OPA

Philleo Nash, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, today took the oath of office as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior auditorium. He succeeds Glenn L. Emmons who resigned effective January 20.

Nash, 51, has had a career in government service, private business and higher education.

In addition to serving as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin from 1959 to 1961, he was a special assistant and administrative assistant to President Truman, specializing in Department of Interior matters, from 1946 to 1953. For four years prior to the White House assignment he was a special assistant to the Director of the Office of War Information, the late Elmer Davis.

As a student and lecturer in anthropology, Nash has had an active interest in Indian affairs throughout his adult life. Earlier this year he was a member of Secretary Udall’s Task Force on Indian Affairs which completed its study and submitted its report on July 12.

Born at Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., in 1909, Nash graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1932 and received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago five years later. From 1937 to 1941 he was a lecturer on anthropology at the University of Toronto.

In the private business field he has been president of the Biron Cranberry Company at Wisconsin Rapids since 1946 and is currently president of the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association.

He is a member of Sigma Xi (the honorary science society), the American Anthropological Association, the Society of Applied Anthropology, and the Cosmos Club of Washington.

He married the former Edith Rosenfels in 1935 and they have two daughters.

The appointment of a new Commissioner provides a special opportunity to talk to you about the administration's policies with respect to American Indians. I have asked all of the Bureau's employees here in Washington to come to this meeting because I want you to know what these policies are. I have asked you because I know that almost everyone of you has some share in carrying out policies, or in applying the policies to particular cases or situations. Whatever you may be doing, even if you do not realize it at the moment, is sure to involve or affect policy. It may be the selection of personnel, the allotment of appropriated funds, the approval of a lease, the sale of an allotment of land, the release of tribal funds, even a simple letter answering a request for information anyone of these may be an expression of policy.

For some months past, if I have been correctly informed, there has been an undercurrent of expectation in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I can understand that. First you have had a new administration, with a new Secretary and a new Assistant Secretary, whose opinions, methods and convictions you have not known. Then, there has been the Task Force, and one of its members is the new commissioner. You have every reason to expect that he will, with my support, put into effect as rapidly as possible, those Task Force recommendations which can be handled by administrative action. Some of you may not have had a chance to read the Task Force report. Therefore, I want to comment now on the more important recommendations, so that you will understand what changes will be made and what the new policies are.

Let me say first that I fully concur in the three basic objectives which the Task Force has stated: (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency; (2) full participation of Indians in American life; and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians. The Task Force said truly that aid from the Indian community is crucial to the achievement of these objectives. Indian aid and support must be secured before projects or programs are commenced. Indians can retain their tribal identities and much of their culture while moving forward toward these objectives.

Next, The Task Force explained why it did not include "termination" as a major objective. At the hearings held by the Task Force it was clear that the Indians were seeing "termination” lurking behind every rock and every tree. I agree with the Task Force that our goal is maximum development. When we reach that goal, termination will have disappeared as an issue.

On numerous occasions I have stated my purpose to improve administration at the reservation level. After all, the reason for the Bureau’s existence ought to be the improvement of Indian life. We should send our best people to the reservations--people who can plan and work with Indians, understand them, and be understood by them. We may have to raise the pay of such people, and we shall try to find ways of keeping such people in a job they are doing well, instead of rewarding them by moving them to another agency where salaries are bigger because it has more employees and spends more money. The superintendent at a small agency, with inadequate staff and meager Indian resources may be facing a tougher job than the man at the big agency, with more money, more staff, more resources. In short, I see the main reason for the area offices and the Central Office to be the improvement of reservation administration, and that means improvement in the lives of the Indians. My ambition is to see an action program moving forward in each Indian community.

Next, I shall talk briefly about the land problem. I firmly believe that the Indian's land base is essential to a sound economic future. I intend to support Indian effort to hold their lands, and even to acquire more land where they need it and can use it productively.

Everybody has heard of the heirship problem, which has caused thousands of acres of Indian land to lie idle, and many more thousands to be used less productively than they could be. Several bills have been introduced in the present Congress on this subject. According to the Senate Committee's report on heirship, there are about 40,000 tracts, worth $180,000,000, in heirship status. If we can achieve a workable law, and then proceed vigorously, we can change materially the economic situation of many tribes.

The need for funds to lend to the tribes was one of the factors in another legislative proposal which the Department sent to the Congress, to remove the $10,000,000 ceiling on the loan fund established by the Indian Reorganization Act. The Congress did not agree to remove the ceiling, but it voted to raise it to $20,000,000. We are now seeking the appropriation of a part of this increase. More money is needed in the Revolving Loan Fund for all sorts of purposes.

Of the $140,000,000 which the Bureau requested Congress to appropriate for this fiscal year, almost exactly $70,000,000 was for education and the allied services of welfare, vocational training, and relocation. By way of showing the rapid growth and complexity of the Bureau's operations, let me point out that in Fiscal 1952, just ten years ago, the total appropriation to the Bureau, including the medical work, was $68,000,000. In the field of education there have been rapid changes of policy during those years. I agree with the Task Force that an independent study of Indian education should be made, and I shall ask the Commissioner to explore ways and means of making such a study.

Finally, one other piece of legislation suggested by the Task Force was sent to the Congress but no action was taken in this session. This is a bill to establish an Advisory Board on Indian Affairs, to be composed of not more than fifteen leaders, both Indian and non-Indian, in various fields. In approving this recommendation, it has been my thought that such a board would serve three main purposes: (1) it would be a non-partisan group which would give the Secretary advice and information; (2) both as a board and as individuals, it would help to spread accurate information to the public about Indians and the Bureau's operations; and (3) because its members would serve staggered terms, it would be a continuing body and would have a stabilizing influence on Bureau policies. It would be my hope that the Board would prevent such violent changes in policies as have sometimes occurred in the past with each new administration.

Appointment of Dr. James E. Officer of Tucson, Arizona, as Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Dr. Officer, who was instructor in sociology and anthropology and assistant director of the Bureau of Ethnic Research at the University of Arizona from 1955 to early 1961, served as a member of the task force which was appointed by the Secretary to survey the operations and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Born in Boulder, Colorado, July 28, 1924, Dr. Officer received an A.B. in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1950 and a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1958, also from the University of Arizona.

He was a radio and television newscaster and writer in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Tucson from 1942 to 1950 and served as information officer for the Department of State in Washington, D. C., and Santiago de Chile from 1950 to 1953.

In 1945-46 he was on military duty with the U. S. Army.

Dr. Officer is the author of numerous publications in professional journals and a book, Indians in School, published by the University of Arizona Press in 1956.

He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, the American Sociological Society, and director of the Association for Papago Affairs. He married Roberta Mitzel in 1946. They have one son and one daughter.

Award of a $2,988,988 contract for construction of a complete new Navajo Indian boarding school for 672 pupils at Crownpoint, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a 23-clsssroom school with library and multipurpose room, four 168-pupil dormitories, a 672-pupil kitchen and dining room; 68 employees’ quarters, a storage and maintenance shop, a fire station, and the development of a complete utility system.

These new facilities, to be constructed at a site approximately three-fourths of a mile from the existing boarding school at Crownpoint, will provide educational opportunity for the 450 pupils now enrolled in the present school and an additional 222 pupils not now in school. The existing Bureau school facilities at the old site have been condemned and will be demolished when the new facilities are completed.

The successful bidder was George A. Rutherford, Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Six higher bids, ranging from $3,087,900 to $3,298,000 were received. One other bid was disregarded because an error was made in the submission.

The Department of the Interior today announced the appointment of E. Reeseman Fryer, Chantilly, Va., as Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in charge of resource programs.

A native of Mesa, Arizona, and career civil servant, Fryer formerly served with the Bureau from 1936 to 1942 and from 1948 to 1950. In his new post he will have nationwide supervision of the Bureau's realty, land operations, forestry and roads programs. He succeeds E. J. Utz who retired in August.

Fryer's earlier service with the Bureau was as general superintendent of the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Ariz., from 1936 to 1942, as chief of the division of Indian resources in 1948, and as superintendent of the Carson Agency in Nevada from 1948 to 1950.

Since leaving the Bureau 11 years ago he served as assistant administrator of the Technical Cooperation Administration in the Department of State from 1950 to 1953, as vice president of International Development Service (a nonprofit private agency) from 1953 to 1955, as assistant to the president of Westinghouse Electric International, Inc., from 1955 to 1957, and as vice president of Developments International Corporation for the past four years.

During the 1940's he was assistant director of the War Relocation Authority in 1942 and 1943, chief of the North African Mission of the State Department's Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation from 1943 to 1945, and director of the agricultural department of the Corporacion Boliviana de Fomento under contract with the Bolivian Government from 1945 to 1948.

Before joining the Indian Bureau for the first time in 1936 he served for several years with the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture in New Mexico and Arizona. He attended the University of Washington from 1925 to 1928 and was awarded a teaching fellowship in Land Use Administration at Harvard University in 1938.

Enrollment of American Indians for education beyond high school has more than doubled in the past six years and Indian tribes are now spending over half a million dollars annually from their own funds on scholarship aids for their young people, the Department of the Interior reported today.

In the 1954-55 academic year approximately 2,300 Indian boys and girls attended college or advanced vocational school. In the 1960-61 academic year, which ended last June, reports from the reservations indicate that the number was almost 4900, or more than twice as many as six years before.

Last March the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana appropriated $16,000 for educational grants to eligible members of the tribe. The Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico last year established a $25,000 trust fund for scholarships for higher education. These two additions bring to 29 the number of tribes providing funds for the advanced education of their most promising youth. The amounts annually available range from a few hundred dollars to the income from a $10,000,000 trust fund established by the Navajo Tribe of Arizona and New Mexico in 1957-59. In addition a scholarship fund for California Indians, resulting from a bequest by an Indian, Maple Creek Willie, became available last July.

The 29 tribes, by States, are:

Most of both the annual and trust funds have been voted by the tribes from monies received from the sale of oil or mineral rights, income from timberland or livestock, or from Government awards.

These 29 tribes conduct their scholarship programs through committees which carefully consider applications and closely follow the academic careers of the successful applicants. Terms and conditions vary with each tribe. Scholarships are ordinarily provided for students in nursing, secretarial and other vocational schools as well as at liberal arts and technical colleges.

When Maple Creek Willie, a member of the Mad River Indian Band of California, died in 1937, it was discovered that he had left his 160 acres of allotted land in Humboldt County to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In November 1959 the allotment was sold by the Government with the understanding that the proceeds were to be used to establish a fund for the granting of scholarships to worthy members of California Indian tribal groups. On July 6, 1961 the Maple Creek Willie Indian Scholarship Fund was formally established by the California Department of Education, and in August a selection board in Sacramento chose 14 Indian boys and girls to be the first beneficiaries. The fund amounts to about $130,000, and it is planned to distribute it over a ten-year period.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs also provides a number of annual scholarship grants to Indian high school students on a competitive basis. These grants may not be used for expenses in sectarian schools and are awarded only to reservation students who have one-fourth or more Indian blood. In the 1960-61 academic year Federal grants totaling approximately $250,000 were made to 623 Indian boys and girls, the average amount being $388.

Another Federal program provides "working scholarships" in Indian boarding schools situated near colleges or universities. These aids enable students to earn room and board at the boarding school in return for 14 hour of work per week. For example, Indian students who wish to study at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, may in this way obtain their room and board by living and working at Haskell Institute in the same city.

The States of Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Alaska also have special scholarship programs for Indian students.

The largest nongovernmental and nontribal source of scholarships for Indians is the service conducted cooperatively by the Congregational Christian Churches of America, the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Association on American Indian Affairs. Several western universities and a few eastern universities offer special scholarships to Indians. Probably the largest individual awards during the past academic year were the "opportunity fellowships” given by the John Hay Whitney Foundation to four Indian students for graduate work in the fields of social work, government, history, and languages.

Development of both human and natural resources on Indian reservations will be the prime objective for the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Kennedy Administration, Commissioner Philleo Nash told an audience in Denver, Colorado, Tuesday evening.

Visiting in Denver for a nationwide conference on Indian Bureau superintendents, the new Commissioner, woe entered on duty September 26, spoke on “The New Trail for American Indians” before a meeting of the Indian Visitors of the American Friends Service Committee.

In his talk Commissioner Nash indicated that in the period ahead the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be placing greater emphasis on developmental programs and less on the custodial phases of its work. The latter aspects, he added, have frequently received too much attention in previous years.

Nash warned, however, that economic development will not come easily or automatically to Indian peoples attempting to improve their lot. He listed four ingredients as essential.

“First, the tribes must be willing to invest some of their funds in the future. Some tribes have started remarkable economic projects with relatively small investments but none has been able to achieve real progress without putting at least some funds for work.

“Second, every tribe hoping to achieve substantial economic gains for its members must have and must support a tribal governing body which will study the tribe’s problems and opportunities and then work hard and consistently to accomplish the desired goals.

“Third, a sound working partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs is essential. The role of the Bureau is to provide technical assistance to the tribe, not to manage the tribal programs or do the tribe’s work. But a harmonious relationship between the tribe and the Bureau is a prerequisite to significant progress.

“Fourth, every tribe hoping to achieve anything of importance in economic development must encourage increasing cooperation between Indians and the imaginative, sympathetic, helpful people in the nearby non-Indian communities.”

The meeting with Commissioner Nash was co-sponsored by the White Buffalo Council of American Indians, the Inter-Tribal Youth Club, the Watonka Club, and other Denver organizations.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the reappointment of Floyd E. Maytubby, Oklahoma City, as Governor of the Chickasaw Indian Tribe and the appointment of Waldo E McIntosh of Tulsa as Principal Chief of the Oklahoma Creek Indian Tribe.

Under a 1906 law the President was empowered to appoint a Principal Chief periodically for each of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma-- Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Creek. In 1951 this appointing authority was delegated to the Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. Maytubby has served in the office continuously since October 1939. Secretary Udall noted in advising Mr. Maytubby of his reappointment for a two-year term that he had served “with dignity and integrity".

Mr. McIntosh has long been active in tribal affairs. In advising him of the two-year appointment, Secretary Udall wrote that "as a public servant you have long had the confidence of your fellow tribesmens as well as other Indian leaders and non-Indian people in your community." Mr. McIntosh has served a number of years as County Assessor, Tulsa County, and is now serving his second term as County Treasurer of that County. He succeeds Turner Bear, of Checotah, Oklahoma, who has served as Principal Chief since 1957.

The primary functions of the Chickasaw Governor and the Creek Principal Chief are to represent the tribe on public occasions and in the execution of documents relating to tribal property.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that from November 14 through 19 he will consult on outstanding Indian problems in Phoenix, Ariz., with five Indian leaders and eight prominent non-Indians interested in Indian affairs.

One of the consultants invited to the meeting is W. W. Keeler of Bartlesville, Okla., oil company executive and principal chief of Oklahoma's Cherokees, who served as chairman of Secretary Udall's Task Force on Indian Affairs earlier this year. The 12 other consultants are:

Barry DeRose, Globe, Ariz., attorney for Indian tribes;

Joe H. Herrera, Santa Fe, N. Mex., secretary of the All Pueblo Council;

Hon. Ralph Herseth, Houghton, S. Dak., former governor of South Dakota;

W. F. Johnston, Lewiston, Idaho, editor of the Lewiston TRIBUNE;

Oliver La Farge, Santa Fe, N. Mex., president, Association on American Indian Affairs, Inc.;

Maurice McCabe, Window Rock} Ariz., secretary-treasurer of the Navajo Tribal Council;

Bishop Philip F. McNairy, Minneapolis, Minn., Suffragan Bishop (Episcopal) of Minnesota;

Lincoln O’Brien, Farmington, N. Mex., publisher of the Farmington DAILY TIMES;

Rev. Billy Osceola, Hollywood, Fla., chairman, Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida;

Hugh J. Wade, Juneau, Alaska, secretary of state of Alaska,

Walter Wetzel, Cut Bank, Mont., president, National Congress of American Indians;

William Zimmerman, Jr., Arlington, Va., former Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

One of the topics scheduled for discussion is the recommendation made last July by the Task Force on Indian Affairs for establishment of a statutory Advisory Board on Indian Affairs composed of both Indian leaders and non-Indians prominent in the field. Secretary Udall has endorsed this recommendation.

"Our goals in Indian affairs," the Secretary said, “are (1) maximum Indian self-sufficiency, (2) full participation of Indians in American life, and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians. As we shape up our new plans and programs for moving toward these objectives, I feel it is tremendously important that we have the benefit of the wisest and most experienced counsel we can get from non-governmental sources.

"The men we have invited to meet with us in Phoenix were selected with the help of Congressional delegations from states with major Indian populations. They are all exceptionally well qualified and competent students of Indian affairs and I have every confidence they can provide us with invaluable assistance in charting our course to better the lot of Indian people."

Plans call for the consultants to visit a number of major economic developments benefiting Indians within easy traveling distance of Phoenix.

Appointment of Kenneth L. Payton as superintendent of the Mescalero Indian Agency, Mescalero, N. Mex., effective November 12 was reported today by the Department of the Interior.

He succeeds Hobart Johnson who transferred from Mescalero in September to be superintendent of the Indian Bureau's Intermountain School at Brigham, Utah.

Payton, 35, joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in early 1950 after graduating from Oklahoma A&M College in 1949. His first assignment was as a soil conservation engineer in the Hopi jurisdiction at Keams Canyon, Ariz. Subsequently he served at several locations on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico.

In 1958 he was transferred to the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., as a land operations officer. Since 1960 he has been in charge of land operations work at this agency. He is a native of Picher, Okla., and served in the Navy during World War II.