OPA

An agreement between the Public Housing Administration and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs was signed today by Housing Commissioner Marie C. McGuire and Indian Commissioner Philleo Nash, calling for joint efforts in bringing low-rent housing to thousands of American Indian families.

Under its terms, PHA will set conditions under which loans, technical advice and other financial assistance will be forthcoming. BIA will function as coordinator between PHA and tribal housing authorities, and will assist the latter in administering and expanding a low-rent housing program for tribal members.

BIA estimates that 60,000 or more Indian families live in dwellings that are far below minimum standards of health and safety. The new agreement is designed to speed up activity in low-rent housing aid to Indian tribal members.

The two Federal agencies commenced negotiations two years ago. An earlier agreement provided for "mutual help” housing on reservations--a program under which Indian family members contribute their labor in construction of their own and neighboring homes in exchange for equity. This creates an opportunity for families whose incomes fall below minimum requirements for low-rent housing loans to acquire homes that meet standards of decency and comfort.

Already there are nearly 3,500 housing units in various stages of development on 54 reservations in 18 States.

Commissioner McGuire, in signing the agreement today, said:

"This is a forward step in continuing to help provide America's low-income Indians with the kind of housing they need. We have made a good start in this program. We know that it works and we've bad opportunity to iron out many of the bugs. We are ready now to make greater strides in this important area."

Public housing authorities have already been created by 63 tribal governments, as the initial step in helping tribal members participate in the low-rent public housing program.

Commissioner Nash observed: "For the first time, many Indian families who are members of tribes are in a position to take advantage of the public housing program. The tribal leaders and tribal members are accepting the initiative in improving family housing. Both Commissioner McGuire and I, together with our staffs, have pledged our readiness to help with all the means available to our agencies."

Completion of a preliminary membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska, a step toward withdrawal of special Federal services to tribal members, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Legislation to provide for property division had been requested by the Poncas at several tribal meetings, the first in early 1957. The door to Federal withdrawal was opened by Congressional action in 1962. The 1962 Act provided that enrolled members of the Ponca Tribe could determine, by majority vote, whether they wished to bring to an end the special relationship they enjoyed with the federal Government by virtue of their Indian status. Only enrolled adult members the tribe were made eligible to vote on the issue. Preparation of a membership roll was initiated two years ago.

Persons who are eligible for enrollment under the 1962 Act include: Poncas whose names were on the April 1, 1934 Tribal Census or the Supplementary Census of January 1, 1935 or who can clearly establish that they were inadvertently omitted therefrom; and descendants of the above who possess at least one-quarter Indian blood. In order to qualify, persons must have been living on September 5, 1962.

The proposed roll will be published in the Federal Register so that persons claiming membership rights in the tribe may file an appeal with the Secretary of the Interior contesting the omission of a name from the roll or its inclusion thereon. After all appeals have been decided, an election will take place, and if those voting choose to ratify the proposed property distribution, the roll will become final.

The tribal land of the Poncas now consists of about 690 acres valued at approximately $70,000. In addition, tribal trust funds totaling about $34,000 and Federal property worth approximately $7,400 would be included in the distribution.

In addition to the tribally owned land there are 13 tracts comprising about 2,180 acres on the reservation which were allotted years ago to individual tribal members. As a result of inheritance, 387 individuals now share the ownership of these tracts.

Kendall Cumming has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Pima Agency, which has headquarters at Sacaton, Arizona, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash announced today. The new superintendent succeeds Minton J. Nolan, who died in January.

For more than two years Cumming has served as Superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency at Dulce, New Mexico. He will be succeeded in that post by Ralph B. Armstrong, Jr., who has been Assistant Superintendent of the Nevada Agency, Stewart, Nevada.

Cumming was born at Nogales, Arizona, in 1925, and attended the University of Arizona. In 1950, he received a master's degree in range ecology and went to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a range management assistant at Chinle, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation.

In the years that followed, he was assigned to positions of steadily increasing authority at other locations on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations. He was stationed at Fort Defiance as field land operations officer for five years before being named superintendent at Jicarilla. In his new post, Cumming will administer a wide range of Federal programs to an Indian population of approximately 6,300 scattered on four reservations.

Armstrong, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, graduated from North Carolina State College at Raleigh in 1940 with a B.S. in agricultural engineering. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 as a soil conservationist with the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Arizona. Prior to that, he served for 2 years with the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture at Tucson, Arizona. After two years of Army duty, he returned to the Indian Bureau in 1953 as soil conservationist at Mexican Springs, New Mexico. He later served as land operations officer with the Navajo Agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona, and later the Pima Agency at Sacaton, Arizona. In 1963, he came to Washington, D.C. as a participant in the Department of the Interior's manager trainee program, returning to the field service a year later as assistant superintendent of the Nevada Agency at Stewart. As superintendent at Jicarilla he will supervise Federal services for about 1,400 Apache Indians residing on the reservations.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced award of a contract for $1,098,491.74 to provide for bituminous surfacing of 11.28 miles of road on the Navajo Indian Reservation, from Indian Service Route 12 to Washington Pass, via Crystal, N.M.

This project is the first half of an eventual all-weather road from Crystal through Washington Pass to Sheep Springs, N.M., on U.S. Highway 666.

The successful low bid was submitted by Nielsons, Inc., of Dolores, Colo. Eight other bids were submitted, ranging from $1,199,481.91 to a high of $1,496,646.90.

Promotions of George E. Schmidt to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs' branch of industrial development, and Charles P. Corke as assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development, were announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash.

Schmidt commenced his new assignment February 15. Corke, who served tor ten years as irrigation engineer and land operations officer with the United Pueblos Agency in Albuquerque, N. M., assumed his new duties late last year.

Schmidt, recipient of a superior performance award in 1962, joined the Bureau in 1958 as an industrial development specialist at Bismarck, N. D., and two years later transferred to the BIA area office at Aberdeen, S. D. Under his direction 11 industrial or tribal enterprises have been established in the Indian areas of the Dakotas and Nebraska during the past three years, providing employment opportunities for Indians.

In his new job Schmidt will supervise the multi-faceted program aimed at enlarging Indian job opportunities by encouraging the establishment of private industries in the vicinity of reservations.

A native of Huron, S. D., Schmidt graduated from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion in 1939 with a B.S. in Business Administration and did graduate work at Huron College, S. D. He served in the Navy from June 1944 to December 1945.

Corke began his Federal career as a hydrologic engineer with the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation in Grand Island, Neb., in 1948, and also served with Reclamation in Albuquerque, N. M., and Eureka, Calif. He transferred in 1945 to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A native of Studley, Kan., Corke graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1948 with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. He served in World War II as a naval officer.

Corke is filling a newly created post. Schmidt is succeeding John R. Bernstrom, who recently transferred to another agency.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian. Affairs, announced today that Wallace E. Galluzzi has been named Superintendent of Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kan.

Haskell is a post high school vocational training school for Indians. Galluzzi was principal at the Institute and has been acting superintendent the past two months since the former 3uperintendent, Thomas Tommaney, became assistant area director for education at Muskogee, Okla.

Galluzzi, a native of Brockway, Pa., is a graduate of State Teachers College, Slippery Rock, Pa., and holds a master's degree from Northern State Teachers College, Aberdeen, S.D. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior in 1949 as a teacher at Standing Rock Agency, N.D. He served in positions of increasing responsibility as a teacher and education specialist before being named principal at Haskell in 1963.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced the appointment of Howard E. Euneau, a program staff officer in the Interior Department's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, as Superintendent of the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota.

Euneau, 45, was born on the Turtle Mountain Reservation at Belcourt, N.D., and is a member of the Chippewa Tribe. He received a B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of North Dakota in 1949 and prior to that served in the Army during World War II.

Before joining the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in 1959, he was a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, entering BIA service in 1951 as an appointment clerk in the Aberdeen Area Office.

During service with Commercial Fisheries, Euneau served as manager of St. Paul Island, Alaska, and received a quality increase for superior performances for his contribution to the development of self-sufficiency among the Aleut people on the Island.

Euneau is married and has two children. His appointment is effective November 17.

The first Job Corps Conservation Center in the Southwest--and the second in the entire country-·-will be dedicated at Winslow, Arizona, March 12 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

On the periphery of Navajo lands in Arizona, Winslow Center formerly was an Air Force Radar Base. The property is now administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Another camp organized in cooperation with the Department of the Interior was dedicated at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, two weeks ago. It is administered by the Interior Department's National Park Service.

The Arizona site was selected by the Department of the Interior and the _ Office of Economic Opportunity, because of its proximity to the Navajo Indian reservation where the trainees will work on urgently needed conservation and land improvement projects. Also a factor in the choice of Winslow Base was the existence of ready facilities.

The Job Corps--created by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as one step in combating poverty--is designed to help young people who are jobless because they lack both skills and basic education. They may earn while they learn on conservation projects. A voluntary service, it is open to those between the ages of 16 and 21 who are out of school and out of work.

About 65 young men have moved into the Winslow Center, the first contingent of what is expected to be a 200-man center by next year. They represent a geographic cross-section of the Nation--Connecticut, Maryland, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, California and Utah. None of them have completed high school and most have finished only a relatively few years of formal schooling.

A work and study schedule already mapped out for them is designed to bring each as far along in schooling as possible. At the same time, all will have an opportunity to test aptitudes and interests in a variety of jobs. Training will be offered in such camp-oriented occupations as plumbing and heating repair, automotive repair and maintenance, cooking, office work, outdoor conservation work, which will include elementary surveying, fencing, road improvement, forest clearing and seeding, earth dam construction, stream bank erosion control, fire prevention, and even restoration of Indian ruins. Classroom studies, while focusing on the Three R’s, will also include other subjects necessary in occupational training.

Some of the most interesting work projects for Winslow trainees will take place in the scenic wonderlands of Canyon Diablo, the Painted Desert and the archeological “digs" along the Little Colorado River. Construction of an earthen dam to impound 40 surface acres of water for fishing and boating is scheduled. Work on restoration of the Natani Ruins, consisting of 30 rooms, and several other minor ruins, will be directed by experts. Erecting guideposts and markers will complete development of the Navajo-owned area as a tourist attraction.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs participated with the Office of Economic Opportunity in selecting the l7-man Winslow Center staff, comprised of teachers, construction and conservation supervisors, guidance counselors, a nurse and a mechanic, as well as administrative and maintenance personnel The Director, Lee Brewer, of Mexia, Texas, is the former principal of the Indian boarding school at Chinle, Arizona. Deputy Directors are Daniel Meyer, a forestry specialist from Toppenish, Washington; Michael Papich, a public school teacher and counselor from Butte, Montana; and Harold L. Witten, a former administrative officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a native of Anadarko, Oklahoma. In addition to the regular staff, six Indian employees of the Bureau--all counseling specialists-- have been detailed to the camp for the first phase of operations.

In announcing the scheduled Winslow Camp dedication, Secretary Udall commented:

"It is with deep satisfaction that I witness the role of the Department of the Interior growing into one of conservator of human resources, as well as of natural resources. Our land has value only to the degree that we value the human spirit. We are concerned that our forests and plains, our rivers and lakes, be preserved and enhanced. We should be even more concerned that the human mind be given every opportunity to grow. We hope the Job Corps camps will help do this.”

The Center for Arts of Indian America is presenting its Fourth Invitational Exhibit of Indian Arts and Crafts in the Gallery of the Department of the Interior, 18th and C Streets, N.W., in Washington, D. C.

Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, executive director of the Center, said more than 40 Indian tribes and Alaska Native groups are represented, including Eskimo, Spokane, Cherokee, Navajo, Delaware, and numerous Pueblo tribes.

The exhibit is open free to the public, through December 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, exception holidays.

Prizes have been awarded in various categories, and many of the exhibits are offered for sale -- available in time for those who want to buy with Christmas-giving in mind. Prices range from $10 for small jewelry, pottery and basket pieces, to $3,000 for Yeffe Kimball's (Osage) "Apollo Wing" of aluminum.

The grand prize of $300 went to George Morrison (Chippewa) of Providence, R. I., for a collage of driftwood, entitled "New England Landscape II".

First prize in painting was given Patrick Swazo Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo), Berkeley, Calif., for an oil and acrylic, "From the Earth We Came"; first in Graphic Arts to Frank La Pena (Wintun), San Francisco, Calif., for an untitled lithograph.

Tony Sandoval (Navajo), Santa Fe, N. M., won first, second and third prizes for his sculptures, his wrought-in-metal "Plains Dancer" winning the first prize.

In basketry, Eva Wolfe (Cherokee), Cherokee, N. C., was awarded first prize for a river cane basket; in jewelry, Roger Tsabetsaye (Zuni) of Zuni, N. M., was first with a turquoise and shell ring; and Marie Z. Chino (Acoma), San Fidel, N. M., was first with a clay pottery design of a canteen.

First prize in textile design went to a Bureau of Indian Affairs arts and crafts specialist, and designer of the current exhibit, Edna H. Massey (Cherokee), Washington, D. C., for a silkscreen-on-linen design of Indian birds. A first prize in carving was awarded Lawney Reyes (Colville), Seattle, Washington, "Owl Dance $1."

Three leases covering approximately 120 acres of the Seminole Indian reservation in Florida under which Joseph L. Antonucci, mobile home manufacturer and trailer park operator, will establish both a plant site and trailer park were signed here today.

The leases between the Seminole Nation of Hollywood, Fla. and Antonucci were formalized in a ceremony at offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They call for an initial payment to the tribe of $70,000 for the first year, and escalations in succeeding years, including tribal participation in the profits in the future.

Participating in the ceremony were Antonucci and members of his firm; T. W. Taylor, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and Seminole representatives Bettie Mae Jumper, Chairman of the tribal council, and Joe Dan Osceola, a council member.

Immediate construction plans call for the building of a 55,000 square foot plant for the manufacture of mobile homes and the stocking of spare parts.

According to Bureau officials, members of the Seminole Tribe will be employed in the operation, whenever possible.

Antonucci, who has been identified with trailer parks and mobile home manufacture both in Florida and in Chicago, visualizes production on the Hollywood Reservation as running to 12 units per day, with a cost per unit ranging between $4,000 and $7,000.

Market for the units at the outset will be in the local Florida area.