<p>Office of Public Affairs</p>
<p>Office of Public Affairs</p>
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Senator Henry M. Jackson (D. Wash.), chairman the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs announced today following an executive session of the full committee that he has appointed an ad hoc subcommittee to make a thorough study of a long-standing dispute between the Navajo and Hopi tribes over reservation boundary lines. The subcommittee is composed of Senator Frank Church (Idaho) as chairman and Senator Frank. E. Moss of Utah and Paul J. Fannin, Arizona. The committee directed the subcommittee to report back no later than March 1, 1973, its recommendation to the full committee.
Senator Jackson said that because of the many complexities surrounding this dispute he felt it would be unwise for the committee to act at the present time without the benefit of a more thorough examination of the facts in the controversy. The House recently passed legislation on which the Senate Interior Committee held open hearings on September 14 and 15 at which time both sides to the controversy made presentations. Senator Jackson said that he felt in fairness to both tribes and to the Senate itself his committee should not act without sending representatives to the area for a field examination and local hearings to allow those people who could not come to Washington an opportunity to be heard.
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today the award of a $1. 9 million contract with Broce G6nstruction Co. of New Mexico, Inc., of Tucumcari, N. M., for the bituminous surfacing of 20.582 miles of highway and the widening of a bridge on the Navajo ‘Reservation. When the surfacing is completed it will provide an all-weather highway from Crownpoint, N. M. to within approximately three miles of Whitehorse, N. M.
Completion of the project will mark the first ·of several planned projects by the Bureau of Indian Affairs transportation division to provide an all-weather highway from Crownpoint to Torreon, N. M. via Route N9.
The road surfacing project is in line with Commissioner Bruce's five-point program to accelerate reservation development. An immediate objective is to increase the number and improve the quality of reservation roads.
Eight other bids were received, ranging to a high of $3.1 million.
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C. -- Commissioner Louis R. Bruce of the U. S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has been presented a copy of the Southern Ute A Tribal History" by members of the Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado, the group responsible for the writing of this unique book. The presentation took place last week in the Commissioner's Office.
Making the presentation were Everett Burch, Southern Ute Vice Chairman, Eddie BOX, Sr., a tribal member, and Floyd A. O'Neill, Associate Director, Documentation and Oral History, American West Center of the University of Utah and the book's editor.
In accepting the book, bound in the blue that is also used in the Southern Ute's tribal seal, Commissioner Bruce, said: "The history of Indian tribes and the Indian peoples has been written by non-Indians top long. I am happy to see that Indian tribes are interested now in-doing their own research and in telling their stories themselves."
The Southern Ute representatives pointed out that half the 106 page book is documented European-style history and an explanation of the Southern Ute culture. A large section of the book is devoted to stories that are part of the Southern Utes oral tradition. A chronology and maps are also included. The book will serve as a text in schools that teach Southern Ute children.
The book shows that although today the Southern Utes represent less than 900 people, the larger group of which it was a part are the oldest continuous resident of Colorado that also lived in Utah and New Mexico. These Indians' first European contact was with the Spanish, who came to their homelands from Mexico in the 1630's and the 1640's.
A by-product of the book, the Southern Ute delegation explained, is "The Southern Ute Archival Collection.” This is more than 12,000 pages of maternal -- treaties, maps, photographs, letters, agreements 4+ that are now bound in tribal volumes. These volumes are kept in the Southern Ute tribal offices. They represent the first formalized attempt of an Indian tribe to assemble its own records – that have a unique value in legal matters involving land claims, tribal enrollment, and other issues in which the Indians have an interest.
The University of Utah started working with the Southern Ute Tribe in the documentation of some of the memories of the oldest residents of the reservation in 1967. In 1971, the southern Ute Tribal council received money from two private foundations, and from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Research and Cultural Studies Development Section, to create a tribal history that would be of general interest and would also be a textbook for the schools serving the children of the southern Ute.
"Efforts such as this one restores the idea of Indian leadership” commissioner Bruce pointed out. “In this case the University of Utah worked under the leadership the tribe. “
The Southern Ute Tribal Council chose James Jefferson a member of the tribe and its public relations director Dr. Robert Delaney, Fort Lewis College, a longtime friend of the tribe and a scholar who has researched their history deeply, and Gregory C. Thompson, originally of Durango, Colo., a Research Associate in American Indian History, American West Center, university of Utah, to write the book.
The cover drawn by Russell Box, a Southern Ute
Copies of the book are available for $7.50 from the southern Ute Tribe, Tribal Offices, Ignacio, Colo. 81137
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Henry A. Dodge, a member of the Navajo Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent- of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Fort Apache Agency at Whiteriver, Arizona, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett said today.
Dodge has been the Supervisory General Engineer, Branch of Land Operations, in the Phoenix Area Office since 1977. He was the BIA Natural Resource Manager at the Chinle Agency on the Navajo Reservation 1972-76 and worked as Civil Engineer for the Bureau at Fort Defiance, Arizona, for more than 10 years.
A graduate of the University of New Mexico in Civil Engineering, Dodge also attended Manhattan College in New York and, in 1976-77 participated in the Interior Department's Manager Development Program.
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Regulations governing the acquisitions of trust land for Indians published today (September 18) in the Federal Register. Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E, Hallett said today. The regulations are to be effective on October 18, 1980.
These regulations followed a four-year study by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "Over the years, large acreages of land have been acquired in trust under various statutory authorities," a Bureau spokesman said. "The policy governing such acquisitions has varied from time to time and has been extremely vague. Moreover, there are no standard procedures for processing and approving trust land acquisitions," Recognizing these inadequacies, the new regulations were written to clarify the procedures for processing and approving trust land acquisitions.
They apply to 25 CFR l20a (Land Acquisitions). In 1976 the BIA created a task force to review and update real property regulations. Proposed land acquisition regulations were published in the Federal Register on July 26, 1978. Seven public hearings on the proposed regulations were held at various locations around the country between March 28 and April 11, 1979.
For further information contact Raymond W. Jackson, Area Realty Officer, Phoenix Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P. O. Box 7007, Phoenix, Arizona 85011, telephone 602/241-2275.
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett has named Jose "Abe" Zuni acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Juneau, Alaska area office. His appointment is effective immediately.
Zuni, a member of the Isleta Pueblo, is a 31-year veteran in the BIA. Since September of 1979 he has been the Bureau's Management Improvement Liaison Officer, stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has previously served as Director of the Office of Administration in Washington, D. C. and held other top management positions in the Bureau.
John Hope, who has been serving as the acting area director, was recently elected to the position of president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes.
The permanent appointment of an area director for the Juneau area is in the approval process. Zuni will serve in the interim.
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Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus announced today that amended interim regulations governing off-reservation treaty fishing rights by Michigan tribes in the waters of Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron and connecting waters will be published in the Federal Register this week. The regulations will be effective immediately upon publication, Andrus said, and will govern fishing during the 1980 season pending preparation of final regulations. The Secretary said he has asked Michigan Governor William Milliken to join him in calling a conference in Michigan in early May to develop final regulations and enforcement methods that "will protect the Great Lakes fishery resource and establish equilibrium among all those who use it." The interim regulations amend / Interior Department regulations 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 Indian treaty fishing rights. Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources were consulted before publication of the regulations. Two days of public hearings on the regulations were held in Michigan last February and the Department received public comment on them through March 3, 1980. Andrus noted that the regulations were still in an interim mode because the extensive discussions among Interior, State and tribal officials failed to produce agreement on necessary conservation measures for the 1980 season. "I am pleased to note that these regulations reflect a strong tribal commitment to conserve the fishing resource in the Great Lakes," Andrus said.
"Certain areas of Lake Michigan will be closed to treaty fishing for any purpose provided that the State of Michigan also closes these areas to fishermen under its jurisdiction. The goal of this action is to allow naturally reproduced lake trout to increase to 50 percent of the adult lake trout population." The regulations also establish a total allowable catch for whitefish and bloater chub in each district and provide for a 30-day reduction, in the interestz3.of conservation, in the number of lake trout--caught during target fishing for other species--that may be retained by tribal fisherman. The limits were recommended by an Ad Hoc Technical Working Group made up of Federal, State and tribal representatives. "The conference I have suggested for May is extremely important to bring together tribal, State and Federal representatives to develop more permanent regulations which would maintain the lower catch limits voluntarily adopted by the tribes, at my suggestion, for the 30-day period," Andrus said. "I have been impressed with the willingness by all concerned to discuss these issues and hope that our common goal of a pr0tected future for all who use the resource will help us reach agreement on these critical issues, "he said. Written comments on the amended interim regulations may be submitted for30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Comments should be send to the Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Albert D. Kahklen, an Alaska Native born at Haines, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Anchorage Agency in Alaska, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today
Kahklen has been a regional development chief for the Alaska Area Native Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services, in Anchorage since 1975. His appointment as the BIA Superintendent was effective July 13.
A former Equal Employment Opportunity Officer in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) in Anchorage, Kahklen, 41, worked at .the BIA Anchorage Agency in 1971-72 as an employment and vocational guidance specialist.
Kahklen is a graduate of the Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. He earned a B.S. degree in 1970 and a M.A. in psychology in 1971.
Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of Lower Brule, South Dakota and the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas of Bayfield, Wisconsin will be the first tribes to receive management assistance from the Tribal Managers Corps (TMC) Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today
The tribes are now selecting managers who will work for the tribal governments on 18- to 24-month general management assignments similar to that of a city manager. They are choosing from a pool of nine managers selected by TMC, according to TMC Program Manager Bill Robinson.
"These placements provide the professional assistance tribes need to upgrade and reinforce their management capabilities," Hallett said.
Last spring Hallett introduced TMC and won the President's Management Improvement Council's sponsorship for it as a way of improving tribal governments and thus tribal self-determination capabilities. Tribes are invited to define their management needs and then to work with TMC to determine how the program can help meet those needs.
During its first year, TMC will rely on the mobility provisions of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act and on limited BIA funds in assigning managers from the public and private sectors to work with tribal governments, according to Robinson. He added, however, that TMC is working with industries to place managers with tribes at the industries' expense, to obtain industry technical assistance for tribes, and to encourage industry training programs for tribal managers.
In addition to manager placements and technical assistance, TMC can arrange internships, coordinate training programs, and is developing curriculum materials on tribal management through colleges and universities.
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Indian Affairs - Office of Public Affairs
Edward H. Hall, who is affiliated with the Arikara and Hidatsa Tribes, has been appointed superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Crow agency in Montana. For the past several months, Hall has been working as a special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs
A graduate of North Dakota State University, Hall has spent most of his working life building roads and bridges. He has been a supervisory highway engineer in the Bureau's central office and at the Turtle Mountain and Standing Rock agencies in North Dakota. He also worked as a highway engineer for the Forest Service in Portland, Oregon.
From 1977 to 1979, Hall was the manager of the Standing Rock Enterprises, Inc., a corporation which operated a grocery store and housing company as well as a road Hall served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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