OPA

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of two road construction contracts in South Dakota by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to replace existing reservation roads to be inundated by Oahe Dam Reservoir on the Missouri River.

Totaling $477,387, the contracts are part of the Bureau's diversified rehabi1itation program designed to alleviate distress to area residents of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations of South Dakota as the reservoir project advances.

A $247,369 contract for Standing Rock provides for 10.9 miles of grading and gravel surfacing on the Fort Yates-Kene1 Road, in Carson County, South Dakota.

The successful bidder was Archie Campbell Inc., Hew Rockford, North Dakota. Fifteen other bids were received ranging to $333,790.

A $230,018 Cheyenne River contract covers grading and gravel surfacing on 14.7 miles of the Whitehorse-Promise Road in Dewey County, South Dakota. This new road will provide year-round travel to marketing centers, access for tourists, and better mail and school bus services. The contract was awarded to Brezina Construction Company, Inc., Rapid City, South Dakota. Seven bids were received ranging to $271,715.

When Congress authorized the acquisition of Indian lands and other properties for the Oahe Project, it resulted in the reestablishment of 200 families and loss of 117,000 acres of land at Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and the relocation of 190 families and loss of some 55,000 acres at Standing Rock Reservation. In addition, the tribes will lose an approximate combined total of 160,400 acres to be covered by waters of the Oahe Project.

Congress, however, provided reestablishing the Indian families affected and for rehabilitating all members of the tribes. The goal as to develop community, individual and family plans and to relocate, establish, and provide other assistance designed to improve the economic and social conditions of all recognized members of the tribes.

Today, improvements are visible in the many new housing units established on the reservations, the better furnishings and modern conveniences in the homes, improved water supply and sanitation facilities, and the neat and orderly appearance of hone sites.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said there is growing evidence of a changing attitude among many people, reflected in the increasing participation in all phases of the rehabilitation program. Tribal councils also are taking the initiative and assuming greater responsibility in promoting better tribal enterprises, the Bureau added.

The Government, attempting to ease the burden of relocation and to preserve the culture of the Indians, has attempted to record and salvage valuable data concerning notable Indian historic sites to be affected by the inundation. The National Park Service, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, conducted a program of photography and an archeological excavation of the ·many ancient Indian villages in the reservoir area.

The Bureau said road building is only part of the large long-range program designed to aid the Indians of Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations, whose lives were disrupted by the Government's comprehensive plan for developing the Missouri River Basin. At a time when the Indians are striving to improve their tourism and recreation industry, new and better roads leading to the reservations will be a definite asset, the Bureau explained, adding that continued improvement projects along these lines are planned for the immediate future.

One thousand prized eagle feathers - highly important to ceremonial costumes of several Southwest Indian tribes - are en route to Indian reservations through the courtesy of the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service to help alleviate a critical shortage of the adornments, the Department reported today.

The feathers were collected at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland and were sent to the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife Regional office in Albuquerque, N. Mex., for distribution among the tribes.

The feathers are from eagles found dead in various parts of the country. When a dead eagle is found and can be preserved, it is packed in "dry ice" and flown to the Research Center. At the center, scientists check for diseases, abnormalities, or pesticide residues. When injured or sick birds are found they are nursed back to health, if possible, and are released. Eagles unable to fly are loaned to public zoos.

About six months ago, Larry Merovka, supervisor of Management and Enforcement in the Bureau's Albuquerque office, suggested that the eagle feathers be saved and presented to Indian tribes. Virtually every American Indian tribe holds the eagle in high regard and many of them have songs and dances based on the symbolism of the eagle. The eagle, above nearly all other birds, has a special kinship to Indian history and religion.

Daniel H. Janzen, Director of the Bureau, said Mr. Merovka's suggestion concerning the feathers is a practical conservation measure resulting from the Department's employee suggestion program. The procedure helps meet the needs of the Indians for eagle feathers and helps conserve the eagle population by discouraging illegal taking of the birds.

Since adopting the suggestion by Mr. Merovka, the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center has salvaged feathers from about twenty eagles, primarily from North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri.

Both varieties of eagles--the golden and the bald--are represented in the feather collection. Golden eagle feathers are brown, with a golden tinge on head and shoulder feathers. The smaller bald eagle, darker with white head and shoulder feathers, is the majestic bird which is the American national emblem, whose image is imprinted on coins. Both are masters of the air currents and soar on motionless wings that have a span up to 7 ½ feet.

At the Wildlife Research Center only the larger, undamaged wing and tail feathers are recovered for use by the Indians. Since the supply is limited, only the most pressing needs of the Indians can be met at this time.

Federal laws safeguard eagles, their feathers, nests, and eggs. None of these may be possessed without a permit from the Secretary of the Interior unless acquired before protective laws were passed. The bald eagle has been protected by Federal law since 1940, and an amendment in October 1962 covered the golden eagle. The Secretary of the Interior can issue possession permits to public museums, scientific associations, and zoological parks for scientific or exhibition purposes only, or to individual Indians for religious purposes.

No eagles or their feathers, nests, or eggs can be transferred to another person except by permit, but Indians may hand them down from generation to generation by tribal or religious custom.

Feathers obtained from the Fish and Wildlife Service under the present arrangement cannot be employed in manufacturing articles for sale, nor can the feathers themselves be sold.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has scheduled a conference of top field administrators of Indian reservations for June 16-18 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It will be the second such conference since 1938 and a sequel to one called by the Secretary in 1961.

In making the announcement today, Secretary Udall said:

"This conference promises to be one of the most significant government meetings on Indian affairs in many years. We shall have the opportunity to examine the problems of reservation Indians in relation to President Johnson's war on poverty and in the broad perspective of our striving toward the great society."

Secretary Udall will deliver the keynote address at the opening session of the Santa Fe meeting on June 16. The three day conference will be attended by more than 200 delegates and invited guests.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior John A. Carver, Jr., Martin Vigil, Chairman, All-Pueblo Council, and Philleo Nash, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, will also speak at the first day's session. Governor Jack M. Campbell of New Mexico and Mayor Pat Hollis of Santa Fe are among invited guests.

Invitations also have been extended to representatives of the President's Task Force on the War against Poverty, the Public Housing Administration, the Indian Health Division of the U. S. Public Health Service, the Area Redevelopment Administration, and other agencies. Indian tribal officials and leaders of the National Congress of American Indians, the Indian Rights Association, and the Association on American Indian Affairs are also expected to attend the opening session.

Discussions will focus on the role of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the national war on poverty, with specific reference to Indian reservation needs in industrial and commercial development, education and housing.

The opening meeting, scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 16, will be held in the gymnasium of the Santa Fe Institute of American Indian Arts, a high school and vocational institute operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Tuesday session will be open to the press.

Secretary Udall has scheduled a press conference for 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 16, at the Institute.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today told a group of 200 Bureau personnel and high-ranking officials of other Federal agencies that the Administration's projected war on poverty "may…stimulate us to review, appraise, and revise our own ideas" relative to Indian social and economic aid.

He addressed a conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, of all superintendents of Indian reservations, the second since 1938 and a sequel to one held in Denver, Colo., shortly after Nash became Commissioner in 1961.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall opened the conference Tuesday, June 16, with an appraisal of the potential of the Economic Opportunity Act. Commissioner Nash's comments today summarized the three-day discussions, which focused on Indian needs in education, vocational training, housing, development of resources, and encouragement of business and industry.

"In less than three years' time, we have made real progress, particularly in the bedrock issues of Indian education and vocational training," the Commissioner said. "But," he continued, "The hard core of the Indians' prob1em-- unemployment--persists, the result of a combination of a growing population and a fixed base of economic resources"

The ultimate goals for the Indian people, the Commissioner emphasized, remain those stated in the 1961 report of the Secretary's Task Force on Indian Affairs. Nash was a member of that Task Force. The goals are: L Maximum economic self-sufficiency; 2. full participation in American life; 3. equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities.

Programs enlarged in the last three years are, he said, adult education, college scholarships, vocational training, industrial development, tourism and recreation development, and trades and crafts training.

New programs include provision of modern housing; employment of Indians on construction and other Government projects; improvement of real estate appraisal to insure fair market value for sale or lease of Indian lands; feasibility studies for economic development; and establishment of community centers to encourage civic activities among Indians., "In effect," the Commissioner said, "what we are doing is trying to pave the way for all Indians to enter the mainstream of American life, either on or off the reservations."

Nash’s speech is attached.

Award of a $701,853 contract calling for the construction of more than 23 miles of highway to promote tourism and facilitate travel through the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

This project will complete construction of approximately 400 miles of primary reservation roads for Routes 1 and 3 authorized by a 1958 amendment to the Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Act of 1950.

Route 1, an east-west highway in the northern part of the Navajo Reservation, provides the increasing tourist and commercial traffic on the reservation with a broad, all-weather, paved road stretching 183 miles from U. S. Route 89 near Cameron, Arizona, to the Four Corners area where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet, and on to Shiprock, New Mexico.

Route 1 was officially dedicated in September 1962 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, who stated at the time:

"I know what this new highway means to the Navajo people, not only in terms of a greater tourist industry for their new Tribal Parks Program but in such fundamental matters as better access to doctors and hospitals, better educational opportunities for their children, more rapid economic development and improved relationships and contacts with surrounding communities."

Route 3, the main east-west road in the southern part of the Navajo and Hopi Reservations, spans 164 miles of reservation lands from Tuba City, Arizona, to U. S. Route 666 north of Gallup, New Mexico.

The two highways have already been incorporated into the State Highway Systems of Arizona and New Mexico and will be operated and maintained at State expense.

The successful bidder was James Hamilton Construction Co., of Grants, N. Mex. Two additional bids reaching a high of $785,587 were received.

The Department of the Interior announced today that Charles S. Spencer, superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency in Idaho, has been named to head the Yakima Agency headquartered at Toppenish, Washington.

Spencer will assume his new duties on July 1. He replaces Melvin L. Robertson, who retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in March.

Spencer's successor at Fort Hall Agency is John L. Pappan, tribal operations officer at the Nevada Agency, Carson City, Nevada. The effective date of Pappan's transfer has not yet been determined.

Spencer joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1931 as farm agent at the Crow Agency in Montana. Subsequently, he served as extension agent at the Western Shoshone Agency, Owyhee, Nevada, and as soil conservationist at the Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyoming. He was named superintendent of the Rosebud Agency, Rosebud, South Dakota, in 1952, and was superintendent of the Blackfeet and Flathead agencies in Montana prior to his appointment as superintendent at Fort Hall.

He is a native of Victor, Idaho, and was graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.S. degree in agriculture in 1929.

Pappan, an enrolled member of the Kaw Indian Tribe, entered the Indian Service as a soil conservationist in 1950 at the Colorado River Agency, Parker, and Arizona. In 1957 he transferred to the position of program officer at the Riverside Area Field Office in California, and since 1962 has been tribal operations officer at the Nevada Agency. A native of Newkirk, Oklahoma, he attended Oklahoma A&M College and is a veteran of the United States Navy.

The Tyonek Indians of Alaska, with a population of about 200 persons, have accepted oil and gas lease bids totaling almost $11 million for some 8,500 acres of their reservation, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The council members of the tiny village of Tyonek will decide this week whether to accept bids for oil and gas leases on 20 tracts comprising the remainder of their reservation of some 26,000 acres, the Bureau of Indian Affairs lid. The Bureau acts as trustee for the Tyonek people.

All revenues from the competitive sale go to the Indian members of the reservation.

The Tyonek Reserve was established in 1915 for Indian use. The land is about 50 miles from Anchorage and is across Cook Inlet in an area of considerable oil exploration activity.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, following the village council's approval of the high offers, is notifying successful bidders to complete their leases, pay the balance of their bonus bids and meet other requirements of the sale.

The 31 tracts of Tyonek land were put up for lease sale on May 6 in Anchorage. High bids accepted on the 11 tracts totaled $10,964,734.

Seeking to encourage broader private financing of economic development on Indian reservations, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has asked Congress for authority to establish an Indians' Loan Guaranty and Insurance Fund of $15 million under administration of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Department anticipates that this fund should result in providing $100 million or more of financing to Indians from non-governmental sources.

Such a fund would be used to guarantee or insure loans made by private lenders either to Indian organizations or to individuals of one-quarter or more Indian blood.

Guaranties would be used in financing the larger tribal enterprises or industries and would be limited to 80 percent of the loan. Insurance would probably be used for the bulk of the smaller loans qualifying under the program and would cover losses up to 15 percent of the total lending, Secretary Udall said.

The proposal is in full accord with recommendations in the “Report of the Committee on Federal Credit Programs" submitted to the late President Kennedy in February.1963. The Presidentially appointed committee included the Secretary of the Treasury, Director of the Budget Bureau, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.

Pointing out that the Department also has asked Congress to permit a $35 million increase in the authorized amount of the Indian Bureau's revolving credit fund, Secretary Udall stressed that much broader private financing will also be needed to make fully effective the accelerated economic development program for Indians now being undertaken by the Bureau.

"Even if, the authorization is increased by the $35 million pending," he added, "the fund will still be inadequate to meet the needs of the Indians for financing. The economic development program is only now getting underway, but indications are that large sums on a credit basis will be required to put many economically feasible projects into operation."

Under the proposed bill, the guaranties or insurance would be provided only to applicants unable to obtain financing from customary sources on reasonable terms. The maximum loan to an Indian organization that could be guaranteed or insured would be $1 million. In the case of loans to individual Indians, the top limit would be $60,000. The maturity period of loans qualifying under the program would be limited to 30 years.

The bill also includes several other provisions covering administration of both the guaranty and insurance features.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that five prominent figures in the art world--Commissioners of the Department's Arts and Crafts Board--will be among the guests at the invitational opening of an Indian art exhibit, Monday, May 11. The exhibit features the re-activating of the Department’s art gallery after nearly two decades.

The Board's Commissioners, all serving without pay, are Dr. Frederick J. Dockstader, chairman of the Board; Vincent Price; Rene D'Harnoncourt; Lloyd New Kiva; and Erich Kohlberg.

Vincent Price, well-known actor, is a recognized art authority. He holds membership on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, the Board of Archives on American Art, the Whitney Museum Friends of American Art, and the White House Committee on Painting. He is president of the Art Council of the University of California and has lectured on primitive and modern art, and on the Letters of Van Gogh.

Rene D'Harnoncourt has been associated with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board since 1936, as general manager from 1937 to 1944, and as chairman of the Board for 17 years. A native of Vienna, Austria, he is Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and vice president of the Museum of Primitive Art.

Lloyd New Kiva, a Cherokee Indian, is Director of Arts at the Santa Fe Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico, a school operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior. He is a prominent designer of textiles.

The Department of the Interior today approved four road construction contracts Which are expected to improve economic and educational opportunities for Indians on four reservations in South Dakota.

Totaling $708,346, the contracts will make possible better school bus service, better marketing of farm and ranch products, and better access for tourists, and new jobs for Indian workmen during the coming year, Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs said.

The road projects are scheduled for the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Crow Creek and Sisseton Reservations. The contracts parallel similar resource development efforts on Indian lands as one phase of the Bureau's efforts to stimulate employment and to create desirable conditions for industrial and business development on reservations.

Funds for road building on reservations derive from Bureau of Indian Affairs road program money. Contracts are awarded on a bid basis.

Under a contract for $128,306.36, the Van Buskirk Construction Company of Sioux City, Iowa, will grade and drain 6.6 miles of the Little White River Road on the Rosebud Reservation in Todd County, South Dakota. This road will permit tourist travel into the Little White River Valley recreational area, make school bus service available to 30 Indian families, and give them a better transportation link between farm and market. Five bids ranging to $179,403.76 were received for this project.

E. Stoltenberg and Son of St. Paul, Nebraska, was the successful bidder on the Pine Ridge Reservation contract for $189,204.44. Work under this contract covers grading and draining of the Slim Buttes and Red Shirt Table roads to U. S. Highway 18. Connecting links in the reservation road system, these roads will provide access to Red Shirt Village and school bus service to the newly constructed Oglala No.5 Day School operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seven bids ranging to $239,210.52 were received for the project.

Grading and gravel surfacing work will be done on 9.4 miles of the Big Bend Farm Station road under the Crow Creek contract for $180,6/+1.19. This road provides access to a recreational area on the north shore of the Big Bend Dam Reservoir, as well as farm-to-market and mail route service in the Hughes County section of the Crow Creek Reservation. Brezina Construction Company, Inc." of Rapid City, South Dakota, was the successful bidder. A total of 12 bids ranging to $212,498.32 were received.

The Sisseton Reservation contract for $210,194.48 covers grading, bituminous surfacing, and construction of a bridge on 7.5 miles of a heavily traveled farm to-market, school bus and mail route road that extends east from U, S. Highway 81 toward Browns Valley. The contract was awarded to the John Dieseth Company of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, who submitted the lowest of six bids ranging to $266,060.94,