OPA

A Northeast Region Advisory Committie appointed by Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton on April 24, is the first of the public advisory bodies to be named for each of the six regions of the National Park Service.

"This group of interested private citizens, and those to be appointed for five other National Park System regions, will provide for a free exchange of ideas between the National Park Service and the public on current problems and programs," Secretary Morton said.

Secretary Morton announced the following committee to work with Chester L. Brooks, director of the Service's Northeast Region: Lewis W. Jones, Bloomington, Ill.; Fred D. Hartley, Kenosha, Wis., and Frederick R. Micha, Ontario, N. Y., three year appointments; Dr. Graham Netting, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Norman G. Duke, Lorain, Oh., and Ralph MacMullen, Lansing, Mich., two years; William L. Lieber, Indianapolis, Ind.; Charles H. W. Foster, Needham, Mass., and Hyman J. Cohen, Arlington, Va., one year. Though subsequent appointments are expected to be for three years, the initial teams, chosen by lot, were staggered to provide for an annual rotation of membership in the future.

While many individual parks have their own advisory groups, Secretary Morton pointed out that regional advisory committee activities will be concerned with the many natural, historical and recreational areas within entire regions.

Under the General Authorities Law of 1970, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to "appoint and establish such advisory committees in regard to the functions of the National Park Service as he may deem advisable" Each committee will consist of nine public members appointed by the Secretary.

The National Park Service's Northeast Region is headquartered at Philadelphia and includes 19 States: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce, today announced that Flore Lekanof, 45, an Aleut and Acting Director of Community Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be Director of Alaska Native Affairs and assume the duties of that post immediately. In that capacity he will coordinate Bureau efforts that will result from enactment of Alaska Native land claims legislation.

In making the announcement Commissioner Bruce said: "This is just the beginning of an immensely complex involvement of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Land Management in service to the Native people of Alaska. Other Bureaus of the department are also involved, but to a lesser extent. Among these are the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife service, Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines.

"Lekanof will coordinate Alaska Native activities throughout the Bureau and with other Bureaus."

Before coming to BIA’ s Washington Office, Lekanof was Executive Director of Alaska State Community Action Programs (ASCAP) and Chairman of the Alaska Federation of Natives. He was twice elected President of the Aleut League, was a consultant to the Alaska Federation of Natives, and taught in Bureau and Alaskan public schools.

He is active now in the Alaska Federation of Natives and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAl).

Lekanof has a B.A. from Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington, and an M.S. degree from the University of Washington.

The first 14, Indian athletes named to the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame at Lawrence, Kansas, will be formally inducted November 25, according to the Board, which includes representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Nine of the Athletes will be inducted posthumously.

Ceremonies marking the occasion will be held in the Student Union Building of Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kansas. A display room has been set aside to house the memorabilia on Indian sports heroes until the Hall of Fame Building can be erected on the famed Haskell campus.

The American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame will stand as a historical record and tribute to the abilities of Indian athletes and as art inspiration for Indian youth seeking to develop rewarding and productive lives. The Hall of Fame was incorporated as a non-profit organization in August 1972 in the State of Kansas. It will be supported by private donations.

Haskell Indian Junior College was selected as the home of the Hall of Fame because of its prominent history. The great Haskell Institute teams of the late 1920's won nationwide acclaim for their football prowess.

Billy Mills, Oglala Sioux Indian and Director of Recreation, Physical Education and Athletics for the BIA, is representing Commissioner Louis R. Bruce on the Hall of Fame Board to bring plans to fruition. He is a Haskell graduate who became the first American ever to win the Olympic 10,000-meter run in 1964.

The fourteen athletes to be inducted were selected in September by a five-member committee from the Board consisting of George LaVatta, Portland, Oreg.; Harold Schunk, Rapid City, S.D.; Albert Hawley, Phoenix, Ariz.; Elijah Smith, Riverside Calif.; and Mills.

Other members of the Board are Clarence Acoya, Denver, Colo.; Walter McDonald, Billings, Mont.; Dr. Walter Soboloff, Juneau, Alaska; Roger Jourdain, Minneapolis, Minn.; Joe Watson, Navajo Area; Overton James, Anadarko, Okla.; Clarence Tallbull, Phoenix, Ariz.; and Fred Owl, Cherokee, .N. C.

The nine to be inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame include:

Jim Thorpe -- Potawatomi/Sac & Fox Tribe. Born Prague, Okla., 1888, died 1953. Attended Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, Pa., and Cumberland Valley College, Fa. Named All-American halfback at Carlisle 1908, 1911 and 1912. Gold Medal winner in the Pentathlon and the Decathlon at the 1912
Olympic games. Voted greatest athlete of the 1st half century.

Charles A., "Chief" Bender -- Chippewa Tribe. Born Brainard, Minn., 1884, died 1954. Attended Carlisle Indian School. Major league pitcher for Philadelphia, 1903 - 1917. Played in World Series· of 1905, 1909, 1911, 1913 and 1914. Named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1953.

John Levi -- Arapaho Tribe. Born Bridgeport Territory, Okla., 1898, died 1946. Attended Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas, 1921 - 1924. All-American fullback in football and named Haskell's greatest all-around athlete. Jim Thorpe called him "The greatest athlete I have ever seen."

Rueben Sanders -- Tututni, Rogue River Indian. Born Corvallis, Ore., 1876, died 1957. Attended Chemawa Indian School, Ore., excelled in football, baseball, track and bike riding. Achieved the distinction of being one of the greatest all-time football players and all-around athletes in the State of Oregon.

John "Chief" Meyers -- Cahuilla Band. Born Riverside, Calif., 1880, died 1970. Attended Riverside High School and Dartmouth College. Played major; league baseball with New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1908 ­- 1916. Batted 358 with 1913 Giants. Earned title of "Ironman" as Giant catcher from 1911 - 1913.

Joseph N. Guyon -- White Earth Chippewa Tribe. Born White Earth, Minn., 1892, died 1971. Attended Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, Pa., 1911 -1914; Georgia Tech, 1917 - 1918. Named All-American at Carlisle 1913 and 1914 and All-American at Georgia Tech 1917 and 1918. Played professional football with Kansas City Cowboys and New York Giants. Named to National Professional Football Hall of Fame, 1966.

Louis Tewanima -- Hopi Tribe. Born Second Mesa, Ariz., 1877, died 1969. Attended Carlisle Indian School, 1907 - 1912. Member of the 1908 Olympic Team, ninth in the Marathon. Member of the 1912 Olympic Team, second place in 10,000-meters. Named to Arizona sport Hall of Fame, 1957; Helms Foundation member to the all-time U.S. Track and Field Team, 1954. Established a new world record in the ten-mile run, 1909.

Alexander Arcasa -- Colville Tribe. Born Orient, Wash., 1890, died 1962. Attended Carlisle Indian School 1909 - 1912. Excelled in football and lacrosse. Named to Walter Camp's All-American team of 1912. Camp's second choice after Jim Thorpe.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will transfer fifteen Alaskan village day schools to the state school system at the end of this school year. Deputy Assistant Secretary John Fritz ordered the transfer completed by June 15.

The move is part of a plan to transfer all BIA schools in Alaska to the state.

In 1982-83, the BIA will operate 22 village schools and one boarding high school in Alaska. At the end of that year the high school will be closed and the village schools transferred to the state.

Fritz noted that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' schools for the Alaska Natives were established to meet needs until the state was able to assume the responsibility. He added that the BIA and the state had formalized an agreement in 1963 for the transfer of Bureau schools to state administration, At one time there were as many as 120 BIA schools in Alaska. Transfers have occurred intermittently over the years. Village councils for each of the fifteen schools to be transferred this year have passed resolutions of concurrence in the transfer plan. Fritz said that all school property and equipment together with the buildings would be transferred to state ownership.

Stanley D. Lyman, 58, former Superintendent of the Fort Peck, Montana and Uintah and Ouray, Utah, Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies was today named Superintendent of the Bureau's Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, borne of the Oglala Sioux Indians, by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce, himself a member of the Oglala Sioux as well as the Mohawk Indian tribe.

Lyman will assume his post October 17.

He replaces Brice L. Lay, who recently became Chief of the Bureau’s Division of Public School relations in Albuquerque.

Said the Commissioner in announcing the appointment: "We are pleased that we have a man with' a solid background in administration and in dealing with Indian people assuming the Pine Ridge post."

Lyman received his BA in 1936 from Yankton College, S. Dak., and his MA in 1944 from Colorado State University.

He began his government career with the Department of agriculture in 1941 as an assistant rehabilitation supervisor at Pine Ridge, S.D. He then became a farm labor assistant and program supervisor for the Department of Agriculture at Belle Fourche, S. Dak. Returning to Pine Ridge in 1952 to join the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a placement officer.

He became a placement and relocation officer at the Aberdeen Area Office, Aberdeen, S. Dak., and Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1953 and a field relocation officer at Denver in 1954. He moved from Denver to Chicago to become a supervisory relocation officer in 1958 and was named Superintendent of the Fort Peck Agency in 1962 and the Uintah and Ouray Agency in 1967.

He is married and the father of a son and a daughter.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It is a privilege to be here. Surely the presence of so much talent at the National Archives Conference on Research in the history of Indian-white relations underlines the importance of this event.

I want to thank Mr. James Rhoads, Archivist of the United States s Miss Jane Smith and Mr. Robert Kvasnicka s Directors of the Conference, for hosting this impressive agenda and this even more impressive assemblage. I think that Indian people need to have the complete record -- and I strongly emphasize complete record -­ set straight once and for all. It is thrilling that we have here today American spokesmen who will achieve this for Indian people.

When president Nixon "appointed me Commissioner of Indian Affairs in August 1969, I immediately set about the monumental task of acquainting myself with as much as possible of the written material about American Indians as is available in the Libraries and Archives of Washington, D.C. and New York. I confess I didn't even finish all of the Annual Reports of my predecessors in the Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Nor was I able to get through even a small percentage of the massive collection of historical and social documents that make up the extant body of American Indian history.

I did, however, take note of the fact that most of what I read and reviewed had not been written by Indians. I realized that the very complex circumstances that would have made it possible for any estimable part of this history to have been written by Indians themselves did not exist when the largest part of it was written. From this experience I said to myself: The day will come soon when American Indians will write and judge their own history as it relates to the overall history of this continent. I think I can now say that it is no longer an impossibility for Indian scholars and writers to take charge of this academic territory.

Since I came to Washington in 1969, the face of Indian America has undergone some dramatic and far reaching changes. Not in this century has there been such a volume of creative turbulence in Indian country. The will for self-determination has become a vital component of the thinking of Indian leadership and the grassroots Indian on every reservation and in every city. It is an irreversible trend, a tide in the destiny of American Indians that will eventually compel all of America once and for all to recognize the dignity and human rights of Indian people.

For the past three years I have been at the vortex of this surge toward true and lasting self-determination. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been undergoing an unprecedented metamorphosis, which I'm sure many of you know about.

Soon after I assumed the position of Commissioner, I announced, with President Nixon's approval realignment of the top positions in the BIA Central Office and: appointed a new executive staff composed of 15 Indians and Alaskan Natives. This marked a milestone in BIA history. Today more Indians than ever before are holding key BIA management positions and working to implement the self-determination policy of this Administration. Indian direction of Indian affairs has become the cornerstone for policy-making in the Nixon Administration.

In his July 1970 special message to the Congress on Indian affairs, President Nixon set forth future Federal Indian policy directions. He called for a "New era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions." The President urged the Congress "To renounce, repudiate and repeal" the policy of terminating Federal aid to Indian reservations expressed in 1953 in House Concurrent Resolution 108. Last December, the Senate acted on this recommendation to repeal the termination policy toward Indians and replace it with a new policy that would have self- determination a major goal. The switch was embodied in a "Sense of Congress" Resolution that was adopted by voice vote without dissent. The Resolution is now awaiting action in the House of Representatives.

In his Indian message, President Nixon announced proposals for Indian control of Indian education, Indian direction of federally funded programs, an Indian Trust Counsel Authority, an Indian credit program, an Assistant Secretary for Indian and Territorial Affairs in the Interior Department, and restoration of Blue Lake to the Taos Indians of New Mexico. The first of the President's proposals to be enacted was legislation returning Blue Lake and the surrounding land to the Indians of Taos Pueblo.

In keeping with the President's legislative proposals just mentioned, my staff and I began working to restructure the Bureau at all levels so that its policies and programs would reflect more closely the thinking and feelings of Indian people. Five policy goals were announced in November 1970 to guide the Bureau in its new administration of Indian affairs: 1. Transformation of the BIA from a Management to a Service Organization; 2. Reaffirmation of the trust status of Indian land; 3. Making the BIA area offices fully responsive to the Indian people they serve; 4. Providing tribes with the option of taking over any or all BIA program functions, with the understanding that the Bureau will provide assistance or assume control if requested to do so; and 5. Working with Indian organizations to become a strong advocate of off-reservation Indian interests.

The idea of self-determination -- the right of Indians to their own choice and decisions -- is, as I indicated earlier, coming a reality as Indian people begin to assume the authority manage their own affairs. In his message, President Nixon proposed legislation which would empower tribes, groups of tribes, or any other Indian community to assume the control or operation of federally-funded and administered programs. As the BIA is gradually being converted from a Management Organization to an Agency of Service, Counsel and Technical Assistance, we are encouraging and assisting tribes in their assumption of program operations. We cannot and do not intend to force this policy on the Indian people. We are allowing them to decide whether they want to take over programs and, if so, how much responsibility they are willing to assume.

The Zuni Tribe of New Mexico accepted the responsibility for directing BIA activities at the Pueblo in May 1970."' Almost a year later, the BIA signed a contract with the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida enabling them to administer BIA programs on the reservations.

The response to this take-over policy has been a somewhat cautious one. Many tribes have waited to see how others responded and how the few tribes that have assumed control fare under the Federal-tribal relationship. Indian people still remember the disastrous results of the termination policy of the 1950's.

A legal vehicle for tribal takeovers of BIA program activities been the Buy Indian Act of 1910. But Indian contracting within Bureau has evolved from procurement of needed supplies into a method for training and employment of Indians, and finally, into an instrument for greater Indian involvement in the conduct of their own affairs. In Fiscal Year 1972, dollar value of Buy Indian contracts between Indian tribes and the BIA will reach an estimated $42.5 million in 1969, only $3.8 million in contracts were negotiated between Indian groups and the Bureau.

We in the Bureau have been keenly aware of the recent emergence of a strong and positive attitude on the part of Indian people that they want and will have better lives. Indians of all ages, representing all tribes are undertaking unprecedented efforts to overcome the problems confronting them. Evidence of this new attitude is apparent in the establishment of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association (NTCA), a new organization of elected tribal chairmen. Created in April 1971, NTCA has advised the Bureau on numerous matters relating to policies, budgets, and programs affecting reservation Indians. As Chairmen, they are men who know first-hand what problems are facing their people and what solutions are needed to solve these problems. Through this group, the National Congress of American Indians, the National Council on Indian Opportunity, and other groups, reservation Indians have presented a single, united voice in shaping the future of Indian affairs.

During the past few years we have also witnessed Indian organ­izations such as the American Indian Movement working to bring recognition to the problems of Indians in off-reservation communities.

Since World War II, when thousands of Indians left the reservations for military service or for war time jobs, a steady off-reservation movement has been taking place. This was given an additional boost in the early 1950's with the initiation of the BIA Employment Assistance Program which assisted Indians in locating permanent employment in non-reservation areas. The urban Indian movement of the last two decades has resulted in more than 350,000 Indians living off the reservations today.

Under its current policy, the Bureau limits BIA services to reservation Indians with some exceptions. There are, however, many people both in the Bureau and outside who believe that the Federal trust responsibility extends to tribal Indians wherever they are. The Government's trust responsibility is to people, not land, and any attempts to deprive Indians of their treaty and constitutional rights is a subversion of sovereignty and the trust responsibility.

In January 1972, the Bureau of Indian affairs announced plans for a re-direction of the BIA's programs for the future. We presented a five-point program designed to assist Indians toward self-determination through economic, educational and social development on the reservations.

Today we believe that all people should have the right to determine their own destinies. Unlike past programs which have all been designed to lead to Indian assimilation, the new BIA program directions deal with developing natural and human resources on the reservations not off. All programs and policies are aimed at establishing viable economies for the growth of self-sustaining Indian communities.

The number one priority in 1972 is a reservation-by-reservation development program. There is a great need on reservations for an overall developmental plan which integrates all of the tribe's natural and human resources. In the past, program areas have often been in conflict with one another because of the lack of such a plan. The Bureau is now assisting 28 tribes who were selected to participate in the Bureau's Reservation Acceleration Program, better known as RAP. Other tribes from Oklahoma and California are being selected for the BIA's Tribal Acceleration Program, TAP. These tribes are negotiating changes in existing local BIA program budgets to insure that these programs support tribal priorities.

This year an intense collective tribal consultation on the BIA budget was considered and is being meshed with the Fiscal 1974BIA budget process. We now feel that we are on the brink of making self-determination and consultation an operational reality.

A new thrust is being provided to the Indian forestry program on those reservations which have significant areas of commercial forest lands. Until now, a large part of the Federal Government's costs for administering the reservation forestry programs has been reimbursed by deducting administrative fees from the stumpage prices paid by purchasers of Indian timber. Effective July 1, 1972, the tribal owners of such forest lands will be given the opportunity to invest those fees in the intensified development· of their tribally-owned forests, rather than to have it credited to Federal accounts in' the Treasury. The total amount of the fees that will thus be diverted into intensified forest management is expected to average approximately $3 million per year. This will not only contribute to a stronger economic base for the local Indian communities, but will substantially increase the contribution made by Indian forest lands to the Nation's requirements of lumber and other forest products.

To assist with development on the reservation, we are redirecting our Employment Assistance Program to develop manpower on the reservations. As many of you already know, the BIA Employment Assistance Program was an outgrowth of the termination policy of the 1950’s designed to relocate Indians in urban areas where jobs were thought to be more plentiful. For some, the relocation strategy worked, but for many it’s meant removal to an urban ghetto. At the same time, it has meant a draining from the Indian communities of those who could best become leaders at home. Now, the relocation strategy has been revered and employment assistance resources are being directed into the reservation economies instead of dissipating in the non-Indian communities. Indian men and women are being trained for work, not in the cities, but in their own home areas.

One of the most exciting methods of implementing this program is the Indian Action Team." The Indian Action Team is a self-help program in which the tribes identify their needs and problems and train their tribal members through specific work projects on the reservations.

Legal issues with regard to water in the Western United States arise only when the resource becomes scarce. The competition for the water becomes intensive because in the arid West, water is money. At this date, there is an increasing demand for water to support the economic growth of the American West. However, there is a limited supply. As a result, Indian people reserved right to water is not very popular with other interests. Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton established an Indian Water Rights Office to protect Indian water resources. This office is undertaking inventories of the water resources available and is carrying out studies for establishing and confirming the water rights of Indians. We will establish firmly tribal rights to water, thereby protecting them so that the tribes may be assured that they have the water they need in the development of their reservations. The Office of Indian Water Rights reports directly to me; and I in turn report directly to the Secretary of the Interior on water rights issues. This procedure was designed to avoid the conflicting interest of other Interior Department agencies. We are now considering further proposals which will assure us of eliminating any conflicts.

Roads are the basic physical infrastructure upon which all social and economic systems develop. The treaty relationships established the obligation of the Federal Government to build an Indian road system. One of the most shocking statistics of American history that not one linear foot of roads was constructed from 1900 to 1935, the period when mainstream America built its basic road system.

Today, of the Bureau's 21,665 miles of Indian roads, only 1,000 miles are paved. We will upgrade this to a 10,000 mile paved system by 1978. This has meant increasing our road budget from $20 million a year to $106 million a year and will ultimately require more than $800 million over a seven-year period.

The final; but very vital part of our five-point plan calls for more tribal control of education programs. In accordance with the policy enabling tribes to assume control of federally-funded programs, the BIA believes that any Indian community wishing to do so should be able to assume control of its own schools. We recognize that in order for Indian educational programs to become truly responsive to the needs of Indian children and parents, it is imperative that the control of those programs be in the hands of Indian communities. In 1972 we have It' Federal schools controlled by Indian corporations, 4 statewide Johnson-O'Malley programs operated by tribes, 75 other educational programs operated by tribal groups, and 3 reservation junior colleges controlled by Indians. We hope to have at least half of all BIA schools under Indian direction by 1976.

Local Indian communities not ready to undertake actual responsibilities toward the schooling of their children have, in increasing numbers,' formed advisory boards of education. Today, all of the BIA's 200 elementary and secondary schools have Indian Advisory School Boards which are assuming greater management of the schools' curricular, staffing, construction and educational objectives.

Our education staff is now working on establishing goals in education by which we can measure our own progress over the next four years. We are planning to establish a management information system which will monitor our program successes and failures. We are also making plans to establish a Student Bill of Rights that will be in effect by the opening of the Fall Term in September.

Since my appointment I have repeatedly emphasized that we are advocating self-determination and repudiating the paternalism and termination of past national Indian policies. We must and we will' continue to oppose any doctrine of termination under whatever name and in whatever form. The Menominee Restoration Act is presently before the Congress. I personally have been working closely with both the tribe and concerned Federal officials to improve the conditions of the tribe. A lengthy Bureau economic evaluation actually documents the catastrophic effects which termination has had on this group. We are working to have the full range of Bureau services OLC again made available to the Menominee’s. In addition, the trust status of Menominee County should be reinstated so that the dissipation of their land ceases.

We are committed to a policy of tribal involvement in Indian --' programs and in the operation of activities providing services to Indian people. The purpose of this policy is to cause Bureau, administration to be more responsive to the views of Indian people and to give Indians the opportunities to gain experience in the administration of activities affecting their own people. Two important parts of this policy are consultation in the selection of Bureau employees for certain positions and consultation on general personnel programs.

Section 12 of the Indian Reorganization Act contains a statute which relates to Indian preference in employment within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The interpretation of this Act has been the source of considerable interest in recent years. The Indian Preference Law, if not understood in its economic and historical context, may very well be misunderstood. We feel that this is not a racial matter, but merely an attempt by the framers of an enlightened law to give the Indian people the fight to control the programs which relate to their own domestic dependent nations. Recognition of this fact is even contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The authors of the Act avoided impairing the relationship between Indian tribes and the United States. As a matter of fact, it exempted enterprises and businesses on or near Indian reservations from the prohibitions of the Act. This has had the, effect of extending the preference Act by creating a private employment preference right to Indians. The Act enables tribes to hire Indians 100 percent in private businesses or enterprises on the reservations.

Indian Attorney Browning Pipestem most appropriately titled his position paper on the subject, "Indian Preference -- A Preference to Conduct Self-Government." Until now, preference has only been applied to initial appointment. Our proposal to the Secretary of the Interior contains a request to extend Indian preference to promotions. We expect momentarily an affirmative answer to that request.

A most essential part of the self-determination policy is financial independence. Because of a lack of understanding of Indian matters, the private banking industry of the United States has not been adequately serving Indian financial requirements. The placement of industries on the reservations and the development of Indian natural resources have brought to our attention the need of a financial service to Indian individuals and Indian tribes. The American Indian National Bank was established to help fulfill this need. This Bank is not competitive with the private banking industry, but is an adjunct and an educational procedure to teach banks that banking with Indian people is not an unachievable objective. The American Indian National Bank will have its headquarters in Washington, D.C., with services extended to reservations that can justify the establishment of such a facility. Stock in the bank will be owned by the Indians.

We have recognized for some time a very important area in our relationship with tribes, especially the small tribes and poor tribes that has been not only overlooked but avoided. Simply stated, many tribes do not have the money to carry on their most basic governmental functions -- this being the case in spite of the fact that over the years we have pushed on the tribes, elaborate governmental plans and structures supposedly to illustrate self-government. Couple this with the very real fact that the BIA has never had enough money or staff to supply services to many of the smaller Indian tribes. In order for the small tribe’s to get "a piece of the action," we hope to fund a new program of aid to tribal governments which, for the first time, should provide money for these fiscally poor tribes to use to conduct their own tribal government, efficiently and adequately. We are working now to inaugurate this program at the earliest possible date.

I think that all of this -- aid to tribal governments, an aggressive National Tribal Chairmen's Association, an Indian Bank, the Indian Action Teams, Tribal Control of Indian Education and a strong Bill of Rights for BIA boarding school students, roads on the reservations, establishment of viable Indian economies, Indian preference and consultation -- spells self-determination as we have been trying to identify it in our efforts during this Administration. This we are doing in a time when American Indians have more direct involvement with the Federal Government than ever before in determining the shape and direction of the policies and programs that vitally affect their lives.

I think that all of this, once finally achieved and implemented, and many other self-determination programs now in the planning stage, will be the subject matter of American Indian history for the 1970's that will reflect an era, the long-awaited era, when Indian people achieve full recovery from the unjust past, achieve equality and justice in this society and respond to the challenge of making an outstanding contribution to the advancement of all things human in this land.

To conclude this on a practical and realistic note, and lest I seem too euphoric, I have only to read my daily mail to know that, no matter how hard we try or how sincere our efforts are, it is never fast enough and there is never money enough. We are fortunate if we accomplish just a little and please a few. We will keep trying as best we can for more. That is our assigned task, our solemn responsibility. Indian self-determination is going to be a complete reality not too far ahead of today, and when it is, one of the incomplete chapters of American history will then have been completed.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown today announced a national line officers meeting of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to discuss the future role of the Bureau in working with Indian tribal governments. The meeting of BIA line officers, the first since 1988, will be held July 23-25 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"I believe the 1990s will be a decade of substantial change in the relationship of the BIA and tribal governments as those governments continue to assume greater control over their own affairs and programs currently managed by the Bureau," Brown said. "Our meeting theme: 'New Directions; Challenges and Opportunities,' is appropriate as we plan for the future role of the Bureau in assisting the tribal governments to take full authority and responsibility for governing their reservations."

The two and one-half day meeting will focus on the major policy directions for the 1990s to develop a new partnership with tribal governments; the legal challenges and legislative opportunities; development and protection of natural resources; and a joint presentation with the Indian Health Service on child protection.

These issues will be presented in a series of panel discussions, addresses and workshops. Nora Garcia, chairperson of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona and chairperson of the Fort Mojave Tribe, will open the session at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 23. Brown's keynote address will follow. Others addressing the conference include Vernon Masayesva, chairman of the Hopi Tribe; Levi Pesata, president of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe; Wendell Chino, president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe; and Bill Anoatubby, chief of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.

In attendance at the meeting will be the 84 BIA superintendents and field office heads, 43 education program administrators and agency superintendents, 12 area directors, and Brown's top professional staff in Washington, D.C. Brown will hold a ·press conference at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 24 at the Embassy Suites, 5001 North Scottsdale Rd., site of the conference, to discuss the new measures taken by the Bureau to prevent child abuse in Bureau-funded schools.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs Task Force" in Sacramento, Calif. processed more than 5,000 applications for Eskimo, Indian, and Aleut homesteads in Alaska in an eight week period ending April 21, approximately 20 times the number of homestead applications the Bureau handled in the previous 66 years.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs processed applications and certified to, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management that the applicants are Alaska Natives. The Sacramento Project Office became the clearing house for a massive shuffling of forms, U. S. Geological quadrangle sheets, and hand drawn maps in response to a plea for help from the Bureau's Anchorage Office.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce, commenting on the project, said “This is an example of how dedicated Federal employees pitched in to help Alaska Natives who wish to continue to live as their ancestors have for centuries.”

The avalanche of paperwork was precipitated by the repeal of the Native Allotment Act of 1906. The 1906 Act allowed Alaska Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts -- of mixed or full-blood up to 160 acres of land in as many as four separate parcels that they had been using and occupying for subsistence in traditional Native manner.

The 1906 Native Allotment Act was repealed by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act which was signed by President Nixon December 18, 1971. No Natives could file allotment applications after that date. The applications had to be recorded in the proper land office of the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior so that lands claimed by the Natives could be noted on land office records and withdrawn from other entry or claim.

Why four separate parcels? Well, unlike the homesteaders in the mid-west and the west in the 19th Century, the average Alaska Native doesn't spend all of his time farming a single 160-acre plot.

Instead, he may spend part of the year in his village, part of the year fishing; part in another location picking berries; part of the year hunting and perhaps another part trapping in order to make his living. He needs a home base for himself and his family near each of these activities.

From time immemorial most of the Native population has been living this way, and since the white man came they have lived this way on public domain land.

The Native Allotment Act provided a way for the Alaska Native to obtain title to his land. But by 1969, only 212 I had been able to perfect their claims.

In the late 1960's, it became obvious that the Congress intended to repeal the Native Allotment Act and replace it with the Land Claims Settlement Act. This would allow Native corporations to acquire large blocks of land, but would limit individuals to acquiring only their primary place of residence.

Other benefits were available for the individual under the Native Allotment Act that were not available under the Land Claims Settlement Act. In some instances this included the right to the subsurface, as well as the surface of the land.

The BIA knew that there were thousands of Alaska Natives living on public domain who had not taken the opportunity to file the necessary papers to protect their subsistence lands. Most of them didn't know that once the Land Claims Bill was passed, they would lose these lands.

So, working with the Office of Economic Opportunity and other agencies, in 1969 the BIA began a village-to-campsite campaign throughout Alaska. Representatives of the OEO's Community Action program personally visited thousands of Alaska Natives. They brought the forms necessary for recording land applications and helped the Native fill them out.

Their problem was complicated by the fact that most of the land in Alaska has not been surveyed. So, in place of the usual legal subdivision description of Natives' lands, these workers used hand drawn maps or tracings of quadrangle maps and located the property in question with an "X ".

For more than two years, they continued this search and assist mission. By the time the Land Claims Settlement Act was approved, they had helped more than 8,000 Alaska Natives prepare applications.

In Anchorage, the BIA Agency Office faced other problems.

The Realty Branch, with a staff of four, had the task of processing and filing the land applications. At the rate the work was proceeding, this office might have been able to finish the job in the early 1980's -- assuming it didn't do anything else. However, with the enactment of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, December 18, 1971, immediate action became necessary.

An appeal was made to superiors in Washington for help. The problem was presented to the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, Roger C. B. Morton.

The first solution considered was hiring additional help for the Anchorage BIA Agency or detailing BIA personnel from other offices to this Agency. But it was difficult to get enough volunteers to go to Alaska. In addition, the cost of transportation and per diem for BIA stateside personnel to Anchorage would have been prohibitive.

It was decided to bring the mountain of paperwork to the Bureau people in the lower States. Washington arranged with the BIA's Sacramento Area Realty Officer to make space available in the BIA Sacramento office.

BIA Alaska Realty personnel moved to Sacramento late last February. With them they brought their applications and hand drawn map. The Washington Office took care of the details of transferring qualified technicians from BIA offices in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Montana, Minnesota, Washington, and Oklahoma to Sacramento on temporary detail. Arrangements for office space, supplies, transportation, and housing for the task force were made by the Sacramento office.

This crew, averaging about 25 persons working at anyone time, was busy transferring .the information obtained in the field onto quadrangle maps of Alaska, marked as carefully as possible, and completing the forms to be filed with the Bureau of Land Management.

Last month, the Sacramento project was completed. The Alaska Natives that have valid allotment applications and comply with the 1906 Native Allotment Act will be able to continue to live as their ancestors have for centuries, fishing, hunting, picking berries and trapping on land they can -- legally -- call their own.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan said today that Anthony J. Hope will provide the strong leadership needed to organize and begin operations of a new National Indian Gaming Commission. President Bush nominated Hope and the Senate confirmed the appointment on May 16, 1990, following hearings before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs. Hope will serve as first chairman of the commission established by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (Public Law 100-497). The commission is to regulate, establish standards for, and monitor gaming on Indian lands and reservations. Two additional commissioners will be appointed by Lujan.

"Tony Hope has the experience, the commitment and the temperament that will be required to get this commission organized and to make it effective," Lujan said. 11 He is an attorney with expertise in both the regulatory and legislative areas of government. In addition, he has had valuable experience in promoting economic growth in developing countries. This expertise will be useful in helping America's Indian reservations, many in desperate need of economic development, enter into gaming enterprises where appropriate and beneficial to the tribes. The commission also will seek to protect Indians from disreputable operators who might try to exploit tribes and tribal members." Hope has been a senior vice president of Mutual of Omaha since 1987. He was a partner in Touche Ross &Company and director of the firm's Washington Service Center 1977-1984. In 1986, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California.

During the administration of President Ford. 1975-1977. Hope served as an official in the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, responsible for the project finance staff and 75 ongoing investments in 30 countries. He practiced law in Los Angeles 1970-1975 after several years of successful work in movie and television production in London and Hollywood. California.

Hope received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Georgetown University in 1962 and law degree at Harvard in 1965. He served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1965-1966. Currently he is chairman of the board of Mount Vernon College, and a board member of the USO. National Theatre and the National Council of Families and Television. Hope. 49, and his wife, Judith, have two children, Zachary, a student at Harvard, and Miranda, a student at Stanford.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that an agreement in principal has been reached with Barron Collier Company on the terms and conditions for closing on the Phoenix Indian School land exchange. In exchange for approximately 88 acres of the former Phoenix Indian School site in Phoenix, Arizona, the Federal Government acquire about 108,000 acres of Florida wetlands important to protection of the Everglades and fish and wildlife resources in that area. Collier also will be required to make a $34.9 million payment for an Indian education trust fund The Interior Department and Collier have agreed to complete and sign documents by October 9, 1992, which will require the company to close on the land exchange in four years or less.

Provisions in the agreement call for a promissory note under which Collier agrees to pay $34.9 million at the end of 30 years and to make 30 consecutive annual interest payments of almost $3 million per year into the Indian education fund starting one year after the date of the closing of the exchange. The obligations for payment will be secured by liens on collier's interest in 15 acres of the Indian School property and on about 7 1/2 acres of downtown Phoenix land that Colliers will receive as a result of a land exchange with the City of Phoenix. Execution of a trust fund payment agreement and closing is contingent on a determination by the Secretary that appraisals support values on these properties to sufficiently collateralize Collier's financial obligations, and extension by the City of Phoenix of its agreement to exchange lands with Collier.

The exchange, largest in the history of the Department of the Interior, was initiated to provide for the acquisition of environmentally sensitive wetlands in Florida, and to secure funding for Indian education. Of the 108,000 acres in Florida, more than 83,000 acres would be added to the Big cypress National Preserve; more than 20,000 acres to Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge and more than 4,000 acres to Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. The Phoenix Indian School was closed in 1990. Legislation, enacted in 1988 to govern disposal of the federal property, allocates 11.5 acres to the Veterans Administration, 4.5 acres to the State Veterans Administration, and 20 acres to the City of Phoenix. The remaining acreage is to be exchanged for the Florida lands held by Collier. Under an agreement with the City of Phoenix, Collier proposed retaining 15 acres of the Indian School property it is to obtain under the legislation and exchanging the remainder for property in the downtown area. The City of Phoenix plans a 73-acre park on the land it would acquire in the exchange.