OPA

Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to come back to Oregon as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This is the State where I began my professional interest in- the American Indian almost JO years ago. I was a graduate student in anthropology at that time and did my field work on the Klamath Reservation in the summer of 1934 and through the fall, winter and spring of 1935 and 19J6. The learning process is still going on--seven days a week, 365 days a year.

I am honored to be selected by the City Club of Portland as your guest speaker today. I welcome the opportunity of sharing with you some of the things I have learned about Indian affairs over the past three decades and of reporting to you, briefly, on the current status of our programs in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Two years ago this month an important milestone was reached in the history of the Bureau. On July 10, 1961 a task force of four members, including myself, completed an intensive three-month study of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We submitted a report of our findings and recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Stewart L. Udall. The report was subsequently approved, in the main, by Secretary Udall, and it became the charter of our present-day policies and programs. The keynote recommendation was a call for much greater emphasis on Indian development--both the development of Indians as people and the economic development of Indian-owned resources on the reservations.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of the oldest agencies in our Federal Government. Our origins go back to the colonial period and we have been in continuous existence for 139 years. Over this period of nearly 14 decades Congress has from time to time redefined and expanded the work of the Bureau until today our organization bears little resemblance to the purely diplomatic and trade-regulating agency that was originally established in 1824.

At present about 380,000 people come within the scope of our programs. This includes not only the Indians living on reservations throughout the country (like Warm Springs and Umatilla here in Oregon) but also all the people in the native villages of Alaska--Indian, Eskimo and Aleut--and large numbers of Indians living on trust or restricted land in former reservation areas of Oklahoma.

­­­­The responsibilities that we have with respect to these people are essentially twofold. On the one hand, we provide them with a variety of services such as education, welfare aid, police protection and road construction and maintenance in locations where these services are not available from the usual State and local agencies serving non-Indian citizens. Secondly, we serve as trustees for about 50 million acres of land that belongs to the Indian people. This includes most of the land making up the reservations as well as a number of scattered tracts known as public domain allotments. Nearly four-fifths of the total acreage-- about 39 million acres altogether--consists of tribal land which is the property of a whole tribal group. The balance is made up of comparatively small tracts which were allotted by the Government many years ago to individual tribal members. Because of the processes of inheritance, the ownership of many of these allot­ments has become exceedingly complex and this "heirship problem", as we call it, is one of our most troublesome administrative responsibilities.

As trustees, we are responsible not only for protecting the Indian owners of this land, tribal or individual, from improvident disposition or leasing of the property. We also assist them to achieve the highest possible income from the lands and related resources that is consistent with sound conservation principles. And this gets us into a second group of programs, mainly technical in nature, in such fields as forestry, range management, irrigation, credit, and leasing for mineral development or for surface uses such as agriculture, grazing, or commercial and industrial development.

So much for the older program operations of the Bureau--those that go back 30 or 40 years or even back to our beginnings. In the last dozen years or so, the Bureau has launched a number of new programs aimed at quickening the pace of economic advancement for Indian people and helping them to higher standards of living.

One of these, for example, is a program of employment assistance. This involves vocational training and the relocation of wage-earners and their dependents to urban-industrial areas for direct employment.

Another is our industrial development operation. By this program we encour­age the establishment of manufacturing plants of the light-industry type on or near the reservations so as to provide more steady jobs for Indian workers.

Still another example is our work in the field of housing development those of you who have visited Indian country know that their housing is truly shocking. Our newest program is an effort to improve the situation by adapting the estab­lished programs of the Federal housing agencies to reservation needs.

This will, I hope, give you some idea of what we are doing in the Bureau. It is, as you can see, a highly complex and multifaceted operation.

Three main goals were recommended by the Task Force. They now provide the orientation of all our program activities. They are (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency, (2) full participation of Indians in American life, and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians.

These are not novel goals. They are merely a statement with respect to Indians of what the rest of us seek for ourselves, the question is not whether they are desirable goals. I have yet to hear anyone disagree with them, the question is, "What are the best means by which these ends may be reached?"

There are two philosophies. One holds that the reservation system, with attendant trusteeship and the existence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs with its programs of property management and human betterment hold back individual Indians from reaching these desirable goals.

The other philosophy holds that the protection of property and the provision of special services is all that stands between Indian individuals and ultimate poverty, destitution, and dependency.

The truth, as usual, lies between the two extremes. Our present programs are designed to take into account the realities of Indian life as it is actually lived on and near the reservations, not as the ideologists of either extreme visualize it. The facts are that Indian people themselves place a high value on the Indian trusteeship. In the main they do not wish it to home to an end but regard it as a necessary and desirable relationship which is due them in return for lands needed and promises made long ago. Individually they chafe under its restrictions; collectively they resist efforts to end it.

Alongside this is the fact that most reservations are places of little opportunity. Life on a reservation can be grim and harsh. Al though many pros­perous and happy persons live on reservations and prefer it, they are the exception. Reservation life, for the bulk of Indian people, has meant an edu­cational level half that of the national average; an income one-fourth to one-third the national average; an unemployment rate six or seven times the national average; and age at death two-thirds the national average.

It has long been the objective of various Commissioners of Indian Affairs to bring these deplorable figures of human welfare closer to the American standard. As long as reservations exist, the trusteeship continues, and people live on reser­vations, it is the duty of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to devise programs and operate them so that these conditions of life will improve.

It was the opinion of the Task Force that the goals we described are attaina­ble, not a dream. Life on the reservations can be much better; while those who desire to leave the reservations and seek opportunity nearby or in metropolitan centers should be prepared and helped to succeed. The programs outlined by the Task Force now being placed in effect by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are programs of education and individual betterment both on and off the reservations; and of economic and community development on the reservations, looking toward a better life for all.

How much progress have we made in the two years since the Task Force Report was submitted? What remains to be done?

Let us look first at education, which is fundamental in any long-range program of human betterment. In the early part of 1961, even before the Task Force was appointed, President Kennedy urged the Congress to provide funds for an accelerated program of Indian school construction. The Indian school plant stretches from the Everglades of Florida to the Arctic Coast of Alaska. It includes nearly JOO separate installations, some old: some new, some large, some small. The older buildings are badly deteriorated and in urgent need of rehabil­itation or replacement. Furthermore, there have never been enough classroom seats, especially on the Navajo Reservation of the Southwest, and in Alaska, to accommodate the school-age population. The goal of President Kennedy's program in early 1961 was to provide facilities for all Indian children and to relieve overcrowding and hazardous conditions in obsolete boarding and day schools without delay.

Over the past two years Congress has responded generously. Enough funds "lave been provided to rehabilitate and modernize some of our worst "problem" structures. But the main effort has been to expand the capacity of the entire system by about 7,000 classroom seats and associated dormitory beds. Some of the projects made possible by these appropriations have now been completed.

Many more are under construction. The rest are in the design stage. In the meantime, of course, our school-age Indian population has been relentlessly increasing year by year along with the school-age population all over the country.

Aside from the construction aspect, we have made many other improvements in our education program over the past 24 months. Two-thirds of the Indian children go to public schools, but one-third of them live in isolated areas and are not served by public schools. Eighty percent of these children come from homes where English is not the household language. So we are giving much more attention to improving the techniques of English language instruction which I regard as crucially important.

In our boarding schools, where the children are our responsibility 24 hours a day and seven days a week throughout the academic year, we have substantially enlarged our staff of attendants and counsellors. We have upgraded the require­ments for many of these positions, and have increased their in-service training.

We have greatly expanded the scope of our summer programs which involve student employment, outdoor sports, acceleration of academic work, pre-school classes for children, and organized trips to national or regional points of interest for the older students. In the summer of 1960 about 2,000 Indian students took part in these programs; last summer the number was nearly 13,000; and this year it will go still higher.

During this period we have also established a new school, the Institute of American Indian Arts, on the grounds of our old boarding school at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our purpose here is to provide a first class residential high school plus two years of post-high school technical training. The students selected are Indian young people with special aptitudes in painting, sculpture, design, music, creative writing, ceramics, textiles and many other fine and applied arts. The school opened last fall on a partial basis with an enrollment of about 140 students from 74 tribes. This fall we are planning for a student body of approximately 250 in the arts courses. We will eventually reach 500.

Meanwhile we have expanded our adult education program on the reservations for the benefit of those adult Indians who went through childhood without suffi­cient schooling. We are now conducting adult education programs at 127 locations in Alaska and on Indian reservations here below. Two years ago the number was 97. Some of these are evening or day time classes to make up for lost schooling. Others are programs of community development,

In the field of higher education advances have also been made. Last year early 2,900 Indian young men and women were attending classes in colleges and universities, 724 of them with help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Each year since the Task Force Report we have doubled the Federal money available for higher education grants and loans.

One program of the Bureau that especially impressed us on the Task Force during the course of our study was that of adult vocational training. This activity was started in 1958; by the spring of 1961 it had shown itself to be a highly successful operation. It was equipping Indians, generally in the age bracket from 18 to 35, with marketable skills, boosting their earning power, and was providing them with greater job security than they had formerly known as unskilled workers. The rate of employment for those who finished training compared very favorably with that of the GI training program of the Veterans Administration. The Indians themselves were highly enthusiastic about these opportunities.

In the original legislation authorizing this program the amount of annual appropriation was limited to $3,500,000. In 1962 Congress more than doubled this authorization, raising it to $7,500,000. As a result of the steady increase in the money available, we now have twice as many Indians enrolled in vocational schools as we had two years ago; more than 1,300 at the end of May. Over the whole five year period since 1958 more than 8,900 Indians have received training

Indian students at the Bureau of Indian Affairs new Gray Hill High School will have the opportunity to become environmentalists, homemakers, and carpenters, all under the same roof. The school is now under construction on the Navajo Indian Reservation just outside of Tuba City, Ariz.

The $7.7 million federal installation is expected to be ready for youngsters from the 9th through the 12th grade by September 1972. Completion of an adjoining public school building is expected to follow. Construction on it will start during the 1971-72 school year.

The Bureau school will draw pupils from six elementary schools under the Tuba City Agency of the federal organization. It will serve 600 boarding school students. The public school is also expected to enroll about 600 day students.

A boarding school rather than a day school was designed because federal funds are not available to build a high school onto each elementary school. Distances in the land of the Navajo and Hopi are so great and the roads too few to bus all the youngsters to a single consolidated high school.

Tailored to Educate Navajos, Hopis

Gray Hill High School is being built to serve youngsters of the Navajo-Hopi community in the Southwest. There, will be no long walks through blowing reservation sand between school buildings because the new structure will have “all under one roof" architecture.

"Educational opportunities other than the minimum necessary to meet state standards will be included at Gray Hill High school," said Kirby K Jackson, school superintendent of the Tuba City Bureau of Indian Affairs Agency, headquarters for the planning of the school.

It will offer courses in Indian history and culture and attempt to build a concept of the Indian heritage to reinforce the student’s sense of their Indian identities.

Vocational courses will follow the thrust of job openings, on and near the Navajo and Hopi Reservations and throughout the nation.

Leaders of the Indian community the school serves say that the area is very short of skilled people those who can successfully repair an automobile, build a house, install plumbing and electric wiring. In an effort to fill this need, Gray Hill High School will have two multi-purpose shops in which enrollees of the school can learn both basic wood and metal working.

In keeping with the Indians typical reverence for his natural environment, the school will have a greenhouse in which plants can be started to landscape the school grounds. Through this project the school children can learn the "why" of soil erosion and overgrazing, both problems of the Navajo and Hopi land base.

The school will also offer enriched academic studies for those who elect a college preparatory curriculum.

The three-story dormitory that will house boarding school, pupils is designed to give each student maximum privacy. A large lobby will serve as a waiting room for parents who are encouraged to visit their children every weekend. Patio areas where the youngsters can develop gardens or hold cookouts will be built along the edge of the dormitory. Plans call for a duplicate dormitory to be built later.

A dining commons will also serve as a student union for dances and other recreational activities. Classrooms will be separated by dividers and all equipment will be portable. A lecture room can serve as a small auditorium or be divided into six classrooms.

Included in the design is a library and a TV center that can produce closed circuit television programs to be “piped in” to other portions of the school. A gymnasium to serve as a community meeting place and an athletic arena will have a seating capacity of 2,600.

A complex devoted entirely to personnel services and offering the privacy of conference areas will enable counsellors to "work with pupils individually and will also house meetings of the student body council.

School Reflects Community Planning

"Gray Hill High School has involved more community planning. A than any other Bureau of Indian Affairs school” said the Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent at Tuba City.

The development of educational specifications for the Bureau high school started when a questionnaire was submitted to Navajo and Hopi parents, tribal leaders, prospective pupils, and other citizens in the area.

Then the federal planners studied an eight-state project in designing education for the future and the educational specifications of two Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools that have been operating for some time: Albuquerque Indian School and Wingate High School.

Next came days of meetings of the Technical Planning Committee. First it developed a philosophy. Then it drew up 20 basic assumptions as to the future the Gray Hills High School pupils would face. Both were refined after Indian committee members had submitted them to their home communities.

After a working draft of school specifications were developed, meetings were held at Tuba City with the Community Advisory Council. These meetings helped the council to better understand the Gray Hill High School students and the facility it would take to serve them

The contractor now building the school on what was once a sagebrush covered slope is Lebke Construction Co., Albuquerque, N. M.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Carl Artman today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Great Plains Regional office will host the 10th Annual Great Plains Tribal Economic Development Summit April 15-16, 2008, in Sioux Falls, S.D. The theme for this year’s summit, “Contemporary Economic Resources for Great Plains Tribes,” reflects a renewed commitment to the Bureau’s overall emphasis on modernization.

“We are excited about this 10th anniversary milestone and the exciting economic growth in Indian Country it represents,” said Alice Harwood, acting BIA Regional Director, Great Plains Region. “The Summit provides a place where resources and ideas connect with the many excellent economic opportunities available in the Great Plains region and throughout Indian Country.”

The Summit will feature Juni Kae Randall, founding director of Circle of Nations Publishing and creator of the critically-acclaimed PBS series, “Indian Pride” to present the opening keynote address. Additional featured speakers will include Elsie Meeks, Executive Director of First Nations Oweesta, Lance Morgan, CEO, Ho-Chunk, Inc. and Dr. Robert Middleton, Director, Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, Office of Indian Affairs. The Summit will also have sessions on tribal energy development, gaining financial resources, community development financial institutions, government and corporate procurement, contemporary tribal management, financial literacy, and successful Indian Country entrepreneurship. In addition, a number of the tribal leaders in the region will discuss their economic achievements and plans for the future.

The Great Plains Region encompasses the Tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska. The Summit provides opportunities for those interested in improving tribal economies to convene, learn from best practices and network. It is attended by tribal government leaders, tribal economic development staff, non-profits, financial institutions, State and Federal agency staff, and others interested stakeholders.

Co-sponsors of the Summit are: the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development; Citigroup; Ho-Chunk, Inc.; Mandaree Enterprises Corporation; First Nations Oweesta; PLAINS Procurement Learning for American Indian Nations & Societies; Seventh Generation Fund and Wells Fargo Bank. For more information about the Summit, please contact Dani Daugherty, Economic Development Specialist, BIA Great Plains Regional office at 605-290-4089.

--DOI--

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, today announced new leadership for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Weldon ‘Bruce’ Loudermilk will succeed Michael S. Black as Director of the BIA and Tony Dearman will be the new Director of the BIE.

Michael Black, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has served as BIA Director since April 2010. Mr. Black will move to a new role as Senior Advisor to the BIA Director, ensuring a smooth transition and continuing to be a senior member of the BIA team.

“It’s vitally important to our Nation-to-Nation relationship that BIA and BIE leadership remains strong as we transition between Administrations,” said Secretary Jewell. “Our actions today ensure that Indian Country will continue to be well-served at the highest career levels. Bruce and Tony bring talent and experience as managers of Indian Affairs offices and programs and will be advocates for tribes, playing critical roles in carrying out our trust and treaty obligations, and furthering our commitment to tribal self-governance and self-determination.”

Weldon ‘Bruce’ Loudermilk is a longtime veteran of federal service to Indian tribes and Alaska Natives. He is a citizen of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana and has served as the BIA Regional Director for the Alaska Region since January 2014.

Prior to serving as the Alaska Regional Director, Loudermilk served as the Great Plains Regional Director from 2010 to 2014 and before that, as the Deputy Regional Director-Indian Services, Great Plains Region from March 2008 to June 2010. Prior to joining the BIA, Loudermilk provided leadership in the Interior Department’s Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) as a Financial Trust Services Officer and as a Fiduciary Trust Officer. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Montana State University-Billings and a Master’s Degree from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Tony Dearman, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, had served as the Associate Deputy Director for bureau-operated schools since November 2015, where he helped implement the BIE reorganization and reform, overseeing 17 schools, four off-reservation boarding schools, and one dormitory. Before that, Dearman served as the superintendent at Riverside Indian School, a BIE-operated boarding school, where he helped develop and plan a new academic high school building and two residential dormitories.

Dearman earned an Associate of Arts Degree from Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He also received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education and a Master's Degree in School Administration from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He currently holds science, physical education, principal, and superintendent certifications.

As Director of the BIE, Dearman will oversee all facilities providing schooling for nearly 50,000 American Indian and Alaska Native students from the country’s federally recognized tribes. He also oversees the Deputy Bureau Director for school operations, Chief Academic Officer, and three Associate Deputy Directors who are responsible for education resource centers serving 183 BIE-funded elementary and secondary day and boarding schools and peripheral dormitories located on 64 reservations in 23 states. The BIE also serves post-secondary students through higher education scholarships and support funding to 27 tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges.

Jewell further said, “Mike Black deserves our thanks and admiration for his dedicated service as Director of the BIA, especially focusing on the important work of restoring tribal homelands, returning leasing decisions to the hands of tribal communities, and facilitating tribal economic opportunities. Mike is the longest serving Director in the BIA’s history, and we are grateful for his dedication, enthusiasm and commitment to public service.”

Black will now be stationed in Billings, Montana where he will help BIA manage implementation of the Land Buy Back Program, the Indian Energy Service Center, and assistance to regions in western time zones.

Black thanked the Administration for the opportunity to serve Indian Country as BIA Director, saying, “It has been an honor and a privilege to work with this policy team and the many people, both BIA and Tribal, who demonstrate their commitment and dedication to Indian Country every day. I want to thank everyone who supported me and helped to carry out our mission.”

On the new leadership announcements, Roberts said, “Bruce’s commitment to Indian country, his wealth of knowledge having served in a leadership role for two regions, and his years of experience in leadership with Mike and the other Regional Directors will ensure a seamless transition in our service to Indian country. Tony’s record as a senior leader in the BIE, in school administration, and in the classroom, demonstrates his passion to serve Indian Country and our children, and I know he will ensure that BIE's progress continues to provide Native students the world class education that they deserve.”

Roberts also thanked Mike Black, noting he led BIA’s successful effort to return 500,000 acres of tribal homelands to trust status and was key to the implementation of new leasing and right-of-way regulations. “Mike’s commitment to Indian Country has shown in every aspect of his work, and that will continue in his new role as a senior member of the BIA team.”

Ann Marie Bledsoe Downs, who served as interim BIE Director since March 2016, will remain in her role as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development.

On her service as interim BIE Director, Secretary Jewell said, “I commend Ann Marie for stepping up to serve as interim BIE Director, leading the important transformation effort. Ann Marie’s vision, guidance and persistence have served BIE students, staff and teachers well and we commend her for her tireless and effective leadership in support of tribal youth.”

-DOI-

WASHINGTON– Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke directed all Department of the Interior bureaus, superintendents, and land managers at all levels to adopt more aggressive practices, using the full authority of the Department, to prevent and combat the spread of catastrophic wildfires through robust fuels reduction and pre-suppression techniques.

This year-to-date, 47,700 wildfires have burned 8 million acres across the country, with the majority of the devastation in the states of California and Montana. High-profile fires in Yosemite and Glacier National Parks have caught national headlines, however millions of acres of forest and grassland have burned in recent months.

"This Administration will take a serious turn from the past and will proactively work to prevent forest fires through aggressive and scientific fuels reduction management to save lives, homes, and wildlife habitat. It is well settled that the steady accumulation and thickening of vegetation in areas that have historically burned at frequent intervals exacerbates fuel conditions and often leads to larger and higher-intensity fires," said Secretary Zinke. "These fires are more damaging, more costly, and threaten the safety and security of both the public and firefighters. In recent fire reviews, I have heard this described as 'a new normal.' It is unacceptable that we should be satisfied with the status quo. We must be innovative and where new authorities are needed, we will work with our colleagues in Congress to craft management solutions that will benefit our public lands for generations to come."

The Secretary is directing managers and superintendents of units that have burnable vegetation to address the threat of fire in all of their activities, and to use the full range of existing authorities, to reduce fuels.

Bryan Rice, Director of the Office of Wildland Fire, said, "It is critical to fully consider the benefits of fuels reduction in the everyday management activities that we carry out for our public land management objectives, such as clearing along roadsides, around visitor use areas like campgrounds and trails, near employee housing areas, and within administrative site areas subject to wildfire."

The Department has lost historic structures in wildfires like Glacier National Park's historic Sperry Chalet lodge. In an effort to help prevent future losses, the Secretary is also directing increased protection of Interior assets that are in wildfire prone areas, following the Firewise guidance, writing: "If we ask local communities to 'be safer from the start' and meet Firewise standards, we should be the leaders of and the model for 'Firewise-friendly' standards in our planning, development, and maintenance of visitor-service and administrative facilities."

“I welcome Secretary Zinke’s new directive and his attention to the catastrophic fires taking place in many western states,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Treating our landscapes mitigates wildfire risk, increases firefighter safety, and makes our forests and rangelands healthy and resilient. We can no longer delay the implementation of this important work.”

House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop said, "We must ensure our land management agencies have the tools and resources they need to protect communities and landscapes from catastrophic wildfire. Over the long term, Congress and the Administration must work together to reverse the sorry state of our federal forests and grasslands. I’m heartened to finally have an Administration that’s focused on actively managing and addressing the on-the-ground conditions that are contributing to our historic wildfire crisis. I hope to build on this by enacting comprehensive legislation to restore the health and resiliency of federal lands.”

"If we don't start managing our forests, the forests are going to start managing us," said Montana Senator Steve Daines. "The fires burning across Montana are a catastrophe, and we need all available resources to combat this threat. I applaud Secretary Zinke’s action to focus resources on attacking wildfires."

“I applaud Secretary Zinke’s effort to thin the threat. If we can reduce the fuel loads in our forests and rangelands we will provide our fire fighters more defensible space to do their jobs," said Idaho Senator James Risch. "We need bold actions like this not just for the hurricanes in the south and east but also to avert the devastation caused by the wildfires in the west.”

“More than 50 million acres in the United States are currently at risk for catastrophic wildfire. That is why we must act to prevent calamitous fires. Management actions taken by Secretary Zinke today will not completely stop the risk, but it is an important step forward in our fight to turn unhealthy, overgrown, and infested forests into thriving, healthy ecosystems," said Congressman Bruce Westerman. "I commend Secretary Zinke for recognizing this emergency situation and taking steps to address prevent further loss of life and property due to these preventable, catastrophic wildfires. I am committed to working with him and my colleagues in Congress to find a permanent solution to this problem that emphasizes active forest management as the first line of defense against catastrophic wildfires.”

With Western Fire season reaching its natural peak in September, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) elevated the National Fire Preparedness Level to “5”, the highest level NMAC declares, on August 10, 2017. Above normal major-fire activity continues to be observed across portions of the Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies, northern Great Basin, and northern California. Fuel moisture levels and fire danger indices in these areas are at near-record to record levels for severity. Drier and warmer than average conditions across the central Great Basin and Southern California are allowing for the fine fuels to become more receptive to fire activity.

See the full memo below.

Memorandum

To: Assistant Secretaries

Heads of Bureaus and Offices

Regional Directors

State Directors

Superintendents

Refuge Managers

District Managers

Field Office Managers

From: Secretary

Subject: Wildland Fire Directive

In June of this year, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and I gave direction on a broad strategy for addressing wildfire by managing our firefighting assets in the most efficient way possible. (2017 Direction to Wildland Fire Leadership Memorandum). As we anticipated, 2017 is challenging our wildland firefighting capabilities with a significant number of fires and acres burned to date. Nonetheless, I am pleased that you have taken to heart our direction to work together more effectively and to seek more opportunities to work with state and local partners. Secretary Perdue and I heard in Montana from local fire chiefs and county officials about the degree to which our teams have “collaborated from Day 1.” This collaboration has already made a difference, and I thank you.

It is well settled that the steady accumulation of vegetation in areas that have historically burned at frequent intervals exacerbates fuel conditions and often leads to larger and higher-intensity fires. These fires are more damaging, more costly, and threaten the safety and security of both the public and firefighters. In recent fire reviews, I have heard this described as “a new normal.” However, that does not mean that we should continue to address our challenges in the same ways that we have in the past. We must think differently about the threat of wildfire and how we manage public lands in ways that integrate fuels reduction – where it makes sense – into all our activities.

To our line officials – the field, district and refuge managers, and park and agency superintendents – I want to thank you for your response in deploying key staff to the wildfire emergencies (and now hurricanes) across the Nation. As the public continues to visit their lands in great numbers, we cannot await a weeks-off, season-ending event to think about how best to address the potential threat of catastrophic wildfires. Even as fires continue to burn, I ask that you think about a different way of managing public lands to better incorporate fuels management into your resource-management planning.

One of our Federal fire strategic goals is to ensure that landscapes and communities across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances in accord with management objectives. A key part of implementing such a strategy is carrying out activities that address vegetation composition and structure and also alters fuel loads to reduce hazards. Such methods of fuel treatment safeguard public and firefighter safety and protect our landscapes, scenic vistas, and natural and historic objects; our neighbors, nearby communities, and infrastructure; and our own administrative and visitor service assets and facilities.

For our managers and superintendents of units that have burnable vegetation, I am directing you to think about fire in a new and aggressive way. Address the threat of fire in all of your activities, rather than engaging only the fire staff. All land managers across the Department of the Interior (Department) have a responsibility, using the full range of existing authorities, to consider using fuels management to achieve their programs’ and units’ resource- and land-management objectives. Where dead and dying trees have become hazards that can carry fire across our boundaries or into areas that are a threat to values-at-risk, we must move aggressively to minimize that threat. If we don’t have the people on hand, we have authorities to contract it to capable resource managers in the private sector. It makes little sense to be thinning to protect structures when we see flames on the ridge and smoke in the air—fuel management is more effective when undertaken before fires break out.

Where our roads have narrowed over the years as vegetation and trees have encroached, even into ditches and onto shoulders, we should be clearing this vegetation away. In our administrative and employee housing areas where we have allowed the natural landscape to grow closer to our structures, we should remove the fire threat to create defensible space. If we ask local communities to “be safer from the start” and meet Firewise standards, we should be the leaders of and the model for “Firewise-friendly” standards in our planning, development, and maintenance of visitor-service and administrative facilities.

I will be asking our program officials at the Department level to call for appropriate reviews and identification of resource needs and data gaps. Each of you should ensure your fire management plans are up to date and include the identified needs for a robust fuels-management program to support wildfire prevention and suppression efforts to be developed and implemented by both fire and other resource staff.

I ask you to do the following: 1) use our existing policies more aggressively; 2) think differently about how those policies may be applied; 3) look for opportunities to partner with adjacent agencies, state and local governments, tribes, and private landowners to maximize resources; 4) look carefully at your existing management plans and ask if you are doing all you can today to address the threats of tomorrow; and 5) ensure that our landscapes are restored and maintained to meet our mission.

In our June memo, Secretary Perdue and I emphasized our implementation of Federal wildland fire policy and its emphasis on firefighter and public safety. That emphasis remains.

We must also identify ways to address the realities we face in a safer and more effective manner. We simply cannot afford to continue business as usual. We must do everything we can to address the steady accumulation of fuels on our Nation’s public lands and the resulting increased threats from catastrophic wildfires.

You and your staff are critical to making the changes necessary to better address the challenges we will face together in the future.

NOTE: Heads of bureaus and offices shall distribute this memorandum to all regional and/or state directors, district managers, field office managers, superintendents, and/or refuge managers.

It is a great pleasure to be here and l am highly honored to address this first graduating class of reservation Police officers trained at Brigham City, which represents the beginning of a new era and a new chapter in Indian community self-awareness.

I bring greetings from Secretary of the Interior Morton and the regrets of the Assistant to the Secretary for Indian Affairs Marvin Franklin who could not accept your invitation because of pressing matters in Washington.

This graduation marks a milestone in the progress of Indian people towards self-determination.

As you begin your careers as professional law enforcement officers we hope you will take deep pride in the profession you have chosen. I use the word profession because it infers a career choice, rather than just a job. You, as graduate police officers, have a two-fold role. First, you are community servants. The role of the police is to keep people out of jail when possible but at the same time the officer must enforce the law fairly equitably.

Second, you are Indian police. You have been trained to deal with problems that do not ordinarily confront non-reservation law officers. Because all of you are Indians, you are deeply aware of the needs and problems facing the Indian communities. Because of this "inside knowledge," you are in a better position to offer alternatives.

You are special in other ways as well. You graduates were selected because you are capable of handling difficult situations. At the same time you are servants of the community, you are also important citizens in that community. Your role is to enforce the law in a straightforward way, without favoritism or arbitrary action. You were able to finish a rigorous training program. You are protectors of the people as well as enforcers of the law; one responsibility is just as important as the other.

Being a law enforcement officer is more than just going through a course of finalized instruction and then out to work an assigned beat. As with other professions, to be really top-notch, you must keep on top of what's happening in your career field. Part of being a professional is constant self­ education and, most important, self-awareness. This graduating class, and those that will follow, has been trained by specialists from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States. Marshall's Service, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Tax Unit of the Treasury, and the Utah State Police.

However, the training does not with your graduation. Because of the need to professionalize Indian police- work, there is now under development a nationwide special Operations Service designed to tie together law enforcement groups on reservations into an efficient national body. Plans are under­way to make this Special Operations Service an elite, well-trained mobile response unit. As a part of this sweeping program of mandatory training, these reservation officers will have behind them additional staff help, the best of equipment, and funds for further continuous training.

These graduates are living proof of the realization of the policy of self-determination for American Indians outlined by President Nixon in his special message to Congress in 1970. The eyes of Indian people everywhere are on you; we hope that you, as Indian police officers, will continue to earn the pride of the people and Government you have to serve.

And finally, it is my pleasure to present to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Police Academy an American flag flown over the United States Capitol in your honor. It was secured through the help of Congressman Manuel Lujan, Jr., of Albuquerque the ranking minority member of the Subcommittee of the House of Representatives, Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, who sends his heartiest congratulations and best wishes for a most worthy career.

Assistant Attorney General J. Stanley Pottinger announced today the creation of an Office of Indian Rights within the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

Carl Stoiber, senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division and head of the special task force on Indian rights, has been named Director of the new Office. R. Dennis Ickes will serve as Deputy Director.

Mr. Pottinger, head of the Civil Rights Division, said, “The Department of Justice has a special statutory mandate to protect the civil rights of American Indian citizens, and, therefore, the Office of Indian Rights will have both a litigative and coordinative function to carry out this mandate. “

Mr. Pottinger said the new Indian Rights Section is amount growth of a special Division task force that has been actively engaged in studying the legal problems of Native American Indians since last January.

Mr. Pottinger said after a careful review of this task force's findings, he recommended to Attorney General Elliott L. Richardson the need to establish a permanent Office of Indian Rights.

The Office of Indian Rights will have the responsibility of enforcing federal statutes regarding the civil rights of American Indians, primarily Title II of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, commonly known as the lndian Bill of Rights,

Under this Title, individual Indian citizens are protected from violations of Constitutional rights by their own tribal council.

The Office of Indian Rights will also have the responsibility of conducting litigation in appropriate cases and recommending intervention or friend of the court participation. The new section also will coordinate Civil Rights Division activities regarding Indians.

Mr. Pottinger said he eventually hopes the office will have six attorneys and appropriate support personnel.

Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton has assured representatives of the Indian tribe that the Interior Department is committed to finding “a practicable way'' to deliver which the tribe is entitled as recognized in a 1965 agreement, involving construction of the Central Utah Project.

In a statement released in Washington today, Secretary Morton said the Department intends to carry out terms of the water agreement "with all possible dispatch," and that he has ordered the Bureau of Reclamation to expedite its feasibility report on phases of the Central Utah Project.

The statement came after a meeting Monday in Washington between Secretary Morton, other Interior officials, and representatives of the Ute Tribe including Homey J. Secakuku, Tribal Chairman; Francis Wyasket, member of the Tribal Council and former Chairman, and John Boyden of Salt Lake City, attorney.

The Indians had requested Secretary Morton to assure them that their water rights would be protected during the various phases of construction of the Central Utah Project, a multi-unit diversion project to supply water to growing population centers in Utah.

"I have conferred with the representatives of the Ute Indian Tribe in Washington, D.C., today," Secretary Morton said after the meeting in his office. "I want to confirm that the Department of the Interior is fully committed to finding a practicable way to deliver to the Ute Indian Tribe the water to which it is entitled under the Winters Doctrine as recognized in the Indian Deferral Agreement of 1965. We are going forward with this program with all possible dispatch.

"Without intending to modify my previous announcement concerning the Central Utah Project, I have directed the Bureau of Reclamation to complete on an expedited basis the Uintah Unit feasibility report, which includes an analysis of the Uintah and White Rocks reservoirs. Further, we shall continue the investigations of the ultimate phase of the Central Utah Project."

The statement today followed an announcement by the Department on November 8 that the Bureau of Reclamation will soon call for bids for construction of the Currant Creek Dam and Reservoir, features of the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project. Secretary Morton promised then that the Department would refine and resolve issues dealing with the streamflows in the Uintah Basin and irrigation of Ute Tribe lands.

The Ute Tribe entered into a four-party agreement in 1965 with the

Central Utah Conservancy District, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under that agreement the Ute Indians agreed to the deferment of the use of a certain amount of Indian water in return for recognition of rights to that water. The deferment continues until 2005, when either the ultimate phase of the Central Utah Project will be completed and the deferred water replaced, or "equitable adjustment" will be made.

In resolution October 2, 1973, the Indians called upon the Secretary "to reaffirm the commitments of the United States, or to inform the Tribe as to how the United States could feasibly discharge its additional trust responsi­bility to assist the tribe in applying to beneficial use the water rights of the Tribe without the Central Utah Project as contemplated by said agreement."

This week's meeting was an outgrowth of the October 2 request and the November 8 Interior Department announcement.

Morris Thompson, 34, Athabascan Indian and native of the State of Alaska, was sworn in yesterday as Commissioner of Indian Affairs by Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton to become the 41st and youngest Commissioner of the 141-year-old B1U'eau of Indian Affairs

"Of all the people I have talked with about the complexity and challenge and role that we have in the Department of the Interior regarding American Indians, Morris Thompson has had the most universal grasp," said Secretary Morton as he introduced the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs to a Department of the Interior auditorium filled with Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, the Alaska and other Congressional delegates, friends of the new Commissioner from Alaska and elsewhere and officials of the Department of the Interior.

He also pointed to Thompson's record in administering the complex facets of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which will put one-twelfth of the State of Alaska in the hands of Alaska Natives beginning early in 1974.

After taking the oath of office, Thompson said "I accept this responsibility only because of the faith and confidence I have in this Administration, this Congress, and the many dedicated employees of the Bureau and most of all my faith and confidence in the Indian people of America."

He continued: "We have" just endured some the stormiest months ever in Indian Affairs. One positive result of this, however, is that this country now has a new awareness of Indian needs. With the positive actions being taken by this Administration and this Congress, and the emergence of strong Indian leadership both at the local and national levels, the climate is right for truly meaningful progress."

Thompson paid particular respects to Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior whom Morton pointed out had taken the administrative control in the absence of a Commissioner of Indian Affairs. "Mr. Franklin agreed to accept this post and the reins of the Bureau at probably the most difficult period in Indian affairs history. During this time, he had the ability to see through the many distractions and helped the Bureau re-focus its attention on its primary mission --meeting its trust responsibilities and providing services to Indians."

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton earlier paid tribute to tribal leaders for their contribution to solutions for Indian problems.

Thompson was born in Tanana, Alaska, September 11, 1939. On March 1, 1971, he was named by then Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce as the Alaska Area Director of the Bureau. Thompson was the first Alaska Native to be Alaska Area Director and was the youngest man ever to be named to a BIA Area Director post.

Prior to his Alaska assignment, Thompson had served in the Department of the Interior as a special assistant for Indian Affairs to former Secretary Walter J. Hickel.

Thompson is married to the former Thelma Mayo, Fort Yukon, Alaska, three children.