OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Jeff. Muskrat, 52, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to be Superintendent of the Cherokee Agency of North Carolina, which serves the Eastern Band of Cherokee. The Cherokees were divided during the Indian Removal of the mid-1800’s. Muskrat will assume his new post October 14.

The new Cherokee Superintendent is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who holds the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, following service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. A native of Grove, Okla., he attended Northeastern Oklahoma Junior College, Tulsa University and Maryland University as well as the United States Army Ordinance School, United States Army Engineering Management School, and United States Army Command and General Staff College.

Since his retirement from military service in 1967, Muskrat has been a farmer-rancher in Grove, Okla. and has worked for an Alexandria, Va. Based private engineering contractor. Since 1970, he has been the Administrative Manager of the Indian Technical Assistance Center, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Denver, Colo.

“The Cherokee Indians of North Carolina are fortunate to have a man with the demonstrated ability of Jeff Muskrat to administer their Agency,” Commissioner Thompson said today. “Muskrat has served in numerous leadership capacities with the U.S. Army – from the post of platoon leader to that of battalion commander. As a part of his military experience he has been supply officer, training officer, instructor, and commanding officer. The background he has acquired from these jobs can be transferred to the work of Superintendent of the Bureau’s Cherokee Agency.

“While Administrative Manager at the Indian Technical Assistance Center in Denver, Muskrat has worked extensively and successfully with Indians of almost every tribe served by the Bureau of Indian Affairs over a four-year period.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Charles W. James, 53, Choctaw Indian born in the Indian community of Kanima, Okla., to the post of Area Director, Anadarko Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior.

"James has a solid administrative background combined with a feel for Oklahoma and a knowledge of varied Indian cultures," Commissioner Thompson pointed out. "He brings to the Anadarko Area Directorship 20 years of government experience, three of those years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We are fortunate to have such a man for this job at this time.”

James attended Northern Arizona State College at Flagstaff, now Northern Arizona University. He was a paratrooper in World War II serving in Belgium, England, France, and Germany with the U.S. Army.

The Anadarko Area Director began his administrative career with the Federal Government in 1953, when he became an organization and methods examiner with the Navajo ordnance Depot, Department of the Al~, Flagstaff, Ariz. He worked with Navajo Indian people in this capacity and in 1956 moved from the post of examiner to supervise other examiners.

He became a management analyst with the White Sands Missile Range, an Army missile-testing center in New Mexico, in 1958. He moved from that position to a supervisory post at White Sands in which he directed the entire manpower program of the range.

James was appointed Superintendent of the Yankton Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, in 1911 and. moved to the job of Director pf Support Services, Aberdeen Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, .in 1973. He was appointed Acting Area Director of the Aberdeen Area Office July 1, 1974.

He is married to the former Beatrice Lumsdem of Oklahoma. They have two daughters, Sandra Strickland, Ashburn, Georgia, and Vicki Tunnell, El Paso, Tex.

Regulations for the preparation of plans for the use of distribution of judgments made to American Indian tribes or groups by the Indian Claims Commission or the United States Court of Claims have been published in the Federal Register of January 15, 1974, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

In compliance with the Act of October 19, 1973 (87 Stat. 466, 467, 468), a public hearing on the proposed regulations was held at Denver, Colorado, on December 13, 1973. In addition, numerous oral and written comments, suggestions or objections to the proposed regulations were sent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and received consideration equal to that given to all oral testimony presented at the public hearing.

The proposed regulations were amended as a result of the hearing, written and oral comments, and continued Departmental and Bureau review.

In implementing a 180-day time schedule set by the 1973 Act for the disposition of judgment funds, the regulations:

Provide for the earliest possible completion of research to identify the ultimate or present-day beneficiaries of judgments.

Provide for the affected Indian tribe or group to hold a preliminary meeting of the tribal governing body, or a public meeting, to develop a proposal for the use of distribution of its judgment funds. The, Area Director or Superintendents will assist in arranging these meetings and make available technical assistance to the Indian people.

Provide for a hearing of record to receive testimony on the tribal proposal for the use or distribution of the funds.

Within 180 days of the appropriation of judgment funds, or in the case of awards for which covering funds were appropriated prior to passage of the 1973 Act, within 180 days from the date of that Act, the Secretary of the Interior will submit the final proposed plan, and ,other pertinent items, to the Chairmen of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and to the governing body of each affected tribe or group. Unless ether the Senate or the House disapproves a submitted plan by resolution, it becomes effective on the 60th day from its submission to the Committees.

Disapproval of a plan will require the submitting of proposed legislation for the use or distribution of the funds, after further consultation with the affected Indian tribe or group

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the first in a series of steps that must be undertaken by the nearly 3,000 Menominee Indians of Wisconsin to restore their tribal government which was terminated in 1961.

Tribal candidates for the Menominee Restoration Committee will be nominated January 19, with elections to be held no later than March 5.

The new procedures follow the signing of Public Law 93-197 "Repealing the Act Terminating Federal Supervision over Property and Members of the Menominee Indian Tribe” -- the Menominee Restoration Act -- by President Nixon December 22, 1973.

As it made its way through the legislative process the new law was supported by all Wisconsin Senators and Congressmen, State and local Wisconsin government officials, and Menominee Indians and other American Indian groups. Of it Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton said: "In his 1970 Message to the Congress on Indians, the President repudiated the policy of 'forced termination' in favor of self-determination on the part of Indians. Restoration of the Menominees to Federal status helps achieve the shift in policy advocated in that Message."

“It is with great pleasure that I am writing you to announce a general council meeting of the Menominee Indian Tribe," said Commissioner Thompson, in an individual letter sent each person believed to be a Menominee Indian tribal member.

The general council meeting will convene January 19, 1974 at 1 p.m. in St. Anthony Parish Hall, Neopit, Wisc., to nominate tribal candidates for election to positions on the nine-member Menominee Restoration Committee as provided in Public Law 93-197.

In Congressional debate preceding passage of the Menominee Restoration Act these points were made:

1. At the time termination was considered for the Menominees, the tribe had more than $10 million in trust and realized an annual profit from its lumber business. Because it was economically ahead of all other American Indian tribes in the Nation, it was encouraged to become like its non-Indian neighbors and terminate its special relationship with the Federal Government. It agreed to do this. In less than seven years after termination the tribe was on the verge of bankruptcy.
2. The total cost of the Menominee Tribe to Uncle Sam in the year preceding termination was $59,000. The tribe was reimbursing American taxpayers for all other services received. By 1966, nearly $2 million was authorized by Congress to be paid by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare over a four-year period to the State of Wisconsin to compensate for "extraordinary expenses occasioned by the Termination of Federal supervision over the affairs of the Menominee Tribe of Indians."
3. The Menominee Tribe owned 234,000 acres when termination proceedings began; today it owns 8,000 less.

At the time Congress approved the 1966 appropriation the Menominee Indians were troubled by an inadequate tax base, high costs of treating tuberculosis, high welfare and correctional costs, inadequate job training, and large numbers of school dropouts and juvenile delinquents.

Public Law 93-197 is an outgrowth of an investigation authorized by Congress upon expiration of this Act in 1971.

Commissioner Thompson congratulated members of a Menominee tribal delegation who visited him following passage of the restoration act to discuss methods of proceeding.

“We are happy that the Menominee Indian Tribe is being restored to Federal recognition and services, and that it will now receive health, education, and economic and community development programs it relinquished upon termination," Thompson said. We believe this will save Menominee land from further inroads, and give the Menominee a new self-image."

In explaining details of the January 19 meeting to those entitled to participate Thompson said, "Only the living persons listed on the final roll of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and all descendants, who on January 19, 1974 are at least 18 years of age and who possess at least one-quarter degree Menominee Indian blood, of persons on such roll, are entitled to participate in the nomination process or to be nominated as a candidate for a position on the Menominee Restoration Committee. Descendants are required under the law to take an oath that they are, in fact, descendants of enrollees and otherwise qualified."

Identification of those entitled to participate in the nomination process or to be nominated as a candidate for a position on the Menominee Restoration Committee will commence in the Parish Hall at Neopit at 10 a.m. At 1 p.m. the meeting will be called to order for the purpose of receiving nominations. Following the conclusion of nominating candidates, and if time permits, there will be a general tribal discussion period.

The general election to determine the membership of the Menominee Restoration Committee will be announced later.

Until a tribal governing body is regularly elected as provided for under the law, the Menominee Restoration Committee will officially represent the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin in those matters relating to the restoration of Federal services to the tribe and its members. Its immediate duties will include the drafting of a tribal constitution and by-laws and updating the tribal membership roll.

Eddie V. Edwards, a Choctaw Indian, has been appointed Assistant Area Director (Resources Management) for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Sacramento, California office, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Edwards has been a Trust Services Specialist in the BIA's Washington Office of Trust Responsibilities.

A Navy veteran, Edwards has a BA in engineering and industrial arts and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Oklahoma City University. He has also
completed special courses in public lands, water rights and management in continuing education programs.

Edwards, 46, began working for BIA in 1971 as a realty specialist in the Muskogee Area Office. He had previous experience with the Veterans
Administration, Cherokee Community Organization and the New Mexico and Oklahoma State Highway departments.

George E. Keller, an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Rosebud, South Dakota Agency.

Keller has been the Community Services Officer at the agency the past four years.

Keller is a graduate of the Chadron State Teachers College, Chadron, Nebraska and has a Masters degree in education from South Dakota State University.

He was Principal of the Ewing Public School, Ewing, Nebraska for six years before coming to BIA in 1963 as a Guidance Supervisor for the Flandreau School and Rosebud Agency. He later served as Principal at the pierre Agency and Education Program Administrator at the Lower Brule Agency. Keller, 45, is a Rosebud native.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that John J. Pereau, a Sioux Indian from the Fort Peck Reservation, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Crow Creek Agency in South Dakota. Pereau, Economic Development Officer at the agency, has been functioning as the Acting Superintendent since April of this year.

A Marine Corps veteran, Pereau came to work for the BIA in 1960 at the Billings, Montana area office. He was a realty specialist at the Crow and Northern Cheyenne agencies and was the Reservation Programs Officer at Northern Cheyenne before coming to the Crow Creek Agency in 1973.

Pereau, 42, attended the Billings Business College and Eastern Montana College.

Casimir L. LeBeau, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has been named Assistant Area Director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Minneapolis Area, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

LeBeau has been the Tribal Operations Officer in the Minneapolis Area since 1967. The office serves Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan.

A Coast Guard veteran, LeBeau began his career with BIA in 1946 at the Cheyenne River agency. He spent ten years, beginning in 1957, as Field Representative for the Minnesota agency before transferring to the Area Office.

Approximately 20 percent of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) agricultural water supply available under Arizona's basic entitlement to water from the Colorado River has been allocated to five Indian tribes by Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe.

The allocation, contained in a final notice signed today and to be published in the Federal Register, provides that, from the time the project
becomes operational in about 1985 until the year 2005, the five tribes will be entitled to 257,000 acre-feet of water per year for agricultural use on their reservations in Central Arizona.

The remainder of CAP agricultural water will be divided among non-Indian users in Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima Counties.

By 2005, much of the water delivered through the $1.6 billion project is expected to have been converted from agricultural to municipal and industrial use. Following that year, the tribes will be entitled to either 20 percent of the remaining agricultural water or 10 percent of the total
annual deliveries through the CAP, whichever is to their advantage.

Annual allocations by tribe for the first 20 years are as follows:
Ak Chin, 58,300 acre-feet; Gila River, 173,100 acre-feet; Papago, 8,000 acre-feet; Salt River, 13,300 acre-feet; and Fort McDowell, 4,300 acre-feet.

Secretary Kleppe said that the amount of water allocated for use on each reservation, when combined with already available surface and ground water, will allow irrigation of all presently developed Indian agricultural land. In addition, it will allow the Fort McDowell Tribe to irrigate new lands it may accept in exchange for lands it now owns in the proposed Orme Dam area.

The BIA's Portland Area Office had a communications seminar October 12-13, at Kahneeta Lodge on the Warm Springs reservation. Representatives from the Northwest tribes and agencies talked with journalists and other media experts about ways and whys of improving Indian communications and public relations.

Most of the participants, an informal survey showed, thought some good things happened.

Don Sider from Time Magazine's Washington, D. C. bureau talked knowledgeable bout Indians' problems in getting accurate and adequate coverage in non-Indian publications.

Reid Chambers, formerly Interior's Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs, emphasized the effects of public relations efforts on the legislative process and in the settlement of controversial issues.

Bill Smith, Skokomish Tribal Chairman and Executive Director of the Northwest Indian Fish Commission, discussed the Indian leader's PR difficulties and what the BIA could do to help.

Roy Sampsel, the Portland Area Office organizer of the seminar, succeeded in his determination to have some "deliverables" result from the meeting. Other speakers included Dr. Sharon Murphy of the University of Wisconsin Mass Communication Department, who focused on the Indian press; Lev Richards, the Oregonian; Rick Meyers, KATU-TV: Bill Marsh, a professional public relations consultant and Lynn Engles, the BIA Public Information Officer from Washington, D.C.

Sider said that national publications have little interest in Indian Affairs - - and even less knowledge. Except for bizarre stories, Wounded Knee and others, "you have a real problem getting to us. You are just one million out of 200 million -- not a very significant part of the population."

He urged the Indians to make media contacts before their story "is ripe." He related how the Passamaquoddy Tribe got Time coverage about a claim to large parts of the State of Maine by alerting him-early, giving him background information am keeping him informed about developments. "When that story ripened -- and it was a good news story -- we knew about it, we understood it and we were ready for it."

Chambers said that the popularity of Indian people and causes is important for achieving Indian goals. Using a local illustration, he pointed out that the Warm Springs Tribe had more than 60,000 acres of land restored to their ownership in 1972 despite the clearly expressed opposition of the Administration. "The President did not want that legislation, but he signed it because Indian causes were popular then. To veto would have been politically bad."

Chambers felt that Indian popularity was a factor in some court decisions, "We have won more cases then we thought we should.

Chambers described this popular support as "delicate, based on romance or guilt, not knowledge." He said that the American public is badly informed about the nature of Indian rights and that support of Indian causes can be lost in the next few years because of back-lash forces generated by conflicts between Indians and non-Indians --like the fishing rights controversy in the Northwest.

Smith, referring to the fishing rights issue, said, "people can't understand why three percent of the people (the Indians) should have the right to harvest 50 percent of the fish." He said they don't question the right of a small percentage of the population (the orchard owners) to harvest Washington's apple crop. "They understand the orchard owners' property rights, but they don't see that the Indians have a similar property right to the fish."

Smith said violence on Puget Sound and getting some Indians killed would be publicized. "Our job, though, is to try to get heard without that violence." He said that the BIA should do more to help educate non-Indians about Indian Affairs.

Richards said that newsmen get conflicting stories from different Indians and suggested that "Indians should agree among themselves and then have one source to speak for them."

Meyers recommended that tribes take advantage of the federal regulations requiring the broadcast media to serve and be responsive to all community elements. "Make contacts at your local stations and push for your share of time," he urged.

Sampsel announced plans for follow-up activities to the seminar. These included a training program for people working on tribal newspapers and a seminar for tribal officials on public relations. He said that the Area Office would work with tribal leaders to prepare issue papers which could be distributed to the media as backgrounding materials. He promised also to send a list of media contacts in the Area to the tribes and BIA agencies and a list of tribal/agency contacts to the media people.

Engles said that his Washington office would work with the other BIA area offices to help them develop similar programs for improving tribal communications and public relations.