OPA

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today that he has extended the period for review and comment on proposed regulations governing the adoption of tribal water codes on Indian reservations published in the Federal Register March 17. The deadline has been extended from April 18 to June 2, 1977.

The regulations establish standards which tribal water codes must meet to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Tribal water codes deal with the use on reservations of water subject to tribal control.

The proposed regulations do not determine what waters are subject to tribal control. They neither increase nor reduce tribal water rights.

Comments should be sent to the Commissioner, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Attention: Office of Rights Protection, Washington, D. C. 20240.

A plan for the distribution and use of more than $200,000 awarded to Seneca Indians by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

The award is for certain land areas in New York State sold by the Indians between 1802 and 1826. The funds are to be divided between the Seneca Nation of Indians and the Tonawanda Band of Senecas on the basis of their respective tribal memberships as of January 29, 1977, the effective date of this plan.

According to the plan approved by Congress, the membership of the two tribes will be brought current to provide the basis for division between the two tribes.

The Seneca Nation share will be distributed on a per capita basis to the members.

The Tonawanda share will be held and continue to be invested by the Secretary until such time as a further plan for disposition of the funds is approved by Congress.

Leo M. Krulitz, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, said today that unless Indian tribes can fully utilize their natural resources, the opportunity to determine their own future will hold little promise for them.

In an address to the two-day conference of the Federal Bar Association in Phoenix, Arizona, on Indian law, Krulitz said: "Self-determination will mean little to many Native Americans if the Federal trustee does not insure that water rights are preserved.

"Water is often critical to a full utilization of a tribe's other natural resources. Without it Indian tribes may be prevented from pursuing agricultural development, ranching, and mineral exploration and production."

Krulitz said that just as the late 1960's saw a marked increase in our awareness of the environmental implications of our actions, the late 1970's will be seen as the years in which the public becomes aware of the rights of Indians to participate to the full extent of their rights in the wealth of our Nation.

"From Maine to Alaska, Indians are asserting rights denied them for generations, rights which have been too easily ignored in the face of conflicting public policies," he said.

”President Carter, Secretary Andrus, and I are fully conscious of the Federal Government's trust responsibilities to Native Americans," he said. "We are intent upon seeing these responsibilities fulfilled."

Among the various alternatives in such cases he said that the Department's tentative posture is preference for the tribes to intervene with their own counsel. "Only in this way," he said, "can they be fully satisfied that their individual positions are asserted as forcefully as possible."

Edmund Manydeeds, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Great Lakes Agency at Ashland, Wisconsin, Acting Commissioner Raymond v. Butler announced today.

Manydeeds has been at the agency since 1960 and has been the Acting Superintendent the past year.

A World War II veteran, Manydeeds earned both a B.S. and M.S. in Education at North State College, South Dakota.

Manydeeds, 55, began working with the BIA in 1948 as a teacher at the Cheyenne River Agency, South Dakota.

Regulations governing the administration of funds to assist Indian irrigation projects and fisheries under the Drought Emergency Act of April 7, 1977, are being published in the Federal Register, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

The regulations tell how qualified applicants may obtain funds to remedy some detrimental effects of the 1976-77 drought. Provisions are made for short-term actions to increase water supplies and to repair, or improve water supply facilities.

Since the Act is in response to emergency conditions, actions funded under it are to be completed prior to or during the 1977 irrigation season.

The regulations will be effective on publication and will expire on September 30, 1977.

These regulations are supplementary to regulations being published by Interior's Bureau of Reclamation.

For further information contact Charles P. Corke, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20245, phone 202 343-2287.

Daniel D. McDonald, Director of Tribal Resources Development for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, died Saturday, April 16.

A Nez Perce/Flathead Indian, McDonald was one of four program directors in the Bureau. His office was responsible for assisting Indians through the development of business enterprises, credit and financing, and manpower training and placement programs. It also provided technical assistance to tribes in road construction and maintenance. He was appointed to this position in April, 1974.

Funeral services and interment were to be held at St. Ignatius Montana on the Flathead Reservation where McDonald grew up.

McDonald came to Washington, D.C. in 1970 as Director of Intergovernmental Relations with the National Council on Indian opportunity.

From 1963 to 1970 McDonald was an Industrial Development Specialist for BIA on the Navajo Reservation. He was instrumental in the development of many new industries on the reservation. These included the establishment of the General Dynamics plant at Fort Defiance, Arizona; the establishment of the Fed-Mart store, first supermarket on the reservation and the Window Rock Motor Inn, both at Window Rock, Arizona; and the expansion of the Fairchild Semi-conductor Division at Shiprock, New Mexico, into the largest single employer of Indians in the Nation.

A World War II Marina veteran, McDonald graduated from the University of Montana and later did graduate work at George Washington University. He began his career with the BIA as a relocation assistant on the Fort Belknap Reservation at Harlem, Montana.

McDonald was the 9th of 13 children. His brother, Wyman McDonald is Superintendent of the BIA agency at Fort Hall, Idaho.

McDonald is survived by his wife, the former Gloria Gardipe of the Flathead Reservation, and four children.

Regulations governing BIA responsibilities in the former Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area were published in the Federal Register April 26, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

Though the area has now been partitioned by court order and the lands placed under the respective jurisdictions of the Navajo or Hopi Tribes, the Secretary of the Interior, according to the Settlement Act and the United States District Courts, retains exclusive authority and jurisdiction over all activities that are connected with livestock reduction, range restoration and surveying, monumenting and fencing the boundaries. These responsibilities include related law enforcement activities.

While the involvement of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is lessened by the partitioning, the jurisdiction of the Bureau for the activities mentioned above is expanded to include all persons, Indian and non-Indian. The assertion of this jurisdiction will continue as long as it takes to complete the Settlement Act mandated tasks.

Because there is immediate need for maintaining the Bureau of Indian Affairs activities without interruption and because these revisions in the regulations are made necessary by court order and statute, there will not be the customary period of review and comment. These regulations will therefore become effective upon publication.

Wilson Barber has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Agency on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, Acting Deputy Commissioner Raymond V. Butler announced today.

Barber, a Navajo, has been Superintendent of the Cheyenne River Agency at Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

Barber, 35, attended the University of New Mexico. He worked for the Navajo Tribe and for the BIA on the Navajo Reservation before going to Cheyenne River in 1975.

His appointment of the Mescalero Reservation in south-central New Mexico becomes effective June 5.

The 1977 calendar of Indian fairs, exhibits, ceremonials, dances, feasts and other celebrations is now available, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Most of the events in the state-by-state listings occur in the summer or fall months and are open to tourists and other visitors. The pocket-size booklet lists more than 500 items, giving the nature of the activity, dates and locations.

The booklet also contains some summary information about Indians in the United States and the addresses of Bureau of Indian Affairs' field offices.

The calendar may be obtained for $1 from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. The stock number is 024-002-00058-6.

The final environmental impact statement on the proposed Navajo-El Paso/Consolidation Coal Lease and Mining Plan on the Navajo Reservation, San Juan County, New Mexico has been completed. Copies of the statement have been filed with the Council on Environmental Quality and a notice of availability published in the Federal Register by the Department of the Interior.

The statement considers the human, economic and physical environmental effects associated with Federal approval of lease and mining and reclamation plans for coal strip mining operations. It is anticipated in the plan that about 678 million tons of low sulphur coal will be taken from 40,287 acres of reservation land in the next 35 years.

The statement was prepared to supplement the environmental statement prepared for a proposed El Paso Gasification Project.

The proposed lease is a renegotiated mining lease for an existing lease covering the same 40,287 acres. It is stronger in stipulating efforts to mitigate ,environmental impacts. It was executed between the Navajo Tribe as lessor and the El Paso Natural Gas Company and the Consolidation Coal Company as lessees. It becomes effective when approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Single copies of the environmental statement may be obtained from the Navajo Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Window Rock, Arizona 86515