OPA

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, today praised the wildfire-fighting Indians of seven tribal groups who were commended in a joint resolution by the Southwest Interagency Fire Committee for their work during last summer's fire season.

In the course of what experts have called the greatest fire outbreak in the history of organized fire-fighting, one of the Indian men lost his life.

Frank Rios, 19, a Papago from Crow Hang, Ariz., was fighting a fire in the San Bernardino National Forest in California when the wind changed and increased in speed, forming a pocket of gas that exploded and killed him.

The Committee (SWIFCO) paid special tribute to Rios, adding: Southwest Interagency Fire Committee wishes to honor and commend the tribes of the Southwest and the Papago Tribe in particular for their standing service _to their country during the 1967 fire season." "The Indian out The committee (SWIFCO) is made up of representatives of the State of Arizona, of the state's water resource, land and forestry departments, of Arizona colleges and universities that have resource interests, and representatives of the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Bennett pointed out that these and other Indian fire-fighters traveled all over the West to fulfill their mission.

"An unusually prolonged dry period in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana made a powder keg of the forest and range," the Commissioner recalled. "On the Mescalero Indian Reservation in New Mexico uncontrolled wildfire burned over 800 acres of forest and 425 men, 14 bulldozers, 5 aircraft and innumerable pieces of additional rolling stock were needed to put it out; a fire on the Quinault Reservation covered" approximately 6,000 acres before it was controlled.

“To these and dozens of other demands, the Indian fire-fighters responded magnificently."

“In a letter to each of the tribal groups Bennett enclosed a copy of the SWIFCO resolution and noted that the costs of suppression and damage resulting from fires run into the millions of dollars.

“Indian fire fighters can take pride in their efforts to minimize these losses," he said.

Participating tribes included the White Mountain Apaches, San Carlos Apaches, Hopis, Navajos, Papagos, Zunis, and United Pueblos. Throughout the country an estimated 4,000 Indians took part in forest fire activities.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that a purchase agreement has been reached with the owners of the last parcel of land needed to establish Piscataway Park on the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon.

The agreement was signed on Thursday by Robert W. Smith and Karl W. Smith, to convey to the United States fee title to 22 acres, including offshore islands, and a five-acre scenic easement on the balance of 96 acres of their farm, which lies in the acquisition area. The farm is in Prince Georges County, Maryland, generally between Indian Head Highway and Mockley Point. Purchase price agreed upon was $380,000.

The Secretary said this purchase will enable the Department of the Interior to initiate action to establish the 1000-acre park, since the United States now had acquired a fee simple or lesser interest in substantially all of the property in the area designated for acquisition.

Official notice of establishment of the park will be made by early February, the Secretary said.

This acquisition, together with the lands donated, or offered for donation upon establishment of the park, will serve to fulfill the purpose of the legislation, which is primarily the protection of the overview from Mount Vernon, he added.

Legislation to provide for protection of the view from George Washington's historic home on the Potomac was passed by Congress and signed October 4, 1961 as Public Law 87-362.

What is it like to be an Indian or Eskimo child? It is part ceremonials and dances and colorful costumes of an era gone by, and it is part school days and rule days, too. It is sometimes life on a ranch, sometimes adventure in the big city, sometimes the life of a fisherman's family, says the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Because nearly all youngsters love stories about American Indians, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has just published a special picture book, "Indian and Eskimo Children."

Designed for readers in the lower elementary grades, the booklet has 50 pages of appealing photographs with simple text in large, easy-to-read type. From the child whose home is a "wickiup" to the youngster living in ranch-style suburbia, the booklet presents a series of unusual camera close-ups of the way of life that is the American Indian's today.

"Indian and Eskimo Children" can be ordered from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402. The price is 35¢ per single copy, with 25 percent discounts on orders of 100 or more when shipped to a single address.

Indian and Eskimo Children book may be viewed online at the Hathi Trust Digital Library website.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett warned today that measures are being taken to prevent further damage and destruction of prehistoric ruins on the Navajo Reservation.

The 24,000 square mile Navajo Reservation extends into the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

“We have been informed that certain ruins on the Navajo Reservation have been souvenir-hunted and damaged, reportedly by both Indians and non-Indians,” said Bennett. “Timbers are being taken from these ruins, and artifacts stolen and sold to traders in the area.

“I want to point out two things:

“First, the Navajo people have a stake in protecting these areas. They are of long range economic value because of their scenic and historic attraction to tourists, not to mention their irreplaceable cultural value to the Navajo people. This should be especially underlined in this, the Navajo’s centennial celebration year.

“Secondly, the Federal Antiques Act specifically prohibits the taking of artifacts from historic ruins, and they may be seized from anyone who has them in their possession. This includes second and third parties involved.

Bennet said that Navajo Council Chairman Raymond Nakai has been assured of the Department of the Interior’s cooperation in trying to prevent further depredations on tribal land.

The Navajo Tribal Rangers and the Law and Order staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs both are seeking to apprehend violators.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced the signing of a contract today between the Western Superior Corporation, a subsidiary of the BVD Co., Inc. and the Hopi Tribal Council for the establishment of a new $1.5 million garment manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Winslow, Ariz. The nationally known organization will be located on a 200-acre area site donated to the Hopi Indian tribe by the town of Winslow.

The factory will be built by the Hopis to BVD specifications and leased back to its subsidiary. It will take in two acres under roof, with 107-thousand square feet of working area. The Santa Fe Railroad and Highway 66 parallel the tract.

It is anticipated that as many as 800 Indians will eventually be employed by the firm in the main plant and other smaller plants on the reservation which will feed into the operation at Winslow. The organization will be highly diversified in its operation, including cutting and sewing, knitting, dying and bleaching, and packaging, warehousing and shipping of a variety of soft goods items. The enterprise is part of the company's western expansion plans.

The signing brings to culmination almost two years of a series of negotiations between representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs who made the initial contact with BVD, the corporation, and the town of Winslow, and the two Indian tribes of the area -- the Hopis and the Navajos. The Winslow site was originally offered to the Navajos, but the Tribal Council turned it down.

Although never looked upon, traditionally, as a commercial minded people, it was the Hopis who stepped in with their own proposal to finance the venture with funds from their oil lease bonus. It is the largest single investment to date made by an Indian tribe with an outside firm.

"At a time when the Bureau of Indian Affairs has brought together some of the country's leading industrialists to acquaint them with the possibilities and rewards of building on or near Indian reservations, the tribes should take every possible step to encourage enterprises that will provide employment for their people," Secretary Udall said. "This is part of what we mean when we talk about handing over the reins of freedom to the Indian people."

He continued: "The Hopis seemed to understand immediately that more than a plant was needed; that housing and other community services that Winslow could 0ffer were equally important to an operation of this size. It is gratifying to witness their quick response to this tremendous opportunity.”

The Secretary also praised the Hopi Council for its generosity in making it a condition of their contract that Navajos as well as Hopis were to get hiring preference. Sixty Navajo girls who have already been trained in a pilot project by BVD at Winslow will probably be the first employees when the new plant is built.

“This is the kind of forward thinking among Indians that we want to encourage in future negotiations for the tribes,” Secretary Udall said. “The Hopis have told me that they see the new plant as a foretaste of the future. Now their children will find employment near the reservation and will not need to move far from the area to take advantage of the education that thousands of them are getting through BIA education programs. The BVD Corporation anticipates a full training program to install Indians on the supervisory and management levels, the entire operation eventually to be all-Indians.

“Among those present at the signing in ,the Secretary's office of the Department of the Interior was Harry Isaacs, Senior Vice President of BVD; the Hopi's tribal attorney, John S. Boyden; members of the Hopi Tribal Council; Dewey Healing, chairman, Homer Cooyama, Robert Sakiestewa and Clifford Honahni; Mayor J. Lester Allen of Winslow and Harold Elmer, director of the town's Industrial Development Commission; as well as Deputy Commission Theodore W. Taylor and other Bureau of Indian Affairs officials.

A new company that began operating only a few months ago on the Crow Indian Reservation near Hardin, Mont., plans doubling its working force in a few months to capitalize on the exceptional skill of Indian employees, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs reports.

Occupying a $68,000 Indian-owned plant building and aided by a $232,000 loan from the Crow Tribe, the firm makes battery chargers for cordless electric toothbrushes and an electronic device for disinfectant units. A third product -- a battery charger for cordless electric knives will be manufactured later this month. By year's end, Indian employees are expected to reach 80, all trained under a contract between the company and the Bureau.

The plant has only one non-Indian employee, the manager. He says that tardiness and absenteeism are lower than in any manufacturing plant with which he had been associated. Under his direction, several Indians are being readied for supervisory positions over jobs that are rated as electrical assembler, mechanical assembler, inspector, and tester.

Varying degrees of skill are required. One item in production involves 19 separate hand operations, assignments in which the patient and careful Crows are particularly adept.

The new industry, U.S. Automatics, Inc., came into being last November through a $300,000 investment by the Crow Tribe. This was approved by the tribal Industrial Development Commission and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The new building occupied by the industry is leased to the company.

At the outset, some Crows were skeptical of the industrial undertaking in view of heavy tribal investment in developing the Big Horn Recreation Area for tourism. This area, near the scene of Custer's Last Stand, is noted for the annual outdoor drama staged by the Crows in reenacting the famous battle against the 7th Cavalry.

On the drawing boards at the Crow Reservation are plans for an industrial park where the new plant building is located. The Economic Development Administration has approved a tribal request for a $241,000 grant for this purpose. The Crows will contribute an additional $60,000 to develop a 40-acre tract with all necessary accommodations, from natural gas to loading and unloading ramps. Construction may start next month.

NEW INDUSTRY FOR NORTHERN CHEYENNE -- It may be mid-summer, but it looks like Christmas on Montana's Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

Fourteen tribal members are working to fill a large order for Christmas trees which are fashioned from pine cones and are scheduled for delivery to a San Francisco candy company.

Northern Cheyenne Originals, Inc., a new industry at Lame Deer, Mont., produces the trees in heights from 1 to 5 feet from Ponderosa pine cones gathered on the reservation. A variety of other items, including Christmas wreaths, corsages, costume jewelry and table decorations, is made from local jackpine, lodgepole pine, and spruce cones.

The young company is the joint venture of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Jack Rouse, a Montana businessman. Negotiations were conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which plans to contract with the company for an on-the-job training program for Indian workers.

Says Rouse: "The Northern Cheyenne Tribe has created a favorable climate in which small industries can thrive, and there is a good labor pool on the reservation."

NATIVE ALASKANS TRAINED AS HEAD START TEACHERS -- Fifty Alaska Natives, none of whom had previous teaching experience, recently completed an 8-week training program at the University of Alaska to become Head Start teachers in their villages this fall.

Last year the number of teachers trained for Head Start in Alaska proved insufficient to meet demands of village councils seeking to establish local programs. Head Start is a program for underprivileged preschoolers conducted under the Economic Opportunity Act.

The special group of 50 was selected for training through elections in the villages. Although educational backgrounds range from fourth grade level to some college experience, all were selected by their neighbors as suitable persons to work with young children. The intensive training course just completed included instruction in arts and crafts, nutrition and other subjects needed by Head Start teachers.

Periodic follow-up visits will be made to every village by teaching supervisors to assist the teacher-trainees in acquiring competence on the job.

INDIAN CENTER AT GONZAGA UNIVERSITY -- A Pacific Northwest Indian Center is being established on the campus of Gonzaga University, Spokane, Wash. An independent corporation, it seeks to promote Indian studies and develop Indian leadership throughout the country.

Plans call for construction of a five-story museum and research building with permanent exhibits of objects related to Indian culture. The authenticity of the museum collection will be the responsibility of a board of Indian technical advisors. Clothing, food products, medicines, weapons, horse trappings, and other articles of daily life will be featured in the exhibit.

WORK PROJECT ON FORT APACHE -- A recent $99,000 authorization from the Office of Economic Opportunity is helping the Fort Apache Tribe in Arizona provide jobs for 60 chronically unemployed tribal members by putting them to work on projects to beautify reservation playgrounds, campground areas, cemeteries, and villages.

NAVAJO ARTS AND CRAFTS -- The Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, established in 1941 to promote the sale of quality work by Navajo craftsmen, has increased the number of its Arizona sales outlets to six. In addition to the main store at Window Rock and branches at Cameron and Betatakin Ruin National Monument, there are three new shops at Chinle, Teec Nos Pos and Kayenta.

The Guild's expansion program effectively increases the opportunities for visitors to various sections of the huge reservation to purchase Navajo silver work and rugs and to view Indian craftsmen at work.

COCHITI DAY SCHOOL NOW PUBLIC -- Cochiti Day School at Pena Blanca, N.M., will be transferred from Federal to local control with the opening of the; school term in September. This is a further step by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to facilitate public school education for Indians. The school had served about 40 Pueblo grade-schoolers when it was federally controlled.

INDIAN ON-THE-JOB TRAINING CONTRACTS -- The Bureau of Indian Affairs in recent months has renewed contracts with several companies to continue on-the-job training for Indian employees. These are:

Black River Dairy Products, Inc. Eau Claire, Wis., to train 17 Chippewas in quick frozen food manufacturing processes: $4,975.

Systems Engineering Electronics, Inc., Wewoka, Okla., to train 58 area Indians in plastic sub-assembly work, electronic printed circuit board fabrication and assembly and electrical harness fabrication: $51,650.

Canoncito, Trading Post, Inc., Canoncito, N.M., to continue training 20 Navajo silversmiths: $21,550.

Durant Electronics, Inc., Durant, Okla., to continue training 53 area Indians in plastic industry processes: $10,200.

Habitant Shops, Inc., Bay City, Mich., to provide continued training for 49 area Indians in processing cedar logs into fencing: $10,425.

Mt. Taylor Millwork, Inc., Grants, N.M., to continue training 30 Indians in a multi-machine operation for manufacturing molding from pine: $16,960.

BUREAU CONTRACTS FOR BAY AREA INDIAN PROGRAM -- A $15,400 contract with the United Bay Area Council of American Indians Affairs, Inc., Oakland, Calif. has been negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Council will provide recreational programs facilities for Indian youths residing in the San Francisco Bay area.

In recent years the Bureau's Employment Assistance Program has attracted many Indian families to the Oakland area, where breadwinners receive necessary paid training for jobs in various industries. Under Employment Assistance, the Bureau aids family members in adjusting to urban life and settling into new surroundings. The Council's youth program will serve children from these recently relocated families.

INDIAN HOUSING--Some recent developments in Indian housing include:

• Ground breaking for the first of 50 units of low rent public housing for some 200 Chippewa Indians on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota. This is the first of several projects to add hundreds of units of new public housing for Minnesota Indians.
• The Saginaw Chippewa Housing Authority, Mt. Pleasant, Mich., is developing plans for constructing 20 units of low-rent housing approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Twelve units are intended for family occupancy and 8 for elderly Indians.
• The Bay Mills Housing Authority of Michigan's Bay Mills Indian Community has been granted 10 units of mutual help housing. This program, created for Indians, permits would-be home owners to gain equity in their dwellings through contributions of land and labor, rather than cash.
• Nevada's Walker River Reservation will begin building 20 mutual help homes with a $199,224 loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Indian residents can have rental payments to the Tribal Housing Authority applied toward eventual purchase.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the award of a $251,472 contract to a San Diego, Calif., company for installation of two 750-kilowatt gas turbine generator sets at the Bureau's Point Barrow, Alaska, power generating station.

The generators will double the output capability of the present equipment which serves the needs of the village of Barrow and the Bureau installation, including elementary and high school facilities for about 630 native children. The plant also will supply power for a new Public Health Service hospital.

Contractor for installation of the generators is the Solar Division of International Harvester of San Diego, Calif.

Barrow, the northernmost village in the United States, is approximately 325 miles above the Arctic Circle. The 1960 Census listed the population as 1,314. Since then, it reportedly has become one-of the fastest growing native Alaskan communities in the State. Native families, drawn by the possibility of employment and the convenience of village living, are moving to Barrow from scattered areas along the Arctic Ocean.

A $700,000 contract to provide on-the-job training for 1,481 Navajo Indians has been signed with the Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp., the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today. The training will take place at Fairchild's Semiconductor plant at Shiprock, N. Mex.

The largest of several electronics plants now located in Indian areas, Fairchild currently employs 366 Navajos in the operation at Shiprock which commenced 14 months ago.

Negotiations are now in process between the company and the Navajo tribe for construction of a $1.5 million permanent facility in the same location. Officials of the corporation have expressed considerable satisfaction with the work of their Navajo employees.

"Fairchild's experience in training Navajo employees clearly indicates that they quickly learn the skills of transistor assembly and have a high productivity level," the firm's publication, LEADWIRE, reported.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was instrumental in finding the Navajo location for the California-based international firm, which had been seeking a new location for expansion.

Recruiting of more Navajo workers is under way, following the signing of the on-the-job contract. In addition to financing training, the Bureau will provide transportation to the job for Indian applicants hired by Fairchild.

The premier showing of the John Hoover collection of Eskimo art in bone, ivory and wood, is scheduled to open January 15 in the Department of the Interior's Art Gallery, 18th and C Streets, N.W.

The exhibit will be open free to the public, M6nday through Friday from 10:00 a. m. to 4: 00 p. m. and will run through March 29, according to Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, president of the Center for Arts of Indian America, exhibition sponsor.

Entitled, "Qilaut," the Eskimo word for communication with the spirits, the show consists chiefly of pieces of great anthropological significance. Some of the objects are religious, some utilitarian. Some are at least 2,000 years old, according to James McGrath, acting art director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, N. M. McGrath, along with Yakima Indian sisters, Liz and Sue Sohappy, came to Washington to set up the exhibit. Both girls attend the Santa Fe school.

The owner of the collection, John Hoover, is a well-known Aleut artist of Edmonds, Washington, who with his wife, Barbara, and three children support themselves by fishing trips to Alaska, in addition to selling John and Barbara Hoover's artwork. Hoover purchased the items, some of which have yet to be fully identified, from a former Indian trader's family.

The exhibit is set up in categories such as Birds, Seal Hunting, Fishing, Whale Hunting, and Tools. Under these general headings are included skin scrapers, carved objects, spearheads, net shuttles, talismans for seal and whale hunters, a stone lamp, hunting implements, knives, marrow picks, combs for fur and hair, many ceremonial objects, ivory puppets, and dolls.

After its premier in Washington, the exhibit will be displayed at the Santa Fe school. A photographic catalog describing the various pieces, and containing several Eskimo songs, will be issued to those who attend the Washington showing.