OPA

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan and Secretary of Energy James D. Watkins have signed an agreement committing their departments to a cooperative program to improve the teaching of science, mathematics computer science and other technical subjects in American Indian elementary and secondary schools in New Mexico and Arizona.

"Historically, Indians have been under-represented in scientific and technical careers," Lujan noted. "Under this agreement, we will encourage young people in this minority group to pursue these careers, and will provide them greatly broadened educational opportunities in cutting-edge science."

"This agreement enables our departments to reach a special group of students and teachers, as we work to attain the National Education Goals established by President Bush and the Nation's Governors following the Education Summit," Watkins said. "The Department of Energy will provide technical expertise, research experiences and the loan of equipment," Watkins continued, "while Interior will assist us in implementing this program in American Indian schools."

Under the memorandum of understanding, scientific and technical personnel at the Department of Energy's Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico will serve as science consultants to schools funded by Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. They will also bring students and teachers to the laboratories for hands-on science experiences, provide career counseling and mentoring, as well as lend scientific and technical equipment to the schools.

Interior will coordinate these efforts with the schools, including consultation with tribes; select pilot sites in three Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) agencies; assist in selecting sites for the second year of the program; identify schools for the long-term loan of instructional and scientific equipment, and coordinate DOE involvement in other math and science programs sponsored by the BIA.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown today announced the appointment of Niles c. Cesar as Area Director, Juneau Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Juneau, Alaska. "I am particularly pleased that Niles Cesar has joined us to manage the Juneau Area Office," Brown said. "Alaska issues are critically important, and Mr. Cesar's stature and experience will be of immense help to us." Cesar's appointment as Area Director begins September 23, 1990.

Brown noted Cesar's long and successful experience in a Native American service organization. "As the Bureau of Indian Affairs restructures itself to meet the challenges of the 1990's and the 21st Century, it is important to tap the talent of creative individuals such as Niles Cesar, who have leadership experience in Native organizations and tribal governments," Brown observed. "It is from tribal governments and tribal organizations that leadership on Indian issues in the future will originate."

Cesar, 49, a member of the Tlingit Tribe from Southeast Alaska, has a long record of service to Alaska communities. Currently, he is President of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Corporation (SEARHC). SEARHC is one of the largest Native American administered health care delivery systems in the United States, providing care to over 10,000 rural Alaskans.

In addition, Cesar was a member of the Sealaska Board of Directors, and a Council member of the Tlingit Haida Community Council. He has served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Goldbelt Inc., and chairman of the Association of Regional health Directors of Alaska. After retirin9 from the Navy as a Lieutenant, Cesar completed a B.S. degree in Environmental Health from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. prior to assuming his duties with SEARHC.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that a National Tribal Leaders Conference will be held September 28, 1990, in Albuquerque, N.M.

"This conference will focus on the tribal/federal partnership in expanding self-determination for American Indians and where we think it is headed in the future.” Lujan said. "Those of us in the federal government who have major responsibilities in Indian Affairs will explain our fundamental principles and approach to Indian Policy and administration of the federal trust responsibility. This will provide a unique opportunity for these tribal leaders to meet key people at the Departmental and bureau level who are involved in Indian affairs and talk about the future. It is the first such conference in modern times.” Invitations have been sent to elected tribal chairmen, presidents of inter-tribal councils and leaders of national Indian organizations.

Lujan will open the conference with the keynote address. Other speakers will include Dr. Eddie Brown, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs; Thomas Sansonetti, Solicitor of the Department; Lou Gallegos, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget; Tim Glidden, Counselor to the Secretary, and other Department officials. In the afternoon, four group meetings will be held focusing on Budget, Legal/Trust responsibilities, Bureau of Indian Affairs restructuring and Self-Determination/New Federalism. The conference will conclude with a general session to discuss questions developed at the group meetings. "If we are to build a future, we must have joint participation in the construction process," Brown said in letters of invitation to tribal leaders. "Only through this approach can we successfully develop policies supportive of self-determination and a stronger government-to-government relationship that forms the key to a successful American Indian future."

Reporters planning to cover the National Tribal Leaders Conference:

The conference will be at the Four Seasons Hotel, 2500 Carlisle N.E., Albuquerque, N.M. (505) 888-3311. Information Officers Eric Rehmann and Carl Shaw are scheduled to be present to provide any help needed. As indicated on the following agenda, a press availability will follow the conference.

David J. Matheson, an enrolled member of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe of Plummer, Idaho, and its former chairman, has been named Director of the Office of Construction Management in the Department of the Interior.

"We are fortunate to have someone with the talents and capabilities that Dave has to fill this important position," Lou Gallegos, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, said. "He has served an important role in my office for the past nine months and his dedication to excellence will serve him well in his new job." Since February, Matheson has served as a special assistant to Gallegos in Interior's Office of Financial Management. Prior to his government service, he was chief executive officer of the Coeur d'Alene Development Corporation in Plummer, Idaho. From 1985 to 1989 he served in the same position with Puyallup International, Inc., Tacoma, Washington. Beginning in 1981, he served for four years as elected chairman of Coeur d'Alene tribal government.

Matheson, 38, is a native of Plummer. He obtained a B.A. in 1974 from the University of Washington, and an M.B.A. from the same University in 1989. In his new position, Matheson will be responsible for developing policy to improve Interior's. Bureau of Indian Affairs facilities management programs, which consist of construction projects and the operation and maintenance of more than 3,400 government-owned buildings in 16 states. Matheson and his wife, Jenny, have five children and reside in Falls Church, Virginia.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that effective December 17, William D. Bettenberg, a 26-year Department employee, has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs.

Bettenberg served for almost five years as Director of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) and as MMS associate director for Offshore Minerals Management. In March of 1990, he was named as a special assistant to Lujan.

"I welcome Bill Bettenberg to the Indian Affairs staff," said Eddie Brown, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. "His outstanding credentials, experience and knowledge of Indian issues will help us to fulfill this Administration's responsibilities and commitments to the Indian people."

Bettenberg began his career at Interior ·n 1954 as a Bureau of Mines analyst working in automation and redesign of financial management systems. In 1972, he became a program analyst with the Department's Office of Economic Analysis. Two years later in 1974, he became Deputy Director of Interior's Budget Office, and was named Director of that office in 1979. He served as deputy assistant secretary for Policy, Budget and Administration from 1981 to 1983.

Bettenberg was born in Inglewood, California, and grew up in Richland, Washington. He holds a master's degree ·n political science from the University of Washington, and did additional graduate work in economics and public policy under the auspices of the National Institute for Public Administration from 1981 to 1983.

He is a charter member of the Senior Executive Service and holds the SES Meritorious and Distinguished Executive Awards. He received the Interior Department's Distinguished Service Award in 1983.

John Fritz, Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, has approved a joint venture agreement between the Crow Tribe of Montana and a subsidiary corporation of the O'Hare Energy Company of Denver for oil and gas exploration and development on the reservation

The agreement gives the tribe a 51 percent ownership in a partnership to be called the Raven Oil Company. The O'Hare subsidiary would own the other 49 percent and would provide all exploration costs. The tribe, in addition to owning 51 percent of Raven Oil, would be paid lease rental fees and bonuses totaling $26 per acre and a 13 percent royalty on production.

Fritz, in his letter of approval to tribal chairman Donald Stewart, said the agreement was "clearly in the best interest of the Crow Tribe. It can provide economic benefits to the tribe over and above those provided by standard leases and its management organization allows tribal representatives full input into management decisions."

At a tribal council meeting October 13, the tribe voted its approval of the agreement.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it will deny requests to take off-reservation Indian lands into trust status for the purpose of establishing bingo or other gaming enterprises which do not conform with state and local laws. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer said, "We do not oppose tribal bingo operations on established reservations, but we do not think it is desirable -- or in the tribes' best interests -- to establish small, satellite bingo reservations in or near urban areas. When a reservation or trust land is viewed as tribal homelands, the traditional concept, the special status and laws affecting that land and the tribes make sense. If you distort that concept for the purpose of some quick economic benefits, the whole system is endangered."

The Department is currently holding a number of applications from tribes requesting that land be taken into trust expressly for the purpose of setting up a bingo operation. "If that is the intended use of the land, those requests will be denied," Swimmer said. The Secretary of the Interior is vested by statute with broad discretionary authority to accept land in trust for individual Indians or Indian tribes, within or without existing Indian reservations.

However, the Secretary must consider, the impacts and wisdom of acquiring land in trust for the purpose of extending jurisdictional immunities beyond present reservation boundaries. The new policy preserves the opportunity for off-reservation land to be acquired in trust on a case-by-case basis for purposes such as housing and other, non-gaming business ventures.

Swimmer said the Department and the Reagan Administration supported federal legislation allowing the continued operation of high-stakes bingo on Indian reservations. He added that regulations to ensure that the tribes would be the principal beneficiaries of the games were needed. "In too many situations the professional promoters of the games, or other individuals, are making most of the money," Swimmer said.

"The tribe should be getting the money and using it for tribal governmental purposes." "We are concerned," Swimmer said, "with protecting existing tribal sovereignty and governmental authority in Indian Country."

Patricia S. Keyes, a regional representative for the Department of Transportation since 1981, has been appointed as field operations officer by Interior Assistant Secretary Ross Swimmer to serve on his staff as a coordinator and liaison with several of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 12 area offices. She will also be responsible for relations with public and governmental organizations within those areas.

"I am pleased to have a person with Keyes' abilities and background join my staff,” Swimmer said. “She will be an important link between the tribes, the field offices and the central office of BIA.” Swimmer became acquainted with Keyes during his work as co-chairman of the President's Commission on Indian Reservation Economies in 1984. She served as a Department of Transportation liaison to the Commission and provided information on road building on reservations and potential job markets that could be created.

Swimmer said that during his long tenure with the Cherokee Tribe in Oklahoma he sensed an inability to get tribal projects from the agency office to the area office and on to the central office of BIA. "I see Keyes as being that link or liaison that can work with tribes and field offices to see that tribal projects and priorities are developed and communicated to the correct offices, at both the area level and in the central office.

“I believe that with Keyes' past experience in working as a liaison person, she can effectively be the link that can make our system work better for all concerned,” he added.

Keyes, a native of Ohio, represented the Secretary of Transportation in federal regions VII and VIII, a total of ten states in the central plains and Rocky Mountains with headquarters in Kansas City. She functioned as a liaison with other federal agencies, state and local governments, the private sector and individual citizens.

She also was chairman of the Federal Regional Council in Kansas City 1981-83. Prior to her work with the Transportation Department, Keyes worked for six years with the Republican National Committee in Missouri. Swimmer said that in the near future he will appoint a second field operations officer to work with those tribes not covered within Keyes' jurisdictional area.

Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior, announced today a realignment of his office and the headquarters structure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

A Secretarial Order signed March 18, creates four deputies for Swimmer -- each with specific areas of responsibility in (1) Tribal Services; (2) Education; (3) Trust and Economic Development; and (4) Operations. The order establishes a direct chain of command from the new deputies to the Assistant Secretary by abolishing two former deputy positions.

Swimmer said the changes were made to strengthen the headquarters management of the Bureau by giving the program directors immediate access to the Assistant Secretary and giving new emphasis to their roles in the development of critical policy guidance." He added that the BIA's top field officers, the 12 area directors, would report directly to the Assistant Secretary.

Swimmer's new deputies and their areas of responsibility are:

-- Hazel Elbert. Tribal Services, all functions, programs, and activities assigned to the Office of Indian Services except those assigned to the Division of Financial Assistance (BIA's loan and business development programs) which is transferred to the new office of Trust and Economic Development.

-- Henrietta Whiteman. Education, all functions, programs, and activities assigned to the Office of Indian Education Programs.

-- Frank Ryan. Trust and Economic Development, all functions, programs, and activities assigned to the Office of Trust Responsibilities and those of the Division of Financial Assistance assigned to the Office of Indian Services.

-- Ronald L. Esquerra, Operations, acting principal Deputy in the management of activities, responsibilities, and functions which extend across each directorate and is responsible for all functions, programs, and activities assigned to the Offices of Administration. Data Systems, and facilities Management. He has been serving as the acting deputy assistant secretary.

The appointments of Elbert, Whiteman, and Ryan as program directors for the Bureau were announced in January by Swimmer, who took office in December, 1985. Swimmer said the Bureau's offices of Public Affairs (public information), Congressional and Legislative Affairs. and Equal Opportunity would report directly to him.

The Department of the Interior announced today plans to contract for services to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.5 billion of Indian trust funds. Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said that sound administration of the trust funds is one of Interior's paramount Indian trust responsibilities. He said that after assessing the consequences of further delay that he, as the manager for the trustee, decided to move ahead and take immediate steps to improve federal management of the funds.

Swimmer said the services in the contract will be directed at streamlining the collection process through use of a lock-box facility, concentrating funds more quickly into the U.S. Department of Treasury accounts for investment, improving accountability and reporting to Indian beneficiaries and the government as trustee, and strengthening investment management. "I want to assure you," Swimmer said in a letter to all tribal chairman, "that this procurement will not restrict or negatively affect any existing tribal or individual Indian right or relationship to the funds."

The Secretary of the Interior has broad responsibilities in managing Indian trust funds, including collections, accounting, investment, and certification of disbursements to Indian beneficiaries. Collections are deposited through the banking system into Treasury accounts specified for Indian trust funds. Treasury maintains the trust fund cash accounts and disburses the funds upon Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) request. BIA manages investment of the funds in securities and maintains accounts to reflect tribal and individual Indian interests in funds invested and funds held by Treasury.

Swimmer said that more than two years ago the BIA obtained an independent evaluation of its trust fund operation by a nationally known accounting firm and has considered numerous audits and reports concerning the funds. In response to a request for information published by the Bureau last year, a wide range of materials has been received on private sector capabilities to assist in management of Indian trust funds.

He said the Treasury Department had been especially helpful in assessing how the government might strengthen its Indian trust fund operation.

"There is no likelihood that the federal government could effectively duplicate the needed mechanisms already available in the private sector," Swimmer said.

All activities and decisions required by law of the government as trustee will continue to be performed by the government, including control of investment decisions, and the service contract will not restrict or negatively affect any existing tribal or individual Indian right or relationship to the funds.

Swimmer said the services to be procured through the contract will be designed to enhance rights of and services rendered to Indian beneficiaries by better accountability, more frequent and detailed reporting on the status of funds, a modernized collection process and a firmer investment operation.

He told the tribal chairmen in his letter that he would keep them informed of the steps taken in the months ahead.

The more than $1.5 billion in trust funds are held by the United States as trustee for the benefit of Indian tribes or individuals. In many instances the funds were awards to the Indians as compensation for land claims or as damages for other past wrongs. The funds also represent income from trust lands -- oil and gas revenues, timber sales and the like.