OPA

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation authorizing long-term leasing of lands on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Reservation and the Papago Reservation, both in Arizona.

Two bills now before Congress would permit land leases not to exceed 99 years for public, religious, educational, recreational, residential or business purposes. They would provide for a maximum term of 40 years for farming leases when substantial investment is necessary for land improvement to grow specialized crops, and would continue the present maximum of 10 years for grazing leases and farming leases where substantial investment is not required for development. They would not apply to mineral development leases.

An Act of August 9, 1955 authorized leases for periods of 25 years, with an option for one additional term of 25 years. The Department said this limitation has hampered the Indians of both reservations in negotiating leases for reservation development and bas prevented them from gaining maximum return from their lands. Potential leases have been unable to obtain necessary financing to develop property under leases with only 50-year terms, the Department added.

Under the proposed measures, the State of Arizona would be authorized to amend its State laws or Constitution to assume civil and criminal jurisdiction over all or any part of the reservations, permanently or for an authorized period. Such action would be subject to the consent of the Tribal Council and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

The Department recommended retention of a provision in each of the bills that would allow municipalities with boundaries adjacent to the reservations to annex all or part of them, with consent and approval of the Tribal Council and the Secretary of the Interior. The Department recommended against a provision in the bills that would permit annexation of reservation lands as much as 10 miles from city boundaries.

Other significant provisions would allow Indian owners to dedicate land for streets, alleys, and other public purposes, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior; permit the Indians to provide for extension of State and county zoning ordinances, housing codes, and health and sanitation laws to leased areas; and affirm the power of the Tribal Council to enact zoning, building and sanitary regulations for reservation lands not under State jurisdiction.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the appointment of Richmond F. Allan of Billings, Mont., as an Associate Solicitor to head the Division of Indian Affairs in the Office of the Solicitor in Washington, D. C.

Mr. Allan, a native of Billings, has been an attorney with the Lands Division in the Department of Justice since February and now makes his home at Alexandria, Va., near Washington.

A cum laude graduate of Montana State University, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1955 and his bachelor of laws degree in 1957, Allan spent the year after his graduation from law school as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, where he studied international law, jurisprudence, and conflicts of law.

Upon returning to the United States he became law clerk to Judge Walter L. Pope, Chief Judge of the U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, San Francisco. From 1959 to 1961 he was partner in the Billings law firm of Kurth, Conner, Jones and Allan.

Mr. Allan was named Assistant United states Attorney for the District of Montana in 1961 and headed the Billings sub office of the United States Attorney, representing the Government in many cases involving Indian litigation. He resigned that position to join the Department of Justice in Washington.

While attending law school, Mr. Allan was on the Montana Law Review Staff and was associate editor in 1956-57. He won two awards for outstanding scholarship and, in 1957, was named winner of the Northwest Regional National Moot Court Championship.

Mr. Allan is a member of the Montana and District of Columbia bars and has been admitted to practice before the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.

He is married to the former Dorothy Frost of Billings. They have two sons.

The new associate solicitor's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Roy F. Allan, also of Billings, where the elder Mr. Allan is an assistant field solicitor for the Department of the Interior.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced renewal of contracts totaling more than $150,000 with six manufacturers to provide on-the-job training for 236 American Indians. The trainees will learn industrial skills ranging from diamond polishing to electronics assembly.

On-the-job training is part of the Bureau's Employment Assistance Program which aids reservation Indians in finding jobs. Training provided under contracts with cooperating employers has proved particularly effective in preparing eligible Indians who wish to work on or near their reservations, the Bureau said.

The six companies renewing training contracts for the period ending June 30, 1966 are:

Harry Winston, Inc., Chandler, Ariz. - A $53,300 contract to train 59 Pimas from the Gila River and Salt River Reservations as diamond sawyers, girdlers and polishers;

Mitchell Furniture Industries, Inc., Durant, Okla. - To train 16 Indians - mainly Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Cherokees - in furniture manufacturing occupations under a $14,220 contract;

Northern Cedarcraft Products, Inc., Redby, Minn. - A $4,700 contract to train 38 Chippewas from Red Lake Reservation in processing cedar logs for a wide variety of fencing products;

Sequoyah Mills, Inc., in Caddo County, Okla. - A $43,925 contract to train 50 Indians in carpeting plant occupations. Groups represented among the trainees include: Pawnees, Arapahoes, Choctaws, Kiowas, Comanches, Delawares, and Cherokees;

Systems Engineering Electronics, Inc., Wewoka, Okla. - A $25,225 contract to train 41 Creeks, Seminoles, and Chickasaws in plastic sub-assembly work, electronic printed circuit board fabrication and assembly, and electrical harness fabrication;

Venride, Inc., New Town, N. D. - A $16,555 contract to train 32 Arikaras, Gros Ventres, and Mandans in various occupations connected with the manufacture and assembly of children's rides and fabric glass products.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced he is appointing H. Edward Hyden, an Interior Department lawyer specializing in American Indian affairs for 26 years, to be Chief Justice of American Samoa.

Mr. Hyden, Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs since 1957, will succeed Judge Arthur A. Morrow, Who became Chief Justice of the territory in the South Pacific in 1937, the year before Mr. Hyden received his law degree.

Judge Morrow is retiring October 16. In August, 1963, he reached his 70th birthday, normally the mandatory retirement age for Federal civilian employees, but agreed to the Department's request that he remain with the territorial court as a reemployed annuitant.

Governor H. Rex Lee of American Samoa has asked Judge Morrow to remain in the territory and serve with the territorial government on a part-time basis. Governor Lee added that he hoped Judge Morrow will also conduct a part-time private law practice, at least until some of the Samoan students now studying law receive their degrees and return home to practice.

Judge Morrow was dean of the College of Law at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, when he was appointed Chief Justice of American Samoa, then under Navy jurisdiction. In 1942 he returned to the University as dean of its Law College when the Navy decided that wartime conditions made it necessary for a Naval officer to preside over the court. From May, 1943, to October, 1945, he also served as, compliance commissioner in the Des Moines area for the War Production Board. In 1946 he returned to preside over the court in American Samoa.

Mr. Hyden, who still calls Oklahoma his home, received his bachelor of laws degree in 1938 and his master of laws degree the following year from Columbus University, now Catholic University, Washington, D. C.

He entered Federal service in April, 1935, and in 1939 was assigned to the Interior Department's Solicitor's Office as an Indian affairs attorney. He was a major contributor to the Department's 1958 publication, Federal Indian Law, a leading textbook on the subject. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, and is a member of the Oklahoma, Federal and American Bar Associations.

Secretary Udall said Mr. Hyden's years of experience in dealing closely with rapidly-changing social and economic conditions among people whose culture is different from the average American's will be important in his new post in American Samoa.

American Samoa is one of the areas administered by the Interior Department's Office of Territories. It comprises the seven eastern islands of the Samoan group, approximately 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii and 1600 miles northeast of the northern tip of New Zealand. The population is approximately 22,000.

The people of American Samoa are American nationals and represent one of the few remaining societies of Polynesians retaining the major part of their traditional culture.

American Samoa was under the jurisdiction of the Navy, as a naval base, from 1900 until 1951, when it was transferred to the Department of the Interior.

Mr. and Mrs. Hyden, who now reside in Alexandria, Virginia, will leave for American Samoa in mid-October.

Earlier this week, Secretary Udall announced that Richmond F. Allan of Billings, Montana, will be the new Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs, replacing Mr. Hyden.

The award of a $540,998 contract for remodeling and construction at the 200-man Job Corps Center at Poston, Arizona, on the Colorado River Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. The center is expected to be ready for activation within six months.

Poston, once a wartime relocation center, will be one of ten Job Corps conservation centers to be operated in Indian areas under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Three others already in operation are at Mexican Springs, New Mexico (Navajo Reservation); Winslow, Arizona (near the Navajo area); and Neah Bay, Washington (Makah Reservation). Others will be at San Carlos, Arizona (San Carlos Reservation); Chippewa Ranch, Minnesota (White Earth); Kicking Horse, Montana (Flathead); Eight Canyon, New Mexico (Mescalero Apache); Fort Simcoe, Washington (Yakima); and Swiftbird, Eagle Butte, South Dakota (Cheyenne River).

The centers are being created to provide education and occupational training for out-of-school youth. Nearly 300 young men are already at work on conservation and improvement projects on public and Indian lands.

The construction project at Poston will consist of remodeling and repair of 13 adobe buildings for barracks; construction of a 12,800-square-foot metal building for kitchen, dining room, offices and classrooms; a 24,000-square-foot surfaced recreation area; and all necessary utilities.

Successful bidder was Mel Slaysman Construction Company, Phoenix, Arizona. Eight other bids were received ranging from $552,500 to $592,100.

SALT RIVER INDIANS LEASE SCOTTSDALE AREA TRACT

A group of Salt River Reservation Indians anticipates an annual income of $400 per acre from a 156-acre tract recently leased to the Arizona Stable Development Company. The lease runs for 25 years, with an additional 25-year option. The tract, composed of eight allotments and leased as a unit, lies immediately south of the Indian Bend Golf Course near Scottsdale, Arizona.

When the land is fully developed, the Indian owners will receive a guaranteed minimum rent of about $50,000 per year, plus three per cent of the gross proceeds from the planned development, and $360 per year for each house built on the property.

The Development Company plans a $6 million investment and is committed to build a riding arena, training track and deluxe stables this year. Future commitments call for a water and sewer system, 30-unit hotel, six houses, lake and pool by the first of next year, and construction of 72 apartment units by mid-1966.

PROJECT TO TRAIN NAVAJO GARMENT WORKERS

The B.V.D. Company, Inc. has announced its intention to cooperate with representatives of the Navajo Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in establishing a pilot garment sewing training project near Winslow, Arizona. The project, to cost an estimated $40,000 to $50,000, will commence October 1 and will determine the capabilities of Navajo women for high-speed sewing. If training proves successful, B.V.D. will establish a permanent manufacturing facility on the reservation.

The manufacturer will supply necessary machinery and supervisory personnel. Arrangements to house the project are not yet completed.

INDIAN CLAIMS

The Indian Claims Commission recently granted an award of $171,897 to the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma on behalf of the Peorias and the Piankeshaw, Wea, and Kaskaskia Nations. The award represents additional payment for 207,759 acres of land in Kansas disposed of under the Treaty of May 30, 1854.

The Commission also has approved a compromise settlement and granted an award of $520,000 to the Quechan Tribe of Indians. The award represents fair payment for 667,544 acres of land in California, taken in 1853, and 881,644 acres of land in Arizona, taken in 1884.

Attorneys for the Iowa Tribe have appealed the Commission's decisions in a case in which the Iowa Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas was granted an award of $633,193.77 on May 7, 1965. The appeal is based on the issues of the value of the lands ceded under the Treaty of August 4, 1824, and the reduced area to which the Commission found that the Indians held title.

ALASKA NATIVE VILLAGES RECOVER

Old Harbor and Point Lions, Kodiak Island native communities that were hard hit by the Alaska earthquake, are steadily returning to normal.

Working with specialist from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, energetic villagers have completed reconstruction of power transmission systems in both communities restored sewer and water systems at Old Harbor. Two 100-KW power generators have been installed in a new central power plant to serve both villages.

INDIAN-ESKIMO ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION

The Museum of Contemporary Crafts of the American Craftsmen's Council at 29 W. 53rd Street, New York City, will continue through September 12 to exhibit a remarkable collection of contemporary Indian and Eskimo arts arid crafts. The show consists of work by Indian students at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and of Alaskan Eskimo craftsmen-trainees.

Paintings, sculpture, metal crafts, ceramics, textiles and other art objects from the Santa Fe Institute reflect some of the new art forms developed by Indian artists who link the best in traditional Indian culture to contemporary life. The Institute is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and is now in its third year. It offers an accredited high school program and a post-high school vocational program in preparation for colleges, technical schools and arts vocations. Its student body of 350 is drawn from 88 tribes in 25 States.

The Alaskans represented in the current exhibit are members of a group of 40 unemployed craftsmen and hunters ranging in age from 16 to 65 who were selected to participate in a Federal training project. Working in wood, stone, ivory, metals, and lapidary, they combine contemporary designs and techniques with subjects drawn from Eskimo life.

NORTHERN CEDARCRAFT REACHES FULL PRODUCTION

Officials at Red Lake Indian Mills recently reported that Northern Cedarcraft Products, Inc. is now in full production on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. The plant, which produces cedar fence posts, employs 48 Chippewa Indians in two full-time shifts. Only recently completed, it has bolstered the economy of the entire Red Lake area.

Northern Cedarcraft is one of many companies established on Indian reservations across the country through the cooperative efforts of tribal governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today requested all Bureau employees--and urged all Indian adults--to take part in the National Driver's Test to be telecast over the CBS Television Network Monday, August 30.

The self-evaluation driver review test will be telecast at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, and 9:00 p.m. Central and Mountain time.

Test forms are being distributed throughout the Indian reservations and all Bureau offices.

In pledging the Bureau's full support of the National Driver's Test as well as other nationwide safety and accident prevention programs, Nash said:

"Automobiles, buses and trucks are by far the most common means of travel in Indian areas. The accident rate is high, and we must reduce it.

"The Bureau’s trusteeship responsibilities for many Indian lands imply a direct responsibility for the safety and well-being of the people. We have, therefore, established an Office of Safety in the Bureau, and will develop a motor vehicle accident prevention program to parallel other efforts in the area of occupational safety practices."

The Department of the Interior today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has terminated supervision of three Indian rancherias in California, under the provisions of the Rancheria Act of August 18, 1958 (P.L. 85-671), as amended.

The rancherias, which are actually small tracts of Indian land under Federal trust, are: Scotts Valley Rancheria, a 56.6 acre tract in Lake County; Robinson Rancheria, 168 acres in Lake County; and Guidiville Rancheria, 244 acres in Mendocino County.

The 1958 Act called for distribution of rancheria assets to Indian owners and termination of Federal services they receive solely because of their status as Indians. Upon termination the same laws will apply to the Indians that apply to other citizens residing in the State.

There are 145 Indians who will share in the distribution of assets for the three rancherias.

Of the 41 rancherias named in the original 1958 Act, 17 were terminated previously.

Termination becomes effective upon publication of a notice in the Federal Register, scheduled for this week.

This is a proud and happy day for the Nez Perce Indians and for their many non-Indian neighbors and friends as well. This new community at Lapwai which we are dedicating today and the one dedicated at Kamiah yesterday could not have been built without the dual effort of the Tribe and the Federal Government. Tribal funds and Federal funds through the Accelerated Public Works program--have been pooled to erect two structures that symbolize the growing spirit of community action among the Nez Perce Tribe.

We are gathered here today for a dedication ceremony. But the real dedication of these two buildings will be by the men, women, young people, and children who will use them in the years ahead. We know the new centers will be used for many purposes--for athletic games and exhibitions, for banquets and dances, for tribal meetings and lectures, for concerts and exhibits--and for other similar occasions signaling the community spirit of the people.

Community centers, such as this beautiful building at Lapwai, and its companion building at Kamiah, also on this Reservation, are monuments to a war on poverty. They help combat poverty of spirit because they bring people together to exchange ideas and share experiences.

The building of community centers is an important part of the total Bureau effort to combat Indian poverty and help the Indian people attain in full the experience of participating citizenship. There are 64 such structures built" enlarged, or renovated on reservations in the last two years with Bureau aid. Another 18 have been built or are being built with loans or grants under APW. Some are multipurpose buildings with gymnasium, auditorium, and kitchen. Others are more modest. But all of them reflect the felt needs of the people for a place to come together.

Some important discussions have been held in community centers--discussions that have led to changes in education programs, to creation of new business and industry, to improvements in management of natural resources. Community centers can be, and have been, strategy planning sites for the war on Indian poverty.

As you know, we in the present administration in Washington, first under President Kennedy and now under President Johnson, have been striving the last three years to raise the economic level of life on the Indian reservations. This has involved us in many programs to develop for income or for jobs the natural resources of the reservations--their fields, their forests, their mineral deposits, and even their beauty and scenery for the attraction of tourists.

But we nearly always find that we cannot get very far in this direction without encountering the problem of first developing the human resources of the reservations--their men, women, and children. That is why more than half the generous appropriations which Congress has been giving us the past few years is devoted to education.

Money, even though schools, cannot, however, accomplish everything. We need on the Indian reservations, among the Indian people, themselves, I believe, a still greater concern by adults for both the opportunities and responsibilities of young people. We need to find new ways to reduce the number of dropouts from school and to lessen juvenile delinquency. We need to encourage young people to do the best they are capable of, and to discourage them from the idleness that too often breeds violence and lawlessness. It is to this important end that the two new community centers may make their most vital contribution.

Of all the Indian people, the Nez Perce have the finest precedent for giving first thought to the welfare of their children. You may remember that when Chief Joseph and his valiant band were finally hunted down and surrounded by General Miles' troops, the chiefs held a council to decide whether they should surrender. Several of the chiefs wanted to fight on. But Joseph pointed to the starving women and children in the shelter pits and to the babies that were crying around them.

"For myself I do not care," he said. "It is for them I am going to surrender."

In the spirit of Chief Joseph, these buildings might well be dedicated to community concern for the growth in body and mind of the present generation of Nez Perce children.

OLSON APPOINTED UNITED PUEBLOS AGENCY SUPERINTENDENT IN NEW MEXICO Appointment of Walter O. Olson as superintendent of the United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, N. M., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He succeeds Guy C. Williams, a Federal career employee, who is retiring.

Olson has been tribal operations officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Area Office at Phoenix, Ariz., the past year. He joined the Bureau in June 1940 as a trainee in the Southwest field training program under a Rockefeller Foundation grant, National Institute of Public Affairs. In 1941 he was named assistant superintendent, United Pueblos Agency at Albuquerque.

After two years of military service, Olson returned to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1946 as assistant superintendent of the Zuni Agency in New Mexico, and two years later was named associate area director of the Window Rock Area Office in Arizona. His service with the Bureau was again interrupted in 1952 by an l8-month assignment with the Technical Cooperation Administration as deputy assistant administrator for the Near East and Africa.

Olson returned to the Bureau in December 1953, first as superintendent of the Mescalero Agency in New Mexico, and later as assistant area director of the Gallup, N. M., area office.

A native of St. Anthony, Idaho, Olson holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Idaho.