OPA

James L. McCabe, a Navajo Indian, has been appointed Supervisory General Engineer for the San Carlos Irrigation Project at Coolidge, Arizona, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

McCabe, 42, has been working this past year in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Phoenix Area Office.

A graduate of Utah State University, McCabe has his degree in civil and irrigation engineering. He has also attended Iowa State University and George Washington University and has participated in the Department of the Interior Management Training Program.

McCabe worked as an engineer for private companies in Albuquerque, New Mexico before joining BIA in 1966 as General Engineer at Crownpoint, New Mexico. He worked for private firms from 1972 to 1975 when he returned to BIA as Irrigation Manager at the Pima Agency, Sacaton, Arizona.

Proposed rules governing the adoption of tribal water codes on Indian reservations were published March 17 in the Federal Register, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond v. Butler announced today.

The regulations, designed to preserve and protect Indian water rights, establish the standards which tribal codes must meet to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior when such approval is required.

The regulations allow for the adoption of codes which follow an individual permit system. They also set forth the conditions under which the Secretary of the Interior may establish a water code for a reservation.

Comments, suggestions or objections regarding the proposed regulations should be sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20245 not later than April 18, 1977.

Jack N. Rumsey has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Agency at Wewoka, Oklahoma, Acting Commissioner Raymond V. Butler announced today.

Rumsey, a Creek Indian, succeeds Buford Morrison who retired. The Wewoka Agency, located east of Oklahoma City, is one of six agencies under the Muskogee Area Office of BIA.

A native of Stidham, Oklahoma, Rumsey served in the Army Air Force in World War II and began working for BIA in 1945. He has held positions of increasing importance since then and most recently has been the Administrative Manager of the Pima Agency at Sacaton, Arizona.

Rumsey, 56 was a 1941 graduate in the commercial course of the Haskell Indian Institute at Lawrence, Kansas. He also attended Southeastern Oklahoma State College at Durant and Oklahoma A & M.

The contributions of Dr. William J. Benham, Jr., to Indian education programs in the United States were cited in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on March 23.

Benham, a Creek Indian from Holdenville, Oklahoma, is the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Indian Education Resources Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler presented the Department of Interiors Meritorious Service Award to Benham, who was in Washington to testify at house appropriations hearings on the BIA's 1978 budget request. The presentation was made, with the approval of Subcommittee Chairman Sidney Yates, during a break in the hearings.

The citation described Benham as an innovator and a pioneer in the development of effective education programs for Indians. It noted that during Benham’s term as director of schools on the Navajo reservation, special efforts were made to adapt the education programs to Navajo people. These included the development of Navajo social studies, a Navajo program for teaching English as a second language and the establishment of parent advisory school boards at BIA schools.

Benham's achievements, as director of the resource center, include the nurturing of a program, adopted as a 1976 Presidential objective, to further Indian self-determination in the operation of schools.

Benham is a 1950 graduate of East Central Oklahoma University, which gave him in 1975 a Distinguished Alumnus Award. He earned his master's and Doctor's degrees from the University of Oklahoma.

Benham began his education career with BIA as a teacher at the Leupp boarding school on the Navajo reservation.

Three units of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Indian Education Resources Center in Albuquerque were cited for excellence of service by Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus March 28.

Department of the Interior Unit Citation Awards were presented to division chiefs by the Resources Center Administrator Dr. William J. Benham, Jr., representing the Secretary. The brief ceremony was part of a general staff meeting at the Center.

Receiving the awards for their units were John Carmody, Division of School Facilities; Dr. Thomas Hopkins, Division of Evaluation, Research and Development; and Dr. Robert Hall, Division of Continuing Education.

The Indian Education Resources Center is part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' central office structure. It serves the Director of Indian Education Programs in the development of policy and programs and provides technical assistance to regional and local field education units.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus told Bureau of Indian Affairs employees March 31 that he has taken no position - pro or con - on the American Indian Policy Review Commission recommendation to remove Indian affairs from the Department of the Interior in favor of a separate, independent agency.

Andrus, at a meeting with the BIA employees in Washington, D.C., said that his initiation of a process to affect the appointment of an Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs should not be interpreted as a prejudgement of the separate agency recommendation. He said that he was moving to recommend someone for the Indian Affairs job because it appeared that it would be some time yet before any decision would be made on the AIPRC recommendation.

Under Secretary James Joseph, who was sworn into office March 23 and who has been playing a lead role in Indian affairs in the Department, reported that 75 tribes responded to the Secretary’s request for nominees for the Assistant Secretary post. He said that 37 persons were nominated, a profile of qualifications prepared for each of them and a smaller number selected for further consideration. He said that there would be further consultation with Indian organizations, interviews with final candidates and then a recommendation made to the President.

Joseph said that it would probably be a few weeks before a recommendation would be made to the White House and require some time after that to have an appointment made and confirmed.

In a question period, Andrus was asked if he had reason to think that Indian tribes supported the AIPRC recommendation to establish an independent agency for Indian affairs. Andrus replied that some tribal chairmen had expressed their support for the move, but he did not know if this was a majority opinion.

The Attorney General, Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior today announced they will serve for the Carter Administration as a task force to work on the Washington state salmon fishing controversy.

The controversy involves the development of salmon fishing in the context of Indian treaty rights and the economic problems of non-Indian fishermen. The task force will seek to develop discussions that will lead to long-range protection, management and enhancement of the salmon fishing industry.

The task force was set up after discussions among interested parties and at the urging of the Washington state Congressional delegation.

Attorney General Griffin B. Bell said: “It is our understanding from the Congressional delegation and Governor Ray that the climate is right to bring the parties together to discuss problems and achieve progress.” Federal regional officials and Indian tribal representatives concur in this assessment. Significant progress has been achieved already on the Columbia River, where a five-year management agreement has been approved.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus added: “This task force will work with all parties to improve the fisheries resource and this is in the long-term interest of both treaty and non-treaty fishermen.”

Secretary of Commerce Juanita M. Keeps commented: “The Department of Commerce is responsible for the development and conservation of the salmon resource under its fisheries management and economic development mandate.” She noted that Commerce funded a $3.5 million economic relief package for the fishing industry in 1975.

The task force will work on two levels. The primary responsibility for discussions will rest with a regional field team representing the task force, headed by the United States Attorney in Seattle. The Secretaries and the Attorney General also designated the following persons as their representatives in Washington, D.C.: Peter Taft, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice; Leo Krulitz, Solicitor of the Interior Department; Robert L Herbst, Assistant Secretary of the Interior; and Anne Weller, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce.

The task force will participate in the field discussions as necessary and coordinate federal reviews of fisheries enhancement and economic development programs developed during the field discussions.

The Secretaries and the Attorney General also announced a set of guiding principles for the task force:

1. The optimum use of the fisheries resource, including federal assistance for fisheries enhancement.
2. A healthy commercial and sports fishery that will provide an opportunity for all who depend on salmon fishing for their livelihood to earn a good living.
3. A utilization of the fishery consistent with recognized treaty fishing rights reserved under the Stevens Treaties of 1854 and 1855.
4. Development of management systems that will ensure that the salmon fishery is preserved and developed so as to satisfy points one through three.

In a meeting with task force representatives, the Washington state Congressional delegation agreed to withhold legislative action on this subject pending efforts of the task force.

The regional field team will begin discussions immediately. The task force is not intended to deal directly with 200-mile fisheries management issues.

Proposed new regulations governing mining and mineral development contracts on Indian lands were published in the Federal Register April 5, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond v. Butler announced today.

Butler said that "new regulations, when completed and made effective, will have a major impact on the Indian community by furthering Indian self-determination, providing for new types of mineral development contracts and reflecting national and tribal environmental concerns. "

The proposed regulations are designed to enable Indian mineral owners, both tribal and individual, to exercise greater responsibility in the development and management of their minerals and other natural resources. They permit the Indian owners to attempt to maximize the economic return on mineral development and to minimize the adverse effects of such development on Indian culture and the environment.

Comments, suggestions and objections regarding the proposed regulations should be sent by June 6 to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20245.

Public hearings on the proposed regulations will be scheduled and the dates, times and places announced in the Federal Register.

Prompted by a drought-related crisis in the water-short Pacific Northwest, Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus has urged the Federal Power Commission to intercede in a water use dispute which involves the spring run of salmon in the Columbia River.

In the spring, young salmon (called smolts) about 4 inches long begin a migration from freshwater where they hatch to the open sea where they mature. In the autumn, three years later mature salmon return from the ocean and swim upstream to spawn.

The Governors of the four States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, various fish interests including American Indians in those States, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have agreed upon an arrangement which would provide from Federal reservoirs an artificial spring freshet of 2.5 million acre-feet of water to ensure the continuation of this spring’s anadromous fish run to the open sea.

The success of this effort is dependent upon those releases of water and young fish passing the five non-Federal public utility dams in the mid-Columbia River area. To date, the public utility districts (PUD’s) have refused to agree to the controlled release of the 2.5 million acre-feet over their dams to save the salmon run.

“I would appreciate your consideration and issuance of a special order at your earliest opportunity requiring the PUD’s to make the necessary water releases,” Andrus wrote in a letter to FPC Chairman Richard Dunham.

The Secretary of the Interior explained that, “the denial of water to the run of salmon smolts would wreak serious and grave consequences on the salmon resource, particularly in 3 years when an adult class of salmon would be expected to return to the Columbia to spawn.

“If this year’s class of smolts salmon do not migrate down river there simply will be no significant return of adult salmon to spawn in 1980, a consequence that scientists do not take lightly, as the Pacific Northwest fishery resource is dependent upon the annual cycle of fresh-to-salt water and later sea-to-river migration for its continuation,” he said.

Under Secretary of the Interior James Joseph met April 13 with a delegation from the Crow Indian Tribe from Montana.

Joseph told the delegation the Department of the Interior stands solidly behind its trust obligation to Indian tribes to protect their lands and natural resources and supported strong tribal governments.

The Crow delegates discussed recently adopted tribal codes including a new law and order code which has brought some unfavorable reactions from non-Indians in Montana. The code provides for the exercise of criminal jurisdiction by the tribe over non-Indians on the reservation.

The delegates told Joseph they desire to meet with state and local officials in Montana to work out plans agreeable to both sides on the jurisdiction issue. They said they are concerned with the protection of the rights of all people involved -- both Indian and non-Indian.

The Crow delegates said that they will be holding public hearings on the whole matter of jurisdiction so that all residents of the reservation Indian and non-Indian can express their concerns.

The reservations in Montana have a high percentage of non-Indian residents and non-Indian landowners. About 2,000 of the 6,500 residents on the Crow reservation are non-Indians.

Indian tribal leaders in Montana have said that the tribes "have asserted jurisdiction over non-Indians only to the precise and limited extent provided by Federal law and decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court."

The Under Secretary indicated that he was pleased with the positive attitude of the meeting and expressed hope that any difficulties would be resolved amicably.