OPA

WASHINGTON – As part of the Obama Administration’s all of the above approach to American energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today approved a 350-megawatt solar energy project on tribal trust land of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians (Tribe) in Clark County, Nevada. The project marks a milestone as the first-ever, utility-scale solar project approved for development on tribal lands, and is one of the many steps the administration has taken to help strengthen tribal communities.

The project is also the 31st utility-scale renewable energy project that Interior has approved since 2009 as part of a Department-wide effort to advance smart development of renewable energy on our nation’s public lands. Prior to 2009, there were no solar energy projects permitted on public lands; today’s approval brings the total to 17 solar projects, 6 wind farms, and 8 geothermal plants. If built by the companies, the renewable energy projects approved by this administration will provide approximately 7,200 megawatts of power to communities across the West, or enough to power nearly 2.5 million homes. These achievements build on the historic expansion of renewable energy under President Obama, with energy from sources like wind and solar doubling since the President took office.

“This trailblazing project is part of the President’s commitment to help build strong, sustainable tribal communities by supporting safe and responsible renewable energy development,” Secretary Salazar said. “Tribal lands hold great renewable energy potential, and smart development of these resources has the power to strengthen tribal economies, create jobs and generate clean electricity for communities across Indian Country.”

The Record of Decision signed today approves the construction, operation and maintenance of a low-impact photovoltaic (PV) facility and associated infrastructure on about 2,000 acres of the Tribe’s reservation, located 30 miles north of Las Vegas. The site represents about three percent of the Tribe’s 71,954-acres, which are held in trust by the U.S. Government. The project is expected to generate about 400 jobs at peak construction and 15-20 permanent jobs.

“This is a great day for the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, and for Indian Country as a whole,” said Donald “Del” Laverdure, Acting Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. “As our nation’s energy portfolio continues to grow, it is important that tribal communities have the opportunity to harness the energy of the wind and sun in a way that can power our homes, businesses and economies. Today is a important step in that direction.”

The solar project approved today builds on President Obama’s strong record of supporting rural economies through the White House Rural Council. Established one year ago, the Rural Council has focused on maximizing the impact of Federal investment to promote economic prosperity and improve the quality of life in rural communities, including on tribal lands.

Proposed by K Road Moapa Solar LLC, the project would be built in three phases of 100-150 megawatts. In addition to PV panel arrays, major project components include a 500-kilovolt transmission line to deliver power to the grid and a 12- kilovolt transmission line to the existing Moapa Travel Plaza after Phase 1 is complete. About 12 acres of U.S. public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management would be required for the 500-kv transmission line.

The project will generate lease income for the tribe, create new jobs and employment opportunities for tribal members, and connect the existing tribally-owned Travel Plaza to the electrical grid, decreasing its dependence on a diesel-powered generator. The procurement of construction materials and equipment is expected to generate additional sales and use tax revenues for the county and the state.

In evaluating the proposed project’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the lead federal agency, worked closely with cooperating agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Moapa Band.

To minimize and mitigate potential environmental impacts, a Desert Tortoise Translocation Plan, Bird and Bat Conservation Strategy and Weed Management Plan will be implemented, and natural resources monitoring by qualified biologists will be conducted during all surface disturbing activities. Tortoises found within the project boundary would be relocated within the reservation in accordance with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protocols. No water will be used in the production of electricity, but will be used periodically for cleaning the photovoltaic panels.

Under the Obama Administration’s initiatives to foster tribal energy self-sufficiency and advance economic competitiveness, Interior is also engaged in a sweeping reform of federal surface leasing regulations for American Indian lands that will streamline the approval process for home ownership and spur renewable energy development in Indian Country. As trustee for the land and resources of federally-recognized tribes, Interior is responsible for managing about 55 million surface acres in Indian Country.

A fact sheet on the Moapa Project is available here. A map of the project area is here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, the Office of the Secretary of the Interior will have the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform hold a public Webinar meeting on Monday, August 13, 2012.

The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform is tasked with moving forward on their comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s management and administration of the nearly $4 billion in trust assets. The Commission is charged with providing recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior at the end of their two-year tenure on how best to improve the Department’s trust management and administration. Building upon the progress made with the historic Cobell Settlement, the Commission will help establish a new era of trust administration, stressing responsive, customer-friendly, accountable and transparent management of these substantial funds and assets.

For more information, please visit: http://www.doi.gov/cobell/commission/index.cfm or email Lizzie_Marsters@ios.doi.gov.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 3, 2014, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, Deputy Secretary Mike Connor and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn will join President Obama, Vice President Biden, other cabinet Secretaries and leaders from the 566 federally recognized tribes at the 2014 Annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.

Secretary Jewell will deliver remarks during the opening ceremony of the 6th annual conference and will join panel discussions on Indian education reform and climate change, along with other stakeholder meetings and briefings. Deputy Secretary Mike Connor will participate in discussions on protecting natural and cultural resources and Assistant Secretary Washburn will join sessions on government-to-government relations, economic development and upholding federal trust and treaty responsibilities.

The annual White House Tribal Nations Conference provides tribal leaders the opportunity to interact directly with President Obama, Secretary Jewell and members of the White House Council on Native American Affairs. The Council, which is chaired by Secretary Jewell and includes the heads of more than 20 federal departments and agencies, has convened four times since its inception in June 2013 and works to improve interagency coordination, efficiency and expand efforts to leverage federal programs and resources available to tribal communities.

Since assuming her role at Interior, Secretary Jewell has visited more than 20 tribal communities and a half dozen Bureau of Indian Education schools. Jewell also joined President Obama and the First Lady on their historic visit to Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation earlier this year.

WASHINGTON - Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, joined Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy to announce the transfer of 24,959 acres previously acquired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of the Garrison Dam project to the Department of the Interior, which will hold the land in trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. The acres, now excess to the project, consist mostly of undeveloped grasslands situated above the maximum flood control pool for Lake Sakakawea.

“It is a tremendous honor to take the land previously acquired for the Garrison Dam project into trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes,” Roberts said. “I want to recognize our BIA staff in the Great Plains Region for their hard work over many years along with Assistant Secretary Darcy for her leadership. We believe this transfer provides strong protections for existing land uses, whether it’s housing, recreational, or the Corps’ continued mission at Lake Sakakawea, while also ensuring there is recognition of the Tribes’ sovereign authority to manage these lands going forward.”

“I am so pleased to transfer the Garrison Dam project lands taken from the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation into trust held by the Department of the Interior. The Army Corps worked very hard to see this through,” stated Assistant Secretary Darcy. “The Tribes will now have all of the associated economic, environmental and cultural benefits that come with trust land for generations to come.”

“The return of these lands is an important step toward mending a historic injustice,” said Mark Fox, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. “Half of our adult men were fighting for their country and their homes in World War II when the federal government began making plans to take our lands for the Garrison Dam. The flood caused by the Dam displaced 90 percent of our people from their homes. It literally destroyed our heartland. Our people have been fighting to have the surplus lands returned to the Nation for years. I am grateful that this goal has been accomplished, and the hard work of so many of our leaders has finally paid off.”

The transfer was made possible as a result of the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act. The transfer protects lawful public access, including access for recreational purposes. Current lessees will continue to enjoy their existing rights while Interior and the Tribes will handle future leases. As such, Interior stands ready to record and implement any new rights-of-way that parties may negotiate across the transferred lands.

The Army Corps of Engineers will continue its role as an active resource manager in the Lake Sakakawea area through its retained right to flood and erode the lands. The Tribes will collaborate with Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers to manage natural and cultural resources. All federal laws and regulations will continue to apply, but now, Interior will be the lead federal agency instead of the Army.

The Obama Administration has been committed to the restoration of tribal homelands. When Secretary Jewell took office, she set an ambitious goal to restore 500,000 acres of land into trust for tribes. In October 2016, Jewell announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs has processed 2,265 individual trust applications and restored more than 500,000 acres of land into trust since 2009.

Congress originally passed the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act, Public Law No. 98-602, Title II, Section 206 (b) in 1984, which authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to transfer excess lands no longer needed for the Garrison Dam project back to the Tribes. In 2015, Interior and Army Civil Works signed a memorandum of agreement that outlined the process the agencies used to implement the land transfer.

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 to acquire land into trust for federally recognized tribes. Lands held in federal Indian trust status, which cannot be sold, alienated or transferred to non-Indians or non-Natives, benefit their American Indian and Alaska Native tribal owners who are eligible for federal program assistance for business development, housing, and environmental and cultural protection. Typical uses of trust land include governmental operations, cultural activities, agricultural/forestry projects, housing, economic development, social and community services, and health care and educational facilities.

The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is headed by a director responsible for managing day-to-day operations through four offices – Indian Services, Justice Services, Trust Services, and Field Operations. These offices directly administer or fund tribally based infrastructure, economic development, law enforcement and justice, social services (including child welfare), tribal governance, and trust land and natural and energy resources management programs for the nation’s federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The BIA carries out its responsibilities in managing federal Indian trust lands through the Office of Trust Services.

For information about the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, visit the ASA(CW) website.

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Thirty American Indian students at Haskell Indian Junior College Lawrence, Kans., the only Indian college operated by the Federal Government, completed a summer internship in government in Washington, D.C., in August Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, announced today.

"These young people representing nine states were chosen from about 100 who asked to be included in the program," Franklin indicated.

The young Indian students came to Washington from the Kansas Bureau of Indian Affairs school in late May. They were housed in nearby Maryland apartments where they paid their own rent, and from which they bought their own groceries and commuted to what were largely downtown Washington, D.C., jobs. Haskell counsellors came with the group and a representative from each apartment met regularly with one of the counsellors.

''The experience gave these young people a chance to see the Nation's capital and an opportunity to grow by exposure to a way of life other than the one most had known," Franklin said.

The students, by state,

Arizona: Maxine Blackgoat, Navajo; Valerie Cruz, Apache (Whiteriver); Sally R. Gishie, Navajo; Rosalie Lopez, Papago; Mary Hellen Mitchell, Navajo; Serena Nachu, Apache; Danny Yazzie, Navajo; and Phillis Yazzie, Navajo.

California: Anthony Wapp, Kiowa-Sac & Fox; Terri White, Choctaw

Kansas: Anita Arkeketa, Wichita-Delaware; Ramona McLemore, Cherokee­-Choctaw; Deborah Mzhickteno, Otoe-Pottawatomi, Sac & Fox.

Missouri: Jesse James, Jr., Creek-Sioux.

New Mexico: Steven Begay, Navajo (Crownpoint); Dawna Riding-In, Pawnee (Gallup); James Riding-In, Pawnee (Gallup); George Tsadiase, Zuni (Zuni); Alta Mae Tsosie, Navajo (Chinle); Lela M. Virgil, Jicarilla Apache (Dulce).

Oklahoma: Jaxine Busbyhead, Cherokee; Sunny Frejo, Pawnee; Adell Gaines, Choctaw (Tulsa); Oliver B. Neal, Chickasaw-Cherokee; Suzette Snyder, Choctaw (Tuskahoma); Wesley Wildcat, Pawnee.

South Dakota: Dorothy Tabacco,Sioux (Pine Ridge); John Yellowhair, Sioux (Pine Ridge).

Washington: Virginia Marie Penn, Chehalis.

Wisconsin: Delores Jane Mann, Oneida.

The young people held jobs within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of the Secretary of Interior, National Capitol Parks, and the Bureau of Land Management, all within the Department of the Interior.

Several trips to Washington, D.C., landmarks and environs of the Nation's capital were arranged for the group while they were in the District of Columbia.

Haskell Indian Junior College was established in 1884 and has an enrollment of nearly 1,200 students from more than one hundred American Indian Tribes.

Some of the students who were in Washington, this summer were taking a voca­tional curriculum and others preparing for an additional two years of college or more elsewhere.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has received petitions from forty Indian groups seeking to be acknowledged by the Federal Government as Indian tribes. A list of the forty groups, from 21 states, is being published in the Federal Register as required by regulations made effective October 2, 1978. These regulations establish the procedures for establishing that an American Indian group exists as an American Indian Tribe.

A total of 496.Indian or Alaska Native groups are now acknowledged by the Federal Government to be tribes. These groups are located in 27 states and include 218 Alaskan Village groups. Under the regulations only those groups whose members and their ancestors existed in tribal relations since aboriginal times and have retained some aspects of their tribal sovereignty can be acknowledged as tribes. Failure to be acknowledged under these regulations would not constitute a denial that this group is Indian. Acknowledgment of tribal existence is a prerequisite to the protection, services and benefits from the Federal Government available to Indian tribes.

Groups from seven states, not presently listing any federally recognized tribes, are among the petitioners. These states are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. Other states represented by petitioners are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington.

A list of the groups seeking Federal recognition is attached.

Forty-nine additional conservation projects under the Accelerated Public Works Program which will involve a total investment of $4,970,000 among 18 States were announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The projects will generate nearly 500 man-years of work in localities certified by the Area Redevelopment Administration as having a high rate of unemployment.

Included in the allotments announced today is more than $1 million in road­ building jobs on public lands in western Oregon to speed the salvaging of millions of board feet of valuable timber downed by a heavy storm in October 1962.

High on the list of new projects are improvements to recreational facilities in National Parks, Indian Reservations, and public-land areas to enhance their use by the public. Improved roads, new camping facilities, more adequate parking facilities, and intensified range-improvement programs are included in the betterments.

The allotments announced today bring to $37,072,600 the amount to be administered by the Department of the Interior under the Accelerated Public Works Program which was signed into law by President Kennedy September 14, 1962.

Following is a State-by-State breakdown of the latest projects:

Alaska

Upper Yukon Project - This project in Election District 20 will provide a mile of road construction and 10 family recreation units on the public domain, generating the equivalent of two man-years of work with an investment of $21,000 The Upper Yukon Project will open Eagle Lake to the public.

Valdez-Chitina-Whittier Project - Ten family recreation units, two boat docks, and two miles of access roads will feature a $16,000 develop­ment at Mankomen Lake in Election District 8. The equivalent of one man-­year of work will be provided.

The Upper Yukon and the Valdez-Chitina-Whittier projects are the first investments for recreation on the public domain in Alaska since statehood in 1959

Arizona

Colorado River Reservation - An investment of $21,300 in Yuma County will provide 3 man-years employment in the control of erosion and improvement of soil productivity.

Arkansas

Pea Ridge National Military Park - This $95,000 restoration project in Benton County will create 9.5 man-years of employment. Included in the project will be the preservation of the historic sites of the Battle of Pea Ridge, which was fought in 1862, and the construction of roads and trails through areas of this military park.

California

Ukiah Project - The Ukiah area of Mendocino County will have a

$120,000 program of public-land improvements creating 8 man-years of on­site labor in constructing the Red Mountain access road and developing a forest stand on 400 acres.

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area - A supplemental Accelerated Public Works allocation of $160,000 has been earmarked for this new recreation area on Whiskeytown Reservoir, near Redding, Shasta County. Approximately 15.5 man-years of work will be required for constructing parking areas and a marina access road in Oak Bottom, parking areas and walks at the beach and Contact Station at Brandy Creek, and a parking area at Whiskey Creek.

Eureka Project - A $150,000 road-building project adds to the $70,000 previously authorized for development of the highly significant Kings Range recreation area in Humboldt County. The project calls for survey, design and construction of 5 miles of access roads into the area, creating eight man-years of work.

Colorado

Alamosa Project - Improvements on the national land reserve in Alamosa County will create six man-years of employment under an invest­ment of $54,000 on Federal rangelands. Scheduled are 7.5 miles of fencing, three wells, three detention dams, 200 check dams, chaining and seeding on 1,200 acres and plowing and seeding on 1,000 acres.

Huerfano Project - Range improvements on the national land reserve in Huerfano County will create employment equaling four man-years. The $40,000 project involves seven spring developments, 12 miles of fencing, five detention dams, one well, and chaining and seeding on 1,000 acres.

Conejos Project - In Conejos County, an $81,000 public-land improve­ment program will see 1,000 acres seeded, 750 acres subjected to brush control, and five miles of fencing installed. Six water-development projects also are scheduled along with the building of two detention dams and JOO gully plugs to curb rapid runoff of surface water. Eight man-years of on-site employment will result.

Kentucky

Mammoth Cave National Park - A project involving an investment of $92,000 and the equivalent of 10 man-years work will be used for constructing sewage processing improvements at this historic cave in Edmonson County.

Montana

Butte Project - A $160,000 project having statewide implications will center in Silver Bow County, an area with substantial unemployment. Ten man-years of employment will be devoted to fabricating 200 cattle guards and 200 wooden gates for use on the national land reserve throughout Montana.

Carbon Project - Public land in Carbon County will be the scene of $50,000 in improvements, including 20 miles of truck trail construction, building of a bridge at Silver Tip, correcting seepage on 20 reservoirs, and installation of a water-control structure in Weatherman Draw. Four man-years of employment will result.

Nevada

Pyramid Lake Reservation - Eight man-years of work will be provided by an investment of $56,800 in Washoe County for erosion control, improvement of soil productivity, and construction of a community center.

Walker River Reservation - A total of $25,000 will be invested control erosion and improve soil productivity in Mineral County. Four man-years employment will result.

Mineral Project - In Mineral County, 47 miles of fencing to protect grazing areas will be installed on public land at a cost of $50,000. Six man-years of employment will be created.

New Mexico

Jicarilla Reservation - Grading and surfacing of reservation roads, erosion control, and improvement of soil productivity will result from an investment of $98,000 in Rio Arriba and Sandoval counties. The projects will create the equivalent of employment for 14 men for a year.

Mescalero Reservation - In Otero County, timber stand improvement and soil and moisture conservation will be undertaken through an investment of $100,000, Eighteen man-years of employment will result.

San Juan Reservation - Erosion control and improvement of soil productivity are scheduled for Rio Arriba County under an investment of $55,000, resulting in 4 man-years of employment.

Taos Reservation - Taos County will be the site of construction and improvement of community centers, erosion control, improvement of soil productivity, and boundary fencing. An investment of $100,000 will finance this work and provide 12 man-years of employment.

Grant Project - Large-scale range developments in Grant County will increase forage production on the national land reserve in a $120,000 program. Creating employment equaling 24 man-years, the project involves 450 erosion-control structures, mesquite eradication on 13,000 acres, and rodent control on 120,000 acres.

McKinley Project - Stock watering facilities on the national land reserve will be improved by investment of $150,000 in a project in McKinley County, where 20 livestock wells and storage facilities will create employment equaling 8 man-years.

San Juan Project - Employment equaling 32 man-years and an invest­ment of $400,000 will provide a new district office at Farmington for the Bureau of Land Management, five family camping units at the Angel Peak Recreation Site, and 20 livestock wells and storage facilities on Federal rangelands.

North Carolina

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site - The equivalent of five man-years work will result from a $40,000 investment to be used for erosion control, removing an old road, fences and several old build­ings at this scene of the earliest, ill-fated attempts to establish an English colony in America located in the present-day Dare County.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park - A $160,000 project will be undertaken to improve the visitor’s facilities in this National Park area in Swain County. Sixteen man-years employment will be provided for the construction of trail shelters and picnic area roads, vista clearing, and the removal of hazardous trees along trails and roads.

Qualla Reservation - The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina in Cherokee, Graham, Jackson, Swain counties, will benefit by an investment of $119,500 in the construction of water and sewer systems, creating 10 man-years employment.

North Dakota

Fort Berthold Reservation - Dunn, McKenzie, McLean, Mercer and Mountrail counties will be the sites of grading and surfacing of reservation roads at an investment of $30,300 and will benefit by creating four man-years of work.

Oklahoma

Eastern Shawnee - The Eastern Shawnee Indians of Ottawa County will benefit by the creation of eight man-years of work and an investment of $40,000 in the control of erosion and improvement of soil productivity.

Five Civilized Tribes - The Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek and Seminole Indians who make up the Five Civilized Tribes will be helped through projects carried on in several counties, as follow:

Adair County: A $90,000 investment and 12 man-years of work will reduce erosion and improve soil productivity.

Cherokee County: Grading and surfacing of reservation roads and soil and moisture conservation measures will be taken through an investment of $40,000 and will result in 4.5 man-years of work.

Haskell County: Soil and moisture conservation measures will produce 2 man-years of employment under an investment of $10,000.

Hughes County: An investment of $20,000 will provide 4 man-years of work and carry out a program of soil and moisture conservation.

Love County: Soil and moisture conservation will be financed by an investment of $6,000, providing one man-year of work.

Mayes County: An investment of $55,000, creating 5.5 man-years of work, will center on grading and surfacing of reservation roads and soil and moisture conservation.

McIntosh County: The grading and surfacing of roads, and moisture conservation will take place with an investment of $115,000 and provide 25 man-years of employment.

Quapaw: The Quapaw Indians of Ottawa County will benefit by an investment of $30,000 in erosion control and improvement of soil productivity. Six man-years of work will result.

Platt National Park - A supplemental project to rehabilitate camp­grounds in this Park area in the scenic foothills of the Arbuckle Mountains in Murray County will involve a $35,000 investment and will provide five man-years of employment.

Oregon

Yamhill Project - Part of a series of emergency road-building projects to aid salvage of wind thrown timber from the October 12, 1962 storm in Oregon, eight man-years of employment will be created in Yamhill County in a $140,000 project to grade four miles on the "B" Section of the Bald Mountain Access Road.

Little Camp Creek Project - Another road project aimed at salvaging millions of board feet of downed timber, 2.2 miles of the Little Ca.mp Creek Access Road in Douglas County, will require six man-years of employment with an investment of $95,000.

Union Creek Project - This Douglas County project will employ the equivalent of 14 man-years in a $225,000 grading job on the Union Creek Access Road. Scene of much damage in the autumn windstorm, Douglas County is an area with substantial unemployment.

Cow Creek Project - Eleven man-years of employment will be created by an investment of $175,000 in grading 2.4 miles of the West Fork of the Cow Creek Access Road, necessary in removing salvaged, timber.

Coquille Ridge Project - Increased employment equaling 17 man-years will be created in the North Bend-Coos Bay area of Coos County in this $268,000 project to grade 4.6 miles on the North Fork, Coquille River Access Road, and another vital link in the timber salvage operations.

Quartzville Project - Two miles of the Yellowbottom Road, 2.5 miles of the Yellowstone Road, and three miles of the Boulder Creek Road will expand the Quartzville Project in Linn County, creating

17 man-years of employment under an investment of $250,000.

South Dakota

Pine Ridge Reservation - Bennett, Shannon, and Washabaugh counties will be the sites of grading and surfacing of reservation roads, ero­sion control, and improvement of soil productivity. The work will result from an investment of $183,300 and will create 26 man-years of work.

Tennessee

Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Seventeen man-years of work will result from an investment of $174,000 to be used for vista clearing, rehabilitating structures, removing unwanted undergrowth, slope stabili­zation, and the construction of nature trails and trail shelters in Sevier County.

Utah

Provo-Orem Project - Access to public lands for both Government and general public use will come from a truck trail project in Utah County. Along with a need for 25,000 juniper posts, the Provo-Orem Project will provide 35 man-years of employment with an investment of $224,000.

Washington

Olympic National Park - A $70,000 project to construct visitors' facilities in Mason County will create seven man-years of employment. This amount will supplement the $115,500 in an earlier Accelerated Public Works program allotment for adjacent Grays Harbor County announced January 18, 1963.

Wyoming

Wind River Reservation - An investment of $43,800 will be made to bring about erosion control and improved soil productivity in Fremont and Hot Springs counties, creating six man-years of work.

Rock Springs Project - In Sweetwater County, in the vicinity of Rock Springs, $116,000 will be invested in building 78 miles of fence and in creating eight family recreation units for use by the public. The equivalent of eight man-years of employment will result.

It is good to be back at the University of Toronto—this time as a guest rather than an employee. I still have many warm memories of the four years I spent here as a lecturer in anthropology from 1937 to 1941. So I am especially grateful for the opportunity of corning back to renew old acquaintances and establish new ones in this outstanding Canadian academic institution.

The subject of my remarks on this occasion is "Indian Administration in the United States." It is, as some of you know, a subject in which I have long had an active interest dating back even before my tour of duty at this University to the period of the early 1930’s when I did anthropological field work on the Klamath Indian Reservation shortly after receiving my bachelor degree. Over the years I have had an opportunity to observe the administration of Indian affairs in the United States from several different points of vantage - from the White House as an assistant to former President Harry S. Truman from a State capitol as lieutenant governor of my native Wisconsin, more recently as a member of a four-man task force appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to make a detailed study of the operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for the past 15 or 16 months as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the administrative head of the Bureau. I probably don’t need to add that the picture looks somewhat different to me today, sitting in the Commissioner's chair, than it did some 30 years ago to a young anthropologist on the Klamath Reservation; in fact, it looks a lot different than it did just 18 months ago to a member of Secretary Udall's Task Force on Indian Affairs.

The challenge of working out an accommodation with an aboriginal people who were gradually overwhelmed by superior technological force and a sharply alien culture is one which Canada and the United States have both had to face throughout their histories. From the time of the earliest colonial settlements down to the American Revolution it was, of course, a mutually shared experience for all the peoples of North America under British rule; and, as we look back on it now, it seems that most of the enlightenment and humanitarianism emanated from London rather than from our colonial forebears. But, in all fairness, it was probably a great deal easier to cultivate an enlightened and humane attitude toward the North American Indian when separated from him by some 3,000 miles of ocean than it was precariously perched on a wild and hostile frontier.

In any event, starting in the final quarter of the 18th century, the common stream of experience in Indian affairs diverged along one line in Canada and another in the United States. There have been, of course, many striking similarities and parallels in the governmental administration of Indian affairs on both sides of the border: there have also been profound and significant differences, In my remarks here, however, I am going to leave the comparisons aside - since I feel sure that the members of this audience are unusually well informed on Indian administration in Canada - and focus my attention entirely on the southern side of the border.

Our story begins, as I have already suggested, in 1775 when the Continental Congress, as one of its first acts, set up three departments of Indian affairs-northern, middle and southern - and designated commissioners for each. This is where the title which I now have the honor of holding had its origin and it is indicative of the importance attached to the office in those day’s that two of the first commissioners named for the Middle Department of Indian Affairs were Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry. But these early commissioners were essentially diplomats

rather than administrators and the Bureau of Indian Affairs was not actually established until nearly half a century later in 1824.

The history of Indian affairs in the United States throughout the 19th century is, of course, a vast and enormously complex subject which I can touch on here only very lightly. It includes many of the darkest pages in the history of my country, many incidents that have been burdening the collective conscience of thoughtful American citizens for generations. But it was not totally black. Along with ruthless disregard for elementary human rights and the forceful uprooting’s of whole tribal populations, there were evidences of concern for Indian welfare from the very earliest days of our national history. Throughout most of the 19th century the various church denominations of the United States, both Catholic and Protestant, established missions in nearly all sections of the Indian country and labored earnestly to bring Indians at least the rudiments of formal education and protection against the ravages of disease. Starting aroux1d the 1870's and 18801s, after most of the tribal groups had been subdued by force of arms, the Federal Government became increasingly concerned with such matters and growing attention was given both in Congress and the Executive Branch to finding an appropriate place for the Indian in the spectrum of our national life.

The solution that was gradually evolved in the latter years of the 19th century was not altogether a happy one - although it may have been the best that would be accomplished under the exceedingly difficult circumstances that prevailed. The relationship that developed between the Federal Government and the Indian population was essentially that of guardian and ward - a deeply paternalistic relationship that constituted an affront to human dignity and planted the seed for much sour fruit that we are still trying to weed out of our garden. But at least the guardian-ward approach to administration of Indian affairs was an improvement over earlier policies of military conquest and compulsory mass migration and it probably was a halting step in the right direction.

During the present century we have been moving steadily away from the all-pervasive paternalism of the 1880's and 90’s toward a more wholesome respect for the human dignity of individual Indians as well as for the values of age-old tribal cultures. In 1924 our Congress enacted a law declaring that all Indians born in the United States are citizens of the United States without giving up their tribal affiliations. Ten years later Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act, another milestone piece of legislation, which explicitly recognized the right of Indian tribes and bands to self-government and established basic principles to be followed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in dealing with tribal governments and helping to strengthen their operations.

These two statutes are both important planks in the platform on which we are now conducting our operations in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They have set the stage, so to speak, and provided much of the legal underpinning. But there is also a tribal Congressional plank which is equally significant. This is the marked tendency which Congress has shown over the past dozen years or so to appropriate liberally for activities aimed at the ultimate objective of bringing Indians up to a state of general parity with the rest of the population in terms of health, education, occupational skills and economic opportunity. Even a cursory review of Congressional appropriations for

Indian affairs since 1950 will clearly reveal both the scope and the depth of Congressional intention along these markedly progressive lines.

So much, by way of a very quick sketch indeed, for the historical background. Now let us consider some of the major dimensions of the job we have to do. According to the 1960 Census, we have in the United States today about 550,000 people who are identifiable as Indians plus an additional 25,000 or so Eskimos and Aleuts in the State of Alaska - who are also a concern of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But only about two-thirds of these people - roughly 380,000-come within the scope of the programs conducted by our Bureau. The balance of Indian population - around 170,000 - consists of people who live away from Indian country and are, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from their non-Indian neighbors.

So it is the 380,000 who directly concern us and there can be no doubt that they constitute on8 of the most seriously disadvantaged groups we have in the United States. Largely because of this unfortunate historical background which I have tried to highlight for you, Indian reservations were for many years almost hermetically sealed off from the main tides of progress that flowed across our country and - with a few exceptions here and there - did not participate adequately in the advances that were taking place elsewhere in education, public health protections, and opportunities for economic growth. As a result, we have a great deal of catching up to do. One way of summing it up is to point out that adult Indians living on reservations today are, as a group, only about half as well educated as other citizens, have approximately two-thirds the life expectancy, and are receiving somewhere ·between one-third and one-fourth as much income.

Many of the newer programs which we are now operating in the Bureau are specifically designed to diminish - and eventually eliminate - these grievous disadvantages. Others are intended to fulfill historic responsibilities which our Bureau has long had under Congressional enactments and, to some extent, under treaties. And some, as we shall see, are serving a dual purpose.

Although the Bureau no longer exercises a comprehensive guardianship over the persons of individual Indians as it did 75 or 80 years ago, it still functions in a very meaningful way as the trustee for much of the Indians t property. Included in the scope of this trusteeship are about 50.5 million acres of land, located mainly on Indian reservations. Roughly two-thirds of this acreage is tribally owned and the balance consists of tracts that were allotted for the most part many years ago, to individual tribal members. As the administrators of the Federal Government's trust responsibility, we in the Bureau have on our hands one of the biggest and most complex real estate operations that has ever come to my attention. The mere job of record keeping is almost staggering and all I can say is thank the Lord for automatic data processing. But the job goes far beyond the keeping of records; it involves the actual supervision of all types of realty transactions such as sales, exchanges, rights-of-way and leases both for surface use and mineral development. It involves the collection of rents, fees, royal ties and other income as well as the distribution of these proceeds to protect the best long-range interests of the Indian owners—tribal or Individual in all of these transactions.

Furthermore, the job is not merely a negative one of protecting the Indians against unwise use or disposition of their assets; it also carries a positive or constructive responsibility to help the Indians in realizing the best possible income from their lands and other resources consistent with

some conservation principles. Thus we are engaged in far-reaching and highly technical programs of forest management, construction and operation of irrigation projects, range management soil and moisture conservation, and practical guidance in farming and home-ranking practices.

All of these functions are directly related to the basic trust responsibility they constitute one important phase of our total operation. A second phase, which also embraces several of our older programs, finds us providing Indians with several types of public services which have traditionally in the United States been furnished to non-Indian citizens by State and local units of government. Included in this category are education for the young, welfare aid1 law and order activities and the construction and maintenance of local roads. The Bureau’s involvement in these fields was an inevitable outgrowth of the fact that Indian trust lands have always been, with a few rare exceptions, exempt from local real estate taxes and outside the sphere of State criminal and civil jurisdiction. So the Bureau has been compelled over the years to develop its own school system, its own welfare organization, its own law enforcement staff, its own program of road construction and maintenance.

Let me quickly add, however, that the picture today on Indian reservations is by no means one of pure Federal activity in these various fields, Over the past 25 years or so, largely as a result of Federal subsidies made possible by the Johnson O'Malley Act of 1936, many of the States have taken over a substantial share of the responsibilities for educating Indian children on reservations and several of them are now educating all Indian children without financial help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. To a lesser extent similar progress has been made in welfare, law enforcement end road operations.

Despite this recent trend, however, the Bureau still remains highly active in all four of these fields and actually, the scope of our operations today is bigger than ever on most fronts because of the steady increase in reservation populations.

Education is by far the biggest single function of our Bureau both in terms of manpower and in terms of dollars. If you include construction of schools and directly related facilities in addition to the operation and maintenance of existing schools, then education today accounts for just about three out of every five dollars that we spend in the Bureau. During the fiscal year that ended last June we operated a total of 263 schools ranging in size from single classrooms in trailers or Quonset huts at remote locations on the Navajo Reservation to the Intermountain School at Brigham, Utah, which has an enrollment of over 2,100 students. About 75 of these schools are boarding institutions and in them we have the responsibility not merely for providing instruction but also for feeding the students three meals a day and for maintaining and staffing dormitories. All in all, it adds up to quite a sizable operation and it requires a very substantial number of personnel.

In the welfare field the task of the Bureau is greatly diminished by the fact that Indian people qualifying for certain types of categorical public assistance-old age assistance, aid to the blind, aid to dependent children, and aid to the permanently and totally disabled - receive this assistance from State and country welfare agencies on the same basis as other citizens. So the Bureau's

welfare job our primarily one of furnishing aid to needy Indians who do not fall into one of our major categories plus a great deal of family counselling and child welfare help.

In approaching the subject of law enforcement on Indian reservations in the United States, I feel almost as if I were opening up Pandora's Box. It is a subject of tremendous complexity and full exploration of its many ramifications could undoubtedly keep us occupied for the next several hours. To spare you this ordeal, let me just say that most Indian reservations, but not all, are still outside the sphere of State criminal and civil jurisdiction, and are subject to Federal jurisdiction for the major types of felonies and to some form of tribal ,jurisdiction for the lesser crimes and misdemeanors. The Bureau maintains law and order personnel on most reservations and they work quite closely with the tribes in providing police protection.

The Road program of the Bureau differs from the other functions I have just been mentioning since it has been administered for many years in the same division of our organization as the various resource activities I spoke of earlier. Yet I bring it in here because road construction and maintenance is - like education, welfare and law-enforcement - essentially a local governmental function in the United States apart from the ma.jar Federal highway system and, of course, the Indian reservations, The Bureau's system now includes about 16,000 miles of road altogether and it is being improved at an encouraging rate and expanded somewhat thanks to substantially increased appropriations in recent years. Especially on the 25,000-square-mile Navajo Reservation in our Southwest, we are now bringing all-weather roads into remote localities that have been virtually isolated for generations. I realize of course, that some of my fellow anthropologists may view this development with mixed emotions. But certainly there can be no argument about the desirability of putting in bus routes so that children can attend school regularly for the first time in their lives or of giving isolated settlements quick and easy access to hospitals and other medical services.

And this brings up another phase of Federal activity in the field of Indian affairs which I want to mention briefly even though it is no longer a function of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Up until 1955 the Bureau administered a rather far-reaching health program for Indians which included both curative and preventive medical activities. It involved the operation of about 60 hospitals and a large number of health centers and clinics as well as a wide range of activities to promote better environmental sanitation in Indian communities. Since 1955 this program has been administered by the United States Public Health Service and its scope has been substantially enlarged as a result of increased appropriations. Today all qualified observers agree that health conditions across the Indian country generally are markedly better than they were seven years ago and are steadily improving. We in the Bureau of Indian Affairs have a working relationship with our Public Health Service colleagues which is on the whole excellent and we maintain a continuing active interest in effective health protection for Indians.

That pretty well covers what we might call the “old line" functions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs with one major exception which I will mention later in another context. Before moving on to describe some of the more recently initiated programs of the Bureau, let me first set the stage by telling you about the task force study which provided the basis for our policies and program emphases under the present Administration.

There were four of us appointed to the Task Force on Indian Affairs by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and all of us had extensive backgrounds of experience in Indian affairs. Yet we spent about five months - from February until July of 1961 - going over the whole Indian Bureau operation from top to bottom. We travelled about 15,000 miles altogether and we consulted with spokesmen for just about every tribal group either in cities near the Indian country or at exploratory sessions in Washington.

Eventually we wrote a report of some 77 pages which was given broad approval by Secretary Udall. It contains a large number of detailed recommendations which need not trouble us here but there are two aspects of it that I do want to mention.

The first is the statement of basic aims or objectives for the Bureau which will give you some idea of how we are oriented, where we are trying to go. The goals which we formulated on the basis of our consultations with Indians are threefold. To a person experienced in Indian affairs none of the three goals will seem startingly original. Yet the articulation of the three together in just this form seems to have struck the right chord because I have not yet heard one word of criticism or disagreement since they were first made public. The three basic aims are (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency, (2) full participation of Indians in .American life, and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians.

Now, the second aspect of the Task Force Report I want to emphasize has to do with the central avenue of approach which we propose to follow in moving toward these three objectives. In the course of our five-month study we came to the conclusion that the Bureau was spending far too much of its time and energies on the custodial phases of its work - the keeping of land records and the like and not nearly enough on the more dynamic aspects which lead to development of Indian resources and development of Indian people. So we have made development the keynote for our present administration of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and this brings us quite logically to a consideration of the newer and more forward-looking programs.

The first one I want to mention is what we call Employment Assistance. It had its genesis in the late 19401s on the Navajo Reservation and has gradually developed over the years into a nationwide operation of ·major importance, In essence, it involves two principal phases: relocation for direct employment and occupational training.

Relocation for direct employment is the older part of the program and just about what the name implies. It is, of course, a wholly voluntary operation a service that is made available to Indians who have decided on their own initiative" to leave the reservations and re-establish themselves in urban communities where jobs are more abundant. The Bureau operation is designed to help them in, just about every conceivable way in making this transition. At the departure end, on the reservation, we have staffs of trained persom1el who counsel with the Indians contemplating a move and give them firm, realistic advice on the kinds of difficulties they may expect to encounter; in many cases, these interviews have resulted in a decision not to relocate. But where the decision is affirmative, the Bureau provides transportation and subsistence not only· for the job seeker but for all his immediate family dependents. On the receiving end we maintain offices in eight Middle Western and far western cities staffed with personnel who socialize in job placement, the location of suitable housing, and all the many

other phases of adjustment to the urban environment that are inevitably involved. The transition is, of course, an almost traumatic on for many Indian people and involves a wide variety of services and assistance sometimes over a period of many months.

In 1956 Congress enacted a statute, designated as PubJ.ie Law 959, which enabled us to broaden the scope of our employment assistance work along lines which have already proved highly beneficial. This law authorized us to provide Indians, principally between the ages of 18 and J5, with three kinds of occupational training. One is vocational training in regularly established schools which equips the trainee with a skill which he or she can use in a wide variety of job situations. The second is on-the - job training which involves orientation of the trainee to the requirements of a particular job in a particular plant. And the third is training for apprentices.

The program came along at just about the right time since one of our major difficulties under the earlier operation was that we were relocating a large number of wholly unskilled workers who presented an increasingly challenging problem of -placement. Today we are placing the unskilled workers in schools both in the states where the reservations are located and in the cities where we maintain an urban offices. We are providing on-the-job training for others in plants situated on or near the reservations. And we have recently started to move actively on an apprentice training program.

Through this operation we are turning out skilled machinists, welders, barbers, beauticians, and people trained in just about every other occupation you can think of that does not require the achievement of a college or university degree, The program has been tremendously popular with the Indians and one of our major problems has been to keep abreast of the constantly growing number of applicants. Fortunately the program has also won widespread Congressional approval and just last year Congress increased the authorization for annual appropriations to finance this program from $J. 5 million to $7.5 million. During the present fiscal year we have nearly $5.5 million available for training activities and this enables us to keep about 1,400 Indians, as a general average, in training status. The average cost per trainee is about $250 a month.

Admittedly, this is a rather expensive operation since it includes not just the costs of tuition but also the living expenses for the trainee plus family dependents, if any, during the course of instruction. But there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits amply justify the expense Acquisition of a salable skill makes an almost night-and - day difference in the economic prospects of the individual Indian. It greatly enhances his chances of being hired, boosts his earning capacity, provides him with additional job security, and broadens his chances for steady advancement.

In addition to the training made possible by our funds in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indians are also benefiting nowadays from training grants made by the Area Redevelopment Administration of the Department of Commerce and this promises to be a resource of continuing importance in the future. Furthermore, a third resource for training of Indians is now shaping up in the United States Department of Labor under provisions of the Manpower Development Training Act enacted by Congress earlier this year. So the outlook for moving substantial numbers of Indians out of the unskilled category and giving them new status as skilled workers is today much more promising than it was as recently as 1960.

Another one of the Bureau’s recent programs that has special relevance in this context .is our work in the field of industrial development. This program was started about six or seven years ago and is designed to help tribal organizations in attracting new manufacturing plants - usually of the light industry type-to the areas on and around the reservations as a means of making additional jobs available for Indian workers. This is not easy to accomplish since the local competition for industrial plants in our country is exceptionally keen - as it is also in Canada, I suspect - and many of the reservations are unfortunately, located in sections of the Nation which have never been especially attractive to American private industry. Nevertheless it seems clear to me that we should by all means continue this activity since any progress we make is better than nothing at all, one of the big problems we have faced for many years on a large number of the reservations is the fact that steady, year-round jobs are simply not available. And so the Indian families have had to depend to a large extent on seasonal work on nearby farms and ranches supplemented by relief checks during the off-season.

Establishment of new plants with more or less dependable payrolls provides an opportunity to break away from this age-old pattern and move in the direction of greater economic and social stability.

The tools that we have available for fostering greater industrial development in the Indian country are essentially threefold. In the first place, something is gained, believe, simply "by having a staff of industrial development specialists - even though it is a small one - who are constantly in touch with industrial managers, picking up information about plans for establishing new plants, spreading the word about available sites in the Indian country and the advantages that can be offered; we now have such personnel stationed in Los .Angeles and Chicago as well as in our national headquarters at Washington, D. C., Secondly, we are in position to help industrial companies meet some of the "start-up" costs involved in establishing new plants close to Indian population centers by reimbursing them for on-the job training provided to Indian workers; this is made possible by authority of the adult vocational training act. And finally we can provide some loans to tribal organizations for use in building or equipping plants as an additional inducement to the manufacturing companies.

Today we have a total of 26 plants operating in predominantly Indian localities, including eight that have been established in the calendar year 1962. Altogether these plants are providing jobs for some 1,300 Indian workers and the prospects are that they will eventually hire about twice this number. This, of course, is not a staggeringly impressive total out of the 380,000 Indian men, women and children who come within the purview of Indian Bureau responsibilities. But on several reservations the industrial payrolls have already helped perceptibly to brighten the local economic and social atmosphere And I am optimistic that further important alleviations of chronic Indian poverty can be made through this avenue of approach.

In addition, we are giving greatly increased attention to the encouragement of tribally sponsored and tribally financed business enterprises that will create more jobs for tribal members. Earlier I mentioned that I was deferring discussion of one of the Bureau's "old line" programs and it seems logically appropriate to go into it here. This is the revolving credit program which was originally authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. .A total appropriation of $10 million was made possible by the 1934 enactment and this was increased by subsequent statutes

of more limited geographic scope to $17 million. Over the years the Bureau has used these funds to good advantage to finance many Indian enterprises, both tribal and individual, which have produced significant and durable economic benefits. The record of repayment has been excellent and the loan collections have been used to make additional lending’s in accordance with the revolving principle.

Meanwhile Indian tribes, with help and guidance from the Bureau's credit specialists, have been receiving an increasing amount of financing from banks and other sources that serve the non-Indian citizen. In fact, the total amount of financing obtained by Indians and Indian tribes from such sources has for years far exceeded that made available by the Bureau. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly apparent that if we are to make a truly significant break-through against Indian poverty - and the whole gamut of human ills that accompany it - there will be a need for financing of Indian agricultural and business enterprises, on repayment terms that only the Bureau can provide, far beyond the" dimensions that were contemplated when the revolving loan fund was first set up in the middle 1930’s.

In partial recognition of this, Congress in 1961 increased the authorization from $17 million to $27 million and appropriated an additional $4 million for the fiscal year that ended last June 30. For the current fiscal period another $4 million was provided. With these funds we have been able to make a number of important loans that will finance tribal developments of outstanding potentiality. The backlog of tribal requests and applications for loans that we have not been able to act upon, however is both voluminous and impressive. So we are making plans and hoping for a really sizable increase in our loan fund authorization; I personally believe it is crucially important to our whole effort.

Yet the availability of credit funds is only part of the story of expanding tribal economic development. Another important part is the resources of managerial skill available within the tribal group. In some tribal areas, of course, the potentialities for economic development are wholly obvious and need only the infusion of finance capital to set the machinery in motion, More often, however, these potentialities are obscure or marginal or speculative and have to be carefully examined by people with special skills in this type of analysis before you can be fully sure of your ground. In the first half of this year a total of 19 surveys and studies were initiated by our Government to explore the feasibility of specific economic development enterprises on Indian reservations and in Alaskan communities. These studies are being made under contract by private organizations well experienced in this sort of work through the use of funds supplied by the Area Redevelopment Administration of the Department of Commerce. As I indicated earlier, the ARA has also been helpful in connection with the training of Indian workers and will undoubtedly be making still further assistance available to Indian tribes in the form of loans and grants for broad economic development programs. In enacting the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961 Congress explicitly mentioned Indian reservations as areas potentially eligible for assistance under its provisions and this feature of the law has already brought forth important benefits. I feel certain it will yield many more in the period ahead.

There is one final activity of the Bureau which I want to mention before I close. This is the work that we have very recently undertaken in the field of Indian housing. Because the United States Government has a wide array of housing programs designed to meet a great variety of citizen

needs, we have not felt that it would be wise or justifiable for the Bureau to become directly engaged in such activity on Indian reservations. We have, however, recruited a small staff of specialists who devote full time to the housing needs of Indians - which, incidentally, are tremendous - and to serving as our liaison with the existing housing agencies of the Federal Government.

Over the past 18 months there have been encouraging break-through on two fronts. For nearly 30 years now our Government has had a program to insure housing loans made by private lending institutions meeting certain requirements and this has been an important element in the growth of our whole housing industry, Because of complications arising out of the trust status of Indian land, people living on reservations have for years not been able to participate in the benefits of this program and have thus been denied a resource available to other citizens. Within the past year, however, these difficulties have been resolved and Indians today can participate equally with others.

Similar difficulties also stood in the way of Indian participation in the program of low-rent public housing which is designed to provide decent, safe and sanitary dwellings in place of quarters in Urban or rural slums for people of low income. Here, too, the complications have been worked out and the first low-rent housing project on an Indian reservation - at Pine Ridge, South Dakota - was formally dedicated in ceremonies which I attended less than two months ago. Other projects of this type are definitely in prospect on several additional reservations.

While these developments are encouraging, I doubt that either or both of these programs will meet more than a fractional part of the enormous needs for better housing on Indian reservations. Because Indian family incomes are characteristically so deplorably low, only a tiny segment of the population on most reservations today can qualify for Government-insured private housing loans. And in many places there are only a comparatively small number of Indians who can even afford to pay the low rent in public housing projects. The point is of course, that most reservation Indians are not accustomed to paying any rent at all so that even the carefully adjusted schedules of the public houses can and do seem like a gigantic burden.

In the light of all this, we are now exploring the possibilities of self-help housing along lines that have already proved successful in Puerto Rico and other areas. The method of approach here would be for the Bureau to provide the Indians with some building materials and technical guidance and for them to supply the labor, working as teams in most cases for the construction of new and better homes. On their own initiative, the Indians of the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona have made a small but encouraging start along this line and we look forward hopefully to launching a substantial number of such enterprises in other tribal areas.

In these remarks I hope I have been able to give you some insight into the nature of the problems that we face. In the administration of Indian affairs in the United States, the kinds of goals and objectives we are striving to accomplish, and how we are going about the job. As you can see, we are using many, many different avenues of approach. We are also trying to keep ourselves flexible, receptive to the influx of new ideas and - above all - keenly aware of the precious human values that are so deeply involved in all our operations, the path ahead will undoubtedly have its thickets and its pitfalls, its disappointments and its setbacks. Yet I remain resolutely optimistic.

Although I could not prove it like a mathematical theorem, I feel deeply that the Indians of the United States are further along toward those three goals I mentioned earlier than they were just two or three years ago. And I believe also that the pace of advance can and will be additionally accelerated as some of our recently initiated programs come to full fruition. All my contacts with Indian people over the years convince me that they will not be satisfied with anything less. Nor should they be.

Although I have been in office only a little over seven months, it has been an extremely crowded period. So I really welcome the opportunity to back off here in a somewhat more cloistered atmosphere and cast an appraising eye on our present situation in Indian affairs. In the next 40 minutes or so I would like to consider this with you under three major topics: first, what we are trying to accomplish through our present Federal programs in the Bureau of Indian Affairs; second, the more important program actions that we have already accomplished or gotten well under way in the last six or seven months; and, third, the outstanding challenges or tasks that I feel we should be tackling in the period ahead.,

Let us start off with the Task Force Report approved in broad outline by Secretary Udall last July and based in large part on recommendations made by Indians to the Task Force in numerous consultations held last spring.

In our report we members of the Task Force set forth three major goals for the Federal administration of Indian affairs. They are (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency, (2) full participation of Indians in American life, and (J) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians.

To reach these goals we must have properly oriented programs. In our study of the Bureau's operations last spring we on the Task Force found that the Bureau already has much of the authority it needs to accomplish these objectives. But we also found that there was need for an important shift in program emphasis. Too much attention, we felt, was being given to the purely custodial phases of the Bureau's work and not enough to the developmental aspects. So today we are giving additional emphasis to the development-oriented programs of the Bureau and making development the keynote of all our operations. This means not only development of physical resources - the soil, grass, water, timber, minerals and the like - but also the development of human skills and capacities. Thus we are talking about a wide range of Bureau programs: soil and moisture conservation, irrigation, forestry, range management, road construction and maintenance on the physical resource side; school operations, adult vocational training adult education and employment assistance in the sphere of human development; and, on top of these, the more specialized programs such as industrial development, credit activities, and the development of tourism or recreational potentials on the reservations.

Over the past six or seven months we have been giving major attention to two preliminary needs in connection with this greater emphasis on the developmental aspects of our work. One is the need for financing of these expanded development programs; the other is the need for communicating with our own staff throughout the length and breadth of the Indian Service.

To give you a somewhat clearer picture of what we have in mind here, let me quote from the statement I made several weeks ago before the appropriations subcommittee of the House of Representatives:

"Development of the full economic potential of the reservation has two facets. One is the proper management of land, timber, water, range, livestock, minerals, and other resources … The other … is a program of economic development. By this, we mean full use of all the resources of a given reservation for maximum productivity. In the West, outside the Indian reservations, a hundred years and more have brought together land, people, and capital to make effective contributions to the national welfare, bringing a high standard of living to the whole area. It is in the sense that this process is only beginning, or has never taken place at all, that Indian reservations are largely undeveloped. In this respect they resemble underdeveloped countries elsewhere in the world.

"Such economic development as has taken place tends to be rather one-sided. Until recently the trust status of Indian lands has prevented them from obtaining credit with which to develop them. Lands are leased which the Indians could more profitably operate themselves and so the full income potential is not realized to the Indians. Since 1867, not one irrigation project has ever been completed. With few exceptions the possibility of tourism is untapped. Small commercial enterprise and service establishments are nonexistent, or feebly developed.

"Over the years the Bureau of Indian Affairs has struggled to fill the economic gap. We have brought much technical skill and small amounts of credit to the reservations; but frontier conditions still prevail with respect to transportation; communications; housing; availability of power; and the supply of community, domestic and industrial water. The standard of living on Indian reservations is not likely to be significantly improved until these conditions have been corrected. To take the first step is the purpose of the [Bureau's] proposed Division of Economic Development."

Although we have had only limited funds which could be used in staffing for a greater emphasis on economic development during the present fiscal year, which ends on June 30, we have been taking advantage of this period to communicate a new sense of direction and purpose both to our own employees and to Indian tribal groups. Last October in Denver we he1d a nationwide conference of the Bureau's superintendents - the first of its kind convened by the Bureau in more than 20 year& It brought together 56 superintendents, 10 area directors, and most of our top staff in the Washington Office. We have also brought together in nationwide conferences at Washington or elsewhere our key employees engaged in employment assistance and adult vocational training, in education, tribal operations, agricultural assistance, road construction and maintenance, building construction, and budget and finance.

And we have also been meeting with the Indians on their home grounds. Just a few weeks ago, for example, the Deputy Commissioner, the Associate Commissioner and I made an extensive tour of the major Indian communities in western Oklahoma, holding conferences with all the tribal groups in the Anadarko .Area and meeting with many Indian families in their homes as we motored from point to point. Tomorrow morning I am flying to Bismarck, North Dakota, for a similar tour of the reservation areas in that State and in early June I shall be having consultations of this type in the Indian communities of Minnesota.

And now where do we stand today in the way of program accomplishments?

Fundamental to everything we do in the Bureau is the education of Indian children. Yet it is an unfortunate fact that we have never had enough classroom facilities so that all Indian children could go to school. Over and beyond this, we have the problem of obsolescence, of antiquated, inadequate and unsafe facilities.

To overcome these two problems, we now have underway 32 school and dormitory construction projects which will provide 1,250 additional spaces and replace 1,814 spaces in unsafe or obsolete buildings. About half of these spaces should be available by the opening of school next September. For the longer range our target is to expand the capacity of our school system and bring ourselves completely abreast of the growing school-age population by the end of the fiscal year 1965. And another part of our dual objective for that same year is to provide safe and sanitary facilities for all children attending Bureau schools.

In the field of adult vocational training, we have liberalized our eligibility requirements so as to include all Indians residing within the exterior boundaries of reservations regardless of the status of the particular lands on which they live; under former rules the training was available only to people making their homes on trust or restricted lands. And we have made it possible for Indians living near the reservations to qualify in cases where a denial of the service would have an adverse effect on our reservation programs. Along with this broadening in the potential scope of our vocational training program, we have also had an increase in the authorized amount of appropriations for the program from $3.5 million to $7.5 million. For the fiscal year which starts on July 1 we are requesting $5.5 million for the financing of this program since it will take some time to gear up for the higher level of activity. In future years our plan is to request the full authorized amount of $7.5 million.

Another important step we have taken in line with the recommendations of the Task Force is to make an increasingly greater use of Indian labor on our construction projects. The former practice of the Bureau was to have practically all of this construction work done by private contractors who usually have their own crews and make little or no use of Indian labor. This meant that the Bureau was spending many millions of dollars each year on jobs that could be performed by Indians and yet it was providing the people on reservations with only a minimal amount of badly needed work and on-the-job training.

In our Task Force consultations with Indian tribal delegations throughout the West we received many strong complaints about this and in our report we recommended a much greater use of Indian labor through what is known as the "force account" method. This involves having construction projects performed directly by the Government with the Bureau doing its own recruitment and putting work crews on the Federal payroll.

In the fiscal year that ended last June 30 the Bureau had only eight projects involving about $1.5 million in its entire building construction program carried out by the force account method. In the present fiscal year we have twice as many force account projects involving some four million dollars and providing jobs for about 275 Indians and Eskimos. Next year we expect to have about the same amount in our building construction program. In road construction we have faced a special problem since the Bureau had disposed of most of the heavy equipment required for this type to work. In the present fiscal year's program, however, over 40 percent of our road construction work is on a force account basis and we estimate that it is providing jobs for about 400 Indian workers. While there are some types of projects that just about have to be performed under contract as a practical matter, we shall be making increasing use of force account in the future wherever there is a reasonable possibility to do so.

¬On the housing front we have had three important breakthroughs in the last eight or ten months that augur well for the future. The first was the approval of a housing project for the elderly at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota under the special program conducted in this field by the Housing and Home Finance Agency. The second was the launching of a low-rent public housing project on the same reservation under the program of the Public Housing Administration. And the third was the completion of an agreement between our Bureau and the Federal Housing Administration which greatly broadens the possibilities for FHA insured loans from banks and other lenders to finance home construction and housing improvements on the reservations. All three of these developments are heartening.

But they will meet only a minor portion of the need because so few Indian families on the reservations have the kind of dependable income required to qualify for FHA-insured loans or even to pay the rents in partially subsidized public housing projects. To make really significant inroads into the tremendous problem of inadequate housing on the reservations, the most promising approach I see is a program of self-help making use of the Indians' own labor. We shall be giving increased attention to this in the period ahead.

In the field of Indian arts and crafts we have had two developments of major significance. One was an increase in the appropriations for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board which permitted some badly needed additions of staff personnel. The other, which has even broader implications, was the decision to establish an Institute of American Indian Arts, national in scope, on the grounds now occupied by the Bureau's boarding school at Santa Jo, New Mexico. This decision was announced last fall and our plans call for opening the new Institute this coming September. At the moment we are busily engaged at Santa Fe - making other school arrangements for the no graduating student now enrolled there, having the physical plant remodeled to meet the new needs, and building up a faculty and administrative-maintenance staff for the forthcoming Institute. Al though the new school will be located in New Mexico, its doors will be open to qualified Indian students wi.th special aptitudes in arts and crafts from all over the country. A full high school course will be offered plus two years of post-high-school instruction. The curriculum will include not only the fine arts, such as painting and sculpture, but a wide range of indigenous crafts such as woodworking, silversmithing, leathercraft, beadwork, ivory carving and basketry. We are hoping eventually to create at Santa Fe a real showplace of Indian arts and crafts which will be of not only national but international interest.

And now how about the unmet needs, the unsolved problems, the jobs lying ahead of us which we have not yet really tackled?

The first one that comes to mind is the rather broad category of reservation economic development, while we have made a few gestures in this direction, our efforts so far have been in no way commensurate with the dimensions of the tremendous job that needs to be accomplished. As I see it, the task has three main phases.

The first involves assembling in the Bureau - chiefly at our field offices - an adequate staff of people highly qualified in economics and social sciences who can devote their full time and attention to reservation economic development.

For the fiscal year that starts July 1 we have requested funds to finance a substantial number of such positions and we are hoping to get our staffing under way on a significant scale this coming summer.

The second phase is the task of formulating comprehensive plans for economic development, reservation by reservation. This, of course, is a job which will have to be accomplished chiefly by the Indians themselves; if the plans are to be worth the paper they are written on, they must be basically INDIAN plans, reflecting tribal thinking from the first fact-gathering stages through the final recommendations for specific action leading to greater economic development. Admittedly, there have been many clarion calls from the Bureau in the past for such tribal planning and the response to date has not been overwhelmingly impressive. But I believe our prospects are much better now for two reasons - first, because the tribal fears of imminent termination have been largely eliminated and, second, because we should be able to provide the tribes with far more expert and intensive help than was formerly possible in planning for economic development through the new staff we are hoping and expecting to recruit.

The final phase of the job involves working with tribal groups to streamline and modernize their organizational structures so they will be in position to take full advantage of the available opportunities for economic development. A large number of tribes are now operating under constitutions, charters and bylaws that were drafted in the latter 1940’s and there is an enormous task to be done in bringing these documents up to date In this field, too, we are hoping and expecting to expand our staff of qualified experts in tribal government during the coming fiscal year so that we will be able to help tribes with these problems on a much broader scale than was formerly possible.

Another closely related set of problems that faces us is the matter of Indian claims Recently there has been quite a burst of activity in this field and a rather large number of tribes are now on the verge of corning into substantial sums of money. Secretary Udall has emphasized quite strongly his feeling that, wherever feasible, these funds should be used to finance reservation development programs rather than distributed per capita among the individual tribal members. In some cases, of course, this will not be feasible either because there is no reservation to be developed or because there is no cohesive or significantly functioning tribal organization. But where we are dealing with an adequately organized tribal group occupying a reservation with potentials for development, it seems to me we have no alternative except to insist that the funds be used very largely for development purposes. In many instances, the amount of these awards will be sufficient to launch programs that will provide tribal members with continuing benefits for years and even decades into the future.

But on most reservations the judgment monies alone will probably not be enough to finance the kind of economic growth that is needed to boost Indian living standards to an acceptable level. Over and beyond this, a great deal of thought and attention must be given to ways of attracting private investment or equity financing of reservation enterprises as well as credit financing through loans from private and governmental sources.

Another part of this economic development picture consists of the construction needs in Indian country As a result of increased appropriations for construction work in recent years, the Bureau has been able to make considerable progress in enlarging and improving its reservation road system, its administrative buildings at agency headquarters, and it’s living quarters for employees. Yet the needs are still tremendous. Far too many Indian communities in the West are still inaccessible by all,-weather roads. Far too many agency buildings constructed half a century and more ago are continuing in use. And far too many qualified and capable people are hesitant about undertaking employment careers on Indian reservations because of the insufficiency of adequate housing and other amenities of living which are available in more highly developed communities.

And this brings up the question of the status of communities located near the reservations - the "peripheral towns," as they are sometimes called. What should be the economic, social and political relationships of these towns to the Indian communities on the reservations? Should we be moving in the direction of greater integration and ultimate elimination of all barriers and distinctions?

Or should we be working toward a more comprehensive kind of cooperative relationship with Indian and non-Indian communities continuing to maintain their distinctive identities? These are the kinds of Questions which leaders on both sides of the reservation lines will need to be examining with much care in the period ahead.

Finally, there is the need for a bread gamut of activities to improve the quality of education provided in Federal-Indian schools. We have the problem of irregular attendance, the problem of premature drop-outs before high school graduation, and the problem of English language capabilities. Without going into statistics, let me merely emphasize that all of these problems have reached serious proportions in many Indian areas and that remedial action cannot be delayed. But I am glad to report that our education personnel throughout the Indian Service are thoroughly alert to the difficulties and are devoting increased attention to these matters. As one example, the schedule of summer school activities and conferences planned for the months ahead is highly impressive and will undoubtedly contribute greatly to the solution of these most urgently pressing problems.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus released the attached statement and fact sheet today concerning the Pacific Northwest salmon fisheries, at a joint news conference held in Seattle with Senator Warren G. Magnuson of Washington.

I am here today not only as the Secretary of the· Interior Department, but also as the representative of President Carter to announce a major commitment of the Carter Administration to the fishing industry of the State of Washington. The Administration will forward to the Congress shortly legislation to authorize the appropriations of $90 million to be used to relieve the economic hardship and dislocations being suffered by the fishing community here. The need for economic assistance arises because: (1) There has been a significant and substantial decline in the runs of some anadromous species; (2) there has been a significant increase in the number of persons commercially fishing; and (3) the Supreme Court recently affirmed the 50-50 allocation of this resource between non-Indian and treaty Indian fishermen in some portions of the fishery.

The stocks of salmon and steelhead which spawn in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest constitute valuable d renewable natural resources which contribute to the food supply, economy and health of the Nation. Many of your citizens have historically depended upon these stocks of fish for their livelihood.

A significant amount of data has been accumulated with regard to enhancement proposals. However, identification of final projects will require close attention to existing biological and other data, and Tribal input as selection procedures are worked out with State agencies. Priority selection will insure that funded projects are enhancement of existing,--and not replacement for--natural runs to the maximum extent practical.

A satisfactory resolution of the question of whether hatchery fish are subject to the Treaty Right is also needed.

Fleet Adjustment Program:

The specific objective of this program is to bring the Indian and non-Indian fleets into appropriate balance consistent with the Supreme Court Decision so that fishing remains a viable economic occupation and so that fishing can occur without adjustment in fishing times. The Administration will recommend an authorization for appropriations of $25 million, to be matched equally by the State, to buy back non-Treaty fishing vessels over ten years. An authorization also will be recommended for a $15 million loan and loan guarantee program to assist Treaty tribes in up-grading vessels and gear. For this fleet adjustment program to be effective, some changes in the State's program of licensing vessels may be needed. Such changes still need to be worked out with the State.

Summary- Federal Commitment: