed Board for Economic Development.

Bill Osceola, the Tribal development board's chairman, said; in putting his signature to the contract in behalf of the Tribe:

"This is one 'treaty' we are happy to sign."

A total of 143 acres have been set aside by the Hollywood Reservation Seminoles to use for development and they are planning an industrial park.

Amphenol is one of several electronics firms that have gone into Indian areas for expansion sites. Discussions are currently under way with numerous others, sparked by a conference last month between Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and representatives of 11 major electronics concerns.

A $125,049 contract for grading and surfacing roads on the Uintah and Ouray I Reservation in Utah was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Improvements will include a five-mile stretch of Route 7 which provides access to picturesque Uintah Canyon and a seven-mile section of Route 17, from Neola toward Big Springs.

Better roads will open an exceptionally scenic area for which the Uintah and Ouray Tribe has recreational development plans.

The spectacular Indian lands are not far from Dinosaur National Monument, Flaming Gorge and other locales with 'proven tourist appeal. There are 110 miles of trout streams, four sizable lakes, excellent hunting and many developed camping areas on the reservation. The tribe is considering the addition of a motel, an Indian cultural park with model village, gift shop and other attractions.

Successful bidder for the road contract was Whiting and Haymond Construction Company of Springville, Utah. The only competitive bid was $183,999.