OPA

The popularity of the Eskimo Graphic Arts and Sculpture exhibit in the Department of the Interior's Art Galleries has brought about an extension of the hours and addition of more than a hundred additional new pieces of sculpture and eighty new prints, according to Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, president of the Center for Arts of Indian America, sponsoring the unusual display.

"We had no idea the showing would attract such crowds," said the wife of the Interior Secretary. "Now, in order that working people can see it, we're extending our hours from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays."

Visitors may enter the Department of the Interior Building through its "C" Street entrance, between 18th and 19th Streets, N. W. The gallery is on the seventh floor.

The work is that of Canadian Eskimos from the famed Cape Dorset area, located at the southern tip of Baffin Island. Stone-cut prints and a variety of small sculptures are featured. All items are available for purchase in prices ranging from $5 to $500. They are all one-of-a-kind originals, and Washington area shoppers have been buying them for their collections and for Christmas gifts.

The showing will continue in the gallery through December 31.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the award of two contracts that will make on-the-job training available for 134 Indian workers.

A $65,375 contract was awarded to the First Seneca Corp. of New York State to train 124 Seneca Indians in occupations relating to the textile mill products industry. First Seneca is a corporation formed to promote industrial development on the two Seneca Reservations, in western New York. Most of the trainees will be employed as sewing machine operators and fitters in the production of pillows and other soft goods.

The corporation is the first industry to locate in the recently established Seneca industrial park on the Cattaraugus Reservation. Funds for economic development come from $12 million received by the Seneca Nation from the Federal Government in 1964 in payment for tribal lands flooded when Kinzua Dam was constructed on the Allegheny River. A program formulated by the Seneca Nation authorizes up to $2 million to be spent for industrial purposes to generate new employment opportunities for Seneca Indians.

A second contract, for $6,500, was awarded the Phillips Products Co., Inc., of Pryor, Okla., to provide on-the-job training for 10 area Indians. The trainees will prepare for occupations in the manufacturing and processing of plastics and plastic products.

Both contracts were negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under its Employment Assistance program, which aids Indians in finding employment near their homes or in relocating where more jobs exist.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that John H. Artichoker, Jr., Superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Agency, Lame Deer, Mont., has been named Superintendent of the Papago Agency, Sells, Ariz.

John R. "Bob" White, Superintendent of the Rocky Boy's Agency, Box Elder, Mont., will replace Artichoker at Lame Deer. Both transfers became effective November 27, 1966.

A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Artichoker, 36, was born at Pierre, S. Dak. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree in education from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1962 as a Tribal Affairs Officer at Billings, Mont., after ten years as Director of Indian Education for the State of South Dakota.

Mr. Artichoker was chosen one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1964 by the National Junior Chamber of Commerce.

White, 54, was born in Spencer, Ind. and grew up on a homestead near Deaver, Wyo. He attended the University of Wyoming and worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Minnesota, Colorado, and New Mexico before joining the Bureau as Assistant Superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo. in 1961.

At Sells, Artichoker succeeds Homer B. Jenkins, who recently was transferred to Palm Springs, Calif.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall will meet December 1 with 11 top management representatives of major industrial firms to discuss the potential for plant expansion and development on or near Indian reservations.

The luncheon meeting is the second such conference in Secretary Udall's drive to speed economic development and employment possibilities for Indians. In May the Secretary met with representatives of major electronic firms.

At the meeting background material will be presented on the location of plant sites, the availability and skills of Indian workers, training programs available to teach special skills and financing available for plant development.

The firms to be represented at the luncheon are: Motorola, Inc., Phoenix, Ariz.; Amphenol Corp., Chicago; Hoffman Electronics Corp., El Monte, Calif.; Litton Industries, Beverly Hills, Calif.; General Dynamics Corp., New York City; Honeywell, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.; Sperry Rand Corp., New York City; Johns-Manville Corp., New York City; Graflex, Inc., Rochester, N.Y.; General Instrument Corp., Newark, N.J.; Fairchild Semiconductor Division, Mountain View, Calif.

All 11 firms have indicated through preliminary inquiries an interest in exploring the possibility of expansion into an Indian area. Many reservations already have new industries in operation and employers have been enthusiastic about the skills and performance of Indian workers.

In response to recent inquiries from the press and from individuals, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett today issued the following statement concerning the distribution to Creeks of the award from their case based on an 1814 treaty:

"It is apparent, from recent inquiries, that erroneous information has been circulated concerning the distribution of an award by the Indian Claims Commission in Docket No. 21 to the Creek Indians. In 1962 the Indian Claims Commission stated that descendants of the Creek Nation as it existed in 1814 are eligible to share in the award. The Creek Nation of Oklahoma filed the original claim in 1948 and in 1952 the Creek Nation East of the Mississippi was permitted to enter the case as petitioners by intervention.

"Nearly $4 million is due the Creeks as the result of the case they entered against the United States to obtain additional payment for about nine million acres of land which they ceded in Alabama and Georgia under an 1814 treaty. The Bureau will present to the 90th Congress its proposal on the disposition of the judgment funds.

"Congress has not yet authorized the preparation of a roll of persons eligible to share in the distribution of the award. However, certain persons and groups have apparently been holding meetings to prepare a roll of the Creeks East of the Mississippi. Until such time as Congress enacts legislation setting forth requirements of eligibility for enrollment, no roll can be considered valid or legal for purposes of sharing in the award and no roll is now being prepared by the Bureau.

"It has also come to our attention that certain individuals and groups have been soliciting fees for application forms for the purpose of obtaining membership in the unofficial organization of the Creeks East. Payment of such fees or joining of any organization which purports to be establishing a roll of the Creeks East, is no assurance that the individual will be qualified to have his or her name placed on the official roll which will be prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"After Congress passes the necessary legislation, wide publicity will be given through newspapers and other news media that the Bureau has prepared a special application form and stating where the form may be obtained. There will be no charge for the forms or for filing them. The Bureau's Muskogee Area Office, Muskogee, Okla. 74401, will be the office handling the details of the Creek roll-making and the distribution of the funds to persons whose names appear on the roll as finally approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

"Accompanying the application form will be an information sheet. This sheet will give instructions helpful in filling out the form. It will also set out the requirements which an individual must meet to be eligible for enrollment, the names of individuals and offices where the completed applications may be filed, and the time period in which the forms must be filed.

"I wish to make it clear that no person, group, or office has been authorized by the Bureau to prepare any list or roll of persons to be used for distribution of the Creek Award. In order that interested persons will not be inconvenienced, it is suggested that they not write to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for application forms until the announcement is made by the Bureau that the preparation of the Creek payment roll is to begin. Special application forms for enrollment will be made available by the Bureau without charge to the individual.

Under a $177,849 contract awarded December 2 to RCA Service Co. of Camden, N.J., the Bureau of Indian Affairs will commence at once a program of occupational training, basic literacy education, counseling and job placement for the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said today in announcing major features of the contract:

"The objective is to break the cycle of poverty that has made family heads helpless to help themselves and has deprived Choctaw children of educational and social opportunities that would enable them to grow beyond their present circumstances. The program will provide to a pilot group of 30 Choctaw families the services of specialists in occupational training, job counseling, family counseling, basic literacy education, job placement and follow-up. We hope that as these families become equipped to work in surrounding communities, other families will take part in the training program."

Bennett continued: "The Choctaw experiment has been in the category of wishful thinking for a long time. It is deeply gratifying to me to be able to put it into operation."

There are about 350 members of the Choctaw tribe living in the vicinity of Philadelphia, Miss. Thirty-four out of every 100 adults in the labor market are chronically unemployed and many others depend entirely upon seasonal work. Illiteracy has contributed largely to the joblessness and has kept the economic and social status of the Choctaw community lagging 30 years behind the Nation as a whole.

RCA Service Co., a technical services subsidiary of RCA, under an earlier BIA contract successfully trained Alaskan Indians and Eskimos for work on the Defense Early Warning System.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel has announced the publication, in the Federal Register, of a list of 83 Indian tribes which conduct their own local law enforcement and are therefore eligible for assistance under the I Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.

"These are the tribes which have clear-cut jurisdiction over law and order on their reservations," Hickel said, "and this publication makes it possible for them to make timely applications for Federal assistance in improving local crime control."

A section of the new crime control law (Public Law 90- 351) requires the Secretary of the Interior to determine which tribes are eligible £or assistance, he said.

"Improved law and order must be a part of the new atmosphere of growth and improvement that Indian communities seek for themselves," Hickel said, "and I am confident that many reservations will take advantage of this new law to provide themselves with the tools and knowledge to do the job."

Additional tribes may become eligible to take over law and order responsibilities, Hickel said.

Award of a $941,100 contract to build a 10-classroom school at Peever, S.D., was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.

The contract includes a multi-purpose room, kitchen, instructional materials center and such facilities as utilities and paving.

When completed, the project will provide elementary school facilities for 300 Indian and non-Indian children in the area.

The low successful bid was by Schull Construction Co. Watertown, S.D. Eight other bids ranging to a high of $1,209,400 were received.

Federal supervision over the Indians of Greenville Rancheria in Plumas County, Calif., has been terminated with their consent, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today. Notice is being published in the Federal Register.

Greenville is the 31st rancheria in California to be removed from Federal trust supervision in accordance with the 1958 Rancheria Act (72 Stat. 619, as amended). More than 100 Indian rancherias -- small tracts of land under Federal trust -- are affected by the law.

Greenville Rancheria consists of approximately 275 acres, located three miles east of Greenville, in northeastern California. The termination action precludes further services from the United States Government to the 20 resident Indians because of their status as Indians. The Indians, mostly Maidus, are now subject to the same laws, including tax laws, which apply to other citizens.

The 1958 Rancheria Act provides that a plan for disposition of assets be completed before termination. The Greenville plan provides for completion of road construction by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and conveyance of the road to Plumas County; a survey of the land, recorded in Plumas County; distribution of funds held in trust to the members of the Greenville Rancheria group; and conveyance to the members of unrestricted title to the land.

The Northern Cheyenne Indians of Lame Deer, Mont., recently launched a small industry on their reservation that is beginning to bring dividends with the Yule season. The firm, called Northern Cheyenne Originals, manufactures Christmas trees, wreaths, costume jewelry and other novelty items for decorations from pine cones collected on the reservation.

Samples of the trees and wreaths, complete with miniature lights peeking from between the cones, have been sent to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Robert L. Bennett, who in turn has arranged for their display in the lobby of the Department of the Interior Building in Washington.

The handcrafted trees vary in height from 12 inches to 5 feet, and the wreaths are from 21 to 36 inches in diameter; both are spray painted for extra beauty. The units may be packed away for use from season to season.

Northern Cheyenne Originals is a joint venture by an individual businessman and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. President of the firm is tribal president John Woodenlegs. This is the second industry on the reservation; over 150 Northern Cheyennes are employed by the Guild Arts and Crafts plastic novelties factory located at Ashland, Mont.

Negotiations to establish the new factory were handled by the Industrial Development Branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. An on-the-job training contract is currently being negotiated with the Bureau.