OPA

Adoption of regulations for preparing a membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The roll is to be compiled under a 1962 law giving enrolled tribal members an opportunity to express themselves for or against division of the tribal assets among themselves. Those on the roll would be the beneficiaries if division of the assets is approved.

Those eligible for enrollment will include all persons living on September 5, 1962, whose names appear on the Ponca census roll of April 1, 1934 and the supp1ement of January 1, 1935, regardless of their degree of Ponca blood, descendants of such persons having one fourth or more Ponca blood, and children of tribal members adopted by non-Indians if they are otherwise qualified.

Proposed regulations on this subject were published in the Federal Register February 15, 1963, and several suggestions for change received from interested parties were accepted by the Department. The most important change is an increase in the time given descendants to file applications for inclusion on the roll. Under the proposed rules they would have been given two months after publication of the final regulations in the Federal Register. This period has been lengthened to six months. The full text of the regulations is being published in the Federal Register.

Appointment of James P. Howell, assistant personnel officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, South Dakota, as superintendent at the Fort Berthold Indian Agency in New Town, effective July 14, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Howell succeeds Homer M. Gilliland, who has been appointed head of the Colorado River Agency, Parker, and Arizona.

Howell, of Indian descent, is a graduate of the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, and has attended Kansas University in Lawrence; George Washington University in Washington, D. C.; and Everett Junior College in Everett, Wash. After graduating from Haskell in 1940, Howell joined the staff there as an assistant clerk and later that year transferred to the Potawatomi Agency in Horton, Kansas.

In 1942, he left the Bureau for military service and returned to the Potawatomi Agency four years later. After 10 years of progressively responsible service there and at Haskell, he moved in 1956 to the Western Washington Agency, Everett, Wash., as an administrative officer. In 1957 he was transferred to Fort Belknap Consolidated Agency in Harlem, Montana; and four years later moved to his present position at the Aberdeen area office.

The Department of the Interior has asked Congress to increase the authorized amount of annual appropriations for vocational training of adult Indians from $7.5 million to $12 million.

In its request, the Department said the number of Indians who are qualified and wish to participate in the training program greatly exceeds the number for whom funds are available. If the present limitation is retained, some of those who have applied in the past six months cannot expect to enroll in vocational training courses before June 30, 1964.

"As of the end of November 1962, there were 1,283 Indians in training throughout the country," the Department said. "There were 346 applicants waiting A5n registers at the various training destinations and 624 applications were in process at the reservation level. Many individuals who had been interested in filing have refrained from doing so in view of the long waiting period involved. Many of them are concerned that they will not be given an opportunity to participate."

Under the program, the Bureau of Indian Affairs provides the tuition costs and living expenses (including those for family dependents) for enrollment of young Indians, mainly from 18 to 35 years old, in vocational schools. It also contracts with industrial companies for on-the-job training of Indians, chiefly in plants on or near reservations.

The program has been increasingly popular with young Indian people, the Department added.

On the basis of present costs, the Department estimated, an appropriation of $7.5 million can be expected to finance 2,470 single individuals or family heads in school training and 1,370 such units in on-the-job training (in varying stages of training) during one fiscal year. Increasing the appropriation to $12 million, he said, will permit the enrollment of 3,906 trainees in schools and the continuing provision of on-the-job training for 1,500.

“Although this request is for $12 million authorization," the Department said, "it is not anticipated that the full amount will be absorbed immediately. In order to expand the program ••• without placing an undue strain on the present staff and facilities, we expect to phase out the proposed increase over the next three years."

Responding to tribal requests, the Department of the Interior announced today it is restoring to the San Carlos Apache Indian Tribe ownership of the subsurface interest in approximately 225,000 acres of land in a portion of eastern Arizona known as the "San Carlos Mineral Strip."

Under Secretary James K. Carr approved an order which will make it possible for the tribe to recover the minerals in lands which were ceded to the Federal Government in 1896. The 1896 transfer was made on condition that proceeds from the disposition of the mineral lands be credited to the Indians. Only about 1,760 acres, of the 232,320 acres originally ceded, have been disposed of under mineral land laws.

The restoration order includes minerals under the approximately 12,000 acres -~6f the Coronado National Forest which lie in the "Mineral Strip." Excluded from this restoration are lands held under patent from the United States.

Restoration of the subsurface interest in the 225,000 acres to tribal ownership will take effect only if the tribe adopts a resolution providing protection to the surface of the Coronado National Forest lands, Mr. Carr explained. The lands in the "Mineral Strip" were originally included in the San Carlos Apache Reservation when it was created by Executive Orders of 1871 and 1872. Since 1932, the area has been withdrawn from all forms of public entry. Recently, great interest has been shown in the copper and other mineral potential of the lands. The Department said restoration to the tribe will allow development of this mineral potential and could add significantly to the economy of Arizona.

The tribe asked for restoration of the entire interest in the lands some years ago and a public hearing on the restoration was held by the Department of the Interior at Globe, Ariz., in February 1960, giving interested parties an opportunity to register their views. On April 2, 1963, the tribe withdrew its previous request and petitioned Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall to restore the subsurface interest to tribal ownership. Under Secretary Carr said that matters placed in the record have been examined thoroughly and he has been advised by Solicitor Frank J. Barry of the department that the land can be restored legally to the tribe under the Indian organization Act of 1934.

Hailing it a "landmark study II Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today made public the report of a three-man task force which last year studied the problems of the 43,000 Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska.

The study group, which was headed by William W. Keeler, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indian Nation, and chairman of the executive committee of the Phillips Petroleum Company, traveled more than 5,000 miles throughout Alaska, visiting many of the native villages and holding conferences with native leaders.

“The report faces up to some problems and the Congress have kept in the closet now be dealt with in a positive way that, in the past, both the Executive It is my hope that these problems will now be dealt with in a positive way.

"The report of the three-man task force on Alaska Native Affairs is a landmark study, and I have read it with keen interest. It is the first comprehensive study in depth of the complicated problems of the Alaska native peoples. It puts their hopes and opportunities in sharp focus and also defines clearly the responsibilities both State and Federal governments must discharge if these citizens are to achieve their full potential.

"This is a highly constructive report. Mr. Keeler, Secretary of State for Alaska Hugh Wade, and James E. Officer, Associate Commissioner of Indian Affairs, deserve high praise for this specialized study, II Secretary Udall said.

Among the items covered in the report are native land problems, the Bureau of Indian Affairs loan program which has made it possible for the Indians of southeast Alaska to operate village salmon canneries, the Eskimo reindeer herding program, and hunting and fishing matters which are of vital concern to the native population.

In the report, the authors discuss the controversy over enforcement of the migratory bird treaty of 1916. This compact between the United States and Great Britain forbids the hunting of certain types of migratory fowl in Alaska between March 10 and September 1. Since the late spring is a season when fresh meat is in short supply, the natives feel that the treaty discriminates against them in favor of the sportsmen of the West Coast States. During the fall and winter, when the Alaska season is open, there are few birds in the northern parts of the State, the cold weather having driven them south. Furthermore, some of the remaining birds, which the natives contend are not migratory in the sense implied by the treaty, are still on the restricted list.

In this connection, the Task Force recommends a thorough study by the Department's Fish and Wildlife Service to determine which birds are migratory and which are not. It also suggests that if relief cannot be provided for the native subsistence hunters in this fashion, negotiations be undertaken to have the treaty amended.

The Task Force report devotes a lengthy chapter to land problems, pointing out that in the Alaska Organic Act of 1884, the Congress promised that the natives would not be disturbed in the use of land then occupied or claimed by them, but reserved unto itself a determination as to how title to these lands might be conveyed. As a result of the Alaska Statehood Act of 1958, which authorized the State to select more than 100 million acres from the public domain, the question of native rights under the 1884 Act has now become a main issue. Some of the lands claimed by the Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts have already been selected by the State, and the Department of the Interior has been faced with the problem of deciding whether to comply with the State's request and transfer title to it, or to wait until Congress acts to define native rights more precisely.

The Task Force suggests a number of steps for resolving this controversy. These include granting individual natives the title to home sites and hunting and fishing sites; withdrawing small acreages in the vicinity of the native villages for their future growth and development; establishing native hunting and fishing privileges in larger areas; and setting up a special tribunal in which to consider native claims for lands taken from them by others in the period since 1884.

It also recommends that Congress prescribe a definite period of time in which to adjudicate native claims so that the State land selection program will not be indefinitely postponed.

In a chapter on health problems, the Task Force lauds the Division of Indian Health of the U. S. Public Health Service for its effective program of reducing the death rate and bringing hospital and other medical services to the residents of the villages.

Other Task Force suggestions include transferring to the State administrative authority for the education of native children and the operation of a general assistance welfare program for the native population; encouraging the native villages to incorporate under the municipal laws of Alaska; Federal supplementary assistance for an existing State program of public works; increased vocational training and placement for natives; and the use of “peace corps type" workers in the native villages.

The Task Force report was submitted to the Secretary in December 1962, and some of its suggestions have already been carried out. For example, Secretary Udall on December 27, 1962, announced that the Tsimpshian Indians of the community of Metlakatla would be permitted to continue using fish traps to support their salmon cannery during the 1963 season. Responding to another recommendation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs added an advisor on native housing to its Juneau staff, and placed economic development officers at field locations to help improve the economic situation in the native villages.

The Task Force was in the field during the month of June 1962, and Mr. Officer returned to Alaska for additional information in October. The report, which contains 110 pages, is available on request from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

An exclusive two year permit to prospect for minerals other than oil and gas on 19,200 acres of tribal land on the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix, Ariz., together with an option to lease, has been granted to Bear Creek Mining Co., Salt Lake City, Utah, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The company paid a bonus of $10,000 for the permit, which can be renewed for an additional two years with a further payment of $3 an acre for the acreage retained in prospecting. During each two-year period the company is required to spend $60,000 for prospecting and exploration.

Leases issued under the permit will provide for a graduated royalty schedule ranging from 5 percent on ores having a net smelter return of $5 per ton or less up to 25 percent for ores valued at over $35 per ton. Beginning with the fourth lease year, a minimum of royalty of $4 per acre will be required. Annual rental on the leased acreage will be $1 per acre.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs reports no previous mineral activity in the Gila River Indian Community.

The Department of the Interior announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation will undertake the planning and construction of the $135 million Navajo Indian Irrigation Project in New Mexico, which will then be operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Congressional legislation authorizing the project was signed by President Kennedy on June 13, 1962.

All appropriation requests for the project will be made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the funds will be transferred to Reclamation to cover planning and construction costs. No funds have yet been appropriated to start construction.

When completed, the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project will provide facilities for delivering water to approximately 110,000 acres of Navajo Indian lands in two large areas on an elevated plain in San Juan County, New Mexico, south of the San Juan River. The facilities will include canals, laterals, tunnels, siphons, and pumping plants. Federal legislation also authorizes capacity for municipal and industrial water supplies in the proposed Navajo Canal.

Water for the project will be diverted at an average annual rate of 508,000 acre-feet from the San Juan River at the Bureau of Reclamation's Navajo Dam Reservoir, about 40 miles upstream from Farmington, N. Mex., and some 150 miles distant from the project lands.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has estimated that some 14 years will be required to complete the planning and construction of facilities for the project, although delivery of water to the first of the project lands could be accomplished within five years after construction begins.

Construction of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project can be expected to generate about 7,000 man-years of on-site work and to require an equivalent of more than 12,000 man-years of work in other areas throughout the country in providing the necessary services, materials, and equipment. An additional stimulus to the economy, roughly the equivalent of another 27,000 man-years of employment, will result from increased demand by on- and off-site workers for such items as clothing, food, furniture, gasoline, and other consumer goods.

Reclamation will be responsible for the development of a firm complete project plan acceptable to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for all construction activities, utilizing the special knowledge and capabilities of Indian Affairs in the preparation of a project plan and for preconstruction and construction

An offering of oil and gas leases on Indian lands of the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah has brought high bonus bids totaling nearly $650,000 to the Indian landowners, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Bids were received on about 13,800 acres of tribally owned land and nearly 3,700 acres owned by individual Indians. The average bonus per acre on the tribal land was $34.65 and the highest bonus for these lands was $107.27 per acre. The comparable figures for the individually owned lands were $44.14 and $107.27. The total of the high bonuses on all tribal tracts was $481,078.56; on the individually owned tracts it was $162,399.93.

Rental on the leased acreage will be $1.25 per acre per year and the royalty rate on production will be 16-2/3 percent.

The sale of the oil and gas leases is part of the Indian Bureau's continuing program to promote greater economic development on Indian reservations through more effective use of Indian owned resources.

Award of a $283,675 contract for the construction of a community recreation building on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation at Fort Hall, Idaho, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a multipurpose building with a total floor area of 20,660 square feet. The main floor will consist of a full-sized basketball court and stage. The basement will contain a kitchen-dining room, a library and reading room, hobby rooms and toilet and shower rooms.

Financing for the project is being provided by the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation and through the use of both regular and accelerated public works funds of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. When completed, the building will serve as a recreational and cultural center for the Reservation.

The successful bidder was Hunter-Saucerman Construction Co., of Idaho Falls, Idaho. Five higher bids, ranging from $290,231 to $327,400 were received.

The Department of the Interior has announced it favors proposed Federal legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands for terms up to a maximum of 55 years for purposes other than farming or grazing.

Under present law such leases are limited to a 25-year term with an option to renew for 25 years except on five reservations where 99-year leasing has been authorized. These are the Palm Springs Reservation in California, the Dania reservation in Florida, the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado, the Colorado / River Reservation in Arizona and California, and the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Authority for 99-year leasing on these reservations would be continued under S. 48, a pending Congressional bill favored by the Department.

In commenting on the bill, the Department explained that difficult problems arise, especially for those contemplating large-scale commercial or recreational developments, under present laws limiting leaseholds on certain Indian lands to the equivalent of a 50-year period. The minimum unexpired lease period for a construction or a development loan under the National Housing Act, the Federal Reserve Act, and the policies of most insurance companies is 50 years from the date the mortgage is executed. Thus the lessee, in effect, is given no time to arrange for financing.

"If the permissible period for leasing Indian lands could be extended, as proposed by the pending bill, “the Department pointed out, "there would be enough time to complete financial arrangements for developments before the unexpired term of the lease is reduced to less than 50 years. As a technical matter, this represents a comparatively minor change from a 50-year maximum to a 55-year maximum, but the practical effect on financing improvements will be great."