Assistance provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to Indian families and individuals voluntarily relocating away from the reservations to metropolitan centers will be much greater in the fiscal year starting July 1 than ever before, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.
"Our funds for relocation assistance,” Mr. Emmons said, "have been more than tripled from a level of $1,016,400 available this past year to $3,472,000. This will make it possible for us to broaden the scope and range of our relocation services along lines that we have had in mind for many months.”
The plans contemplate the opening of two new city offices in communities to be selected from several cities being surveyed to determine their suitability for relocation, the establishment of a small staff in Alaska for exploration of relocation prospects, enlargement of relocation guidance staffs both in existing city offices and on the reservations, and the initiation of six new types of assistance not previously provided to relocating Indians.
In addition to opening the two new city offices, the Bureau will increase its staff at each of the existing four city offices at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Denver, and will convert the San Jose, California office from a sub office to a full city office.
Mr. Emmons emphasized that the relocation staff in city offices will be considerably increased to provide a more personalized and more extensive guidance service to relocating families and individuals.
Additional emphasis will also tie placed on better preparation of the families and individuals before leaving the reservation through increasing the staff at the reservation levels to more than double the number now employed.
The six new types of assistance which will be provided in accordance with need are:
(1) grants for the purchase of medical and hospital insurance up to one year for relocating workers and their dependents who do not have such coverage from other sources;
(2) grants up to a maximum of $50 per person for the purchase of clothing and other items that may be needed to bring the personal appearance of relocating people up to a standard acceptable in metropolitan communities;
(3) grants up to $50 per family for purchase of household wares such as linen and kitchen equipment;
(4) grants up to $250 per family for the purchase of furniture;
(5) full coverage of tuition costs for one year to provide night school training, of the vocational or “3 R'' type, for relocated Indians wishing to pursue such studies; and
(6) a pilot program to assist about 100 of the "more settled" city-dwelling Indian families in the purchase of homes.
All of these new services will be in addition to the six types of assistance which have been provided in previous years. These include (1) transportation from reservation to city; (2) shipment of household goods up to a maximum of $50; (3) subsistence expenses en route; (4) subsistence expenses at destination up to a maximum of four weeks, as needed; (5) supplemental subsistence where a relocated worker loses a job through no fault of his own and is not yet eligible for unemployment compensation, and (6) grants up to a maximum of $50 per person to cover the purchase of tools and equipment needed by apprentice workers.
“With this substantial increase in financial assistance and enlargement of our relocation staff to provide more services," Commissioner Emmons said, "I am confident that our relocation program will reach a new peak of effectiveness in terms of warmly sympathetic guidance and tangible help for relocating Indian people. We have always recognized that the transition from a reservation environment to big city life is a most difficult and exacting kind of adjustment for many Indian families and individuals. But the amazing thing to me is that so many of them have made it so successfully.”
