Indian Claims Commission Granted More Than $45 Million During 1969

Awards totaling more than $45 million were granted American Indian groups through judgments of the Indian Claims Commission during 1969, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

Congress has appropriated funds for $25.7 million of the total granted. The appropriated funds earn interest for the tribes involved while the funds are on deposit to their deposit.

The Indian Claims Commission, an independent agency, was established by the Congress in 1946 to hear and determine the claims of tribes and other identifiable groups of American Indians living in the United States. These claims represent attempts by Indian tribes to obtain redress for any failure of the Government to complete payments for lands ceded under treaty, for the acquisition of land at an unconscionably low price or for other failure to comply with a treaty or legislative action regarding Indian lands that grew out of the westward expansion of the United States.

The present commissioner are John T. Vance, Richard W. Yarborough, Jerome K. Kuykendall, Margaret H. Pierce, and Brantley Blue, a Lumbee Indian appointed by President Nixon.

Most of the claims filled with the Commission are for “fair value” of Indian lands ceded to the United States or taken by the Government in the past. Increasingly, the funds received through judgements are now being invested by the tribes for projects to improve the social and economic conditions of their people.

Typical projects include scholarships for the education of Indian youth, social services for reservation dwellers, construction of community centers, funding of community development, industrial parks, and other projects designed to bring new sources of income and employment to the Indians.

Awards granted to the tribes in 1969 by the Indian Claims Commission included:

The following awards had not been certified to the U.S. Treasury, and were subject to appeal, as of Jan. 1, 1970: