Title
Oral history interview with Rita Singer : Attorney, United State Department of Interior, 1944-1976, California Department of Water Resources, 1977-present; July 24, August 7, August 13, September 13, 1991, Sacramento, California / By Malca Chall (Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley).
Notes
Rita Singer had a long-term career with the federal government as an attorney in the Department of Agriculture from 1942-1944, specializing in tasks for the Forest Service and the Farm Security Administration; as assistant regional solicitor in Sacramento, California for the Department of the Interior from 1948-1977, working primarily with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Reclamation. From 1977 to the present, Ms. Singer has served as a staff attorney in the Department of Water Resources for the state of California.
Summary
Singer discusses her law school experience in the 1930s as one of very few women; people in the Bureau of Indian Affairs including John Collier, William Brophy, Phileo Nash and handling Indian claims litigation in Alaska; World War II and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman; Department of Interior issues and people including Harold Ickes, Stewart Udall, Cecil Andrus; the Bureau of Reclamation and the 160-acre limit, power and electrical utility law, water issues, the Westlands contract; the state of California Department of Water Resources and Ronald Robie.