OPA

Award of a $5,855,200 contract for the construction of school facilities in Many Farms, Apache County, Arizona, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, was announced today by the :Department of the Interior. The facilities will serve to relieve the overcrowded conditions prevailing at Pinon and Low Mountain schools and will provide needed school accommodations for many Navajo children in the area who are not presently in school.

The new facilities to be constructed include a five-building academic complex comprising 34 classrooms, a multipurpose room, a 1,000-pupil instructional materials center, six l68-pupil dormitories, a 1,200-pupil kitchen dining hall, employees' quarters, garages, and a maintenance building. The project also provides for the paving of walks, streets, and drives, and complete utility systems.

The successful bidder was Bateson Cheves Construction Co., Mesa, Arizona. Three higher bids ranging from $6,070,593 to $6,233,000 were received.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress proposed legislation providing for disposition of three judgment funds, now totaling approximately $4.5 million, recovered from the Government by the Miami Indians of Oklahoma and Indiana.

Largest of the original judgments--$4,647,467--now stands at $4,182,720 following payment of attorneys' fees and other expenses. It was awarded by the Indian Claims Commission, and appropriated by Congress, to descendants of the Miami Tribe or Nation as it existed in 1818, Today the former Nation consists of two separate and distinct groups: The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Miami Indians of Indiana. The judgment was based on a claim by the Indians that they were inadequately compensated for lands ceded to the United States in Ohio and Indiana nearly 150 years ago.

In two additional judgments, the Commission awarded $349,193 (now $308,572) to the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and $64,738 (now $56,356) to the. Miami Indians of Indiana as settlement for lands in Kansas ceded to the Government in 1854.

The Judgment funds are deposited in the United States Treasury, at 4 percent interest, to the credit of the Miami Tribes.

Legislation proposed by the Department provides that the governing body of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior, shall decide precisely how it will program the Tribe's remaining judgment of approximately $308,000.

Since the Miami Tribe of Indiana, on the other hand, is not an organized body, the Department proposes a per capita distribution of approximately $56,000 among Indian beneficiaries.

Finally, the Department's proposal would authorize a per capita distribution of the $4.6 million judgment, after payment of all expenses, to those meeting rigid eligibility requirements.

Should the Department's proposal become law, adoption of specific regulations governing the preparation of membership rolls would be announced and would be published in the Federal Register at an appropriate time.

The appointment of women to two major (Grade 15) positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by the Secretary of the Interior.

Miss Wilma Louise Victor, a Choctaw Indian of Idabel, Okla, , was named superintendent of the Intermountain Indian School, an off-reservation boarding school operated by the Bureau at Brigham City, Utah.

Mrs. Virginia S. Hart of Arlington, Va., a native of Worcester, Mass., was named information officer for the Bureau in Washington, D. C. Miss Victor's service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs dates to 1941, when she started as an apprentice teacher at the Shiprock Boarding School in New Mexico. She enlisted in the Army in 1943 and served as a first lieutenant until 1946. She taught at Idabel High School two years and returned to the Bureau in 1949 as principal at Intermountain School, then being established.

In 1961, Miss Victor became principal of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Institute of American Indian Art at Santa Fe, N. Mex., where she organized and directed the academic program.

Intermountain Indian School, to which Miss Victor is returning, has an enrollment of approximately 2,100 in the 12-to-18 age group. Its faculty numbers about 300.

Miss Victor, born November 5, 1919, has a Bachelor of Science degree from Wisconsin State College and a master's degree in school administration from the University of Oklahoma.

Mrs., Hart, the new information officer for the Bureau, attended Worcester State Teachers College and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Clark University at Worcester, Mass., in 1945. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the American University in Washington, D. C., where she also has been a guest lecturer in the Department of Communications.

Before her appointment to the Bureau she was an information officer with the U. S. Office of Education, Division of Vocational Education and Manpower Training. Previous government service has included information or editorial positions with the Department of State and the Voice of America. She joined the Office of Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1961.

Mrs. Hart was born July 9, 1922.

To stimulate greater economic growth and development on Indian reservations, the Department of the Interior has asked Congress to increase by $35 million the authorized amount of the revolving loan program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Under a bill proposed by the Department, the authorization for the program would be boosted from $27 million to $62 million and the Bureau would be permitted to make grants of not more than 20 percent of the borrowed amount in connection with the loans under certain circumstances.

In drafting its proposal, the Department took into consideration the "Report of the Committee on Federal Credit Programs," which was submitted to the late President Kennedy February 11, 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.

Present loan funds of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are inadequate to meet the needs for financing Indian economic enterprises, Assistant Secretary John A. Carver, Jr., pointed out. Although Indians received an estimated $77 million of financing from sources serving other citizens in 1961, the total of unfulfilled commitments and pending applications for Bureau loans is nearly $30 million greater than the available cash balance.

"It has become practically impossible to rehabilitate Indians entirely on a credit basis," Mr. Carver said. "If an Indian borrows money in an amount sufficient to finance an economic unit, plus funds for operating and family living expenses until the enterprise comes into production, the borrower's debt load pyramids of a point where repayment within a reasonable period of time is almost impossible. The borrower may demonstrate industry and operate his credit... financed enterprise successfully, and still be unable to work himself into a solvent position.

"In order to reduce his debt burden he may go to work for wages in order to meet family living expenses. Such wage work usually is available only during periods when the borrower's own enterprise needs close attention. Wage work thus can jeopardize successful operation of the borrower's credit-financed enterprise. The borrower is caught in an impasse. He can either carry a burdensome debt load, with questionable repayment capacity, or endanger the successful operation of his enterprise by lack of attention thereto with an equally adverse effect upon repayment capacity."

The grant feature of the proposed legislation is intended to help borrowers, including both Indian organizations and individual Indians, during initial loan periods and times of emergency. In many cases, Assistant Secretary Carver observed, a grant may make the difference between success and failure of an Indian enterprise financed from the fund. Grants would not be made in connection with all loans, however, but only in cases of clearly justifiable need.

The bill proposed by the Department would also consolidate the existing three separate loan funds of the Bureau of Indian Affairs into one.

The Department of the Interior has brought together the most comprehensive collection of twentieth century American Indian paintings, sculpture and handicrafts ever assembled to premier the reopening of the Department's gallery and museum May 11.

The exhibit will include paintings from the priceless collection of the late William and Leslie Van Ness Denman, patrons of Indian art for several decades; Tell-known contemporary American Indian artists; and a selection of student art contributed by schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Departmental gallery, a feature of the Interior Department's main building at 18th and C Streets, NW., had for the past several years been used as storage and office space until Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall requested that it be reactivated as a museum for the American people.

The Secretary and Mrs. Udall have extended invitations to more than 500 prominent men and women throughout the country to attend the opening reception, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Monday, May 11.

A briefing for the press will take place between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. of the same evening.

The Indian art exhibit will be open to the public weekdays between May 12 and October 2.

FACT SHEET DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GALLERY EXHIBIT "SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN AND ESKIMO INDIAN ART"

STUDENT ART COLLECTION

Within the 284 schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian students from Florida to Alaska have contributed paintings, wood sculptures, and ceramics and craft items. Most notable in this grouping is the collection of wall hangings, paintings, pottery and carvings created by Indian students now attending the Institute of American Indian Art, a technical school at Santa Fe, New Mexico. These items were designed to decorate the Miccosukee tribal center in southwest Florida, a project currently under construction. Several of the student contributors have already attained prominence in national exhibits. Award-winners to be represented in the student show include Larry Bird (Laguna), Hank Gobin (Snohomish), and Harry Walters (Navajo), ceramic artists; Arden Hosetmsavit (Apache), Benedict Snowball (Eskimo) and Douglas Crowder (Choctaw), sculptors; Larry Bird (Laguna) and Harry Walters (Navajo), painters; and Elaine Rice (Seneca) and Eliza Vigil (Tesuque), weavers.

THE DENMAN COLLECTION

William Denman, cowboy, lawyer, judge and art lover, and his wife, Leslie Van Ness, acquired during their lifetimes a significant collection of paintings by American Indians, most of whom attained their prominence during the first half of the twentieth century. Fifty-nine paintings from the Denman collection will be on exhibit, most of them by Indians of the Southwest and representative of the early exponents of modern Indian art, largely religious in theme and stylized in motif. Artists in the Denman group include Fred Kabotie, Ma-pe-Wi, Awa Tsireh, Monroe Tsa-toke, Harrison Begay, Pableta Velarde, and Allen Houser

John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945, has been named to receive the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor the Department of the Interior can bestow. The award will be presented by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash, acting as the personal emissary of Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, in a ceremony at Mr. Collier's home in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, on May 4, his 80th birthday.

The honor, given in recognition of Mr. Collier's extraordinary leadership in the field of Indian affairs, also commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. He was the chief philosopher and advocate of the Indian Reorganization Act, and its passage was an outstanding accomplishment in his career as Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The 1934 Act is significant in several respects. It brought a quick halt to a process of allotting property to individual Indians which resulted in the permanent loss of much land from Indian ownership. It provided a foundation for tribal economic self-sufficiency by the establishment of chartered corporations, the extension of credit from Federal funds, and the fostering of tribal enterprise. It also brought about home rule through an increased measure of tribal self-government, and established the present-day policies of conservation and development of Indian lands and resources.

The citation to Mr. Collier accompanying the gold medallion reads in part:

"John Collier has always been a vigorous champion of religious freedom, defending the Indians' right to continue their traditional ceremonies and to choose freely among the religions offered them.

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a $5,402,994 contract to build a two-mile tunnel near Aztec, N. Mex., first major work on the $135 million Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, which the Bureau of Reclamation is building for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Fenix &Scisson, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla., lowest of 16 bidders, was awarded the contract.

The Navajo Project contract marks the third new start in fiscal year 1964 on a western irrigation project. The others were the Bureau of Reclamation's San Juan-Chama Project and the Rio Grande Project recreational facilities, both also in New Mexico.

Commissioner of Reclamation Floyd E. Dominy said the Navajo tunnel bid invitation was the first of its type issued by Reclamation in which offers could be submitted on a "per-foot" basis. He explained that conditions favor use of a "mole," a giant horizontal power drill, for excavation. Rapid follow-up behind the mole with concrete tunnel lining may obviate use of structural-steel supports.

"In essence, the linear-foot option offered more flexibility for bidders, II Commissioner Dominy explained.” It permitted contractors to use their ingenuity in arriving at the lowest possible construction cost, while still meeting the Bureau's specifications."

The tunnel will extend from the Bureau of Reclamation's Navajo Dam--about 30 miles east of Farmington, N. Mex.--to Governador Canyon, approximately two miles south of Farmington. A system of tunnels, siphons, and canals will extend the system an additional 150 miles. These will be covered under future contracts.

By 1970, more than 500,000 visitors may be traveling to a new national recreation area in Montana and Wyoming and enjoying the same scenic mountains, canyons, and rivers where an unknown Indian tribe lived in prehistoric times.

The Department of the Interior has announced it favors enactment of Federal legislation which would authorize establishment of the 63,000-acre Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area surrounding Yellowtail Reservoir in southern Montana and northern Wyoming.

The 71-mile reservoir, expected to be completed by 1966, will be formed by the 525-foot-high Yellowtail Dam being built near the mouth of Big Horn Canyon, about 42 miles southwest of Hardin, Mont., by the Bureau of Reclamation as a part of the Missouri River Basin Project.

A bill pending in Congress provides for acquiring approximately 7,300 acres of non-Federal lands within the authorized boundaries and for the inclusion of Crow Indian Reservation lands. The reservation acreage could only be included in the recreation area at the request of the Crow Tribal Council, "subject to any limitations specified by the tribal council and approved by the Secretary of the Interior."

Located between the Bighorn Mountains on the east and the Pryor Mountains on the west, Bighorn Canyon was formed by continued erosion during the geological uplift period during which the Bighorn and Pryor mountain ranges were being formed. The canyon depth varies from 800 to 2,000 feet and its walls present the various strata of geological periods dating back millions of years.

In addition to the impressive scenery and geological story presented there, it is an area of significant archeological and historical interest. The Smithsonian Institution is studying a narrow strip of land running the length of the canyon on which have been found campsites, tepee rings, a medicine wheel, original trails, and other evidence of habitation by an unknown prehistoric people.

In historic times it is known that the Crow, or Absaroka, were among the earliest people to dwell in the area and they have remained to the present.

Within a few miles of the dam site are the remains of Fort C. F. Smith, an Army infantry post established in 1866 to protect travelers on the "Bozeman Trail" - the main supply route between Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and Virginia City, Montana - who were constantly under attack by the Sioux and Cheyenne for "encroachment" on their hunting grounds.

Farther downstream from the dam is the site of the Hayfield Fight, where a small force of hay cutters and their soldier guards repelled a superior number of attacking Sioux by using the then newly issued breech-loading Springfield rifles. This fight has become a classic of Western Indian wars, being the first battle in which the new weapons were used.

In addition to providing a safe water access to area formerly nearly inaccessible, the reservoir will offer new opportunities to the area for all types of water-based recreation and other outdoor activities.

The proposed recreation project is in one of the Nation's major vacation areas and meets National Recreation Area qualifications established by the President's Recreation Advisory Council. It can be reached from the north and west by U. S. Highway 87 and Interstate 90, now under construction, and from the east and south by U. S. Highway 14. The Department estimates that more than half-million visitors annually would travel to the area by 1970.

The Crow Indian Tribal Council, the Council 1s planning and economic consulting firm, and the National Park Service are making a joint master plan study of the entire reservation area to consider the recreation potential of the Indian lands and their relation to the recreation area. The results of the study will enable the Tribe to determine the extent of its participation in the development of the national recreation area.

Award of a $4,563,129 contract for the construction of school facilities that will provide for 768 additional students at Shonto, Arizona, was announced today by the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The contract calls for the construction of a 23-classroom school with a multipurpose room and an instructional materials centered three 256-pupil dormitories; a 1,200-pupil kitchen-dining hall; living accommodations for staff; and a storage, maintenance and fire protection building. The project also provides for the remodeling of the existing library into two beginners' classrooms and of the existing kitchen-dining hall into an activity room.

In addition to the building construction, a 150,000 gallon elevated water tank and extension of water supply system, sewage system and new lagoons, drives, walks and other site improvements are included in the contract.

The new construction will increase the present enrollment of 232 pupils to 1,000, and will add the seventh and eighth grades to the present grading system.

The successful bidder was Lembke Construction Co., Albuquerque, New Mexico. Seven higher bids were received ranging from $4,782,000 to $5,680,400.

The Department of the Interior has voiced its support of Federal legislation providing for relocation and reestablishment of the Papago Indian village of Si1 Murk, in southern Arizona, which will be displaced by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' construction of Painted Rock Dam and Reservoir.

The village site comprises some 40 acres of land, with an additional 7.2 acres in use as a cemetery. Si1 Murk lies just outside the established boundaries of the Gila Bend Indian Reservation and has been occupied by members of the Papago Indian Tribe for over 100 years. It now sustains about 20 families.

In reporting favorably on pending legislation, the Department recommended that the bill provide for relocation and reestablishment of the village by the Department of the Interior, with project funds provided by the Department of the Army.

Under provisions of the bill, relocation and reestablishment would be handled in a manner assuring to the extent feasible that the economic, social, religious and community life of the Indians will be restored to a condition not less advantageous than that which they previously enjoyed. The action to be taken would include providing a suitable replacement site, relocating or protecting the cemetery, and establishing on the new site a church building, living quarters for the Indians, water wells, a water distribution system, sewerage facilities, roads, and such other buildings, facilities and structures as may be necessary.