OPA

Commissioner Philleo Nash summarized the past year's accomplishments of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a publication released today entitled "Indian Affairs 1964".

Emphasis is upon education and economic development," Nash said in announcing the new publication. "We are striving toward greater Indian participation in their own affairs--activity rather than passivity--with the end goal of maximum self-sufficiency for the Indian population.

"We are not yet at the boasting stage," Nash continued. "Our accomplishments only serve to bring into conspicuous light the social and economic problems that remain. But the Bureau's programs in the past four years--and particularly in the past year--surely make up the advance guard in the war on Indian poverty."

Nash pointed out that the Bureau's efforts are in line with pledges made four years ago to the Indian people. These pledges, he said, included economic aid to depressed areas; increased credit for Indians to help prevent forced sales of land; new housing; greater opportunities for education; expanded vocational training; development of Indian land resources; and greater cooperation between the Federal Government and Indian tribes.

Accomplishments reported in “Indian Affairs 1964" are summarized below. Individual copies of the publication may be obtained through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Quantity copies may be purchased for 15 cents a copy through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

Education: More than half the Bureau's funds went into education--chiefly for teachers' salaries and construction of schools, dormitories and related facilities. Enrollment of Indian children of school age increased 9.4 percent in the school year 1963-64 as compared to the preceding year. The Bureau operated 263 schools, serving 46,000 students from the primary grades through post-secondary technical institutes, and 19 dormitories for approximately 4,100 children attending public schools. Education highlights in 1964 included emphasis on post-secondary technical training in Bureau-operated schools; summer school enrichment programs which served 20,000, and financial aid to approximately 1,300 college youths in 1964.

More than 30,000 adults were enrolled in basic education on the reservations. An additional 2,350 received vocational training in public or private institutions or on-the-job training, all financed by the Bureau. These and another 2,000 were placed in skilled jobs off the reservations.

Housing: For the first time, Public Housing Administration loans became avail<~ able to reservation Indians and 3,200 housing units were approved in 17 States, about half of which are to be built under a cooperative plan whereby the Indian contributes his labor to give him equity. Sixty-three reservations established public housing authorities, and 400 houses were constructed in 1964. Loans: More than $6,700,000 was advanced in new loans for Indian tribes or individuals from the able to reservation Indians and 3,200 housing units were approved in 17 States, about half of which are to be built under a cooperative plan whereby the Indian contributes his labor to give him equity. Sixty-three reservations established public housing authorities, and 400 houses were constructed in 1964.

Loans: More than $6,700,000 was advanced in new loans for Indian tribes or individuals from the Bureau's revolving loan fund in fiscal year ended June 30, 1964. This compared with $5,900,000 in 1963. The availability of Federal funds stimulated tribal investment in the amount of $25,000,000 and private investment of $100,000,000.

Economic Development: Of 51 plants that the Bureau has assisted in locating on or near reservations, 21 began operation in 1964 and negotiations were under way with another 12. Moreover, 75 feasibility studies had been undertaken by FY 1964 to determine economic potentials such as tourism, food processing, lumbering, arts and crafts production, mineral development and soil and water development. Fiscal 1964 showed revenues from oil and gas leases of $66,000,000 as compared to $37,400,000 in the previous years. Stepped up real estate appraisal services by the Bureau resulted in a 22 percent increase from range rentals and a 45 percent increase from agricultural land.

The sale of Indian owned timber reached an all time high in fiscal 1964 with the cutting of 741 million board feet, sold for $11,400,000, creating 700 man-years of employment.

Public Improvements: During the 20-month period ending June 30, 1964, more than 30,000 man-months of Indian employment were created through public works projects on 89 reservations in twenty-one States, costing $21,000,000, and financed through the Public Works Administration. These permitted improvements long deferred because of lack of Bureau funds and included road construction, forest preservation, soil and moisture conservation, recreational site building and construction of community facilities.

Bureau road programs, conducted in 22 States, created substantial employment opportunities for Indians. These programs included maintenance of nearly 16,000 miles of reservation roads and construction on the $1,000,000 Toreva-Winslow road, a major project on the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona. When completed, this road will become a State highway providing quick access to both reservations.

A total of $38.5 million was awarded eight Indian tribes in judgments handed down by the Indian Claims Commission during calendar year 1964, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today. Appropriations to meet the judgments were made during the year in six of the eight cases.

Judgment funds from land claims settlements are held in trust for the tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Programs for use of the funds are developed by tribal governing bodies and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

During the past four years, the Bureau, with considerable success, has encouraged tribal governments to use their judgment money for college and university scholarships, investment in business and industrial enterprises to stimulate Indian employment, development of natural resources, and improvement of community facilities on reservations. Individuals have also been helped to improve homes, farms, and other enterprises through family improvement programs based on judgment awards.

The Indian Claims Commission, an independent tribunal, was created by Congress in 1946 to hear and determine claims of tribes, bands, and other identifiable groups of American Indians living in the United States. More than 850 claims have since been filed, of which about 25 per cent have been finally adjudicated. Awards totaling nearly $140 million have been granted.

Claims Commission judgments during 1964 were:

Settled and appropriated for:

Settled and awaiting appropriations:

*On appeal and beneficiaries have not been determined.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service have entered into an agreement on the construction and management of recreation at Yellowtail Darn and Reservoir in Montana and Wyoming, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Under the agreement, Reclamation is responsible for constructing boat ramps at Barry's Landing in Montana near the multi-purpose Yellowtail Dam, and also on the Wyoming shoreline of the reservoir, at Horseshoe Bend and Kane Bridge. The Bureau expects that construction of ramps will begin as early as the spring weather permits, so they will be ready to use in a few months while the 71-milelong reservoir is filling. The dam, now 84 percent complete, is scheduled to start impounding water later this year.

The National Park Service will plan and construct other details of the recreation developments and will operate and maintain them when construction is completed.

The Crow Indian Tribe, whose lands adjoin a portion of the reservoir in Montana, is reviewing plans to join in the recreational development of the reservoir area for tourist use. The agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service in no way limits the possible participation of the Crow Tribe, said Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He has indicated he wishes the Tribe to have full opportunity to consider ways in which it might take part in the development endeavor.

Yellowtail Dam and Reservoir, on the Bighorn Hiver, are the principal features of the Yellowtail Unit of Reclamation's Missouri River Basin Project. Primary purposes of the Unit are irrigation, flood control, and hydropower. Increased public interest in the area's recreation and fish and wildlife conservation potentials has brought these functions into national significance.

Legislation has been introduced in the 89th Congress to create a Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, with Yellowtail Reservoir as its central attraction.

Responsibilities of the Bureau of Indian Affairs could be carried out with greater benefits to the Indian people if there were greater rapport between Federal and State governments and between the Indians and non-Indians of each community, Philleo Nash, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said today in Tucson, Ariz.

Commissioner Nash's comments were directed to representatives of labor, church groups, and government agencies attending a National Conference on Poverty in the Southwest which opened January 25.

“The war on poverty,” Commissioner Nash said, "gives us a starting point. It calls for community action, and clearly implies the need for cooperation among individuals and groups, not rivalry. For the Indian people this means that they must be willing to assume a more active part in the shaping of their own future. For the Bureau of Indian Affairs the time has come for us to work more closely with State and local governments. Let us resolve to abandon the all too-common practice of dissipating energy by engaging in fractionated projects."

The Indian Commissioner offered as an explanation for the chronic poverty besetting many reservation areas the growth of the “culture of poverty" in which lithe meaning of life has all but disappeared for many thousands of Indians since the days of the Indian wars.”

The results of the poverty culture, he continued, are these:

"Idleness becomes an acceptable way of life, dependency upon welfare appears to be a normal means of existence; resentment against constraint and authority becomes as natural as breathing.”

"A social system which includes these values and these techniques is nothing but the product of our own social, economic, and administrative failures" Commissioner Nash continued.

Outlining the greatly increased Bureau expenditures during the past four years to expand educational opportunities for Indians and hasten economic development of reservations to provide new sources of income from land that cannot support an agrarian economy, Mr. Nash added that Federal spending programs without changes in national attitudes cannot be fully effective.

"Although the Indian Bureau of today is a modern service agency, it is still viewed by some as a creature from whom the poor Indians must be rescued," Mr. Nash declared. He then added:

"But where can they go for the everyday services the Bureau alone provides? To the county for general welfare aid? Not often. To the County again for roads maintenance? To the county or State for medical assistance? Not usually. To the State or the school district for school buildings and buses? Often, here, too, the answer is 'no'.

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs provides for reservation Indians most of the major services that counties or States normally provide for other citizens.”

Commissioner Nash called the period of the 1960's the "overture" to the Great Society and called upon the conferees to "face social problems honestly.” One of these problems, he said is the existence of many different ethnic groups, among them the Indians, each of which deserves "consideration and help." The southwest he described as becoming a ”vital center" of the Nation and it must plan ahead, he said, for some “inevitable” changes in community life.

The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded an $8,640,411 contract to construct nearly 6 miles of main canal tunnel and open canal on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project about 59 miles east of Farmington, N.M., the Department of the Interior reported today. The project is being built by Reclamation for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The joint venture of Shea-Kaiser-Macco, Redding, Calif., was awarded the contract on the lowest of ten bids received under Specification No. DC-6l87.

Under the contract, the firm will do excavation work and concrete lining of approximately five miles of main canal tunnel running southwesterly from Gobernador Canyon to a point near Cutter Canyon, in Sen Juan County. At the upstream end of the tunnel, near Gobernador Canyon, 650 feet of concrete-lined canal will be built to connect the tunnel with a siphon crossing the canyon. The siphon, to be built under a later contract, will connect a two-mile section of tunnel (now being built from Navajo Reservoir to the canyon) with the second section of tunnel to be constructed under the contract just awarded.

At the Cutter Canyon end, the tunnel emerges and water then will be carried in an unlined canal for the final 3,200 feet of the contract work. From there a siphon crossing the canyon will be built under a later contract.

The tunnel and canal sections to be built under the contract just awarded will form part of a 152-mile conveyance system that will transport up to 508,000 acre-feet of water annually from Reclamation’s Navajo Reservoir to some 110,000 acres of Navajo Indian Reservation lands south of the San Juan River.

Work by Shea-Kaiser-Macco is expected to generate about 450 man-years of employment at the construction site and at least an equivalent amount elsewhere in the manufacture and furnishing of materials and equipment.

Second low bidder for the job was the joint venture of Gates &Fox Company, Inc., and Walsh Construction Company of Placerville, Calif., $9,099,881. Third, with an offer of $9,857,318, was another joint venture, Koppers Company, Inc.- Malan Construction Dept., Saliba-Kringlen Corporation, and Civil Constructors, Inc., Gardena, Calif.

An agreement between the Public Housing Administration and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs was signed today by Housing Commissioner Marie C. McGuire and Indian Commissioner Philleo Nash, calling for joint efforts in bringing low-rent housing to thousands of American Indian families.

Under its terms, PHA will set conditions under which loans, technical advice and other financial assistance will be forthcoming. BIA will function as coordinator between PHA and tribal housing authorities, and will assist the latter in administering and expanding a low-rent housing program for tribal members.

BIA estimates that 60,000 or more Indian families live in dwellings that are far below minimum standards of health and safety. The new agreement is designed to speed up activity in low-rent housing aid to Indian tribal members.

The two Federal agencies commenced negotiations two years ago. An earlier agreement provided for "mutual help” housing on reservations--a program under which Indian family members contribute their labor in construction of their own and neighboring homes in exchange for equity. This creates an opportunity for families whose incomes fall below minimum requirements for low-rent housing loans to acquire homes that meet standards of decency and comfort.

Already there are nearly 3,500 housing units in various stages of development on 54 reservations in 18 States.

Commissioner McGuire, in signing the agreement today, said:

"This is a forward step in continuing to help provide America's low-income Indians with the kind of housing they need. We have made a good start in this program. We know that it works and we've bad opportunity to iron out many of the bugs. We are ready now to make greater strides in this important area."

Public housing authorities have already been created by 63 tribal governments, as the initial step in helping tribal members participate in the low-rent public housing program.

Commissioner Nash observed: "For the first time, many Indian families who are members of tribes are in a position to take advantage of the public housing program. The tribal leaders and tribal members are accepting the initiative in improving family housing. Both Commissioner McGuire and I, together with our staffs, have pledged our readiness to help with all the means available to our agencies."

Completion of a preliminary membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska, a step toward withdrawal of special Federal services to tribal members, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Legislation to provide for property division had been requested by the Poncas at several tribal meetings, the first in early 1957. The door to Federal withdrawal was opened by Congressional action in 1962. The 1962 Act provided that enrolled members of the Ponca Tribe could determine, by majority vote, whether they wished to bring to an end the special relationship they enjoyed with the federal Government by virtue of their Indian status. Only enrolled adult members the tribe were made eligible to vote on the issue. Preparation of a membership roll was initiated two years ago.

Persons who are eligible for enrollment under the 1962 Act include: Poncas whose names were on the April 1, 1934 Tribal Census or the Supplementary Census of January 1, 1935 or who can clearly establish that they were inadvertently omitted therefrom; and descendants of the above who possess at least one-quarter Indian blood. In order to qualify, persons must have been living on September 5, 1962.

The proposed roll will be published in the Federal Register so that persons claiming membership rights in the tribe may file an appeal with the Secretary of the Interior contesting the omission of a name from the roll or its inclusion thereon. After all appeals have been decided, an election will take place, and if those voting choose to ratify the proposed property distribution, the roll will become final.

The tribal land of the Poncas now consists of about 690 acres valued at approximately $70,000. In addition, tribal trust funds totaling about $34,000 and Federal property worth approximately $7,400 would be included in the distribution.

In addition to the tribally owned land there are 13 tracts comprising about 2,180 acres on the reservation which were allotted years ago to individual tribal members. As a result of inheritance, 387 individuals now share the ownership of these tracts.

Kendall Cumming has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Pima Agency, which has headquarters at Sacaton, Arizona, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash announced today. The new superintendent succeeds Minton J. Nolan, who died in January.

For more than two years Cumming has served as Superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency at Dulce, New Mexico. He will be succeeded in that post by Ralph B. Armstrong, Jr., who has been Assistant Superintendent of the Nevada Agency, Stewart, Nevada.

Cumming was born at Nogales, Arizona, in 1925, and attended the University of Arizona. In 1950, he received a master's degree in range ecology and went to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a range management assistant at Chinle, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation.

In the years that followed, he was assigned to positions of steadily increasing authority at other locations on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations. He was stationed at Fort Defiance as field land operations officer for five years before being named superintendent at Jicarilla. In his new post, Cumming will administer a wide range of Federal programs to an Indian population of approximately 6,300 scattered on four reservations.

Armstrong, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, graduated from North Carolina State College at Raleigh in 1940 with a B.S. in agricultural engineering. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 as a soil conservationist with the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Arizona. Prior to that, he served for 2 years with the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture at Tucson, Arizona. After two years of Army duty, he returned to the Indian Bureau in 1953 as soil conservationist at Mexican Springs, New Mexico. He later served as land operations officer with the Navajo Agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona, and later the Pima Agency at Sacaton, Arizona. In 1963, he came to Washington, D.C. as a participant in the Department of the Interior's manager trainee program, returning to the field service a year later as assistant superintendent of the Nevada Agency at Stewart. As superintendent at Jicarilla he will supervise Federal services for about 1,400 Apache Indians residing on the reservations.

Promotions of George E. Schmidt to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs' branch of industrial development, and Charles P. Corke as assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development, were announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash.

Schmidt commenced his new assignment February 15. Corke, who served tor ten years as irrigation engineer and land operations officer with the United Pueblos Agency in Albuquerque, N. M., assumed his new duties late last year.

Schmidt, recipient of a superior performance award in 1962, joined the Bureau in 1958 as an industrial development specialist at Bismarck, N. D., and two years later transferred to the BIA area office at Aberdeen, S. D. Under his direction 11 industrial or tribal enterprises have been established in the Indian areas of the Dakotas and Nebraska during the past three years, providing employment opportunities for Indians.

In his new job Schmidt will supervise the multi-faceted program aimed at enlarging Indian job opportunities by encouraging the establishment of private industries in the vicinity of reservations.

A native of Huron, S. D., Schmidt graduated from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion in 1939 with a B.S. in Business Administration and did graduate work at Huron College, S. D. He served in the Navy from June 1944 to December 1945.

Corke began his Federal career as a hydrologic engineer with the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation in Grand Island, Neb., in 1948, and also served with Reclamation in Albuquerque, N. M., and Eureka, Calif. He transferred in 1945 to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A native of Studley, Kan., Corke graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1948 with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. He served in World War II as a naval officer.

Corke is filling a newly created post. Schmidt is succeeding John R. Bernstrom, who recently transferred to another agency.

The first Job Corps Conservation Center in the Southwest--and the second in the entire country-·-will be dedicated at Winslow, Arizona, March 12 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

On the periphery of Navajo lands in Arizona, Winslow Center formerly was an Air Force Radar Base. The property is now administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Another camp organized in cooperation with the Department of the Interior was dedicated at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, two weeks ago. It is administered by the Interior Department's National Park Service.

The Arizona site was selected by the Department of the Interior and the _ Office of Economic Opportunity, because of its proximity to the Navajo Indian reservation where the trainees will work on urgently needed conservation and land improvement projects. Also a factor in the choice of Winslow Base was the existence of ready facilities.

The Job Corps--created by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as one step in combating poverty--is designed to help young people who are jobless because they lack both skills and basic education. They may earn while they learn on conservation projects. A voluntary service, it is open to those between the ages of 16 and 21 who are out of school and out of work.

About 65 young men have moved into the Winslow Center, the first contingent of what is expected to be a 200-man center by next year. They represent a geographic cross-section of the Nation--Connecticut, Maryland, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, California and Utah. None of them have completed high school and most have finished only a relatively few years of formal schooling.

A work and study schedule already mapped out for them is designed to bring each as far along in schooling as possible. At the same time, all will have an opportunity to test aptitudes and interests in a variety of jobs. Training will be offered in such camp-oriented occupations as plumbing and heating repair, automotive repair and maintenance, cooking, office work, outdoor conservation work, which will include elementary surveying, fencing, road improvement, forest clearing and seeding, earth dam construction, stream bank erosion control, fire prevention, and even restoration of Indian ruins. Classroom studies, while focusing on the Three R’s, will also include other subjects necessary in occupational training.

Some of the most interesting work projects for Winslow trainees will take place in the scenic wonderlands of Canyon Diablo, the Painted Desert and the archeological “digs" along the Little Colorado River. Construction of an earthen dam to impound 40 surface acres of water for fishing and boating is scheduled. Work on restoration of the Natani Ruins, consisting of 30 rooms, and several other minor ruins, will be directed by experts. Erecting guideposts and markers will complete development of the Navajo-owned area as a tourist attraction.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs participated with the Office of Economic Opportunity in selecting the l7-man Winslow Center staff, comprised of teachers, construction and conservation supervisors, guidance counselors, a nurse and a mechanic, as well as administrative and maintenance personnel The Director, Lee Brewer, of Mexia, Texas, is the former principal of the Indian boarding school at Chinle, Arizona. Deputy Directors are Daniel Meyer, a forestry specialist from Toppenish, Washington; Michael Papich, a public school teacher and counselor from Butte, Montana; and Harold L. Witten, a former administrative officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a native of Anadarko, Oklahoma. In addition to the regular staff, six Indian employees of the Bureau--all counseling specialists-- have been detailed to the camp for the first phase of operations.

In announcing the scheduled Winslow Camp dedication, Secretary Udall commented:

"It is with deep satisfaction that I witness the role of the Department of the Interior growing into one of conservator of human resources, as well as of natural resources. Our land has value only to the degree that we value the human spirit. We are concerned that our forests and plains, our rivers and lakes, be preserved and enhanced. We should be even more concerned that the human mind be given every opportunity to grow. We hope the Job Corps camps will help do this.”