OCR Text |
Show First To Come Here . Indian Commissioner Visits Basin .... Dillon S. Meyers of Washington Washing-ton D. C, last Sunday became probably the first, U S Commissioner Com-missioner of Indian Affairs to make a visit to the Uintah Basin Ba-sin to converse with members of the Ute Indian Tribe and officials of-ficials of the local agency. He came to "learn the problems of the Indians"- first hand. He was accompanied by Ralph M Gelvin and L. I. Nelson, of the Phoenix area office of Indian In-dian Affairs. In an open meeting Sunday at Fort Duchesne with the Ute Tribal Business Committee and leaders present, Mr. Meyers commended com-mended the Ute Indians for the short and long-range programs for use of the money given them in the recent settlement of the Colorado judgment. "The Ute tribe is among the first to make such a far-reaching program for development of their economic resources and establishment of self -government," Mr. Meyers said. Jim Atwine, one of the elderly elder-ly Ute tribal leaders, in a response, re-sponse, keynoted the Indians' chief problem concern over ab olition of the Indian Service before the Indians are ready to govern themselves politically and economically. Mr. Atwine pleaded for time to educate Indian young people to take over duties now performed per-formed by members of the Indian In-dian Service. Mr. Meyers assured that he would "do everything in his power" to see that the Indians were given time for such training, train-ing, and that Indian services by the federal government are not curtailed prematurely. A few other problems con- fronting the tribe were outlined by Mrs. Elizabeth Bumgarner, Ft. Duchesne, president of the Ute Inidan Affairs Organization. Organiza-tion. During his visit to the reservation reser-vation Mr. Meyers and other officials of-ficials visited the Indian hospital hos-pital at Fort Duchesne; the Indian In-dian boarding school at White-rocks, White-rocks, and various homes of Ute tribe members. He also inspected in-spected the newly dedicated Union High School. He was very much impressed with what he found in his tour of the reservation. |