OPA

Ground is being broken for a new Indian vocational-technical school at Albuquerque, N.M., the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

An $8,778,185 contract for the school's construction recently was awarded to the Lembke Construction Co. of Albuquerque, which submitted the lowest of three bids.

Bureau officials said the program will remain continually flexible to meet the changing needs of Indians, Indian communities, and society at large. The new school will not rest content to place an Indian in front of a turret lathe and let him graduate with a skill that may be obsolete before he is out of the classroom.

These officials said further that even the buildings, featuring a post-tensioned concrete structural system with exterior masonry walls and demountable interior partitions, will allow the flexibility which is required by changing educational concepts.

The school will teach basic skills for entry level jobs, while at the same time it may also act as an interim school to help a young Indian go on to college.

It will work with the Indian who wants to change the kind of job he is now doing, the Bureau officials said, as well as help the one who is under-employed and needs. new skills to obtain a better job.

The present contract includes construction of physical education facilities as well as classrooms; a dining and institutional services center, and dormitories for 500 students.

The school is scheduled to open in the Fall of 1971.

Assistance provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to Indian families and individuals voluntarily relocating away from the reservations to metropolitan centers will be much greater in the fiscal year starting July 1 than ever before, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

"Our funds for relocation assistance,” Mr. Emmons said, "have been more than tripled from a level of $1,016,400 available this past year to $3,472,000. This will make it possible for us to broaden the scope and range of our relocation services along lines that we have had in mind for many months.”

The plans contemplate the opening of two new city offices in communities to be selected from several cities being surveyed to determine their suitability for relocation, the establishment of a small staff in Alaska for exploration of relocation prospects, enlargement of relocation guidance staffs both in existing city offices and on the reservations, and the initiation of six new types of assistance not previously provided to relocating Indians.

In addition to opening the two new city offices, the Bureau will increase its staff at each of the existing four city offices at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Denver, and will convert the San Jose, California office from a sub office to a full city office.

Mr. Emmons emphasized that the relocation staff in city offices will be considerably increased to provide a more personalized and more extensive guidance service to relocating families and individuals.

Additional emphasis will also tie placed on better preparation of the families and individuals before leaving the reservation through increasing the staff at the reservation levels to more than double the number now employed.

The six new types of assistance which will be provided in accordance with need are:

(1) grants for the purchase of medical and hospital insurance up to one year for relocating workers and their dependents who do not have such coverage from other sources;

(2) grants up to a maximum of $50 per person for the purchase of clothing and other items that may be needed to bring the personal appearance of relocating people up to a standard acceptable in metropolitan communities;

(3) grants up to $50 per family for purchase of household wares such as linen and kitchen equipment;

(4) grants up to $250 per family for the purchase of furniture;

(5) full coverage of tuition costs for one year to provide night school training, of the vocational or “3 R'' type, for relocated Indians wishing to pursue such studies; and

(6) a pilot program to assist about 100 of the "more settled" city-dwelling Indian families in the purchase of homes.

All of these new services will be in addition to the six types of assistance which have been provided in previous years. These include (1) transportation from reservation to city; (2) shipment of household goods up to a maximum of $50; (3) subsistence expenses en route; (4) subsistence expenses at destination up to a maximum of four weeks, as needed; (5) supplemental subsistence where a relocated worker loses a job through no fault of his own and is not yet eligible for unemployment compensation, and (6) grants up to a maximum of $50 per person to cover the purchase of tools and equipment needed by apprentice workers.

“With this substantial increase in financial assistance and enlargement of our relocation staff to provide more services," Commissioner Emmons said, "I am confident that our relocation program will reach a new peak of effectiveness in terms of warmly sympathetic guidance and tangible help for relocating Indian people. We have always recognized that the transition from a reservation environment to big city life is a most difficult and exacting kind of adjustment for many Indian families and individuals. But the amazing thing to me is that so many of them have made it so successfully.”

The Department of the Interior has recommended against proposed legislation which would narrow the jurisdiction of the Indian Claims Commission over claims by Indian tribes against the United States which are based on original Indian title, it was announced today.

In a letter of June 25 to Senator James E. Murray, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Assistant Secretary Wesley A. D'Ewart gave four reasons for opposing the proposed amendment of the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1976.

“1. The jurisdiction of the Indian Claims Commission to adjudicate this category of claim has been fully litigated. After an exhaustive review of the issue, which was comprehensively briefed, the Court of Claims decided that Congress intended to give the Indian Claims Commission jurisdiction over this category of claim when it enacted the Indians Claims Commission Act in 1946, and the Supreme Court has declined to review that decision (Otoe and Missouri Tribe v. United States, 2 Ind. Cls. Comm. 335, aff’d.131 Ct. Cls, 593, cert. den. 350, U.S. 848). The scope of the 1946 Act is therefore settled.

“2. Many Indian tribes have incurred considerable expense in preparing their claims based upon original Indian title, and it would be construed by them to be a breach of faith to withdraw at this late date, ten years after the Indian Claims Commission Act was enacted, the jurisdiction of the Commission to adjudicate those claims.

“3. Although the sums claimed in the pending claims based upon original Indian title may be several billion dollars, as represented, previous experience clearly indicates actual liability will be only a fraction of the potential liability, and we believe that this consideration should not be the determining factor when considering the most practical method of hearing and disposing of the claims.

“4. The purpose of the Indian Claims Commission Act was to end the practice of passing special jurisdictional Acts on a tribe-by-tribe basis, and to provide for a final adjudication of all tribal claims. Claims based upon original Indian title have in the past been the subjects of special legislation, and if the Commission's jurisdiction were limited as now proposed Congress would be urged to return to that old and unsatisfactory system. That system is an expensive and inadequate method of dealing with the subject, and it lacks uniformity."

In an earlier report to Representative Clair Engle, Chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the Department recommended that the life of the Indian Claims Commission, which is scheduled to terminate April 10,1957 under existing law, be extended. Without recommending a specific termination date, the Department's report called attention to the fact that 750 of the 852 claims filed by tribes are still pending before the Commission and urged that, in fairness to the Indians who have filed the claims, it be given "adequate opportunity to finish its work”.

The Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior today announced the signing of an agreement on extension work with American Indians. The agreement, which goes into effect July 1, gives the Agriculture Department responsibility for rendering technical advice and guidance in extension work formerly carried on by the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

During the past two years the Bureau of Indian Affairs has carried on its extension program in agriculture and home economics through State extension services by contract arrangements in 16 of the 18 States where it formerly operated. The Bureau has not, however, signed contracts in Arizona or Mississippi and the contract in New Mexico covers only the Navajos of McKinley County and the Jicarilla Apaches.

The new agreement gives the Department of Agriculture's Federal Extension Service over-all responsibility for assisting State extension services in this work.

In announcing the agreement Administrator c. M. Ferguson of the Federal Extension Service and Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons of the Bureau of Indian Affairs expressed confidence that the agreement will bring about more effective guidance work in agriculture and home economics for Indians.

"Our experience under these contracts over the past two years," Commissioner Emmons added, “indicates that the State extension services are better organized, better staffed, and better equipped than the Indian Bureau to render the needed service.”

With an appropriation of $87,050,000 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, an increase of $7,346,502 over the current year total, the Bureau of Indian Affairs will expand and improve its operations along several major lines, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L, Emmons said today.

The principal increase is about $4,200,000 in educational funds which will provide schooling for 5,000 additional Indian children, 2,870 in public schools and 2,130 in Federal schools operated by the Indian Bureau. It will also permit a continuation of the Bureau's new adult education program launched last year with five tribal groups.

Another important part of the increase, $2,456,000, is to broaden the scope of relocation services for Indian families and individuals seeking better employment opportunities away from the reservations. More intensive help and guidance will be available to the relocating Indians before they leave the reservations and after they arrive at their destinations.

An additional $1,588,000 for repair and maintenance of schools and other Government structures required for Bureau operations in isolated areas will permit work programming at the rate of 16 cents per square foot of floor space in contrast with a rate of approximately 8 cents for the current year.

Other increases are $833,000 for realty work to permit expansion of the Bureau Is realty staff which is urgently needed to keep abreast of the steadily increasing volume of requests from Indians for action on leases and other realty transactions involving Indian trust lands; $416,000 for strengthening the law and order program on Indian reservations; $500,000 for the forestry program designed to increase the volume of timber sales with the ultimate objective of placing on the market all timber that can be produced by the Indian forests under sustained-yield managements; and $377,000 to keep pace with a 20-year soil and moisture conservation program on Indian lands.

While the total of increases for individual items adds up to more than $10,000,000, this is offset by a decrease of about $3,000,000 in the funds for building construction and by other minor adjustments. The $7,346,502 figure represents a net increase in the Bureau's total appropriation.

The new Miss Indian America, Margery Winona Haury is in Washington for her first visit this far East, during which she plans to meet with government officials.

Since Monday, the 18-year old Indian beauty has been in Columbus, Ga., participating in a week-long TV presentation (WRBL-TV) honoring the American Indian.

Miss Haury, from Albuquerque, N.M. is a sophomore in pre-Law at the University of New Mexico. On her mother's side is Navajo and Sioux, and on her father's side, Cheyenne and Arapahoe.

She was chosen Miss Indian America XVI from a field of 32 contestants in the National Miss Indian America Pageant held annually in Sheridan. Wy., as a feature of "All American Indian Days", during which tribes from all over the country participate in songs, chants and dances.

Her personal goal is to unite and bind the tribes closer together so that all may work for common goals, among the most important of which she believes is education. As Miss Indian American XVI, she will represent over 600,000 Indian people in this country.

Before winning her new title Margery was Miss Indian New Mexico; she inherited the title of Arapahoe Princess from her grandfather, a tribal chief, and she is also a Navajo Princess. She was Miss Indian Southwest, and for two years held the title of Miss Ateed Nizhoni of Window Rock, Ariz., the Navajo tribal capital.

Her Indian name is Nah Kah, a Cheyenne name meaning Bear Woman in English. It was given to her at the age of four by her grandmother. The name. Winona, means "first born" and is always given to the first girl baby by the Sioux people.

In keeping with the Miss Indian America title, Margery will travel all over the country, visiting Indian reservations and schools, making radio and TV appearances, and like recent Miss Indian Americas before her, make at least one trip abroad, tentatively to the Exposition in Japan in 1970.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the signing of a public land order which makes available for oil and gas leasing approximately 5,300 acres of tribally owned land on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah.

The lands consist of two tracts of ceded tribal land in the western part of the reservation which were included in a power-site withdrawal of 1909 and later restored to tribal ownership and added to the reservation by a departmental order of 1945. The action announced today removes these lands from the power-site withdrawal and opens up oil and gas development possibilities in the particular area. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons recommended the action.

Aided by record lumber prices, Indians in the United States earned $32.7 million -- twice the amount of two years ago -- from the sale of reservation timber in fiscal year 1969, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced.

The $32.7 million represents an increase of $11 million over the previous fiscal year. However, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said that the same level of income cannot be expected to continue in the face of recent declines in the market value of timber.

The amount of timber cut increased to 974 million board feet, 23 million board feet more than in the preceding fiscal year and 73 million more than two years ago. The most significant increases were in Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington and Oregon.

Indian timber resources are harvested on a sustained-yield basis, to prevent over-cutting and eventual depletion. Bureau officials said that the present annual allowable harvest of 1.04 billion board feet may be reached in this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 1970.

Just as important as the income from timber sales are the job opportunities in lumbering and lumber processing created by the harvest. The present allowable harvest would provide over 7,000 full-time jobs in logging and milling and, more than 4,000 jobs in supporting and service employment, with total annual wages of about $50 million, Commissioner Bruce said.

Commissioner Bruce noted that several tribes are taking an increased role in developing the industrial and business opportunities supported by their timber harvests. At present about 30 percent of the total volume of Indian timber is purchased by Indian loggers and tribal enterprises.

Restoration of mineral rights in 480 acres on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming to the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes of that reservation was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

The lands involved in the restoration were originally among the unallotted and unreserved lands of the Wind River Reservation and were homesteaded by non-Indians during the 1930's. Mineral rights, however, were reserved to the United States.

In 1940 the lands were reacquired by the United States in trust for the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes but the minerals were not at that time restored to tribal ownership.

The restoration was requested by the Shoshone and Arapaho Indians through their tribal councils and was recommended by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons.

The action of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe of New Mexico in setting up a $1,000,000 trust fund to provide college scholarships for the younger members was hailed today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons as “an outstanding example of tribal progress.”

The fund, largest of its kind ever established by an Indian tribal organization, represents chiefly income from oil and gas leasing of the tribal lands, It will be administered by the First National Bank of Albuquerque under terms of a 20-year agreement which was approved by Commissioner Emmons on July 2.

Grants will be made to candidates selected by a scholarship committee of the tribe and will be available on the basis of standards established by the committee.

The fund will be known as the Chester E. Faris Educational Fund in honor of a former superintendent of the Bureau’s Jicarilla Agency who is now retired and living in Albuquerque.