OPA

Donald E. Loudner, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs agency at Horton, Kansas.

Loudner has been Superintendent of the Yankton Agency at Wagner South Dakota. He was for six years a member of the South Dakota Indian Commission and for about 20 years served as a liaison with Indian tribes in the state for Mitchell, South Dakota. He also functioned as a consultant for the public school system there.

An army veteran, Loudner replaces Jack Carson who was transferred to the Interior's youth program office in Kansas City, Mo.

Washington, D.C. --The National Endowment for the Humanities announces 14 grant awards for Native American projects in 11 states. These awards will provide for developing exhibitions, planning radio and television programs, establishing course curriculum, preparing oral histories, and presenting scholarly works.

Dr. Ronald S. Berman, Chairman of the Humanities Endowment, in making the announcement said, "These awards are representative of the support the Humanities Endowment continues to give in the field of Native American studies. Grants such as these foster an understanding of the Humanities among the American public, and at the same time, preserve increasingly perishable information through scholarly research."

Of particular interest is an award to prepare an exhibition which will show the relationship between the trade bead and the Native American culture from 1615 to the present time grant of up to $29,983 will be used to demonstrate the role of trade beads in the early contact between European and native cultures and show ways in which trade beads are reflective of adaptations and changes which resulted from the sudden contact of such dissimilar cultures.

Two Michigan museums will initiate the exhibition during 1977 (the Grand Rapids Public Museum and the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum). The choice of Michigan seems particularly appropriate, since Bruce Catton, in his Humanities Endowment's sponsored book, "Michigan: A Bicentennial History", has already piqued our curiosity. In his book, Mr. Catton vividly describes the early French "coureurs de bois" luring the shy Indian from shadowy, Great Lakes forest with brightly-colored trade beads.

A Humanities Endowment museum grant will go to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to install an exhibit which will depict the fur trade in the Astor Fur Warehouse. This will be accomplished with an award of up to $26,096 and should be ready for viewing by June, 1977. The American Indian will figure prominently in this exhibit since its purpose is to teach the history of fur trade from the early 1600's to 1848 when the last of the Indians' lands were ceded to the Americans.

The culture of the Western American Indian will be shown in the Cultural-Heritage Center of the Yakima Indian Nation through an exhibition of original and imaginative designs.

This will be supported by a Humanities Endowment grant of up to $18,250 which will go to the Kamiakin Research Institute in Toppenish, Washington. The Yakima Indian Nation Center is the focal point of a far-reaching and ambitious program which will, bring the 10,000 Yakimas and other Indians who live on or near the reservation in close contact with the surrounding non-Indian population (estimated at 260,000 in the trading area)and with visiting tourists (estimated at about 238,710 persons per year). Thus, the Center will be used both as an exhibit hall and as a place where Yakimas may absorb and understand their own heritage, study and develop skills, and gather together for social activities.

It is projected that this center will be a way for the Yakima Indian Nation to express its hopes for the future and find inspiration for the tribal members.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has also awarded television and radio planning grant for programs concerning the Native American.

A Humanities Endowment's television planning grant of up to $14,679 will go to the University of Nebraska. This will be used by Native American Studies scholars and tribal representatives to develop a television series about the Northern Great Plains Indians of the 19th Century. During the planning stage of the grant, both Indian and non-Indian perceptions of historical events will be studied.

Television planning is also featured in a National Endowment for the Humanities grant used to produce a series of programs called "The Cave, the Bridge, and the Basin." grant award of up to $20,000 will go to the Oregon Education and Public Broadcasting Service. An impressive group of archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, tribal representatives, geologists, folklorists, and station staff has been assembled to collaborate in the production of the series. Programs will follow the prehistoric in-migrations of Indians from the dim past who used the northern land bridge to migrate and disperse across the Northern Great Basin.

Now in the planning stage is a series of radio programs which will examine the cultural dimensions of the preservation of tribal customs of the Native Americans of the Northern Great This will be done through a Humanities Endowment grant Plains of up to $10,000 which will go to KUFM-Radio at the University of Montana in Missoula. In addition to the incorporation of Indian literature, religion, education, law and tribal jurisdiction, planning will also consider the possibility of bilingual production. The whole series will be directed toward stimulating interest among the various tribes in the area as well as among non-Indian listeners.

The University of Alaska's radio station, KUAC-FM has also received a planning grant in support of a series of programs which will examine the effects of urbanization, economic development, and modernization on Alaskan natives. This media planning grant of up to $10,000 will be used to identify the resources necessary for the development of specific progress; and to determine the most effective format for the series.

The National Endowment for the Humanities also provides grants which make use of taped interviews for the compiling of oral histories.

One of these is a Native American oral history grant of up to $20,000 which the Humanities Endowment has awarded to the St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, Missouri. The grant will be used to disseminate, in written form, the 166 taped interviews with American Indian people. This is an effort to correlate existing materials concerned with the
historical past, present, and future of the American Indian. These first-person accounts graphically describe what it means to be an American Indian in the contemporary United States.

There are also 6 grants announced by the National Endowment for the Humanities which are awarded for the purpose of supporting Native American studies and scholarly pursuits. El Paso Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will receive a Humanities Endowment grant of $49,728 to develop three interdisciplinary courses. This curriculum will examine three minority groups in America, among them, the American Indian. The new curriculum is expected to affect the departments of language, social sciences and history: and will specifically cover: "The Art History of the North American Indian, 1500 to the Present" and "The Arts of the Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Americas.

The Atlanta Historical Society in Georgia has been awarded a Humanities Endowment grant in Native American .studies. This award of $21,105 will be used to research the culture of the Native American who inhabited the vicinity of Standing Peachtree, Georgia from 1760 to 1830.

The Haskell Indian Junior College, in Lawrence, Kansas been awarded a grant of up to $6,000 from the Humanities This will be used to support the development of an Endowment exhibit on "Cultural Diversity of the American Indian." A grant of $20,373 has been awarded in American Indian Studies to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. This is of the National Endowment for the Humanities Centers of Research program. The grant will be used to prepare a catalog of the reference library collection of the American Native Language Center.

A Humanities Endowment Education Pilot grant for $25,754 has been awarded to Emporia Kansas State College. American Indian studies figure prominently in a multi-disciplinary program centered on the theme of "People, Land, and Spirit: A Bridge to the Great Plains." Specific courses include: North American Indians; History of Great Plains Art; the Indian in
Western Literature: Race and Ethnic Relations: The Indian in American History: and The Indian in Western American Literature.

Directly related to American Indian Studies is an award, of up to $5,000 which the National Endowment for the Humanities has made to the National Indian Education Association of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This award will be used to bring to its eighth annual conference selected project directors who have been involved in American Indian studies through prior
Humanities Endowment grants.

These 14 recently announced grants bring the total number of Native American Studies grants awarded in 1976 to 43 Native American projects receiving endowment for the Humanities grant, Fall 1976.

ALASKA
The University of Alaska, KUAC-FM Radio: a planning grant of up to $10,000 will support a series of programs which will examine the effects of urbanization, economic development, and modernization on Alaskan natives.

University of Alaska, Fairbanks: a grant of $20,373 will support the preparation of a catalog of the reference library collection of the American Native Language Center.

COLORADO
El Paso Community College, Colorado Springs, Colorado: a grant of $49,728 will support the development of courses in arts and cultures of the American Indian and the Spanish American.

GEORGIA
The Atlanta Historical Society: a grant of $21,105 to research the culture of the Native American who inhabited the vicinity of Standing Peachtree, Georgia.

KANSAS
Emporia Kansas State College: a grant of up to $25,754 will support the development of an undergraduate curriculum in Great Plains Studies.
The Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence: a grant of up to $6,000 will be used to support the development of an exhibit on "Cultural Diversity of the American Indian."

MICHIGAN
The Grand Rapids Museum Association: a grant of up to $29,983 will support an exhibit demonstrating the role of trade beads in the early contact between European and native cultures.

MISSOURI
St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley: a grant of up to $20,000 will support the processing of taped interviews with American Indians.

MONTANA
University of Montana, Missoula: a grant of up to $10,000 will support the development of programs examining the cultural dimensions of the preservation of tribal customs of the Native Americans of the Northern Great Plains.

NEBRASKA
KUON-TV, Lincoln: a grant of $14,679 will support a series presenting the history of the Northern Great Plains Indians of the 19th Century.

OREGON
KOAP-TV, Portland: a grant of $20,000 will support the development of a series on prehistoric in migration over the northern land bridge and the dispersion of migrants over the Northern Great Basin.

WASHINGTON
Kamiakin Research Institute, Toppenish: a grant of up to $18,250 will support an exhibition depicting the culture of the Western American Indian.

WISCONSIN
The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison: a grant of up to $26,096 will support an exhibition entitled "Fur Trade in the Upper Mississippi River Valley."

Forrest J. Gerard was ceremonially installed as the Department of the Interior's first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs October 13.

Before an audience of Indian leaders, Congressional representatives and Interior Department officials, Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus formally administered the oath of office to Gerard.

Gerard was nominated by President Carter for the position on July 12. Confirmation hearings were held September 9 and 12 before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate voted to confirm his appointment on September 15. A private swearing-in on September 19 enabled Gerard to begin functioning as the Assistant Secretary.

At the Washington, D.C. ceremony, Andrus said that Gerard would have a new policy-making role at Interior. He pointed out that in the past Commissioners of Indian Affairs worked under an Assistant Secretary and did not have the influential position of the new Assistant Secretary. He said the elevation of the Indian Affairs post reflected the Administration's commitment to the Indian community.

Gerard said he considered the new status given to the Indian affairs post significant -- and not just a symbolic gesture or ego message. "The Indian community today is at a critical juncture of history. Decisions made in the next few years -- relating to Indian sovereignty, self-determination, and other major issues -- can set the course of Indian affairs for the next century. Consequently, I see my position as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs as both a great opportunity and a very serious responsibility. I will do my best, working with the Indian leaders, to make this an area of progress and achievement for Indian people."

Gerard, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, was staff assistant for the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs from 1971 through 1976. He was involved in the development of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Indian Financing Act, Menominee Restoration Act, Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and other major pieces of legislation.

A former official of the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Gerard received the 1976 Heller Award from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) for outstanding service to Indian people and in 1966 he received the Indian achievement award presented by the Indian Council Fire.

A native of Browning, Montana, Gerard is a graduate of Montana State University and a World War II Air Force veteran.

Interior Department officials have recommended that the United States oppose the June 1977 ruling of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which has the effect of banning the subsistence hunting of bowhead whales by Alaskan Eskimos.

Interior under Secretary James A. Joseph proposed this position to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance in an October 10 letter in which he said, "Our trust responsibility to this Native American population cannot be ignored or subjugated to other concerns."

In a position paper on the subject, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard said that the United States is now apparently faced with a choice "between resource protection and the cultural integrity of our own indigenous people, the Eskimos."

Gerard pointed out that yankee whalers, not Eskimos, caused the critical decline in the Bowhead whale stocks. He urged objection to the IWC ban together with "the steps necessary to ensure that there will be effective Eskimo self-regulation of the 1978 hunts, responding to the concerns raised by the IWC and by U.S. scientists."

United States citizens would not be bound by the IWC ruling if the United States officially objected to the ruling.

Gerard, in his paper, argued that protection of the whales and main­tenance of the Eskimo's cultural/nutritional practices were mutually consistent goals.

Gerard said: "Eskimos have already initiated efforts to establish an effective self-regulatory regime, and they will be receptive to our concerns if we act in a manner consistent with our trust. Since the U.S. scientists agree that the bowhead population can withstand some hunting, our most responsible action would have to include working cooperatively with the whaling villages to reduce the number of whales killed in a manner which least infringes upon Eskimo cultural values and subsistence activities."

A proposed revision of the program description for vocational training and the establishment of a program for employment assistance for adult Indians are being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The proposed revision fully describes eligibility requirements for participation in the Bureau's program of Vocational Training and explains procedures for filing application for this program. In addition, certain changes in eligibility criteria are proposed, removing all practices of sex discrimination, defining the term "near reservation" as it shall apply to eligibility, replacing a blood quantum requirement with membership in a tribe and regarding repeat services.

The employment assistance program contains support service options which may include vocational and employment counseling, housing and community adjustment assistance, job referrals and assistance in moving to an urban or non-urban labor market or job site.

Another purpose is the elimination of grant expenditures for home purchase in off--reservation locations as this feature was more in harmony with the previous program emphasis on off-reservation relocation than with present: trends to emphasize services on and near reservation areas.

Written comments, suggestions or objections should be directed to: Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Attention: Division of Job Placement and Training, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C 20245.

Richard C. Whitesell, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Flathead Agency at Ronan, Montana, Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard announced today. Whitesell's appointment will be effective November 6.

Whitesell has been Assistant Area Director for Community Services in the BIA's Phoenix, Arizona office for the past year. He was the Education Program Administrator at the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota from 1971 to 1976 and at the Riverside: School in Oklahoma 1969-71.

A member of the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, Whitesell graduated from the State College at Dickinson, North Dakota and earned a Masters in Education from the South Dakota State University in 1969.

Whitesell, 41, was a teacher-coach in the Brockton, Montana public schools and at the BIA schools at Pierre and Cheyenne River in South Dakota.

The Departments of "the Interior and Commerce announced today the addition of representatives of the Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the federal task force working to attain a settlement of the salmon fishing controversy in Washington state.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard and Richard A. Frank, Administrator of NOAA, were added to the task force organized in April 1977 to seek to assure sound development of salmon fishing in the context of Indian treaty rights and the economic problems of non-Indian fishermen.

Attorney General Griffin Bell, Secretary of Commerce Juanita M. Kreps, and Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus head the task force.

In April, the Secretaries designated the following to serve 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 for Fish and Wildlife and Parks; and Anne Wexler, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce.

Gerard and Frank were added today to this group to provide additional direct representation of Indian and fishery management concerns.

Discussions on a settlement of the fishing controversy have been conducted in the Northwest by a regional field team representing the task force.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Chippewa Indians of Northern Wisconsin has taken action to correct accounting deficiencies and other irregularities in the administration of Federal funds received under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard said today.

A BIA audit, completed this spring, revealed several problems including the failure to maintain adequate records, violation of contract terms, unauthorized payments to a tribal official and a total lack of accounting controls.

In a letter to Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, Gerard noted that the tribe has hired a Controller and a Certified Public Accountant. It has also adopted by tribal resolution a financial management system proposed by the CPA firm of Braun and Preboske. Gerard also said that appropriate accounting systems, separate bank accounts and procedures for preventing unauthorized payments are being implemented.

Senator Nelson, in a July 1, 1976 letter to then Secretary of the Interior Thomas Kleppe, requested the BIA audit and has worked closely with both Departmental and tribal officials to resolve the difficulties.

The violation of contract terms, some of which involved unauthorized payments to a tribal official, were determined by the contracting officer to be allowable costs though they had not been charged to the right accounts nor properly documented.

Gerard noted that Indian tribes today are being required to deal with :increasingly complex financial management problems under the Federal Government's self-determination policy. "The variety of programs, regulations and agencies that a tribe deals with requires great expertise. One of our major goals, consequently, is to help strengthen tribal governments so they can effectively and efficiently administer their own programs. "

Because of the actions taken by the tribal governing body, the BIA lifted its suspension of contracts with the tribe.

The Department of the Interior has scheduled a hearing on the Klamath River fishing situation November 15 at Eureka, California, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive and record the views of persons not eligible to exercise Indian fishing rights, and who are interested in the Indian fishery on the Klamath river system. It will be an information gathering meeting only.

The special fishing rights of area Indians, not subject to state regulation, has been a controversial issue. In August of this year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior issued regulations to protect the Indian fishing rights and to promote proper management of the fishery resource.

Assistant Secretary Gerard has indicated that these regulations will be reviewed and, perhaps, revised before next year's fishing season.

Representatives of Gerard's office and the Interior Solicitor's office will be at the Eureka session as observers only to hear the views expressed.

The hearing will be in the Eureka City Council Chambers, 6th and K Streets, at 10 a.m.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that Harley G. Little, a Creek Indian, has been appointed Superintendent of the Okmulgee Agency, Oklahoma.

Little, 47, has been Tribal Operations Officer in the BIA's Area Office at Muskogee, Oklahoma. He succeeds Linus Gwinn who has retired after 13 years as Superintendent at Okmulgee.

Little attended Bacone Junior College, earned a B.A. in History and Education at Northeastern State, Tahlequah, Oklahoma and a Masters in Guidance and Education from the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

A. U.S. Army veteran, he has worked in Indian education programs in the Muskogee Area since 1954. He also served as Dean of Students at Bacone College for two years and was Program Analysis Officer in the Area Office from April of 1976 to January of 1977.