OPA

The award of a $397,375 contract for the construction of a 200-man Job Corps Conservation Center on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It will be one of nine such centers to be operated on Indian reservations as part of the massive program of job training and education for unemployed youth being conducted under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

Successful bidder for the San Carlos project is Building Mart, Inc. of Phoenix. Five higher bids, ranging from $397,500 to $475,350, were also received. The contract calls for building of barracks, kitchen, mess hall complex, educational-recreation complex, commissary, infirmary, staff bachelor quarters, warehouse and maintenance shops.

Total costs for completion of all necessary construction at the San Carlos Center are estimated to be in excess of $600,000. Contracts have already been let for construction of housing for some of the 36 members of the Center staff.

Other Job Corps Centers on reservations, for which construction is also planned, are as follows:

Mexican Springs, N. Mex. (Navajo); Chippewa Ranch, Minn. (White Earth Reservation); Kicking Horse, Mont. (Flathead); Neah Bay, Wash. (Makah); Eight Canyon, N. Mex. (Mescalero Apache); and Poston, Ariz. (Colorado River Reservation).

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today announced the award of a $1,319,409 contract for construction of the final 17-mile section of Route 12, one of the most scenic highways on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.

Completion of this stretch will provide an all-weather link between the communities of Round Rock and Lukachukai in northeastern Arizona with Navajo, New Mexico, the Reservation town where the tribal sawmill enterprise is located.

Low bid was submitted by Nielsons, Inc., of Dolores, Colorado. Two other bids were received, ranging to a high of $1,423,336.

INDIANS LEARN JOB SKILLS WITH BIA

A total of 11,000 Indian men and women have received special job-skill training, either in accredited institutions or on-the-job, since the Bureau of Indian Affairs adult vocational training program for Indians began in 1958. Currently, trainees are learning skills in more than 100 different occupational categories.

The program pays all costs of vocational training, travel, and living expenses for the trainee and his family for periods up to two years. Information, job counseling and placement services for Indians who seek jobs outside their reservation areas is provided through BIA employment assistance offices in seven major cities--Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, San Jose and Oakland.

YAKIMAS RECEIVE AWARD FOR AHTANUM AREA

A $61,991 award to the Yakima Tribe of Indians of Washington was recently granted by the Indian Claims Commission.

The award represents payment for the Ahtanum Area, a 17,669-acre piece of land which was excluded by error when the reservation's northern boundary was originally surveyed.

The Yakima Reservation was created by treaty in June 1855.

MOBILE HOME PARK ON SEMINOLE LAND

Some visitors to south Florida will be setting up housekeeping on the Seminole Reservation this corning winter.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has signed a long term lease with the Dania Development Company for a 40-acre tract of reservation land which will soon become a park for mobile homes.

The development company plans to construct the park in three sections, with the first section opening September 1 in time for the winter tourist season.

NEW RECREATION AREA ON CHEYENNE RIVER RESERVATION

A new recreation area, to be known as Forest City, soon will spring up on the west bank of the Oahe Reservoir in South Dakota. The development will be the result of cooperative efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Cheyenne River Tribe, the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of South Dakota.

The Tribe is negotiating with private developers to establish a motel and other tourist facilities on tribal lands. Plans for Forest City include a retail outlet for Indian arts and crafts. The Corps of Engineers is currently installing public picnic facilities and planting 14 acres of trees.

ARTS AND CRAFTS TRAINING FOR INDIANS

Crafts specialists and sales shop managers from Indian reservation areas met in Washington in June to learn about possibilities for training native craftsmen under Federal legislation to improve economic opportunities nationwide.

The three-day meeting was sponsored by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, a group of art notables serving as an advisory council to Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. Discussions explored the function of arts and crafts in stimulating economies in Indian areas. Those attending the conference heard from Government training and development specialists whose agencies administer economic aid programs under the Economic Opportunity Act, the Manpower Development and Training Act, the Area Redevelopment Act and the Small Business Act.

Training projects for craftsmen and artists are already under way in Alaska in cooperation with the U. S. Office of Education and the Labor Department's Office of Manpower, Automation, and Training.

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS SCHEDULES ANNUAL SAFETY CONFERENCE

The 1965 Annual Safety Conference of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be held October 25-29 in Chicago, Illinois, in conjunction with the 53rd National Safety Congress and the Department of the Interior's 10th Annual Safety Programming Conference. All area offices and other field installations will participate.

The Conference will highlight ways to implement President Johnson's "Mission Safety-70" program, a new effort to reduce Federal work injuries and costs a total of 30 percent by 1970.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today authorized release by the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation of its report recommending that federally controlled recreation lands at Allegheny Reservoir (Kinzua Dam) in western Pennsylvania be administered by the Forest Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Secretary Udall has sent copies of the report to Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara for review and comment.

The Bureau report also recommends preparation of an overall master recreation plan for the lands associated with the reservoir in Pennsylvania and New York, and formation of an advisory council composed of Federal agencies, the Seneca Nation, the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and three affected counties.

Allegheny Reservoir, now under construction by the Army Corps of Engineers, will inundate a maximum of 21,175 acres of land in New York and Pennsylvania. The summer pool will have a surface of 12,050 acres, a length of 27 miles, and a shoreline of approximately 90 miles. Seventy percent of the shoreline will be in Pennsylvania.

The reservoir lies in a scenic mountain setting where extensive public and private outdoor recreation facilities are already established. The population within 125 miles of the reservoir is approximately 11 million, more than nine million of whom reside in urban areas. Population of the area is expected to double by the year 2000.

To date, several Federal and State agencies, the Seneca Nation, and private individuals have prepared plans for the area, but no master recreation plan for the reservoir and its zone of impact has been developed.

"Orderly development of the reservoir area for public recreation use is of major importance to millions of citizens," Secretary Udall stated. "An overall plan should consider existing and planned developments of Federal, State, and local agencies and private endeavor, as well as the plans of the Seneca Nation."

Secretary Udall pointed out that Kinzua Dam will be finished in about six months. "Since recreation use of the reservoir and the surrounding area will accelerate quickly once the dam is completed, it is important to resolve the problem of administration immediately," the Secretary stated.

This conference is auspicious for more reasons than one. It has brought together the key field personnel of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and officials of several other Federal agencies that are involved in President Johnson's War on Poverty.

We have had the good fortune to have with us the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, Assistant Secretaries John A. Carver, Jr., and John M. Kelly, Public Housing Commissioner Marie c. McGuire, Area Redevelopment Administrator William L. Batt, Jr., Dr. E. S. Rabeau, Deputy Chief, Indian Health Division of the Public Health Service, and Don Carmichael of the President's Task Force on the War on Poverty.

This roster of names and titles is indicative of the tempo of the times and the tone of this conference. This is the second gathering of the Bureau and field staffs since 1961 and that meeting, in Denver, was the first since 1938. It set perhaps a new precedent in Federal-Indian affairs.

In the past three years many changes have been made in the administration of Indian affairs. The changes reflect new approaches to help the Indian people obtain the education and economic self-sufficiency that will give them full status as participating citizens of this country.

The changes are marked in particular in the area of vocational training, industrial development of reservations, and improved community services. Shifting emphasis is apparent in policy and in personnel throughout the Bureau of Indian Affairs. More than one-half of all the reservation superintendents and nearly all area directors have new assignments.

We have had more than two years to work at the economic development program and now the time has come to examine the record for that period. Now the time has come to regroup our forces on our own war on poverty as we become part of the major War on Poverty declared by this Administration. The Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe is an appropriate locale for our conference because this school has moved ahead swiftly in the past two years. Opened in 1962, it has achieved a reputation among its students and prospective students--and among the general public--as a good basic high school and as an excellent vocational institute for the fine and applied arts.

Its art program attracted the attention of Mrs. Stewart Udall, and it was largely through her enthusiasm and efforts that an exhibit of American Indian student art is now being shown in the Department of the Interior in Washington. Public interest in Indian Affairs has been stimulated by this exhibit which nearly 2,000 people have already visited.

I hope that all the superintendents here this week will visit the classes and students and workshops at this Institute. You are the people who initially selected the students as candidates. It is important that you witness its impact on its students who are learning a new appreciation of Indian culture while they are being trained realistically for the world of work.

Education and vocational training are the underpinnings of all the Bureau's present policies, but in order to achieve our still unmet needs in education we must continue to examine all aspects of our youth resource picture.

Let me summarize now.

Three years ago we were organizing to carry forward the recommendation of Secretary Udall's Task Force on Indian Affairs. Since that time we have, I am convinced, made real progress, particularly on the bedrock issues of Indian education and vocational training.

Here are a few statistics: Total school enrollment of Indian children, to 18 years old, in public, Bureau, and mission and other private schools, rose from 112,746 in 1961 to 121,236 in 1963. In the same period the number of Indian young people attending colleges, universities, and post-high school vocational schools increased from 4,884 in 1961 to 5,431 in 1963.

Similarly, our vocational training program has climbed steadily, fiscal year 1964 showing an enrollment of 4,500, including youth and adults.

Along with stepped-up education programs, new housing programs for Indians have been launched with the help of the Public Housing Administration. Increased health protection through programs of the United States Public Health Service have paralleled education and housing improvements.

But the hard core of our Indians' problem--unemployment--persists. There is no need for me to describe to this audience the poverty which still exists on many Indian reservations. The combination of a growing population and a fixed base of economic resources often makes it extremely difficult to lift per capita income.

Unemployment problems, are not, however, exclusively Indian. We find them today in the half-deserted coal mining towns of Appalachia, in some of the once prospering farming communities of the West, and in Negro sections of both Southern and Northern cities. These are places which, for one reason or another, have been tragically bypassed in America's recent march forward to a higher standard of living.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of legislation (H.R. 8917) to provide for distribution of $1,750,000 in judgment funds to the 0maha Tribe of Nebraska.

The award, by the Indian Claims Commission, represents additional compensation for lands in what is now western Iowa and the northwestern Missouri to which the Omahas and other Tribes owned recognized title when the United States made treaties with them in 1825 and 1830.

As recommended, the bill would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to make a per capita distribution up to a maximum of $270 to each enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. This would include those whose names appear on the tribal roll prepared September 14, 1951 when a previous award was made, plus the names of all children of at least one-quarter degree Omaha Indian blood born since that date.

Present tribal membership is about 2,600, with slightly more than half the members under twenty-one years of age. Per capita payments to tribal members who are minors are to be deposited in a bank account for educational purposes.

The tribal council has proposed several programs for using the balance of the award not distributed per capita. These include a tribal land purchase and land use plan, and an educational program.

The sum of $150,000 will be withheld from disbursement of the award pending settlement of a conflicting claim of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

The award of a $384,600 contract for construction of four metal buildings at the 200-man Eight Canyon Job Corps Conservation Center on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in New Mexico was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Eight Canyon Center is located about eight miles southwest of Mescalero, New Mexico. It is one of ten such centers to be operated on Indian Reservation areas as part of a combined work and education program for unemployed youths under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

The construction contract includes: two dormitories; a building to house kitchen and dining facilities plus education and recreation areas; and a combined office and dispensary building.

Successful bidder was Steelcon Building Co., Inc. of El Paso, Texas. Three bids were received, ranging to a high of $447,121.

Other reservation Job Corps Conservation Centers are: San Carlos, Arizona (San Carlos); Mexican Springs, New Mexico (Navajo); Neah Bay, Washington (Makah); Chippewa Ranch, Minnesota (White Earth); Kicking Horse, Montana (Flathead); Poston, Arizona (Colorado River); Fort Simcoe, Washington (Yakima); Swiftbird, Eagle Butte, South Dakota (Cheyenne River); and Winslow, Arizona (near Navajo).

Legislative authority for sustained yield management of Indian forest lands and more judicious procedures for sale of Indian timber are incorporated in proposed regulations announced today by the Department of the Interior. The changes would conform to Public Law 88-301, enacted April 30, 1964.

The sustained-yield principle involves the harvesting of timber in line with replacement growth rates so that the forest resources are conserved, maintained, and improved. The proposed provisions would broaden the concept of management on tribal land to include modern si1vicu1tura1 practices for harvesting other than mature and dead timber to accentuate the growth and increase values of the residual stand.

The proposed rules would also simplify procedures governing sale of timber from individually owned allotted land, and place foremost as objectives the needs and best interests of the Indian owner and his heirs. Factors to be weighed .nc1ude the state of growth of the timber, the need for maintaining and increasing productive capacity of the land, the advisability of diverting land use to other than growing timber, and the present and future financial needs of the owner and his heirs.

Other proposed amendments to the regulations are also directed toward timber sales on allotted Indian lands. They would grant the Secretary of the Interior the following authority: to approve the sale of timber from allotted lands without the consent of the owners where such action is necessary to prevent loss of values resulting from fires, insects, disease, windthrow, and other natural catastrophes; to permit the sale of timber with the consent of a majority of Indian interest instead of the total interest; to act for persons Who cannot be located after a reasonable and diligent search; and to protect the interests of persons whose ownership in a decedent's estate has not been determined and for minors and others who are incompetent by reason of mental incapacity.

The proposed rule changes would also grant authority to the Secretary to handle the sale of timber in the inseparable undivided interests in allotments which are sometimes inherited by non-Indians. With the consent of such unrestricted interests they may now be included in timber sales along with the restricted Indian interests.

The full text of the proposed regulations is being published in the Eedera1 Register. Interested persons may submit written comments, suggestions, or objections to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 20240, within thirty days of the date of publication.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposed bill to provide for disposition of funds appropriated to pay a judgment in favor of the Snake or Paiute Indians of Oregon.

The judgment is for $3,650,000 for the Snake Tract, or Oregon Area, in Docket No. 87 of the Indian Claims Commission. The Commission has divided the total area involved into three tracts. The Snake Tract, consisting of lands in Oregon, Nevada, and California, is the only one for which a final award has been granted.

Under the proposed bill, the Secretary of the Interior would prepare a roll of all Northern Paiute Indians or their descendants who are living on the date of the Act. The bill excludes three groups of Indians: Those who elect to participate in the Malheur Paiute judgment award of December 4, 1959; those who will participate in a judgment awarded to certain Indians of California July 20, 1964; and those whose Indian ancestry is solely derived from four groups specifically excluded from this judgment. These are the Walpapi Paiute, Yahooskin "Snake," Bannock, and Western Mono.

In recommending the bill, however, the Department said there is little basis for assuming that any contemporary Paiute groups in the Snake Tract are exclusively entitled to the award. The same situation exists regarding the other two areas designated in Docket No. 87.

The absence of rolls identifying Paiutes with the respective tracts, the unfamiliarity of present-day Indians with early band designations, and the widespread movement and merging of bands and families complicate efforts to identify modern Paiutes with aboriginal groups, the Department said.

In addition, there are numerous individuals who are not affiliated with any federally recognized groups as they are known today, the Department added.

The proposed measure represents a consolidation of all Northern Paiutes into a single judgment roll and provides that all funds derived from any awards under Docket No. 87 shall be consolidated to the credit of the Northern Paiute Nation. Disposition of these funds would be made in behalf of the Northern Paiute Nation, without regard to geographic areas for which the awards are specifically made.

The Department of the Interior announced today that Kenneth K. Crites has been appointed superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Mt. Edgecumbe School at Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska, effective August 30. He succeeds Robin Dean, who retired recently.

Mr. Crites began his service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1938 as a teacher at the Wahpeton, North Dakota, and Indian School. He held positions of progressive responsibility at the Rosebud Indian School in South Dakota, Shiprock school in New Mexico, and the Chinle (Arizona) Boarding School, and in 1952 Was made assistant area director of schools at the Bureau's Juneau Area Office.

A native of Buckhannon, West Virginia, Mr. Crites received his bachelor's degree in Education from Salem College, Salem, West Virginia in 1938, and did graduate work at George Washington University in Washington, D. C., during 1937-38.