OPA

WASHINGTON – Today President Donald Trump proposed a $936.3 million Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget for the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).

The BIE’s primary mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s need for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes as distinct cultural and governmental entities.

For the first time in its history, the BIE’s budget request is being presented in a separate budget justification. All BIE budget activities are shifted out of Indian Affairs’ Operation of Indian Programs account into a new Operation of Indian Education Programs account. In addition, the Education Construction budget activity is shifted to a new Education Construction account.

“The President’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget for the Bureau of Indian Education supports his goals for tribal self-determination by improving education services to Indian Country,” said Acting Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt. “This budget recognizes the BIE being as important to tribes in the education of their children as the BIA is to supporting them in the management of their trust lands and resources.”

“I appreciate the President’s recognition through his FY 2020 proposal of the need to elevate the BIE budget to bureau-level status within the overall Indian Affairs budget, given its broad range of responsibilities for educating our students,” said Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara “Katuk” Sweeney. “Our children are sacred and we’re fighting for their futures. That is why having the BIE budget as a separate account will allow for greater transparency and accountability for our education responsibilities.”

The 2020 budget acknowledges the distinct and separate responsibilities and missions of Indian Affairs’ two bureaus – BIE and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) – by elevating the BIE budget request to the bureau level and presenting it separately from the BIA’s. This proposal will advance BIE reform, provide autonomy and accountability, streamline services, maximize efficiency, and build capacity.

The request also supports the Administration’s commitment to helping promote tribal nation-building and self-determination, empower tribal communities, foster tribal self-sufficiency, create educational and economic opportunities, ensure safe Indian communities, and preserve and foster cultural heritage. The goals and vision reflected in the FY 2020 budget are informed by tribal leaders and the Tribal-Interior Budget Council (TIBC) who helped the Department identify the priorities in this request.

Budget Overview: The President’s FY 2020 budget for BIE is $936.3 million in current appropriations.

The Bureau manages the Federal school system comprised of 169 elementary and secondary schools and 14 dormitories, located on 64 reservations in 23 States, providing educational services to 46,692 individual students, with an Average Daily Membership of 40,641 students. It also operates two post-secondary schools and administers grants for 29 tribally controlled colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges.

BIE funding supports classroom instruction, student transportation, native language instruction, cultural enrichment, gifted and talented programs, and school improvement and maintenance. In some schools, funding also supports residential costs, mostly in remotely located sites. And, because the BIE functionally serves as a State Education Agency (SEA), it administers and oversees U.S. Department of Education programs in BIE-funded schools, and receives additional Education Department funds to educate and provide services to students attending these schools.

The FY 2020 budget request prioritizes direct school operations, school improvement, early childhood programs, and completing the Bureau’s reform efforts to improve service and technical assistance for BIE-funded schools. Staffing is estimated at 2,448 full time equivalents in 2020.

Operation of Indian Education Programs: The FY 2020 budget for the Operation of Indian Education Programs account is $867.4 million. In 2020, priority is given to sub-activities providing for direct school operations and school improvement in line with the BIE’s Strategic Direction plan.

Foster Tribal Student Success – The FY 2020 budget proposes to accomplish this in two ways: 1) By serving as a capacity builder and service provider to support tribes in delivering culturally appropriate education with high academic standards to allow students across Indian Country to achieve success, and 2) By prioritizing funding for core mission programs and operations at BIE-funded elementary and secondary schools and tribally controlled colleges and universities. The request includes:

• $726.8 million for Elementary and Secondary programs,
• $98.0 million for Post-secondary programs, and
• $42.6 million for Education Management.

The FY 2020 budget request’s focus on direct school operations, which includes classroom instruction, student transportation, Native language development programs, cultural awareness and enrichment, school improvement and maintenance, and in some remotely located schools, residential costs, reflects its continuing investment in activities that promote educational self-determination for tribal communities. The request includes $81.5 million for Tribal Grant Support Costs for tribes that choose to operate BIE-funded schools themselves – a funding level that supports 100 percent of the estimated requirement.

BIE Reform Efforts – The FY 2020 budget proposes $32.3 million in education program management funds to improve service to BIE-funded schools and build in-house capacity and accountability.

Tribal Priority Allocations – The FY 2020 budget proposes Tribal Priority Allocation funding of $16.1 million.

Compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act – Funding from the Department of Education would provide for continued implementation of the Act and help BIE establish high quality standards, accountability and capacity to invest in meaningful assessments.

Construction: The FY 2020 budget proposes to shift the Education Construction budget activity to a new Education Construction account and requests $68.9 million in annual funding for this activity.

Funding will continue to focus on facility improvement and repairs at existing BIE-funded schools. In addition, available funding from prior years will enable work to continue on completing construction on schools listed on the Bureau’s Replacement School Construction Priority List published in the Federal Register on March 24, 2004, and to begin design and construction phases for schools listed on a subsequent list published on April 29, 2016.

The Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs advises the Secretary of the Interior on Indian Affairs policy issues, communicates policy to and oversee the programs of the BIA and the BIE, provides leadership in consultations with tribes, and serves as the DOI official for intra- and inter- departmental coordination and liaison within the Executive Branch on Indian matters.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ mission includes developing and protecting Indian trust lands and natural and energy resources; supporting social welfare, public safety and justice in tribal communities; and promoting tribal self-determination and self-governance.

The Bureau of Indian Education implements Federal Indian education programs and funds 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools (of which two-thirds are tribally operated) located on 64 reservations in 23 States and peripheral dormitories serving nearly 47,000 individual students. The BIE also operates two post-secondary schools and administers grants for 29 tribally controlled colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges.

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WASHINGTON – Today President Donald Trump proposed a $1.9 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget for Indian Affairs, which, for this request, includes only the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) budget request is presented separately.

The primary mission of Indian Affairs is to honor the nation’s trust, treaty and programmatic responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, and to improve the quality of life in Indian Country. These objectives are achieved by recognizing the wide diversity of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes as distinct cultural and governmental entities, strengthening government-to-government relationships, and advancing their self-governance and self-determination.

“President Trump’s FY 2020 budget proposal for Indian Affairs supports his Administration’s commitment to Indian self-determination and tribal self-governance,” said Acting Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt. “His budget prioritizes programs serving the broadest tribal service populations reflecting Indian Country’s priorities as expressed by tribal leaders who help guide our budget development process.”

“The President’s Indian Affairs budget for FY 2020 is focused on building tribal economic self-sufficiency through the improved management of tribal trust assets and addressing community needs,” said Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara “Katuk” Sweeney. “The budget proposal supports tribes through funding for law enforcement, improving trust lands and resources management, full funding for estimated contract support costs, fulfilling Indian settlement commitments, and fighting the opioid crisis that plagues Indian Country.”

Indian Affairs programs serve the nation’s 573 federally recognized tribes, a service population of approximately two million American Indians and Alaska Natives in tribal communities nationwide. The goals and vision reflected in the FY 2020 budget are informed by tribal leaders and the Tribal-Interior Budget Council who helped the Department identify the priorities in this request.

The FY 2020 budget also supports the Administration’s commitment to helping promote tribal nation-building and self-determination, empower tribal communities, foster tribal self-sufficiency, create educational and economic opportunities, ensure safe Indian communities, preserve and foster cultural heritage, and steward natural resources.

Budget Overview: The President’s FY 2020 budget for Indian Affairs is $1.9 billion in current appropriations.

Indian Affairs programs deliver community services, restore tribal homelands, fulfill federal commitments related to water and other resource rights, execute federal fiduciary trust responsibilities, support the stewardship of tribal energy and other natural resources, and create tribal economic opportunities.

The BIA provides direct services and funding for Public Law 93-638 contracts and Tribal Self-Governance compacts that allow tribal governments to administer Bureau-funded programs in their communities for a wide range of activities necessary for their development. These programs address tribal government, natural resources management, trust real estate services, law enforcement, economic development, and social service needs.

The FY 2020 Indian Affairs budget prioritizes programs serving the broadest American Indian and Alaska Native service population. Staffing is estimated at 2,989 current direct full time equivalents in 2020.

Operation of Indian Programs: The FY 2020 budget for the Operation of Indian Programs account is $1.5 billion. In 2020, priority is given to programs serving tribal communities nationwide rather than initiatives executed through pilot programs or programs that serve fewer tribes.

Promote Tribal Self-Determination – The Department continues to support tribal sovereignty. The BIA Tribal Government activity supports assistance to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes to strengthen and sustain their governmental systems and support their self-determination through the contracting and compacting processes.

The FY 2020 budget request provides $326 million for programs that support the Tribal Government activity. Within this amount is included:

• $178.9 million for compacts for self-governance tribes.
• $75.3 million to support Consolidated Tribal Government programs, which promote Indian self-determination, giving approximately 275 tribes the flexibility to combine and manage similar or compatible contracted programs and grants while also simplifying the contracting of them.
• $34.9 million for Road Maintenance to support pavement and gravel maintenance, remedial work on improved earth surface roads, bridge maintenance, and snow and ice control for the BIA’s inventory of nearly 29,000 miles of roads and more than 900 bridges throughout Indian Country.

Protect Indian Country – The BIA’s Office of Justice Services (OJS) funds law enforcement, corrections and court services to support safe tribal communities. These programs safeguard life and property, enforce laws, maintain justice and order, and provide funding to detain American Indian and Alaska Native offenders in safe, secure and humane environments.

The OJS also provides technical assistance to tribal governments in the amending of their legal codes for consistency with the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the Violence Against Women Act of 2013. In addition, the BIA is implementing training for direct services law enforcement program staff in the areas of law enforcement, social services, victim services and courts, and is making this training available to tribes operating these programs under self-determination contracts and self-governance compacts.

The FY 2020 budget request of $409.2 million for the Public Safety and Justice activity includes:

• $376.7 million to support 191 law enforcement programs and 96 corrections programs operated by tribes and by the BIA as direct services;
• Includes $10 million to address the opioid crisis, an increase of $2.5 million over the 2019 CR
• $22.3 million for Tribal Justice Support programs; and
• $30.9 million for Tribal Courts.

Support Indian Communities – Sustaining families is critical to fostering thriving tribal communities. The BIA Office of Indian Services supports a community-based approach to Indian child welfare, family stability, and strengthening tribal communities as a whole.

The FY 2020 budget request of $143.0 million for BIA Human Services includes:

• $74.7 million for Welfare Assistance and
• $64.9 million for Social Services and Indian Child Welfare Act programs.

Manage Trust Resources and Lands – The BIA Trust-Natural Resources Management activity supports the stewardship of trust lands in Indian Country. The Bureau’s Natural Resources programs assist tribal governments in the management, development and protection of Indian trust land and natural resources on 56 million surface acres and 58 million acres of subsurface mineral estates. These programs enable tribal trust landowners to optimize the use and conservation of resources, providing benefits such as revenue, jobs, and the protection of cultural, spiritual and traditional resources. The BIA also helps support 300 tribes with managing 18.7 million acres of their forest lands.

The FY 2020 budget proposes $184.1 million for natural resource management programs, which include agriculture, forestry, water resources, and fish, wildlife and parks activities. The request amount includes:

• $54.8 million for BIA’s Forestry Program and projects to support the development, maintenance and enhancement of forest resources in accordance with sustained yield principles included in forest management plans;
• $25.1 million for BIA’s Agriculture and Range Program to continue support for multiple use and sustained yield management on over 46 million acres of Indian trust land dedicated to crop and livestock agriculture;
• $14.5 million for Fish, Wildlife and Parks; and
• $10.6 million for Water Resources management activities.

Keep Fiduciary Trust Responsibilities – The Trust-Real Estate Services activity manages Indian trust-related information to optimize the efficacy of Indian trust assets. The FY 2020 budget supports the processing of Indian trust-related documents such as land title and records as well as geospatial data to support land and water resources use, management of energy resources, and the protection and restoration of ecosystems and important lands.

The FY 2020 budget proposes $122.0 million for real estate services programs, including $12.7 million for probate services to determine ownership of Indian trust assets essential to economic development and accurate payments to Indian trust beneficiaries.

Support Economic Opportunities – The FY 2020 budget requests $44.4 million for the Community and Economic Development activity, and features investments in Indian energy activities. The request supports the Administration’s priority for domestic energy dominance and economic development, including management of energy resources on tribal lands.

The FY 2020 budget also continues the commitment to the Indian Energy Service Center, which coordinates Indian energy development activities across Interior’s bureaus. Income from energy and minerals production is the largest source of revenue generated from natural resources on Indian trust lands, with royalty income of $1 billion in 2018 payable to tribal governments and individual mineral rights owners.

Tribal Priority Allocations – The FY 2020 budget proposes Tribal Priority Allocation funding of $658.8 million.

Contract Support Costs: The President’s FY 2020 budget maintains the Administration’s support for tribal self-determination and strengthening tribal communities across Indian Country. Contract Support Costs enable tribal governments to assume the responsibility for operating federally funded programs by covering the costs associated with administering such programs. The request for the Contract Support Costs account is $285.9 million.

The request fully supports estimated needs at the FY 2020 request level. The budget continues to request funding for Contract Support Costs in a separate indefinite current account to ensure full funding for this priority.

Construction: The FY 2020 budget request proposes $58.5 million for BIA Construction activities. The request includes:

• $19.7 million for Safety of Dams program. The Safety of Dam program is currently responsible for 138 high or significant-hazard dams located on 42 reservations.
• $9.9 million for irrigation projects rehabilitation. The Irrigation Rehabilitation program addresses critical deferred maintenance and construction work on BIA-owned and –operated irrigation facilities, including 17 irrigation projects, with a focus on health and safety. Many of these facilities are nearing 100 years of age and are in need of major capital improvements.

Land and Water Claims Settlements: The FY 2020 budget request of $45.6 million for Land and Water Claims Settlements prioritizes funding to meet Indian settlement commitments. Settlements resolve tribal land and water rights claims and ensure tribes have access to land and water to meet their domestic, economic and cultural needs. Many of the infrastructure projects supported in these agreements improve the health and well-being of tribal members, preserve existing economies, and over the long term, bring the potential for jobs and economic development.

Fixed Costs: Fixed costs of $7.2 million are fully funded.

Bureau of Indian Education: For the first time in its history, the Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) budget request is being presented as a separate budget justification starting in FY 2020, when all BIE budget activities are shifted out of the OIP account into a new Operation of Indian Education Programs account. In addition, the Education Construction budget activity is shifted to a new Education Construction account. The total amount associated with BIE budget activities in FY 2020 is $936.3 million.

The Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs advises the Secretary of the Interior on Indian Affairs policy issues, communicates policy to and oversee the programs of the BIA and the BIE, provides leadership in consultations with tribes, and serves as the DOI official for intra- and inter- departmental coordination and liaison within the Executive Branch on Indian matters.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ mission includes developing and protecting Indian trust lands and natural and energy resources; supporting social welfare, public safety and justice in tribal communities; and promoting tribal self-determination and self-governance.

The Bureau of Indian Education implements federal Indian education programs and funds 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools (of which two-thirds are tribally operated) located on 64 reservations in 23 states and peripheral dormitories serving nearly 47,000 individual students. The BIE also operates two post-secondary schools and administers grants for 29 tribally controlled colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges.

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Millions of dollars’ worth of brainpower, representing a "who's who " of management, labor, higher education, and science, is helping guide the administration of America's natural resources, the Department of the Interior said today.

This talent, virtually free to the government, is found in the nearly 50 advisory committees and panels which regularly counsel Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and other top Interior officials. Advisers are specialists in virtually every field of administration and research, from mine safety to weather modification; Indian education to grazing on the public lands; water research to preservation of historic sites.

"Without the help of these experts, who give unselfishly of their time and talent, Interior I s resource programs would be far less successful, II Secretary Udall said. “They give us their advice and constructive criticism - - and we listen.”

Although many of the advisers are in the high-income bracket and are nationally and internationally known for their expertise, Interior's costs for their services usually is $16 per day for subsistence, plus travel expenses to and from Washington, D. C.

­­Most advisory groups meet once a year, but the frequency increases if critical or extremely complex problems are encountered.

Nearly every field of science is represented in the advisory groups, includ­ing medicine, physics, metallurgy, hydrology, geology, zoology, chemistry, limnology, oceanography, and archaeology.

"Such assistance represents the highest form of public service, “he added. “We simply cannot afford to employ all the brainpower we need. So we ask for help and are very gratified by the response. The services of these groups have saved the government untold millions of dollars. They have helped us to avoid mistakes, to move rapidly and positively, and to accomplish much, much more than we could working in a vacuum of government-dominated thought.”

Secretary Udall also commended the assistance of the many federal em­ployees, from Interior as well as dozens of other government agencies, who often serve as committee members in addition to their regularly assigned duties.

Committee membership ranges from three (Advisory Committee on Natu­ral Science Studies) to 106 (National Petroleum Council). Following is a list of typical advisory groups serving the Department of the Interior and its programs:

Assistant Secretary -- Water Pollution Control

Advisory Committee on Water Pollution Control Administration

Assistant Secretary -- Fish and Wildlife and Parks

Marine Resources Development Program Advisory Committee

Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife

Director’s Waterfowl Advisory Committee

National Fisheries Center and Aquarium Advisory Board Annual Dove Conference

Bureau of Reclamation

Advisory Committee on Atmospheric Water Resources Board of Artistic Consultants

Bureau of Land Management

National Advisory Board Council

State Advisory Boards

Oregon and California Advisory Board (State) Oregon and California District Advisory Boards Alaska State Advisory Board

Bonneville Power Administration

Bonneville Regional Advisory Council

Geological Survey

Advisory Panel of the Geological Survey’s National Center for Earthquake Research

Advisory Committee on Water Data for Public Use

National Park Service

Historic American Buildings Survey Advisory Board

Wildlife Advis<?ry Committee

Advisory Board on the San Jose Mission Historic .Site

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace and Sagamore Hill National Historic Site Advisory Committee

New York City National Shrines Advisory Board

Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments Minute Man National Historic Park Advisory Commission

Independence National Historic Park Advisory Commission.

Hot Springs National Park Federal Registration Board

Consulting Committee for National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings National Park Service Senior Executive Committee

Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission

Examining Board for Technicians, Hot Springs National Park

Ozark National Scenic River ways Commission

­ Fire Island National Seashore Advisory Commission Advisory Committee on Natural Science Studies

Committee for the Preservation of the White House Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

U.S. Territorial Expansion Memorial Commission Advisory Committee for Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

Office of Geography

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names

Bureau of Indian Affairs

National Indian Education Advisory Committee

Federal Water Pollution Control Administration

National Technical Advisory Committees (5)

Technical Committee to the Great Lakes - Illinois River Basin Project

Bureau of Commercial Fisheries

American Fisheries Advisory Committee

Office of Coal Research

General Technical Advisory Committee

Petroleum Advisory Committee

National Petroleum Council

Foreign Petroleum Supply Committee

Foreign Petroleum Supply Committee, Petroleum Security Subcommittees Emergency Advisory Committee for Natural Gas

Office of Water Resources Research

Advisory Panel on Water Research

Bureau of Mines

Lignite Advisory Committee

Department’s Industry Advisory Committee on Coal Exports

Advisory Committees on Health and Safety Standards in Metal and Nonmetallic Mines (3)

Defense Electric Power Administration

Industrial Advisory Committee to the Defense Electric Power Administration

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett has endorsed in principle the construction and operation of Indian-owned motels under franchise arrangements with interested regional or national motel groups, the Department of the Interior reported today.

In a letter to area industrial development officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and to reservation superintendents, Bennett pointed out that such arrangements could provide training for Indians in motel management and staffing, national advertising and public relations, standardized accounting and bookkeeping, architectural service, and discount purchasing of equipment and supplies.

The Commissioner's letter followed a meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, at which H.H. Mobley, executive vice president of Quality Courts Motels, Inc. outlined the possibilities for successful establishment of Indian-owned and operated motels under a franchise system. Individual establishments would benefit by referrals from more than 500 other Quality Courts.

Mobley said such motels could be designed in keeping with traditional tribal architecture and decor, and staffed by Indian personnel in tribal costume. Each could feature a jewelry and arts store, selling Indian effects from the entire country, he said.

Tribes interested in further information on the program will inform the area directors and through them will be supplied by Quality Courts a detailed kit explaining the plan, Bennett said. Representatives of the Quality group will then investigate those sites which appear to have good development potential. Meetings would be held with tribal members to discuss mutual interests in proceeding with a development program.

Bennett again underscored the point that the Bureau is acting only as intermediary in the negotiations and that the acceptance of the plan is up to individual tribes.

"The Indians, themselves," he said, "must take the lead in expanding the potential of their reservations."

Our American society as a whole has assumed new dimensions within the past few years. The place of minority groups has been redefined -- or, rather the inherent rights of citizens, whatever racial minority groups they may represent have been reinforced. But civil rights remain only theoretical as long as economic exclusion continues. This is frequently the situation in localities where American Indians constitute a significant and socially conspicuous minority.

Life among Indians today is often far more cruel than was the simple and primitive struggle of their ancestors for survival against the forces of nature. They are a people surrounded by a value system they must grope to comprehend because it is a value system that differs basically from their own tradition.

Indians are generally oriented to the here and-now, while the dominant culture is motivated by planning for the future. Beyond the cultural outlook is also the difference in economic outlook between Indian people accustomed to a consumption economy and a people dependent upon a production economy. Still another factor contributes to the aloofness of Indians, especially the older ones: they still remember the bitter history of the 19th Century and find it incompatible with their experience to regard America’s expansion era as glorious.

Alienated because of their cultural background Indians are further alienated by their economic circumstance, and the alienation is accentuated by the attitude of the dominant cultural group toward people who are both poor and "different.”

As President Johnson has also said: "This Nation will never be great until all the people are part of it.

Most Indians are still outsiders to much of the social, economic and political life of this Nation.

But today's generation of Indians have found their voice, and demand to be heeded. They are expecting to be recognized as a minority group of citizens with all the rights of social and economic choice enjoyed by the majority. They are looking more in the direction of political and social action than ever before and many are making their way in the once alien circle of State politics. They are looking to playing a role in the determination of their own destinies within the States and local communities in which they reside.

Inroads have been made on squalid housing, but still most Indians live in substandard dwellings, a threat to health and human decency. Typically, the young rural Indian adult has about two-thirds as much schooling as the average Americana Out of a work force of probably 100,000, about 40,000 are chronically unemployed.

Some of you are now saying to yourselves: "Yes, Indian policies of the Federal Government have failed to help the Indian people.

This may, in part, be true but I believe that part of the trouble lies in the fact that States and local communities have consistently taken the attitude that Indians are a “Federal problem,” wholly and exclusively.

With the great financial contributions that States are receiving from the Federal Government for schools, roads, health programs, water, housing -- to name only the most obvious -- it is difficult to understand how community planning can continue to exclude consideration of the needs, as well as the resources, of the Indian segment.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been engaged in a struggle that has been, at best, one of holding the line against greater Indian poverty as the Nation rides higher and higher crests of economic prosperity. The greatest single obstacle is the fact that we must often work with Indian groups in isolation from, rather than in relationship with, each other and the total community.

It is no exaggeration to say that Indian expectations for the future are inseparably interwoven with the need for total community and regional planning, with a keen eye to social as well as economic factors in all plans.

Spottily, in some places, State and local communities are now involving Indian resources in total planning. One of the conspicuous examples that comes to my mind is that of the commercial-industrial-educational-recreational develop­ment planning under way in the general vicinity of Phoenix. I think particularly of the Gila River Pima Indians, who have joined with neighboring cities to draw on all Federal, State and local resources, public and private, to take fullest advantage of the growth pattern of the region.

There are other examples, in other Western States, of this new trend.

But, generally speaking, the comments Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall made in 1966 to the Western Governors' Conference still hold true. Let me quote:

"Few States have acted to encourage the development of Indian resources"

Few States have even recognized -- much less done anything about -- the special education needs of Indian youngsters. Few States have really encouraged Indians to participate fully in their political life; and many have been indifferent much of the time toward the general welfare of their Indian citizens I am not suggesting that all of the Federal Government's responsibilities toward Indians should now be shifted to the States. I am intimating that most of the States have done too little too late to aid the cause of Indian development Some States, worse, have missed what I believe to be the main point -- that the economy of every State will be strengthened as the Indians are helped to develop their human and natural resources to the maximum."

On the credit side of State intentions is the fact that there are now 19 States which have established official bodies to study Indian affairs and keep the Governors informed.

Also on the credit side is the fact that these State commissions and advisory groups are not reticent to point up Indian needs. Let me quote from a random sampling of such reports:

From the 1966 Handbook of Indians issued by the Wisconsin Governor's Commission on Human Rights come these data In 1966, the per capita income on the 10 Wisconsin Indian reservations was less than $750., In proportion to their numbers, more Indian than white students drop out of high school before graduation and at the heart of the dropout problem is the prevalence of poverty among those who do not continue in school. And a telling further comment: "It is easy to prescribe greater industrial and resource development and additional vocational and educational training, but to see this translated into action is not easy."

From California's Governor's Advisory Commission on Indian Affairs:

''There are indications that the education of the Indian is not of the same quality as that of the non-Indian in the California public schools. Three times as many Indians as non-Indians drop out of school. Many others are graduated with inferior education because of lack of teacher concern or the failure of the school system to devise compensatory teaching techniques to cope with the students of differing cultural backgrounds."

And from Nevada's Indian Affairs Commission: "The success of programs concerning Nevada Indians requires an understanding and careful interpretation of the Indian point of view."

Even in these brief excerpts of reports from three States, representing diverse situations with respect to their Indian populations, it is not difficult to discern the common expression of need for a new ingredient in State programs for Indians. And that ingredient is attention to the special needs, the peculiar needs, of a group of people whose culture and lifeways differ from the average American pattern. Failure to take their differences into account or rather, failure to recognize the fundamental aspects of their differences -- has resulted in defeat of attempts to provide meaningful assistance.

Education policies may be considered a core cause why Indians have failed to become participating citizens in many American communities Two-thirds or more of all Indian children attend public schools. As the California report states -- and it echoes the situation in many other places -- the schools are not, in most cases, providing the necessary services to help Indians make a successful transition into our competitive American society.

I would not venture to recommend the nature of school programs, except to emphasize the language difficulties which often pyramid for Indian children as the grade level and subject matter load increases. Compensatory and remedial programs are not only desirable; they are often necessary.

Education for successful living - which includes successful employment -­is the single most important gift we can bequeath our children. It is the single most severe punishment we can inflict upon them to deny them access to the best tools of learning. They cannot fly like eagles on the wings of wrens.

We would do well to consider the generic meaning of the word "education" because sometimes I fear it has been forgotten in the jargon of the profession. Education programs should draw out the best in each child to lead each one by his own special light into the joyous experience of self-awareness, self-expression and self-confidence.

If we accomplish this end for our Indian children, then one day it will no longer be necessary for us to meet periodically to discuss Indian problems.

Yet education programs are not to be construed as something apart from bread-and-butter problems. Food, housing, jobs -- these are the everyday needs of Indians as well as other Americans. Textbooks are not substitutes for soup and meat. Education is preventive medicine against another generation of hungry people, but it is no cure for the child who enters the classroom in the morning with hunger pains in his stomach.

And so I urge that the American Indian segment of the population in your States be regarded within the context of your economic planning as well as your social planning. Make room for them in the job market. Otherwise the burden of their continuing poverty will be forever a drain on your communities.

The Federal Government should be remembered as one strong rallying point for your efforts. There are at least 20 different Federal agencies that provide financial aid to States and local communities to help in both human and resource development. Education and training, medical care and environmental health, road-building and construction of new community facilities to encourage commerce, housing aid and food for the needy -- these are only some of the most obvious areas of Federal aid. All are intended to be components of a total effort to uplift the social and economic climate of American communities across the country.

It is difficult to understand the desultory attitude of some States and communities toward the potential human and land resources which the American Indian segment could contribute, if an honest effort were made to include them in the planning.

To facilitate economic development endeavors in which Indian tribes or individuals would participate jointly with non-Indian interests, Congress is now considering a dramatic new proposal. We call it the Indian Resources Development Act. The most far-reaching proposal of its kind in many years, it loosens the regulatory shackles that have hindered maximum development of Indian-owned resources. Among other provisions, it calls for creation of a $500 million Indian development loan fund with Federal guaranties (providing up to $100 million annually for approved loans); and it paves the way for establishment of corporately structured Indian economic development bodies.

The main purpose of the bill is to provide Indians with managerial, credit and corporate tools to enable them to participate more fully in American economic, social, educational and political life; and to permit them to exercise greater initiative and self-determination.

Such legal tools are necessary for maximum Indian development -- but equally necessary is the interested response of the outer community.

This organization of Governors' Indian Councils can help tremendously to quicken acceptance of Indians into the mainstream of community life.

Through your organization you can call public attention to areas of neglect.

Through your organization you can propose realistic plans affecting Indians for the consideration of your State legislatures and your State agencies concerned with health, education, welfare and economic development.

Through your organization you can bring Indian people a new degree of understanding of the inherent opportunities for them in becoming involved in community affairs; and you can offer the guidance that will make their partici­pation constructive in its character.

Through your organization you can bring a third dimension to the Federal State partnership in the war on poverty by stimulating people-to-people action on the local scenes.

In short and in sum, let us all work in accord to raise the aspirations of Indians beyond the poverty-oriented level. By so striving, we will all come closer to realizing the hope of a secure American society.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will prepare a roll of Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin who are entitled to share in the distribution of over $1 million in judgment funds awarded these Emigrant New York Indians by the Indian Claims Commission, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Emigrant New York Indians are those Indians who voluntarily left the New York area for Wisconsin in the 1800's. They include the Oneida Tribe and the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Community of Wisconsin.

The Brotherton Indians became entitled to a part of the judgment funds by virtue of buying into a treaty with the Menominee Indians in 1825, which gave them an interest in certain lands in the Green Bay area.

Later, the Government took part of this land without their consent, and it is for this land that the three tribes were awarded compensation.

The Oneida Tribe and Stockbridge-Munsee are organized modern entities, and their tribal rolls will only require updating to list those eligible for the benefits of the funds, BIA officials said.

For the Brotherton Indians, however, a modern roll will have to be prepared. Regulations being published in the Federal Register provide that all persons of at least one-fourth degree Emigrant New York Indian blood shall be eligible for listing on the roll, provided they were born on or before Sept 27, 1967, are not enrolled with either the Oneida or Stockbridge-Munsee Tribes, and postmark their applications for enrollment no later than July 1, 1968.

Applications must be filed with the Superintendent, Great Lakes Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Ashland, Wis. 54806.

Exact amount of the award to the Emigrant Indians of New York was $1,313,472.65, less attorneys' fees of 10 percent. The money is on deposit in the U.S. Treasury, drawing interest.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' advisory committee for exceptional children will meet October 26-27 in Phoenix, Arizona, to examine and discuss unmet needs of exceptional Indian children, the Director of Indian Education Programs, Earl Barlow said today.

The Committee operates in accordance with the requirements of the amended Education of the Handicapped Act.

The meeting, which will be at the Los Olivos Hotel from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., is open to the public.

Notice of the meeting is being published in the Federal Register.

For additional information contact Goodwin Cobb, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 19th and E Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20240 (202-343-5519).

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced that American Airlines will purchase 20,000 blankets manufactured from the wool of Navajo Indian sheep.

The blankets, made similar to the famed trade cloth imported from England, will bear three-inch square label showing their origin and will be attested to by both Commissioner Bruce, a Mohawk-Sioux Indian, and Peter MacDonald, Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council.

That American Airlines passengers can huddle in the same material as Indians is the culmination of considerable effort on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner Bruce pointed out.

"The story really began in 1971, when the general wool market throughout the United States was the worst since the 1930's," the Commissioner explained. "Navajo wool, in particular, found no market. This hit the Navajo Indian Reservation hard, since 75 percent of all Navajos, whose reservation is the size of West Virginia, raise sheep.”

A Bureau of Indian Affairs industrial development specialist, Irving Schwartz, was told to find a foreign or domestic outlet for the wool. Schwartz searched diligently, but nothing- appeared to happen until he consulted a wool expert from New Mexico State University and found that Indian wool -- despite an undeserved faulty reputation -- really was high grade wool. Its rating- had come about because poor grades of wool were dumped with good grades and strong winds had permeated it with dirt and weeds.

Schwartz then called for help from the Wool Manufacturers Association of America. When asked whose wool did sell and why, that organization indicated that New Zealand wool found the best market because it was well-graded and packaged.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs then signed a contract Growers Warehouse, Inc., Casper, Wyoming, to bring equipment onto the Navajo Reservation to grade and bale Navajo wool and to teach Navajos to do their own grading and baling. A Denver laboratory was asked to certify the grading.

The result was that the Navajos began to get three to four times more money for their wool than they had previously been offered.

The Bureau is industrial development specialist then negotiated with Faribault Woolen Mill Co., Faribault, Minnesota, to make trade cloth. Trade cloth traditionally has a bright hard finish and rainbow stripes along the selvage (each edge of piece goods). Used by Indians as clothing and blankets, it has always been imported from England, never produced in this country. Purchased by Indians since the earliest days of Indian-white relationships, the earliest versions are in museums.

It was again Irving Schwartz who showed samples of the Faribault Indian wool cloth to the airlines and made the sale, Commissioner Bruce said.

Delivery of the blankets to American Airlines began June 1.

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover has reaffirmed the federal trust relationship between the United States and the King Salmon Tribe and the Shoonaq’ Tribe in Alaska and the Lower Lake Rancheria in California after finding that their government-to-government relationship with the U.S. has never been severed. “The King Salmon Tribe, the Shoonaq’ Tribe of Kodiak, and the Lower Lake Rancheria have been officially overlooked for many years by the Bureau of Indian Affairs even though their government-to-government relationship with the United States was never terminated,” Gover stated in his finding dated December 29, 2000, “I am pleased to correct this egregious oversight.” Due to administrative error, the BIA had for several years failed to place the three tribes on the list of federally recognized tribes it is required to publish annually in the Federal Register under the Federally Recognized Indian Tribes List Act (Pub. L. 103-454, 108 Stat. 4791, 4792). The list, entitled “Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible to Receive Services from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs,” was last published on March 13, 2000.

The Assistant Secretary found that the King Salmon Tribe of Alaska has existed and maintained a continuous Indian community from historic times, and that present-day tribal members are descendants of a group that had been forced to leave an earlier homesite destroyed during an eruption of Mount Katmai. The Assistant Secretary also found that the Shoonaq’ Tribe of Kodiak, Alaska, has maintained a continuous political organization since European contact, that the Council of the Shoonaq’ Tribe of Alaska has governed the historical Native community in and around the contemporary community of Kodiak, and that no other tribe has claimed the territory or the tribe’s membership. Congress acknowledged Kodiak as an historic Native village possessing claims to aboriginal title in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). In 1987, the Kodiak Tribal Council learned it had not been included on a list of federally recognized tribes published by the BIA in the Federal Register and requested the Secretary of the Interior to correct the list.

In the case of the Lower Lake Rancheria of California, the Assistant Secretary found that the tribe had not been made subject to the Rancheria Act (Pub. L. 85-671, 72 Stat. 619, as amended by Pub. L. 88-419, 78 Stat. 390), by which Congress terminated the federal government’s trust responsibility for dozens of California tribes during the 1950s, and that its tribal status has been continuously maintained by tribal members to the present day. With the Assistant Secretary’s action the number of federally recognized tribes now stands at 561, which also includes two tribes recognized under H.R. 5528, the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act (Pub. L. 106-568, 114 Stat. 2868) signed by President Clinton on December 28, 2000. The Loyal Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, which since 1869 has been a culturally and linguistically separate entity within the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, was accorded federal recognition as an independent tribe. The Graton Rancheria of California, which had been terminated by the Rancheria Act, was restored to federal recognition status.

Contact information for the three reaffirmed tribes: The King Salmon Village Council, P.O. Box 68, King Salmon, Alaska 99613-0068, the Honorable Ralph Angasan, Sr., President; The Shoonaq’ Tribe of Kodiak, 713 East Rezanof Drive “B”, Kodiak, Alaska 99615, the Honorable Kenneth Parker, Chairman; and The Lower Lake Rancheria, 131 Lincoln Street, Healdsburg, California 95448, the Honorable Daniel D. Beltran, Chairman. For more information, contact Marilyn Heiman, Special Assistant to the Secretary for Alaska, U.S. Department of the Interior, at (907) 271-5485, fax: (907) 271-4102, or Nedra Darling, Director, Office of Public Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, at (202) 208-3710, fax: (202) 501- 1516.

-BIA-

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Ojibwa Indian School located in Belcourt, N.D. “President Bush and I are committed to providing all BIA students with healthy and safe schools,” said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. “For far too long, Indian children have been left behind. This budget request shows the Bush Administration’s dedication to creating environments where the minds, spirits and aspirations of thousands of Native American children may flourish. Children can best learn, and teachers can best teach, when they aren’t worrying that their classrooms will fall down.”

The Ojibwa Indian School is comprised of 10 portable and four temporary buildings, some of which were built in the 1930s, that serve 351 students in grades K-8 from the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Eighty percent of the student body attends class in the portable buildings. The budget request includes $29.0 million for the Ojibwa Indian School Replacement project to replace both building types with one facility that meets safety, environmental quality, and accessibility standards; that can accommodate an increasing student enrollment; and provides a setting conducive to learning. At present, the buildings pose a serious safety and health threat to students, school employees, and visitors. For example, portable buildings are located on ground with a steep grade and slippery conditions that create hazards for children and adults. In addition, pipelines freeze under the extreme winter weather conditions found in North Dakota, and critical servicing components, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, ventilation, communications, fire, and safety systems, require major repairs to bring them up to acceptable health and safety standards. In contrast, the replacement school will be a warm, safe, modern-day K-12 teaching and learning facility serving a projected 728 day-school students from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribe.

The BIA’s 185 schools and dormitories have suffered for decades from neglect and disrepair. The five additional school facilities slated for replacement in FY2002 are: Polacca Day School, Polacca, Ariz.; Holbrook Dormitory, Holbrook, Ariz.; Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, N.M.; Wingate Elementary School Dormitory, Ft. Wingate, N.M.; and Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, Wash. The President’s request for BIA education also includes $5.0 million for advance planning and design of future replacement schools, $161.6 million to fund maintenance and repair projects to reduce the backlog of needed repairs to BIA school buildings, $504.0 million to fund BIA school and dormitory operations, and a $1.0 million increase for operating grants to 25 tribally controlled community colleges. The BIA’s mission is to fulfill its trust responsibilities and promote self-determination on behalf of Tribal governments, American Indians, and Alaska Natives. As part of its mission, the BIA provides services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of the 561 federally recognized Tribes in the 48 contiguous United States and Alaska.