OPA

It is a pleasure to participate with you today for I truly believe that this session is the Forerunner of the truly unified, coordinated effort in providing the services that the American Indians not only wants but is entitled to have.

Early in my job as a Secretary of the Interior I promised to consult with our first citizens to discover not only what was wanted but how we should go about filling those wants.

I believe that this is something interior and N.C.I.O. and all Indian related agencies must do.

At Albuquerque, at the National Congress of American Indians I met with many Indian leaders and delegates.

The one consistent theme of all our talks was that the American Indian wants to BIA to be more responsive and more effective.

To respond to the desire, I have signed an executive realignment which will greatly facilitate the flow of information from local areas to Washington.

This realignment will also give you strength and impetus to the important educational policies and practices so basic to social and economic development.

But more was said at Albuquerque not only do the people I have met with wanted change in the BIA they also want to participate in that change.

That is only right.

So far we have named individuals in acting capacities only and I have no commitments to fill any of the positions.

None have been filled, and now I need to know who the Indian Community wants in these jobs in the BIA.

The result of Indian demands for change within the BIA have been met with change. Now the American Indian must help me meet our other need to supply me with names.
This will always be how we will work together for we in interior or seeking to make Indian involvement paramount as a matter of policy and practice not merely as a matter of rhetoric.

You will see this emphasis right down to the local level, whether for Education, control of local school boards … greater relevance of curriculum …. For Effective methods of teaching.

Or for economic growth, which must be planned on a reservation by reservation basis bring new jobs and ownership to the reservation.

Or for increasing control of many activities such as utilities and Roads operation and maintenance which historically were carried out by the BIA.

This local input and control is basic to the Indian right the American birthright to determine one's own lifestyle.

This is not inconsistent with the special relationship that Indian people have and must continue to have with the federal government, and especially with the Department of the interior.

In that regard, neither President Nixon are I believe in a policy of termination.

But I'm equally strong in the belief that each and every American Indian wants far more than just that relationship.

Increased local Indian control, and a stronger, more effective voice within the bureau is the best way for this country to move ahead, with and for its Indian people.

Together, the Indian members and the department of government represented on this council can do much to Aid the American Indian as citizens of this country to move ahead.

A few weeks ago, on the busy Colorado river reservation near, Parker, Ariz., Sam Lockshin, President of Prest-Wheel, Inc., turned the keys to his firm’s branch plant over to two Colorado River Indians: Vincent Scott, superintendent and Myron Murdock, production planning manager.

It’s the first time that non-Indian businessman have transformed total management responsibilities to their Indian employees. People who watch such things believe it may be a trend in the making.

Each year more and more enterprises are finding profitable locations on American Indian reservations. Bureau of Indian Affairs surveys show that 184 plants employing 6,000 Indian people are raising the standards of living of tribes on or near the reservations. Forty-two new plants, or, on the average, about one every nine days, have been located on an Indian site during the past year.

Many Indian employees hold management jobs, such as Scott and Murdock; others are being groomed for top management positions. Five of the 184 plants are completely Indian-owned. These vary from the Crow Tribe’s Poplar, Mont., operation that repairs military hardware to one owned by the Cherokee Nation in Stillwell, Okla., which manufactures electronic components.

Navajo Forest Products Industries (NFPI) is fulfilling all of the criteria for a successful industry on the reservation; making money, hiring and training Navajo and preserving the natural resources as trees are harvested on a sustained yield basis.

During the 1969 fiscal year, NFPI showed a net profit of more than $1.5 million.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, bringing lights, gas, water and sewage facilities to areas that never had them before, showed a fiscal net profit of almost 400,000.

Both enterprises operate with their own tribal board of directors.

Last year, the Bureau estimated that about 26 new Indian jobs per week were created for the Indian people through new industries on or near the reservations.

That manufacturers are satisfied with their locations is indicated by the Fairchild semiconductor Division at Shiprock, N.M., which increased its largely Navajo work force from 880 to 1,202 in the first nine months of 1969. At Fairchild, only 25 of the time employees are non-Indian, and 30 of its 33 supervisors are Indian.

In making the managerial announcement at Colorado River, Lockshin, whose Massachusetts-based company makes aluminum outdoor lawn furniture, said he will continue to maintain an Indian managerial staff and plans to visit the reservation only once a month.

He hopes to have 300 employees in Parker by 1971. Present employment is 115, of whom 93 are Indians. The plant was opened a year and a-half ago in a 65,000 square foot building owned by the tribe and leased to the firm.

Indians are operating an increasing number of the Federal Government’s programs designed to help their people find better jobs and send their young to college.

The programs themselves are not new – but the leadership, and the accent on self-determination, are.

Operated with funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency of the Department of the Interior, they symbolizes a new approach, which is steadily gaining ground.

''We intend to give Indian leadership every opportunity to operate Bureau programs,” Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said. “We have turned over authority for many types of Bureau operations to the Indian people.”

Bruce cited three local programs typical as of the "determination of this Administration to give Indians control of Indian policy.”

One is the employment and training center which was opened recently at Kansas City, Mo., by Indian Enterprises, lnc., of Horton, Kans. The corporation is made up of members of the Iowa, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sac and Fox Tribes of north-east Kansas.

Indian Enterprises will operate as an employment and training coordinator for the Bureau’s Branch of Employment Assistance which will refer to it Indian job seekers interested in working in the Kansas City area.

A similar contract with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma gives that organization the funds to operate an employment assistance service for Indians in Oklahoma’s Adair, Cherokee and Sequoyah Counties.

In New Mexico the All Pueblo Indians Council has taken over Bureau of Indians Affairs high school counseling programs. The contracting group is known as the Pueblo Indian Education Talent Project (PIETP).

One of the first actions of PIETP was to begin counseling services with sophomore rather than seniors. It includes included parents in its counseling services. Already there are indications that increasing numbers of Pueblo youngsters will continue on to college after high school graduation.

“These are programs at the local level where the basic work in rebuilding Indian communities must begin,” Bruce said. “I would emphasize that these are not one-of-a-king demonstration projects but are typical local programs to meet Indian community needs.”

“We are seeing success here just as I know we will success in our efforts to be effective Indian leadership operating at every level of government.”

Hale Secakuku, 63, Second Mesa, Ariz., a Hopi Indian, was given the first “Indian Small Businessman of the Year” award May 18 in the auditorium of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C.

The citation on the plaque given Mr. Secakuku read “For exemplifying the imagination, initiative, independence, and integrity by which the American small businessman makes a vital contribution to the Nation, the economy, and the free enterprise system.”

The award was made by Hal Cox, an Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. Also on the auditorium platform and commenting on the honor were Senator Paul J. Fannin, Ariz., and Irving Schwartz, Assistant to the Administrator of the Small business administration. The award was a part of the Small Business Administration’s small Business week activities.

In making the award Cox pointed out that Secakuku’s first business was a grocery store started stop the second Mesa of the Hopi Reservation in 1934. When a new highway was completed at the foot of Second Mesa his business complex, consisting of a grocery store, general merchandise and curio shop, café, and gas station, was constructed in 1958. This was the first supermarket on the reservation. Mrs. Secakuku operates the first score, Mr. Secakuku the newer.

"Mr. Secakuku has, for 35 years, been a source of inspiration and leadership of his peopIe." Cox said “He has been a member of the Hopi Tribal Council since 1951. His new center is a focal point for Second Mesa and enhance the economy and social life of the community.” The business serves about 1,500 residents in the three villages of Second Mesa and surrounding areas and visitors to the reservation. It employs 11 workers, he said.

“The Secakuku business has been a source of credit for Hopi Indians and a meeting place for the Hopi people,’ Cox said. Secakuku’s curio shop buys and sells handmade Indian craft work, performing a service both to the Indian and the consumer.

Runner-up for the “Indian Small Businessman of the Year” was Fleming D, Begaye, Sr., a Navajo, Chinle, Ariz. Third place went to Ray C. Goetting, Caddo, Laguna, N. Max.

Honorable mentions for the award went to: Ray C. Goetting, Caddo, Laguna, N. Mex.; John Tucker, Seminole, Hollywood, Fla.; Jose Antonio Gutierrez, Santa Clara/Pojoaque, N. Mex.; Robert Gombi, Kiowa/Delaware, Norman, Okla.; Raymond D. Christianson, Eskimo, Bethel, Alaska; George Wippet, Jr., Blackfeet, Browning, Mont.; Oswald Bussell, Hoopa, Willow Creek, Calif.; Shirely M. and Warren C. LaDue, Chippewa, Waubun, Min.; Elmer Olne, Yakima, White Swan, Wash.

Certificates to these outstanding Indian small businessmen are being sent to the Area Offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for local presentation.

President Nixon’s historic special message to Congress on Indians is a brass-tacks, straight forward statement of what the Nation and its Indian people need in working together toward a better future for all.

It is a time we listen to what the Indians have been telling us.

Like all Americans, they want social justice, education, health care and a chance to choose their own kind of life.

But their problems are special—and so is our responsibility to them.

“To strengthen the Indian’s sense of autonomy without threatening his sense of community” is one of our primary goals. We must also arrange matters so that Indians can become independent of Federal control without being cut off from Federal concern and support.

We all agree that the way to get the best results in working with people is to give them the opportunity—and the responsibility—to run their programs themselves.

That is what we are seeking to do with the First Americans. They need our help, but we must never forget that we need their help just as much. This new and balanced relationship of which the President speaks truly marks a new beginning.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today a new edition of a new addition of its popular, “American Indian Calendar" is available for purchase from the Superintendent of Documents in Washington, D.C.

The calendar lists important Indian events primarily in the 25 states where there are Indians having a service relationship with the Federal Government. The booklet has information on pow-wows, rodeos, dances, religious observances, and arts and crafts exhibitions.

Typical entries include Alaskan native dances at Shakes Island, Wrangell, Alaska, May throughout the summer; Ute Mountain Bear Dance and all Indian pow-wow at Towaoc, Colo., in June; All-Choctaw Indian Fair at Philadelphia, Miss., July 22-25; the Custer Battle Reenactment at Crow Agency, Mont., July 10-12; the great Navajo Fair at Shiprock, N.M., in late September and early October; and the White Mountain Apache Tribal Fair and Rodeo, including the famous Crown Dances, the weekend before Labor Day at Whiteriver, Ariz.

In announcing the booklet, the Bureau noted that many Indian observances depend upon seasonal activities and cannot be pinned down in advance to exact days. Tribal medicine men choose the day when portents seem best to them. It is suggested that tourists cheek in advance with tribes, local Bureau offices and chambers of commerce for specific dates.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce pointed out that many Indian reservations have excellent fishing, hunting, hiking and sightseeing areas.

"Indian country is often less crowded than national park and similar facilities,” he said, at the time cautioning that Indian lands sometimes don’t have modern facilities and vacationers who don’t have full camping equipment should plan to stay in towns outside the reservations unless they arrange ahead for accommodations.

“Visitors are welcomed by most Indian people,” he said. “Each reservation has its own rules and they should be observed. The use of liquor is forbidden on many reservations, and the taking of pictures should be checked with local authorities.”

Pictures may not be taken of certain religious ceremonies, and it is advisable to ask permission before taking pictures of individuals.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs “American Indian Calendar” is priced at 25 cents and may be obtained by writing for Number I20.2:C12/2/1970, the superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel leaves Washington today for an “on the scene” environmental inspection tour of three National Park System areas in Wyoming and Montana and a meeting with tribal chiefs of the Crow Indian Reservation.

His trip will include official visits to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks Wednesday, July 1, through Saturday, July 4, followed by a meeting with the Crow Indian leaders—with whom he will smoke an “environmental peace pipe,” at a ceremony in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area.

The secretary announced plans for a series of environmental inspection tours Saturday, June 27, in a speech dedicating the new Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the Maine coast.

“I intend to take a hard look at the progress that is being made,” he said. “I will do this through a series of environmental inspections around the Nation….

“I will investigate such environmental and pollution problems as over-crowding… The ‘pollution of the spirit’ that can destroy even our great National Parks, if we allow them to become just ‘parking lots in the woods.’

“Through these on-screen inspections, we can gain the knowledge we need to make the decisions we need,” Secretary Hickel said.

His trip will put him in two of the most heavily visited parks in the Nation at a peak time for visitors—the July 4th weekend.

On Sunday the Secretary will inspect the Yellowtail Reservoir, a project of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, and see the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, which surround it. The scenic canyon area is maintained by the National Park Service for the visiting public.

The Crow Reservation borders a large part of the area, and the Secretary will inspect tribally operated recreation developments on the reservoir shores.

The symbolic peace pipe ceremony will symbolize his commitment to the Indian concept of a national life in peace and harmony with nature. Secretary Hickel then will be adopted into the Crow Tribe.

The Crow Reservation has an Indian population of almost 4,000. In addition, to its recreational enterprises, the tribe has helped establish a carpet factory. There is traditional farm and ranch employment and there are Crow Indians working also at an Alfalfa pellet mill and at arts and crafts production.

Secretary Hickel will return to Washington, D.C. via Denver Monday, July 6.

President Nixon's special message to the Congress on Indian Affairs is a "positive and historic statement that should do much to give the Indian people lives of dignity and self-determination." Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said today.

Commissioner Bruce said the president, in his message of July 8, ensured that steps will be taken to increase Indian control of Indian affairs while reaffirming and strengthening the historic legal and moral obligations of the federal government.

"I am especially pleased by the President's support for anti-termination legislation, for creation of an Assistant Secretary for Indian and Territorial Affairs in the Department of the Interior and for the propos

"As President Nixon noted, these proposals can do much to give us a 'new national policy' and to 'strengthen the Indian's sense of autonomy without threatening his sense of community.'

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs, in support of ebb policy is evolving new plans better to "meet the needs of the Indian people.

“We are transforming the Bureau of Indian Affairs from a management to a service organization.”

“We are reaffirming the trust status of Indian Land.

“We are providing the tribes with the option of taking over any or all BIA program functions.

“Certainly, these are positive steps, long overdue, toward building a respectable life for the American Indian.

“President Nixon has pledged himself to this end.

“I am proud to join him in his efforts so that our ideas and plans of the future may become realities in the near future.”

A total of $383 million was invested during fiscal 1969 in Indian developmental projects ranging from home repair to transistor plants, Louis R. Bruce, Commissioner of Indian affairs announced today. The amount invested was $58.5 million above the 1968 figure.

The money came from three sources: tribal funds, customary lenders, and a Federal revolving credit fund, from which loans are made if no other source is available.

Investment varied from a tribal loan of a few hundred dollars to an Indian applicant who needed new shingles for his roof, and an agreement between an Indian and the small Business Administration to open a new service station. Some of the largest loans were to those tribes that financed the construction of factory faculties on the reservation that would give employment to Indian residents.

The increase of investment funds available to Indian people last year has "real significance," Bruce said, “Economic development of Indian communities has been handicapped by lack of adequate and dependable sources of financing. This is a most welcome step forward, and one that must be increased manyfold before basic needs are met.”

The amount of money coming from customary lenders was up 22 percent over 1968, according to Bruce, who said the increase represents greater confidence in benefits to be derived from a loan.

Customary lenders include state and national banks, Federal land banks, savings and loan associations, finance and loan companies, insurance companies, production credit associations, Federal credit agencies and individuals. In other words, customary lenders are the same lender non-Indians use.

The largest increase in 1969 among customary lenders was in financing by Federal Credit agencies, particularly the Economic Development Administration, the Farmers Home Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the small business administration, and the Office of Economic Opportunity.

Tribal funds being used for financing economic development of tribes and their members almost doubled during the past five years, from $52.7 million to $105.1 million. Some tribes are able to use their own funds to finance tribal industrial, commercial and agricultural enterprises. Others, with moon limited funds available, use their funds to supplement revolving funds borrowed from the United States.

Funds made available for loans through the Bureau administered revolving fund have never been adequate, Bruce said.

With appropriations of $21.5 million, the revolving feature has permitted total loans of $66.7 million to be made. Several bills are pending in the 91st Congress which would, if enacted and funded, help to relive the situation.

Since copies of the “Annual Credit and Financing Report, 1969,” are available from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, D.C. 20242.

For Alaskans--- and for the millions of Americans throughout the 50 states who have been frustrated over the years in trying to do something positive, progressive and fair for America’s first citizens, this should be considered a great victory.

The rapid action of the Senate in approving the Alaska Native Land Claims bill is, of course gratifying. The members of the Committee, the Interior Department at its highest executive levels, the state administration of Alaska and countless dedicated individuals throughout the country have worked not for months, but for years, to put together a legislative package that would do the job and be a positive answer to the needs of these citizens.

I am extremely proud that this rapid action was based not on political or personal considerations, but on solid testimony which showed conclusively that these Americans have a genuine and just claim.

This dovetails exactly with President Nixon’s recent message in which he expressed the Administration’s determination to advance the cause of America’s Indian, Eskimo and Aleut citizens.

Further, this is not merely a victory for the citizens of one state.

The administration is proud that it is a victory for all Americans who are more interested in a ‘fair shake’ that the expediencies of politics or mere rhetoric.

I am confident that the house will consider the individual features of the bill and move it along toward passage with equal fairness and speed.