OPA

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today announced the appointment of Robert T. Anderson as Counselor to the Secretary. Anderson will be based in Seattle and advise the Secretary on a wide variety of policy matters, including Native American, environmental and Northwest issues.

"Bob Anderson is an experienced professional with an enormous grasp of the complexity of our trust responsibilities and Alaska Native and American Indian tribes," Babbitt said. "He has demonstrated his ability as a decisive lawyer and manager, and has a solid reputation as a problem-solver and mediator."

Anderson, 40, joined the Interior Department in April 1995 as Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs. As Associate Solicitor, he was the lead attorney and supervised a team of attorneys advising the Secretary, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and worked with tribes to assert and protect their legal rights. For the past year, he has advised the Secretary on legal and policy matters involving western water rights, Indian tribes, Endangered Species Act and hydropower issues.

Anderson is a member of the Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Before joining the Interior Department, he worked as an attorney for 12 years with the Native American Rights Fund, a leading national Indian organization representing Indian tribes on issues of federal Indian law. Anderson is one of two attorneys credited with opening NARF's Alaska office, where he helped to develop the organization's substantive role in Alaska Native rights issues. He has served as counsel for Natives in a number of landmark cases involving tribal sovereignty and hunting and fishing rights.

In addition, Anderson also worked with tribes in the Lower 48 on water rights and a variety of other issues.

Anderson earned his B.A. Summa Cum Laude at Bemidji State University, and his J.D. Cum Laude (1983) at the University of Minnesota Law School. He is a member of the bar for the District of Columbia, Minnesota, Colorado, Alaska, and the United States Supreme Court.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (AS-IA) Kevin Gover signed on December 16, 1997, a Final Determination that denies Federal acknowledgment of the Mobile - Washington County Band of Choctaw Indians of South Alabama (MOWA) of Mount Vernon, AL.

The AS-IA found that the petitioner failed to meet one of the mandatory criteria set forth in 25 CPR 83.7, namely: descent from a historical tribe. The Final Determination means the Alabama group is not eligible for certain rights and benefits accorded tribes that are granted "Federal recognition" or "acknowledgment," and therefore it does not have a special government-to-government relationship with the United States.

The AS-IA determined that the Alabama group did not descend from the historical Choctaw tribe or from any one of the other five tribes it claimed. The Final Determination noted that the petitioning group is derived from two core families that were resident in southwestern Alabama by the end of the first third of the nineteenth century. All persons on the petitioner's membership (3,960) roll descend from these two families. About one percent of the members have documented Indian heritage but it derives from an ancestor whose grandchildren married into the petitioning group after 1880, and from another individual who married into the petitioning group in 1904. This insignificant Indian ancestry for a few individual members does not satisfy the criterion that the group as a whole descends from a historical tribe. The MOWA ancestors, most of whom were well documented, were not identified as American Indians or descendants of any particular tribe in the records made in their own life times.

The MOWA ancestors were not found in the records concerning the historic tribes. Although the MOWA presently have an oral tradition of descent from the Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, or other tribes, the stories could not be substantiated from the wealth of records submitted by the petitioner or researched by the BIA.

The BIA employs historians, anthropologists, and genealogists who research the claims of groups seeking recognition as Indian tribes. Each case is evaluated individually. Under current regulations, the MOW A and interested parties have 90 days to request reconsideration on the BIA's Final Determination with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals. All requests for reconsideration must contain a detailed statement of the grounds for the request, and include any new evidence to be considered. The request should be in writing and addressed to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20240.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today thanked both Congress and President Clinton for approving a land claims settlement act that awards approximately $70 million to five Ottawa and Chippewa tribes of Michigan.

The act, signed by President Clinton on Tuesday, provides a plan for the division, use, and distribution of the funds. The Indian Claims Commission in 1971 awarded $10.3 million to the tribes and certain descendants to compensate them for underpayment for lands ceded to the United States through an 1836 treaty. The 1971 award has grown to nearly $70 million with accrued interest. The act approved this week details the distribution of the funds to the Bay Mills Indian Community; Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians; Little River Band of Odawa Indians; Little Traverse.Band of Odawa Indians; Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe; Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians; and certain descendants.

"I am extremely pleased that this long-awaited settlement is complete and that the funds finally will begin to assist the tribes. We are indebted to Rep. Dale Kildee for sponsoring the bill, to and to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Sen. Don Young for their support of it."

Education for American Indian children, safety for Indian reservation residents, the restoration of the environment and a continuation of the remarkable comeback of an American icon lead the way in President Clinton's Fiscal Year 2000 budget request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The FY 2000 budget request for the BIA is 1.9 billion dollars; an increase of $155.6 million above the 1999 enacted level. "This budget represents the wishes of the Tribal leaders across America for the needs of their people, and is a positive step toward preserving and protecting the needs of the 7th generation of the American Indian people since the reservation system began," stated Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover. "These steps are necessary and we are very pleased with this year's budget. This is an important step, but we are still a very long way from bringing the quality of reservation life up to the level most of America now enjoys."

The federal government holds direct responsibility for the education of students in two school systems: the Department of Defense school system for the children of military personnel stationed overseas, and the BIA school system for children on American Indian reservations. Over the years, the schools in Indian country have been neglected. This budget requests major new funding to repair and replace schools in Indian country.

A study by the Inspector General's office determined that Indian schools were in significantly worse shape than even inner city schools. The backlog of repairs necessary to BIA schools is growing and now exceeds $740 million. Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs was recently awarded a "Hammer award for reducing by 50 percent the time it takes to plan, design, and construct new schools on Indian reservations by the National Performance Review, a massive amount of funding will be required to fix the problems that years of neglect created. Throughout Indian country, children are learning in schools that present serious health and safety threats. Many schools have leaking roofs, peeling paint, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate heating and cooling systems or are conducted in trailers too old and unsafe to sustain continued use in a school environment. The Bureau of Indian Affairs funds 185 schools in Indian country, and the most of these schools are more than thirty years old. The design life for a modern school building is twenty-five years. "Indian children are getting a 21st century education in what might as well be 19th century buildings" said Gover, "Our children deserve safe and decent learning environments. This budget is a step toward correcting the terrible situation where our children may be learning on a state of the art computer in a building where the roof is falling in." The school construction and repair request includes $75.9 million to replace Seba Dalkai School on the Navajo reservation in Arizona and Fond Du Lac Ojibway school in Minnesota and complete urgently needed repair work at existing facilities.

The budget also proposes a School Modernization initiative that would provide $400 million in bond issuance authority for tribal governments over two years. Tribal governments could use this authority to issue zero interest bonds to investors who would receive tax credits for the life of the bond in lieu of interest. "In traveling throughout Indian country, the most common request I hear from Tribal leaders is the need for new schools on their reservations. Up until now, it has not been possible to even consider building new schools, because the money has simply not been there in our yearly appropriations. The School Construction initiative will allow Tribes to move quickly to get schools financed and built, providing a safe, quality learning environment for their children," said Gover.

Inside the schools, the proposed budget for the BIA increases the budget for school operations $27.5 million over 1999 to a total investment of $503.6 million. The United States has a special historic responsibility for the education of Indian children, as was reaffirmed by the President's Executive Order 13096 on American Indian and Alaska Native Education. In this order, the Clinton Administration committed to improving the academic performance and reducing the dropout rate of Indian students. The order set forth six goals, including improved reading and mathematics, increased high school completion, improved science education, and expanded the use of educational technology. The increase in the School Operations budget will cover additional costs for teachers, transportation, and operations due to the growing student population in Indian country.

Fifty-three-thousand students are educated in the BIA school system, in some of the most remote and isolated reservations in the country. Assistant Secretary Gover credited this}ncrease as a wise investment in the future. "This is a great investment in our 7th generation. These students will become the tribal leaders, artists, lawyers, doctors and scribes of the American Indian people. This generation will be the group who will defeat the many problems plaguing Indian country, and their safety and education is the highest priority of this Administration." Part of this increase will also be dedicated to linking every BIA school to the Internet through a partnership with industry giants and the Access Native America program. Internet teaching is especially important in Indian country, because there are very few opportunities for field trips to museums, libraries and other cultural attractions. "The best part of this job is working with our children and seeing the pride on their faces as they show us their schools and their accomplishments," said Gover. "To look into the eyes of these children is to see into the future of the American Indian people. We simply cannot do enough in the areas of education, child protection, and fighting alcohol and drug abuse among our children."

The second major concern addressed by the FY 2000 budget is public safety on the reservations. While violent crime has decreased across most of America, Indian country has experienced a startling rise in violent crime on the reservation. A joint report between the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior showed Indian country law enforcement receives about one fourth the resources of most rural law enforcement agencies. This lack of resources has translated into a lack of police patrols, inferior radio systems, lack of jail space, and even the absence of 911 service on many reservations. While most Americans expect a response time in minutes when calling for help from the police, on many reservations, the response time is measured in hours and in some cases even days. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover says this is simply unacceptable. "No community can prosper unless its people feel safe in their homes. For far too long, Indian people have not been afforded the same protection for their homes and their families as other Americans." In last year's budget, Congress provided $20.0 million for BIA to begin addressing the law enforcement needs of Indian country. This year, the Administration is requesting another $20 million increase for the continuation of this multi-year presidential initiative. "This year's request constitutes the second investment in our commitment to bringing Indian law enforcement up to par with the rest of America," Gover said, "Last year the BIA spent 90% of the additional funds to provide the Tribes in the greatest need with more cops on the reservation. But we still need more cars, a communications system that will actually work, and even more cops to guarantee the safety of our public safety officers, and the residents of the reservations." The program increase will be invested in the hiring of more criminal investigators and uniformed police officers, upgrading radio systems, and strengthening basic detention services.

An additional $2.6 million increase has been slated for use to strengthen tribal court systems. Along with the increase in BIA funding for Indian country law enforcement and public safety comes a requested increase in the Department of Justice (DOJ) for law enforcement on reservations. The DOJ money would be distributed through a grant program to Tribes.

The BIA's most basic responsibility is the management of lands held in trust for Indian Tribes and Indian people. The BIA is responsible for accounting for the land, allowing for its use at its greatest possible value, and distributing income to its owners. The BIA manages over 55 million acres of land (including 18 million acres of forest), 170,000 individual tracts of land, 100,000 active leases, 350,000 land owners and 2 million owner interests. By comparison, if you put all the trust land in one parcel, it would cover all of the District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut. "The central responsibility of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the management and protection of Indian trust assets. Sadly, the United States has failed historically to provide the funds needed. This has been the case for many decades. The Clinton administration and Secretary Babbitt are the first to attack this longstanding problem in a systematic and comprehensive manner. With Congress' help, we can establish a trust management system that will meet our trust responsibilities well into the next century," said Assistant Secretary Gover. The resources allocated in this budget are designed to close the books on Indian trust management problems as we enter the next century by completing the replacement of core trust management systems, including the complete computerization and cleanup of all trust records in the Trust Asset and Accounting Management System (TAAMS). The 2000 budget request includes $100 million dollars for the Office of Special Trustee, which will provide $65.3 million for continued implementation of the Trust Management Improvement Project. "The TAAMS project is the largest single modernization program ever attempted by the BIA, and we will be successful. The TAAMS program is our chance to demonstrate to the Tribes and Congress the management expertise of the BIA. When the necessary resources are provided for this -"extremely important responsibility to the Tribes and the American Indian people," said Gover, "It truly is a matter of trust."

The protection of the environment is a long-standing principle of the Tribes, who for centuries have believed deeply in the protection of the earth and appropriate use of resources. This principle is universally held among American Indian people who have long understood that harmony with the earth belongs to those who recognize themselves as part of the ecosystem, and not as the masters of it. In this year's budget, a $3 million increase for environmental programs has been included in the BIA budget. Assistant Secretary Gover commented on the American Indian tradition of conservation and environmentalism, "For generations, the keepers of the hidden knowledge, available to all, but seen and sought out by only a few, have been American Indians. The heritage and mythology of America come from the first Americans, the Tribes, who have understood for centuries that the preservation and protection of the earth is for the benefit of all."

Also within the budget is a $1 million appropriation for a "Bring Back the Bison" program within the BIA. American bison and the American Indian are symbiotically linked. The bison, due to a misguided Federal policy designed to subdue the Tribes at the end of the last century, were within a breath of being exterminated at the beginning of the century. Tribes of the Northern and Southern Plains, along with Tribes in the Northwest and Southwest, have begun a program to reestablish the bison on Indian lands. The program has been extremely successful, reestablishing not only the bison, but also the buffalo culture and Tribal spiritual practices, and creating of hundreds of jobs for Tribal members raising and caring for the buffalo. Gover, a descendent of the Pawnee and Comanche Tribes, articulated the meaning of this program to the American Indian people. "At the turn of the last century, there was little doubt that American Indians and the buffalo would be a thing of the past. But we have both survived. It is important to grow and maintain our bison, and along with the bison, the health and prosperity of the Tribes. This is important not just as a link to the past, but also as a gateway into the next millennium."

The Department of the Interior will publish final regulations to deal with Indian gaming compact negotiations between States and Tribes when Tribes have exhausted other federal judicial remedies. A final rule has been sent to the Federal Register for publication. The new regulation will only apply in cases where Tribes and States have been unable to voluntarily negotiate Class III gaming compacts and where States otherwise allow Class III gaming activities and when States assert immunity from lawsuits to resolve the dispute.

The final regulation is the result of an extensive public process that began with the publication of an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, published in the Federal Register in May, 1996, and a Proposed Rule in January, 1998.

"The vast majority of compacts negotiated between States and Tribes during the past 10 years have been negotiated voluntarily and in a spirit of good faith,"Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover explained. "We do not believe that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act envisioned giving States a veto power over Class III Indian gaming when other Class III gaming activities take place within their borders. The new regulation addresses only this narrow issue and seeks to level the playing field once again in these rare circumstances."

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA) mandated a process of judicially supervised mediation when States and Tribes were unable to negotiate a compact. However, since the Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida decision in the U.S. Supreme Court in April, 1996, Indian Tribes have been unable to request judicial mediation if States asserted sovereign immunity. The final regulation lays out a process for mediation under those narrow circumstances, seeking State involvement in developing any gaming procedures that might ensue. The final rule does not alter the qualifications necessary for land acquisition for off-reservation Indian gaming.

In addition, State law would continue to govern the 'scope of gaming' permitted in any procedures proposed by the Department to resolve Indian gaming compact disputes. This policy is consistent with the Department's position that IGRA does not authorize classes or forms of Indian gaming in any State where they are affirmatively prohibited.

More than 200 compacts between Tribes and States for Class III gaming have been successfully negotiated in good faith and implemented in 24 States since the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988.

The Department of the Interior is proposing to amend the federal regulations used in determining whether to take land into trust on behalf of Indians. The proposed amendments will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, April 12. Their publication will open up a 90-day period of public comment.

Historically, tribal ownership of lands set aside as Indian reservations was seriously eroded by the federal governments allotment policies in the late 19th Century. Recognizing that loss of tribal lands had resulted in serious degradation of the social welfare and economic opportunity for Indian people, Congress in 1934 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to take land in trust for the benefit of Indians. Since that time, however, only approximately eight percent of the lands lost through allotment have been re-acquired. The overwhelming majority of applications to take land in trust are for lands located within the boundaries of Indian reservations and involve small parcels of land, on average about 30 acres.

Federal regulations governing the process by which the Secretary of the Interior decides whether to take land into trust for Indians were first published in 1980 (25 C.F.R. Part 151). The Department now proposes to amend the Part 151 regulations to provide tribes and their non-Indian neighbors with a clearer understanding of how the Department reviews requests to take land into trust.

"In restructuring the regulations, we believe that the decision-making process will better reflect the present day needs and concerns of Indian tribes and surrounding non-Indian communities," Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said.

The proposed revisions underscore clear differences in policy regarding the need to re-acquire land in trust on reservations versus trust land off reservation.

• On reservation: The policy of the Department is to assist tribes in the re-acquisition of land within reservation boundaries. To accomplish this, the process by which land may be returned to trust status has been streamlined and there is a strong presumption established in favor of the applicant.
• Off reservation: The Department is committed to addressing the impact on non-Indian communities affected by proposed acquisitions of off-reservations lands. Jurisdictional, economic, zoning and other related concerns must be adequately resolved within an application to take off reservation land into trust under the new proposed regulations before the Department considered acting favorably on the request.

In addition, the proposed regulations clarify how the Department will address a number of more specialized issues related to taking land into trust. For example, the proposed amendments to Part 151 delineate the procedure by which the Department will process "mandatory acceptances of title." Mandatory acceptances of title are trust acquisitions where Congress, by explicit direction in statute, requires the Secretary to take lands into trust for Indians through the administrative process.

Finally, the proposed regulations address the unique difficulties encountered by tribes that do not have a reservation. New provisions are included that set out a process using Tribal Land Acquisition Areas approved by the Secretary to give tribes without reservations access to same policy benefits within the new regulations for on reservation trust acquisitions.

After the regulations are published, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover plans a series of regional meetings with tribes and other outreach opportunities during the public comment period. Information on his activities can be obtained through Nedra Darling in the Bureau of Indian Affairs at 202/219-4150.

Informational materials on the proposed regulations are available on the 'Department of the Interior's and the Bureau of Indian Affairs' web sites.

The U.S. Department of the Interior will hold a public panel discussion to gather comments on the proposed amendment to the Federal Regulations governing the Department's decisions about whether to take land into trust on behalf of Indian tribes. The amendment of these regulations is an important step in providing tribes and their non-Indian neighbors with a clearer understanding of how the Department reviews requests to take land into trust.

The forum will provide an opportunity for affected and interested parties to discuss their views on the issue. The panel will include representatives from tribes, States, interested non-Indian groups, Congress and the Department. After prepared comments by the panel members, there will be an opportunity for questions from the audience.

Who: U.S. Department of the Interior

What: Panel Discussion on Amendment to Indian Trust Land Regulations

When: 1:30 A 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 12, 1999

Where: South Interior Building Auditorium, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC

The Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, Michael J. Anderson, on Monday will issue a new decision (technically described as a "reconsidered final determination," even though it is not a final determination) on the petition of the Golden Hill Paugussett for acknowledgment as an Indian tribe.

The reconsideration decision concludes that the earlier decision of Assistant Secretary Deer in 1996 rejecting the petition needs to be reconsidered.

The earlier decision was reached under what is called an "expedited review process" called for in the regulations, which is a procedural way of reaching a quicker decision on a petition when it is clear (after an initial investigation) that petition does not meet one of three specified criteria. (Overall, a petition must meet seven criteria in order to be granted; but only three can be examined under the expedited review.) Anderson's decision also cites the fact that new historical information that could affect the petition had been identified during this reconsideration, and warranted full evaluation.

The effect of Anderson's decision is that the Golden Hill petition will now be evaluated under all seven criteria. The decision does not reach the merits of whether the petitioner is an Indian tribe or even whether its members are descendants of the Golden Hill Paugussett which once inhabited the area around Stratfield ( modern Bridgeport), Connecticut.

Golden Hill filed its petition for acknowledgment in April 1993. Several months earlier, in September 1992, Golden Hill had sued the State of Connecticut, the Federal government and various land owners claiming it was entitled to certain lands in the state. In January 1993 the court held that Golden Hill had no standing because it was not a federally recognized Indian tribe. Golden Hill appealed (as well as filing the petition for acknowledgment), and in October 1994 the federal court of appeals remanded the case to the district court but directed it give the Department some time to consider the petition.

Following the Assistant Secretary's September 1996 decision rejecting the petition under the "expedited review process," Golden Hill appealed to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA). In June 1998, IBIA generally affirmed the decision, but referred five issues back to the Secretary for further consideration. The Secretary of the Interior sent the matter back to the Assistant Secretary's office. (Assistant Secretary Gover recused himself from this matter because he had represented Golden Hill in private law practice.) Anderson's decision found that four of the five issues submitted did not require reconsideration.

Denver, CO - The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and the Administration for Native Americans are joining forces to hold the first national conference for Native American youth, parents and organizations serving Native American youth. The Youth First: The Future of Indian America Conference will be held on June 2, 3, and 4, 1999 in Denver, Colorado.

The purpose of The Youth First: The Future of Indian America Conference is to begin planning for a variety of Indian youth oriented activities and initiatives to be implemented by federal and private partners. The conference is being held in conjunction with the Native American Youth Weekend, an event which has been in existence for 14 years and annually draws 600-800 young people that participate in a All-West Native American Basketball Classic. The majority of events associated with the conference will occur at the University of Colorado-Auraria Campus, who is also a co-sponsor of the conference .

The conference will focus on four themes: wellness, youth leadership, culture and education with specific workshops intended for the youth, adults, and organizations that deal with Indian youth. Each workshop will provide a Native American professional to lead the sessions as they attempt to equip our Native youth with the tools to cope with the pressures that come from school, home, friends and society.

Keynotes speakers will include Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Governor Mary Thomas, Gila River Indian Community, Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills, Actor Rodney Grant of film and television fame. Scotty Graham and Eric Bienemy from the NFL Players Association will so provide words of inspirations to the youth.

The Youth First: The Future of Indian America Conference will also feature social activities in the evenings for the youth, such as a pow-wow or dance, group meals, and other athletic and art related activities that will promote youth interaction and development of interpersonal skills.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover will unveil the Trust Assets Account Management System this Friday in Billings, Montana at the Billings BIA Area Office.

TAAMS is a major component in fixing the Indian Trust Funds System. The Billings Area will serve as the pilot of this project which is scheduled for completion early in 2001.

Reports covering the Indian Trust Funds issue and the Cobell case, should be especially interested in this event because TAAMS plays a large role in the current effort by the Department of the Interior to finally fix the broken Indian Trust Funds management system which was created by the Dawes Act of 1887.

In addition to the TAAMS program in the morning, Assistant Secretary Gover will also be traveling to the Crow reservation where we will witness the Real Bird re-enactment of Little Big Horn and tour the Little Big Horn battlefield. This Friday will be the 123rd anniversary of Crazy Horse's victory over Custer.

The morning events will take place at the Billings Federal Building-Courthouse. A Motor coach will be available for transportation to the Crow reservation.