OPA

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today his agreement with the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Peabody Coal Company cancelling controversial coal leases and permits on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southern Montana. The agreement resolves a long-standing dispute among the parties regarding coal development on the reservation.

"This agreement is another example of our affirmative exercise of Interior's trust responsibility to the Indian people," Secretary Andrus said. "Successful completion of the agreement removes a cloud from the Indian lands and at the same time will promote additional coal production in an environmentally sound manner to meet our Nation's future energy needs. Within the next year, similar agreements are expected to be negotiated with other coal companies holding disputed prospecting permits on the reservation, completely resolving any remaining questions of rights to coal on the Northern Cheyenne lands," Andrus said. Peabody's disputed leases and permits on the reservation which are cancelled under the agreement covered more than an estimated one billion tons of coal. The lands which Peabody may receive in return cannot, under the agreement, contain more than 130 million tons of recoverable coal. The agreement furthers the Department's policy of self-determination for the tribe, and returns control of the disputed lands to the Northern Cheyenne people. This cancellation agreement was developed under provisions of P.L. 96-401, signed into law on October 9, 1980. The Act establishes a process for resolving the long-standing dispute over the validity of the leases on the reservation, thus avoiding expensive and time-consuming litigation.

This was supported by the Department, authorizes and directs the Secretary to negot1ate agreements w1th the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and with parties holding leases and permits on the reservation to cancel the leases and permits in return for non-competitive Federal coal leases off the reservation. The cancelled leases were executed in 1969 and 1970, but no coal has been extracted during the intervening years because of protests by the tribe.

Today's agreement covers only the reservation coal leases and permits held by Peabody. Under the law, negotiations concerning the permits held by other companies must be completed by January 1, 1982. Under the agreement, Peabody's leases and permits on the reservation are cancelled and an off-reservation lease will be issued to the company if the tract is determined to be leasable in accordance with the procedures of the Federal coal management program. The lease will be only for lands environmentally acceptable for leasing and only for lands which round out an existing mining area controlled by Peabody. Also, Peabody agrees to pay the fair market value for the non-competitive lease. The lands identified for non-competitive leasing encompass about 11,000 acres, and lie in a checkerboard pattern of alternate sections of Federal and private coal with the private sections under the control of Peabody. If these lands are leased, Peabody will possess a tract of Federal and private coal large enough to mine economically.

More specifically, the three-way agreement calls for:

• Cancellation of six leases and three permits held by Peabody on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation;
• Issuance of a non-competitive Federal coal lease to Peabody for lands acceptable for leasing, as determined by land use planning;
• Payment by Peabody of the fair market value of the off-reservation leases less the company's investment on the reservation; investments will be audited by an independent auditor;
• Issuance to Peabody of a bidding certificate which can be used at competitive coal lease sales if the lands identified for the non-competitive lease are found to be unacceptable for leasing in the land use planning;
• Release to Peabody of escrow funds held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a second escrow agent, after audit;
• Extinguishment of any claim or liability between or among the signatories.

The Interior Department honored 103 persons, including three Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, in its 47th Awards Convocation on October 21.

Theodore Krenzke, Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau, and William Finale director of the Bureau's Sacramento Area Office, received Senior Executive Service Awards in the form of cash bonuses. Gabriel Aripa, BIA forestry technician for the Colville Agency, received the Department's valor award for courageously saving the lives of three children on the Colville Indian Reservation in Nespelem, Washington.

"These outstanding employees fully merit our appreciation for the accomplishments," said Cecil Andrus, Secretary of the Interior Department. "They have made important contributions to the Department's achievements."

The Department honored Krenzke for exceptional administration of BIA programs, and for being instrumental in the development of measures to implement: the Civil Service Reform Act and the management improvement program within Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Finale was contended for playing "a key role in resolving issues 1:-elated to conservation of the Klamath Trinity River resources."

Aripa received honor for rushing to a neighbor's burning house where flames at the front entrance forced him to enter through the back door. He found 18-year-old Sherry Adolph unconscious and carried her out. Meanwhile, his· shouting aroused 14-year-old Karen Adolph, who escaped with her one-year-old brother. Aripa then covered himself with a wet blanket and entered the house in a vain attempt to rescue a remaining Adolph sister.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett today initiated a policy to quicken the recruitment, employment, and promotion of Indian women employees for mid- and senior-level supervisory/management positions in grades 9 and above

Hallett directed each BIA Area Office as well as the Central Office to: (1) determine the status of Indian women employees relative to other employees, and (2) develop recruitment plans to upgrade Indian women to a status comparable to other employees.

Currently, the overall average grade of permanent, full-time Indian women employees in the Bureau is GS-5.

The policy requires key managers in the Central and Area Offices to develop an advance assessment of potential Indian women employees, and an advance notification process of job vacancies. This advance personnel resource and job notification action must cover each occupation for which vacancies are projected during the current and succeeding years.

Hallett suggested that each office establish an inundate applicant pool by identifying Indian women who had applied for employment during the past two years. He also encouraged "aggressive outside recruitment of Indian women."

Hallett said that achievements in enhancing the grade level and the level of authority of Indian women will be an element of the performance review of Bureau managers and supervisors in the area of Affirmative Action. The five areas in which managers will be evaluated are affirmative action, human resources management, socio-economic procurement, the Administration's Small Community and Rural Development Policy, and special BIA initiatives.

A plan to generate more business opportunities for minority owned and particular, Indian owned firms, was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett.

"The Minority Business Enterprise Plan will mean increased business opportunities and encourage development of minority and Indian owned businesses, which is the heart of economic development," Hallett said

The plan establishes Minority Business Enterprise Coordinator staff positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Central Office, in the Administrative Services Center in Albuquerque, and in each of the 12 area offices. It is intended to maximize contracting by the Bureau with minority and Indian owned businesses. All BIA contracting officials will be required to prepare an annual procurement plan listing project procurement needs prior to awarding contracts. After Minority Business Enterprise Coordinators review the plan, the Bureau will publish an analysis in public and/or tribal newspapers identifying procurement opportunities for minority firms.

The plan will also require contractors with BIA to subcontract with minority firms. Pre-bid conferences to acquaint potential contractors with Indian firms that have subcontracting capabilities will then be arranged. In order to expand the pool of Indian owned firms, the Bureau will seek to modify the definition of an Indian contractor - currently a 100 percent Indian owned business - to 51% Indian owned, the definition other Federal agencies use.

In addition, the Bureau will assist Indian owned businesses in procuring contracts from sources other than BIA. Indian firms will be encouraged to form regional or national associations and work with any such associations to promote procurement opportunities. BIA will solicit multi-agency support for these associations within the Federal government and seek to develop interagency cooperation beneficial to Indian businesses among agencies that have special programs for minorities.

The minority Business Enterprise Plan was developed in compliance with Executive Order No. 11625 requiring all Federal agencies to develop a minority business enterprise plan, and meets Interior Department regulations directing all Bureaus to establish staff position coordinators.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today the appointment of Gene R. Powers as Assistant Area Director for administration in the Juneau Area Office.

Powers, 44, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana, is a graduate of Montana State College and has done graduate study in government and public administration. Since January, he has served in the BIA's central office in Washington, D. C. as special assistant to the Commissioner with regional responsibilities for the Pacific Northwest. Prior Federal service included tours as special assistant in the Denver-based Office of Indian Programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and as a contracting officer in the BIA's Portland Area Office.

After military service with the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1959, Mr. Powers held managerial positions in administration and procurement with Boeing, Motorola, Forbes and the Blackfeet Tribe.

"Powers' extensive experience in private industry and government service makes him exceptionally well qualified for this key administrative position," Hallett said.

The Juneau Area Office serves more than 72,000 Indian, Eskimo and Aleut clients of the BIA. With agency offices in Anchorage, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau and Nome, the area's activities encompass the entire sweep of the state's 586,000 square miles.

Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus announced today that amended interim regulations governing off-reservation treaty fishing rights by Michigan tribes in the waters of Lake Michigan, Superior, Huron and connecting waters have been extended until May 11, 1981·

Secretary Andrus took the action after signing a memorandum of understanding with the involved tribes setting forth tribal-federal regulatory responsibilities for the 1981 and 1982 fishing seasons. The newly executed memorandum is substantially similar to a current memorandum of understanding which expires January 1, 1981.

"I am pleased that the tribes and the Department have agreed to continue their efforts towards conserving the fishery resources of the Great Lakes by agreeing to this memorandum of understanding," Andrus said.

The interim regulations, issued in April 1980 and due to expire on January 1, 1981, amend Interior Department regulations first published in November 1979 after a Federal District Court ruled that under terms of an 1836 treaty the State of Michigan lacked authority to regulate treaty fishing rights. Today’s extension makes no other changes in the amended interim rule.

Secretary Andrus said extension of the amended interim rule would continue federal regulation during the winter months when fishing activity is substantially reduced and until final regulations can be prepared. "It does not increase the total allowable catches provided for in the amended interim rule," he added.

"I want to stress that this extension of the Michigan fishing regulations is intended to maintain the current situation applicable to the regulation of the treaty fishery before the fishing season begins in April 1981. During this period I anticipate the concerned parties will want to assess the situation and attempt to reach a mutually acceptable solution. I hope that definitive action concerning Interior's regulation of the treaty fishery for the 1981 season can be taken by April 1981," the Secretary added.

The tribes participating in the memorandum of understanding and subject to the Departmental fishing regulations include the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

President Carter has named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Thomas W. Fredericks co-chairman of the new American Indian Task Force, one of 14 task forces the Administration established to carry out its Small Community and Rural Development Policy (SCRD) of 1979.

SCRD's goals are to meet unique needs of and provide opportunities for rural people, and to promote responsible use and stewardship of natural resources and environment while enhancing the quality of rural life.

Earlier this year, the White House established 14 task forces, organized by functions (i.e., housing, transportation, education), to implement SCRD. The White House convened an American Indian Task Force in September and directed it to address issues impeding effective delivery of Federal services to Indian tribes. Eugene Eidenberg, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Secretary to the Cabinet, is co-chairman of the task force with Fredericks.

"This task force is a means of enhancing the government-to-government relationship to tribes, as well as a means to improve coordination of Federal Indian programs," Fredericks said. "The task force will be able to build on past years of efforts at intergovernmental coordination responsive to tribal needs," he added. "And this is the first time we have had White House involvement and support to enforce proposed coordination."

As a way of coordinating programs more efficiently, the task force advised that a lead agency be assigned the responsibility for implementing task force recommendations.

The task force convened for the first time last month and organized into three groups to develop a set of actions and initiatives for the task force to consider at its next meeting.

The three groups are working in the following areas: problems related to substantive issues (such as water, energy, housing, and health); problems regarding interagency systems coordination; and development of a tribal consultation plan for SCRD as well as development of a comprehensive, ongoing consultation plan for all Federal agencies that deliver resources and services to Indian tribes.

Vincent Little, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Portland, Oregon Area Director, has been detailed to serve as the acting Phoenix Area Director for a period not to exceed 120 days.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett said that Little "is an excellent administrator who will provide effective leadership for the Phoenix area in a critical period of change."

A Mohave Indian, Little was named Arizona Indian of the Year in 1971 when he was in charge of the Phoenix Indian School.

Little began his career with the BIA in 1957 as a teacher at the Phoenix school. He was Superintendent of the Northern Idaho agency before becoming Area Director in Portland. A U.S. Army veteran, Little, 49, graduated from Arizona State University, where he subsequently earned a Master’s degree in 1961. In 1963 he completed Interior's Departmental Management Program.

Dr. Gerald E. Gipp, a 39-year-old member of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian tribe of North Dakota, has been named President of Haskell Indian Junior College.

Presently Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Education in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., Gipp will assume his new duties upon the retirement of President Wallace Galluzzi in early January. He will be the first Indian ever to head the junior college.

In announcing the new President of the 100-year-old school in Lawrence, Kansas, Thomas W. Fredericks, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, called Gipp a superbly qualified and experienced teacher and administrator.

''We are fortunate to obtain the services of Dr. Gipp and I am confident that he will continue the high educational standards we have come to expect from one of the oldest Indian education institutions in the country," Fredericks said.

Dr. Earl Barlow, Director of the Office of Indian Education Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, termed the selection of Dr. Gipp an excellent choice who has the best of credentials. ''We look forward to working with him in continuing to meet the educational and cultural needs of our students at Haskell," Barlow said.

Haskell Indian Junior College, formerly Haskell Institute, has more than 1,000 Indian and Alaskan Native students and is accredited by the state of Kansas and the North Central Association.

Gipp, a native of Fort Yates, N.D., has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Education since June 1977 where he has been responsible for the program management of Indian Education programs in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has provided ·leadership and direction to approximately 55 employees with the responsibility of implementation of $75 million in formula and discretionary programs.

The new President has more than nine years teaching and administrative experience in BIA schools in North Dakota and in Washington, D.C. From 1973 to 1977, he was with Pennsylvania State University, first as Associate Director of Native American Administrators Programs and then as Assistant Professor of Education. His first teaching experience was with the Verona North Dakota Public School District in 1962-64.

He holds a B.S. Degree in Industrial Education/Physical Education from the Ellendale. Branch of the University of North Dakota and received his Master’s Degree in Education from Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He received his Ph.D. in Education Administration from that same University in 1974.

Dr. Gipp is married and has four children. He currently resides in Springfield, Virginia.

Earl J. Barlow, Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Indian Education Programs since 1978, has been appointed Director of the BIA's Minneapolis Area Office, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith announced today. His appointment is effective March 7, 1982.

Barlow, a Blackfeet Indian, is a member of the Federal government's Senior Executive Service.

Smith said that Barlow had led the Indian education office through an important transition period following the enactment of the Education Amendments Act of 1978. The Act mandated major changes in the Bureau's education organization and the transfer of basic responsibility for the schools to local Indian communities. "The flexibility of the Senior Executive Service," Smith said, "allows us to transfer out top officials as we think necessary to best achieve our goals. I think a new appointee brings new vitality to a job. I believe that good executives welcome new challenges."

John Fritz, a Minneapolis resident until his appointment this past December as Deputy Assistant Secretary in charge of BIA operations, will be Barlow's immediate supervisor.

The Minneapolis Area Director is responsible for BIA activities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. The position has been vacant since last May. Barlow, 54, was Superintendent of Schools in Browning, Montana, from 1973 to 1978. He had also served as the Montana State Supervisor of Indian Education and had worked for 30 years as a teacher, principal and education program administrator. Barlow graduated from the University of Montana, with a degree in social studies and then earned a Master's in education from that University.