OPA

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today the formation of a Working Group on Indian Water Settlements, which will report to Interior's Water Policy Council.

The Group's primary tasks will be to establish a set of principles to guide Indian water settlements; assist in the work of negotiating teams dealing with such settlements; and. keep the Council apprised of upcoming actions and report to the Council on the progress of ongoing negotiations, particularly when key decision points are approached.

"The settlement of Indian water claims is an important activity for the Department in meeting its trust responsibility for Indian tribes." said Lujan. "It is also critical in helping to manage and conserve our Nation's water resources."

The Working Group will be chaired by the Counselor to the Secretary. Tim Glidden, with other members to be designated by the Department's Water Policy Council. The Council, headed by Under Secretary of the Interior Frank Bracken, consists of the Assistant Secretaries for Policy, Budget, and Administration; Indian Affairs; Water and Science; Fish and Wildlife and Parks; Land and Minerals Management; and the Department's Solicitor.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan will visit Scottsdale, Arizona, September 15, 1989, to sign the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Water Rights Settlement Act. The ceremony will take place at 11:00 a.m., at the Tribal Headquarters, 10005 East Osborne, in Scottsdale.

The agreement provides for the settlement of longstanding water right claims with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Under the pact, 122,400 acre feet of water will be delivered annually to the Indian community for the irrigation of 27,200 acres of agricultural land.

The Act, settling over two years of negotiations, continues to show Secretary Lujan's commitment to the resolution of Indian rights issues. "I am pleased, that after so many years, with so many claimants involved that this matter was resolved for the benefit of all Arizonans," stated Lujan.

SUMMARY PRESS SCHEDULE

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 1989

The Department of Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Eddie F. Brown, today announced the appointment of Walter R. Mills as Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Operations. Mills, a 17-year employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., has been acting in the position since last month. His new appointment is effective September 24.

"Walt Mills brings a wealth of experience in Indian Affairs to his new position and possesses exceptional organization and management capabilities. He has worked in the field at various managerial levels and in all the program areas he will be involved in as my principal deputy," Brown said. "I will look to Walt to run the day-to-day operations of the BIA and be my close advisor on all Bureau programs."

Mills, 54, joined the BIA in 1971 as a training instructor at the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque. He later served in administrative positions at SIPI, BIA's Hopi Agency in Keams Canyon, Ariz. and the Phoenix area office before being named agency superintendent at the Colorado River Agency in Parker, Ariz. in 1979. He served in that position until 1983 when he was named assistant- area director of Indian Services in the Phoenix area office. From 1985 to 1988 Mills served as assistant area director for Indian programs which combined the Indian services and trust programs for the Phoenix area. He was named area director of the Anadarko, Okla. office in February, 1988. He was serving in that position when he was named acting deputy to the assistant secretary last month.

Prior to joining the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mills attended Haskell Institute in -Lawrence, Kans. and worked as a pressman, cameraman and stripper and in supervisor positions with Southwestern Bank and supply and Bank Note Printing and Litho Company. From 1968 to 1970, he was a salesman for Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. He was serving as head cameraman and stripper with the Allied Printing and Publishing Co. when he joined the BIA in 1971.

Secretary of the Interior, Manuel Lujan, today announced that Indian schooling will be the top educational priority of the Department. Lujan, who earlier this year toured Indian schools with the Secretary of Education, said that we must place renewed emphasis on ensuring that our Native American students receive a quality education.

Lujan indicated that one of the primary goals of the Interior Department must be to reform the delivery of key social, financial, and natural resources to Native Americans. "We will work closely with elected officials of Indian tribal governments, state and local education agencies and parents to improve the educational programs provided on Indian reservations by BIA and contractor operated schools," stated Lujan.

Lujan plans to tell his colleagues participating in the President's education summit that students who attend bureau-funded schools will continue to have choice in which school they attend, including parochial or public schools. "The Department recognizes the diverse needs and conditions that exist on Indian lands, and we will work with tribal governments to ensure that Indian reservation residents receive the same educational opportunities that all American students have," stated Lujan.

American Indian students in public schools oftentimes score higher in basic skills tests than do Indian students in BIA schools. To help correct this, Lujan has directed the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Dr. Eddie Brown, to develop a plan to raise the educational achievement levels of Indian students in BIA-funded schools to the national norms by the year 2000.

"We must raise the expectation levels of teachers and principals who work with Indian children, encouraging strong parental involvement beginning in the preschool years. We must also hold ourselves accountable, for educational achievement, to the parents and to the tribes," concluded Lujan.

The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary .for Indian Affairs, Eddie F. Brown, today announced the appointment of Patrick A. Hayes as Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Trust and Economic Development. The 44-year-old enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe has been acting in the position for the past several months. The appointment is effective immediately.

"Pat Hayes has the kind of experience in Indian Affairs and in legal matters that makes him well qualified to advise and assist me in securing and protecting Indian rights and resources to the highest degree of fiduciary standards," Brown said. "He also has the experience that will help me to determine the role that the Bureau should be playing in the economic development efforts of Indian tribes now and into the year 2000."

For the past three years, Hayes has served as realty officer in BIA's Phoenix area office. From June 1983 to October, 1986 he was superintendent of the Colorado River Agency in Parker, Arizona, and before that served for four years as chief of the division of tribal government services in BIA's Washington, D.C., headquarters offices. Other Bureau assignments included two years as judicial services officer for the BIA in Washington, and 18 months as enrollment coordinator in the Juneau, Alaska, area office. He has also served in varying legal positions in the private sector.

Hayes holds a B.A. in Government/History/Economics from the University of South Dakota and a Juris Doctorate from the University of New Mexico. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1967 to 1970.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown is enlisting Indian tribal leaders and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees as part of an intensive program to combat the sexual abuse of Indian children.

Brown has assigned his deputy for operations, Walt Mills, as overall coordinator of BIA's child protection programs to ensure that prompt and effective action is taken on all existing elements of the program of preventing, identifying potential abusers, reporting procedures when abuse is suspected, enforcement, and follow-up psychological care to victims of reported incidents.

"We want the message to go out: child sexual abuse will not be tolerated," Brown said. "We have identified five areas to strengthen our child protection activities, and 12 specific actions in those areas are underway. Walt Mills will be coordinating all these activities and reporting to me on the steps I have asked him to take."

In his letter to tribal leaders, Brown said Indian and non-Indian communities alike must develop strong safeguards for the protection of children. He said the effects of child sexual abuse on the victim can be long lasting and tragic and that BIA's education initiatives will be greatly diminished if children first must deal with the enormous physical and mental trauma such abuse causes.

Brown outlined these steps already taken by the BIA to strengthen child protection activities as

(1) Establishment of a rigorous screening process for new employees working with children;

(2) Updating of personnel manual regulations for obligatory reporting of suspected abuse, including administrative sanctions for failure to report incidents;

(3) Formation of a BIA/Indian Health Service national oversight committee to enhance inter-agency cooperation and review child protection team effectiveness;

(4) Organization of· additional child protection teams at area and agency levels to ensure prompt actions when abuse is suspected; and

(5) Training of BIA personnel in child abuse recognition, reporting and remedial action processes, In addition to specifying additional actions to be taken by the BIA, Brown requested tribal government suggestions for strengthening the program. "Successful coordination of our efforts requires working closely with the tribal governments," Brown said.

In his letter to BIA's 14,300 employees, Brown said he expected all employees to take advantage of training that is offered to enhance their ability to discern potential incidents of child sexual abuse. "In addition," he wrote, "I expect every employee to report such potential incidents to the appropriate enforcement and social services agencies immediately."

Brown has asked Mills to provide him by December 15 a schedule with specific timeframes for completion of the actions. He also asked him to coordinate overlapping issues with the Indian Health Service.

Under Secretary Frank A. Bracken said today the Department of the Interior already has begun correcting problems identified in a just released Senate report on Indian Affairs, and will continue cooperative efforts with the Congress and the Tribes to improve programs

"The Bush Administration is strongly committed to providing all services and benefits due American Indians by treaty, law and tradition, Bracken said after receiving a copy of the report from the Senate Special Committee on Investigations. "As the committee report shows, quite clearly the Federal Government in the past has not been as efficient, as careful or as caring as it should have been in a number of instances."

Bracken noted that in an appearance before the committee early this year, Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan pledged he would make changes as needed

"We have not waited for the committee report to institute improvements," Bracken said. "The Bureau of Indian Affairs the Minerals Management Service and the Bureau of Land Management have taken actions to improve their programs serving tribes and individual Indians Our agencies will continue conferring with tribes and with the Congress on the best ways of addressing the problems, including legislative solutions."

Noting that the Department of the Interior has cooperated fully with the committee throughout its investigation, the Under Secretary said "We view it as helpful and beneficial that the committee has focused attention on long-standing problems in various programs. We hope this will enhance our potential for making progress on some complex problems that have defied resolution for decades."

Bracken, who serves as the Department's coordinator to work with the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, said that Secretary Lujan Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie Brown, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management David O'Neal, Bureau of Land Management Director Cy Jamison and Minerals Management Service Director Barry Williamson are committed to doing everything within their power to meet the federal obligations to American Indians.

"Consistent with the long-standing policy of Indian Self Determination, we will consult with the tribes on all of the issues," Bracken said. "To be successful, we will need the help and cooperation of the Congress and the tribes."

In meeting with the media shortly after release of the report, Bracken stressed: "We are not here to explain why things have not worked in the past, but what can be done to assure that programs work better in the future."

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today appointed 36 Indian tribal representatives and seven departmental employees to an Advisory Task Force to develop goals and plans for the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

"I look forward to working with this important group to define ways that we can strengthen the organization of the BIA to better serve the Indian people," Lujan said. "These are the people that know the Bureau and know how it can best be of benefit to Indian tribes. I value their judgment."

Lujan followed the recommendations of Indian tribes in selecting three representatives for each of the 12 BIA areas. He added two representatives from his office and five from BIA.

The first meeting of the Joint Tribal/BIA/DOI Advisory Task Force has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 22, in Washington, D.C. Time, date, place, purpose and proposed agenda will be published in the Federal Register. Discussion of goals and/or plans for the reorganization of the BIA will take into consideration tribal government, departmental and federal government, and BIA concerns and ideas about strengthening the administration of Indian programs.

Established for a two-year period, the Task Force will make preliminary recommendations to Secretary Lujan on BIA reorganization by April 30, 1991. Lujan will designate one co-chairperson from the federal representatives and the tribal members will select by majority vote the other co-chairperson from tribal representatives.

Proposals for reorganization of the BIA were first presented to Indian tribes at a National Indian Tribal Leaders Conference sept. 28, 1990, in Albuquerque, N.M., by Lujan. He recommended that a Bureau of Indian Education be created separately from the BIA that would report directly to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and that the remaining functions form a separate bureau. A federal trust office would be created as part of the assistant secretary's office.

In the 1991 appropriations act, Congress directed the BIA to delay reorganization until a task force is convened and reports to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

Representing Lujan's office on the Task Force will be Eddie Brown, assistant secretary - Indian Affairs, as designated co-chairperson, and Bill Bettenberg, deputy assistant secretary - Indian Affairs. The five BIA representatives will be Stan Speaks, acting deputy commissioner of Indian affairs; Edward Parisian, director, Office of Indian Education Programs; Bill Collier, area director, Anadarko Area Office; Betty Walker, area education programs administrator, Minneapolis; and Wyman Babby, superintendent, Fort Peck (Montana) agency.

Tribal representatives appointed by Lujan are listed by area.

Aberdeen: Charles Murphy, chairman, Standing Rock Sioux; Harold D. Salway, president, Oglala Sioux; and Michael Jandreau, chairman, Lower Brule Sioux.

Albuquerque: Wendell Chino, president, Mescalero Apache; Chester Fernando, councilman, Pueblo of Laguna; and Bernie Teba, executive director, Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council.

Anadarko: Joseph T. Goombi, chairman, Kiowa Business Committee; Larry Nuckolls, governor, Absentee-Shawnee; and Juanita Learned, chairperson, Cheyenne-Arapaho.

Billings: Donovan Archambault, president, Fort Belknap Community Council; Harold Monteau, tribal attorney, Chippewa Cree; and John Washakie, chairman, Shoshone Business Council.

Eastern: James Sappier, governor, Penobscot Indian Nation; James Billie, chairman, Seminole Tribe; and Phillip Martin, chief, Mississippi Choctaw.

Juneau: Will Mayo, president, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc.; Willie Kasayulie, president, Native Village of Akiachak; and Joe Hotch, president, Klukwan, Inc.

Minneapolis: Gordon Dickie, chairman, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin; Darrell Wadena, chairman, Minnesota Chippewa; and Michael Parish, attorney, Hannahville Indian Community of Michigan.

Muskogee: Gary Breshears, executive director, Creek Nation of Oklahoma; Bill Follis, chief, Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma; and Mark Downing, executive director, planning, research and development, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Navajo: Daniel Tso, delegate, Navajo Nation Council and chairman, Education Committee of the Navajo Nation Council; Virgil Pablo, executive director, division of Social Services, Navajo Nation; and Karen Dixon Bates, executive director, Shiprock Alternative School Inc.

Phoenix: Nora Garcia, chairperson, Fort Mojave Tribal Council; Brian Wallace, chairman, Washoe Tribal Council; and Luke Duncan, chairman, Uintah and Ouray Tribal Business Council.

Portland: Georgia George, chairman, Suquamish Tribe; Mickey Pablo, chairman, Salish/Kootenai Tribe; and Ken Smith, chief executive officer, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.

Sacramento: Donald Ray, chairperson, Hopland Rancheria; Virgil Moorehead, chairperson, Big Lagoon Rancheria; and Frances Shaw, chairperson, Manzanita Band of Mission Indians.

Washington, D.C. - OMB Director Richard Darman and Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that, effective immediately, all adjustments associated with the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) accounting and financial management system must be reviewed by a special management team established by the Department of the Interior (DOI). Further, Darman and Lujan announced the establishment of a plan to improve management at the BIA.

Responding to reports of $95 million in accounting discrepancies as a result of the preliminary resolution of FY 1990 accounts, DOI and 0MB teams conducted preliminary inquiries at the BIA accounting facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The preliminary 0MB report found severe and wide-ranging problems with the accountability of funds and the management of financial systems in a number of BIA programs, including numerous uncontrolled adjustments in accounting entries.

DOI and OMB investigators in Albuquerque discovered that the financial management system was potentially accessible to over 12,000 individuals. In FY 1990 alone, over 500,000 adjustments were made to the BIA financial management system.

As a result of these discoveries, Secretary Lujan has directed that, effective immediately, all future adjustments in the BIA financial system must be approved by a special team established by DOI. At the same time, a team of accounting and management experts will assist in the complete overhaul and revamping of BIA's financial tracking system. Darman and Lujan have stated that a new system is expected to be in place by the beginning of October.

In the meantime, OOI's Inspector General is conducting inquiries regarding the possibility of overspending of appropriations, in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act. The joint DOI/OMB review, although preliminary, confirmed longstanding, fundamental problems in the BIA accounting and financial system, including:

Uncontrolled access by BIA employees to the accounting system.

The ability of individuals with access to the system to make after-the-fact changes, and in some cases to shift funds in order to make the books balance.

Poor controls over accounting for procurement and grant contracts totaling over $500 million per year.

Failure to use standard double entry accounting methods that provide for needed checks and balances. one-sided entries were commonplace, leading to ledger accounts that cannot be balanced.

As a result of the initial report of the OMB team, Dannan and Lujan announced that OMB and Department management experts will undertake the following steps with DOI by September 30, 1991:

Assist in the implementation of new accounting and financial controls to exercise effective, permanent control and accountability over BIA's finances;

Establish a special review and technical assistance team under the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, which must approve all spending adjustment transactions. This team will report to Lujan and to a newly established BIA Management Review Board that will include OMB and other expert Federal agencies:

Implement the steps necessary for the conversion of BIA's accounting system to a department-wide Federal Financial system;

Determine and address the training needs of BIA's accounting personnel;

(5) Develop and introduce specialized controls to provide adequate accountability over procurement and grant transactions;

(6) Immediately provide a team of professional accountants to review and correct existing accounting records: and

(7) Provide a mechanism for on-going independent reviews of accounting results to ensure that new operational problems are promptly addressed.

Interior Assistant Secretary Eddie F. Brown and United states Peace Corps Director Paul D. Coverdell today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that provides for cooperation between the two agencies in recruitment of returned Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) to work in Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded (BIA) schools on Indian reservations.

"This will help the BIA recruit for teachers among Peace Corps veterans, many of whom have worked throughout the world in isolated areas similar to those on a number of Indian reservations," Brown said. "We have had problems in recruitment in the past because of these conditions and we believe this will boost our prospects for more experience in our schools."

Coverdell said the challenges facing the Indian education community are unique. "I can think of few non-Indian Americans who are as well-suited to assist in meeting those challenges as are the PCVs."

The 1:30 p.m. signing took place in New Mexico at a BIA-funded elementary school at the Isleta Pueblo. The five-year agreement provides that through the Peace Corps' Fellows/USA Program, the two agencies will work together in the coordination of activities designed to enlist teachers to accept teaching or other education .related positions on Indian reservations. They will encourage state and local education authorities to provide alternative or emergency teaching certification or waivers of certification to participants in the Fellows/USA Program, when necessary.

Participants in the program will be in paid positions and afforded the opportunity to pursue graduate degrees during summer study programs at collaborating universities. During the life of the agreement, the two agencies would work to identify other opportunities in which the agencies might cooperate.

Specific objectives for the program will be established within the next 90 days. Within 60 days after the end of each year, a review will determine if changes are needed in the program.