OPA

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today steps are being taken to implement a new law which provides for payment to the Delaware Indians for lands ceded under an 1818 treaty. He announced the amendment of regulations which will permit preparation of p tribal roll.

The Act of September 21, 1968, authorized the distribution of funds derived from a judgment by the Indian Claims Commission, and directed the Secretary to prepare a roll to serve as a basis for paying the money.

The judgment of $1,627,244.64 represents additional payment for almost 4 million acres of Indian land. The Commission found the Delaware Nation had a recognized half interest in the ceded land, this interest having a value of $2,218,925 in 1818.

A sum of $124,674.73 already had been paid to the Indians as compensation for the lands, and the Commission determined there were other offsets and counterclaims allowable in the sum of $467,005.63. This resulted in the award granted.

One amendment changes a section of Code of Federal Regulations to define "lineal ancestor," and another includes requirements for enrollment and establishes a deadline of December 31, 1969, for filing applications for enrollment to share in the funds.

Applications for enrollment must be filed with the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P.O. Box 368, Anadarko, Okla., 73005, or the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Building, Muskogee, Okla., 74401, and must be postmarked no later than December 31, 1969.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel announced today the appointment of Sam Yankee to the Department's new 15-member Advisory Board on Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. The newly established Board, composed of citizens from all over the country, will provide counsel and advice to the Secretary on policy matters relating to the conservation of our wildlife resources.

Yankee, a resident of McGregor, Minnesota, is a member of the Mille Lacs band of Chippewa Indians and an ardent conservationist, secretary Hickel said. He has worked closely with Fish and Wildlife Service Personnel at the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota.

Dr. Leslie L. Glasgow, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in the Department of Interior, said that Mr. Yankee's past experience in working with refuge personnel together with his interest in wildlife habitat will enable him to make a valuable contribution to the Department's efforts to enhance our nation's wildlife resources.

The first meeting of the new Advisory Board will be held in the Secretary's conference room in Washington, D.C. on July 23, 24. The Secretary at the opening of the meeting will present each member with his Certificate of Appointment.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today reaffirmed a commitment to improve housing conditions for Indians with the signing of an Agreement of Cooperation. It calls for development of a manual of Federal housing and related programs to spur Indian use of Federal housing aid.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and HUD are operating jointly under a five-year plan to provide 6,000 dwellings a year for Indians.

Today's agreement, signed by Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton and HUD Secretary George Romney clears the way for a major tool designed to acquaint tribal councils, housing authorities, groups and individuals interested in housing for Indians with HUD and other Federal housing and related Programs available to American Indians.

Planned for use by laymen and professionals, the manual will be prepared under a $40,000 contract funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based Non-Profit Housing Center.

It will contain a brief summary of all relevant programs, indicating their nature, statutory basis, qualifications for assistance, and Federal officials at the National, State, or local levels administering each program.

Instructions for making application for assistance will also be provided.

Recalling the spirit and terms of the original agreement, both Secretaries viewed the new agreement as "a forging ahead" with efforts to reach the five year goals agreed upon two years ago.

Commenting on the agreement, Secretary Romney said: "We at HUD feel that today's signing and the follow-through of both Departments on the original agreement are, indeed, meaningful efforts to stem deplorable housing conditions among many Indian groups."

Secretary Morton said, "A decent, comfortable, and warm home is basic to life itself. Housing in some American Indian communities is so inadequate that spiritual and physical well-being is jeopardized. About 45,000 Indian families live in dwellings that do not meet either health or safety standards. One cannot emerge from the destructive force of poverty without decent housing.

"Interior," he said, "is committed to assuring Indians that by the end of this decade all Indian reservation families will have proper housing.

"The major financial support will come from HUD. Without our goal will be only a dream. In behalf of Indian Americans I wish to thank Secretary Romney for making reality of the dream." HUD's help

Forty miles northwest of Fairbanks, in the interior of Alaska, the town of New Minto is under construction, to be occupied by 160 Minto Indians. New Minto is a replacement for old Minto Village, 25 miles away, which has suffered severe damage from spring thaws.

The new community is being built at a cost of $673,000 in a co-operative effort of the Alaska State Housing Authority, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Army and the U.S. Public Health Service, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today. This represents $225,000 for 38 new houses, $378,000 for water and sewer systems, and $70,000 for drilling the village well.

The original village of Minto often suffered from spring floods. Villagers began to plan for the new site on higher ground after floods resulting from a 1967 thaw. Construction began this year.

Although villagers expect to move to the new location this year, not all of the houses will be finished in time for winter. A road had to be laid during the building season before construction of the village could start.

The Army's 559th Engineers of the 171st Infantry Brigade are at New Minto to speed construction. They engineered the road and are assembling prefabricated sidings for the homes. Villagers are helping in construction, which includes sewage and plumbing systems.

Twenty of the new houses are being financed by the Alaska State Housing Authority and 18 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The U.S. Public Health Service is paying the cost of the water and sewage systems and drilling a well.

The course of American Indian history was drastically changed, fifty years ago, by the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith told Indian leaders in a letter marking the act's fiftieth anniversary. Smith, a Wasco Indian from Oregon, is the Reagan Administration's top Indian official.

Smith noted that the act "marked a turning point in Federal-Indian relations. It halted or reversed prior policies which had cumulatively proved disastrous for Indians."

The act ended a period of almost fifty years in which federal policy was to break up tribal land holdings through allotments to Indian individuals. Under this policy, implemented by the General Allotment Act of 1887, Indian land holdings were reduced from more than 136 million acres in 1887 to less than 50 million acres in 1934.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ended the allotment period and its attempt to dismantle traditional tribal groups. The act initiated substantive efforts by the federal government to develop functional governments and to work with tribes for the improvement of living conditions on reservations.

Smith wrote: "The importance of the Indian Reorganization Act cannot be overemphasized, as previous federal Indian policies up to that time had increasingly diminished Indian land holdings and the freedom of Indian people to practice their own culture and customs, and had resulted in a steady decline of the ability of tribes to function in their sovereign capacity."

Smith said the act represented a major national commitment to improve the administration of Indian affairs and it reaffirmed the right of tribes to exist as self-governing entities.

A meeting of area directors of the two principal federal agencies providing services to American Indians and Alaska Natives will take place October 19-20 at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia. "This first-ever meeting between the Area and Associate Directors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the Department of the Interior and the Indian Health Service (IHS) in the Department of Health and Human Services will be devoted to the development of a national strategy for alcohol and substance abuse prevention on Indian reservations," Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown said. Dr. Everett H. Rhoades, Director of the Indian Health Service, said the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) during the conference will insure shared cooperation and coordination efforts between the two agencies. "We hope to identify mutual concerns and interests for the prevention of alcohol and substance abuse among American Indian and Alaska Natives and develop a strategy for implementing the MOA in each of the areas," Dr. Rhoades said.

The MOA will be signed in a 10:15 a.m. ceremony, Tuesday, October 20 before an overview of the meeting and closing is given by Dr. Rhoades and BIA Deputy Commissioner David J. Matheson. Each of the directors of the two federal agencies will have met with their counterparts prior to the two-day summit meeting to discuss and share preliminary ideas regarding the implementation of the MOA. The meeting will be used to finalize those plans and come to a consensus to carry out the prevention program throughout Indian Country. The Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act directs the two Bureaus to work together -- BIA in prevention and IHS in treatment. An earlier MOA between the two laid the groundwork for the prevention .and treatment programs and the new MOA signing signals the beginning of the implementation programs.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has issued a final determination to acknowledge the Duwamish Tribal Organization, hereafter referred to as the Duwamish of Renton, Washington, as existing as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The Duwamish first filed a letter of intent to petition for Federal acknowledgement on June 7, 1977. The Bureau made its final determination based on documentary and interview evidence, which formed the basis for a 1996 proposed finding not to acknowledge the Duwamish, and an analysis of information and arguments received in response to the proposed finding by third parties and the Duwamish themselves. In addition, the Bureau reached factual conclusions after a review and analysis of the existing record in light of the additional evidence. Today’s final determination reverses the negative proposed finding issued 1996.

The review established that the Duwamish Tribal Organization (petitioner) has satisfied the criteria under the 1978 regulations on recognition (25 CFR Part 83). The Bureau concluded that while the petitioner meets the seven criteria for recognition throughout the period of first contact to the present, as an alternative basis for recognition, the petitioner has also demonstrated prior Federal acknowledgement in the form of numerous statutory references of the “Duwamish Tribe” or the “D’wamish Tribe” beginning with the United States Senate’s ratification of the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott in 1859 up until the final appropriation statute in 1923, and that the petitioner further meets the seven criteria for the period from 1923 to the present. Express statutory references also were found in an unbroken series of appropriations statutes beginning in 1860 and ending in 1923. The Bureau further concluded that the Duwamish met 1994 regulations requiring that a petitioner demonstrate historical continuity for the period commencing from the time of previous acknowledgement to the present. In light of the additional evidence, the Duwamish were determined to have met the criteria under both the 1978 and 1994 regulations. The final determination will become effective 90 days after being published in the Federal Register.

A $2.5 million supplemental appropriation for the Bureau of Indian Affairs will make it possible for some 3,000 Indian youth to receive scholarship grants enabling them to begin or continue their education in 1973 at the college level.

In making the announcement, Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton said the additional funds will enable the Bureau to meet the needs of all eligible Indian applicants. The 3,000 youths are in addition to the record high of 11,009 students already receiving higher education assistance under the Bureau's regular appropriation.

"About 14,000 applications for scholarship grants were received this summer," Secretary Morton said. "This supplemental appropriation will make it possible to provide grants for the spring semester for those students we could not previously help because of a lack of funds. These students should immediately contact their agency or BIA Area Office to reactivate their applications for assistance," he added.

The 14,000 Indian students expected to be receiving college scholarship aid in 1973 is a dramatic increase over past years. It is almost 20 times the number receiving assistance ten years ago and about five times the number assisted four years ago. More than 100 students receiving assistance are in law school and approximately 100 more are in other post-graduate programs.

"This is an indication that our Native American youth are deeply interested in seeking a professional level of education. The rapidly increasing number of applications also reflects the desire of Indians to achieve the necessary education to attain the self-determination advocated in President Nixon's 1970 Message to Congress, “Secretary Morton said.

The supplemental appropriation, which has been allocated to the Bureau's Area Offices for distribution, brings the total provided through the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Indian higher education to $20.9 million in fiscal year 1973.

The Havasupai Indian Tribe can now move out of the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon National Park Enlargement Act signed by President Ford early this month gave the tribe 185,000 acres of land on the rim of the canyon and adjacent to the park. It is land that the Havasupais had occupied for about 1,000 years, until it was taken away from them about a century ago.

Since 1882 the tribe has been confined to 519 acres of almost inaccessible land at the bottom of the canyon. In good weather it can be reached by traveling 63 miles of graveled road off Highway 66 to Hualapai Hilltop at the top of the canyon and then proceeding by mule or foot down an eight mile trail into the canyon. In severe weather access is limited to helicopters.

The traditional pattern of living for the Havasupais had been to use the floor of the canyon for crop raising during the spring and summer but to move to the rim during the winter. They maintained homes in both areas. They also used the rim for grazing horses and other animals.

The tribe now has 425 members, of which 275 have been living on the 519 acre tract. Since 1908 the Havasupais have been granted grazing permits for about 250,000 acres in an area set aside as the Coconino Forest Reserve. They were not permitted to live on this land, however.

In 1944 the tribe was also given lands totaling 2,539 acres in Cataract Canyon. This land is a long, narrow strip even more remote than the 519 acre tract. It is used only for grazing horses.

Restrictions on the use of the 185,000 acres granted the Havasupai are included in the Act to ensure compatibility with the uses of the adjacent park. Commercial timber production or mining, for example, are forbidden. The Act also granted the Havasupais the exclusive use of an additional 95,000 acres running from near the canyon rim down to the river on the floor of the canyon.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has no objection to statutory postponement of the deadline for termination of Federal trust supervision over the property and affairs of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin beyond the presently scheduled date of December 31, 1960.

In presenting its views on four pending congressional bills that affect the Menominee termination program, the Department recommended that they be combined into one and suggested important amendments in each. The bills are H. R. 11813, H. R. 11476, H. R. 10450, and H. R. 10451. They deal respectively with the terminal date, a proposed authorization for Federal loans to the Tribe after termination, Federal reimbursement to the Tribe for its termination expenditures, and tax exemption for stock certificates to be issued by a tribal corporation.

In commenting on the terminal date proposal, the Department emphasized its desire to do everything possible to assure the success of the Menominee termination program.

“If after considering all of the facts and after hearing from the Tribe and other interested parties Congress feels that a postponement is desirable,” the Department's report said, “then we would have no objection if Congress should fix a new termination date, which we feel should not be later than July 1, 1961. The date should not be left for determination by the Secretary, because experience clearly shows that without a firm statutory date the Tribe will in all probability not complete the actions necessary to put the termination plan into effect.”

With reference to the loan legislation, H. R. 11476, the Department recommended that it be given authority to make post-termination loans, if necessary, to a tribal corporation for the purpose of expanding and modernizing the Tribe's sawmill and other business operations. The Department's report, however, recommended substantial amendment of the pending bill to provide (1) that Federal loans could be made only if commercial credit is not available on reasonable terms, (2) that interest rates should be sufficient to cover the Government's cost of borrowing money plus the costs of administration, and (3) that after a loan has been made by the Department it could be transferred to another Federal agency or private credit agency for administration and collection.

Commenting on H. R. 10450, the Department pointed out that under present law Federal reimbursement of the Tribe's termination expenses is limited to cover all which were incurred before July 2, 1958 plus half of those incurred after that date, or $275,000, whichever is lesser. The Department advocated liberalizing this formula to provide for full reimbursement up to a maximum of $500,000.

In its comments on the documentary stamp tax, the Department stressed that under all the termination laws so far enacted by Congress the distribution of tribal assets to tribal members is made exempt from Federal and state income taxes. In the Menominee case, however, the situation is complicated because the Tribe plans to establish a corporation under State law and issue stock and debentures to the tribal members. Issuance of these certificates would be taxable under the Internal Revenue Code and the taxes might amount to as much as $165,000. In its report the Department expressed the opinion that Congress clearly intended to make the distribution of Menominee tribal assets tax-exempt and that the failure to mention documentary stamp taxes along with income taxes in the original termination law was inadvertent.

"Under the legislation we are recommending," the Department said, "the Government will have to reimburse the tribe for all termination expenses, including the documentary stamp tax if paid by the tribe. The choice, therefore, is either to exempt the tribe from payment of the documentary stamp tax, or to impose the tax and use Federal money to pay it. We urge that tax exemption be provided. “

To safeguard against a possible hiatus in the termination program, the Department recommended a provision authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to step in and act on behalf of the Tribe if the Tribe should fail to take all of the actions necessary to complete the termination plan before the scheduled date. Under present law, it was pointed out, the tribal corporation can be organized and tribal property transferred to it only after voting trustees have been selected or approved by the General Council of the Tribe. In view of the great difficulty that has been experienced in getting a quorum to attend the General council meetings, it is possible that these actions may be taken before the scheduled date. Under the Department's proposal the Secretary would have the authority under such circumstances to establish a tribal corporation and transfer the property to it after giving the Tribe 20 days' notice of intention.