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Show Montezuma Creek Plant To be Dedicated Founded near the four corners of the United States, set in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, one will find the Navajo Indian Reservation. This reservation, consisting of 23,000 square miles in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado houses more than 140,000 people. This Navajo Nation is the largest and most populous Indian Reservation in the United States, not to mention its abundant resources. This vast area, which covers 15 million acres in the four states, is believed to have 100 million barrels of oil, 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 80 million pounds of uranium and 50 billion tons of coal. Needless to say, this is a rich area and will only prosper in the years ahead. Despite the beauty and richness of this land, one will also find a problem here, as found in great majority- of the United States, unemployment. Presently, the unemployment rate is more than 40 per cent in the Navajo Reservation. With the help of many individuals, the Utah Navajo Development Council, General Motors and a generous grant from the Federal government, something has been done to alter this unemployment statistic. sta-tistic. After a year of planning, Utah Navajo Industries, Inc. will begin its production in Montezuma Creek, Utah on Oct. 5. This industrial concern, which will utilize the expertise of three national Chinese, will manufacture industrial cotton and leather work gloves, in addition to employing 45 Navajo Indians in its initial phase. Utah Navajo Industries, Indus-tries, (UNI) will expand according to its work glove demands. The long range plans for UNI include the employment of 200 people and after six years, the management manage-ment control of the plant, now jointly owned by Utah Navajo Development Council (UNDC) and Mr. Steve Ho, will be turned over completely to the Navajo. The enthusiasm shown with-, in the Navajo people certainly portrays their genuine desire to get UNI off to a productive start. Twenty per cent of the building costs of this 15,000 square foot factory were offset by labor provided by the local TesidentSv tribal councilman ' Robert Billie states. The plant was financed largely by an Economic Development Administration Ad-ministration grant provided by the Federal government. The grand opening ceremony ceremo-ny of UNI will be held at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, October 5 at Utah Navajo Industries Plant 1, Utah Navajo Industrial Park, Montezuma Creek, Ut. The general public is cordially invited to share this ceremony with all of us. |