OPA

WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. 19 - The American Indian National Bank, the first institution of its kind, has opened for business at 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. in the nation's capital.

At the opening ceremony in the bank's offices a block from the White House, Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton called the AINB "a symbol of the spirit, vision and self-determination of the Indian people." More important, he said, "it is a working symbol that will free American Indians from the isolation of an economic island, bring new prosperity and full opportunity for equal economic footing with the rest of the nation.”

James E. Smith, Comptroller of the Currency, officially presented the bank's charter to Barney Old Coyote, president of the Indian-owned and operated bank. The AINB, established as a national bank under Federal banking laws, is subject to normal regulatory requirements of the Comptroller of the Currency and fully accredited and insured by the FDIC.

American Indian National Bank - Add 1

The new bank is the keystone of an envisioned national Indian financial structure that will eventually encompass banking operations, venture capital, industrial capital and insurance services to Indians throughout the United States. It is the end result of several years of effort on the part of Indian leaders of many tribes and communities, interested agencies of the Federal government, and International Bank, a Washington-based financial services organization which developed the specific concept for the organization of the bank and will provide continuing consultant assistance.

The authorized capital stock of AINB is 500, 000 shares with a par value of $5. Only Indians may purchase stock in the bank. Tribes, organizations and individuals are being invited to buy shares. AINB will offer a full range of banking services, including checking accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit for individuals, corporations, organizations and institutions, together with a wide variety of loans tailored to the needs of the borrower. In loan programs AINB will deal primarily, though not exclusively, with Indian tribes and groups.

W. W. Keeler, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and former board chairman of Phillips Petroleum Company, was elected first chairman of AINB. Barney Old Coyote, president, is a member of the Crow tribe and professor of economics at Montana State University.

The largest cession of land to a group of Native Americans in the history of the United States is one way to describe the effect of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed by the Congress December 18, 1971.

Or, put another way, The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act will put about one-twelfth of Alaska into the hands of the Alaska Native corporations --an administrative device unique in the annals of solutions to aboriginal land claims.

And this transfer of jurisdiction from Federal to Native hands -- for 95 percent of Alaska belongs to Uncle Sam --will begin early in 1974.

Concurrently, as land is put into Native hands, the United States Government and the State of Alaska will contribute $962,500,000 to Alaska Natives through the Alaska Native Fund. The money will go to the Native regional corporations and indirectly to their stockholders and then to village corporations. Both the regional and village corporations are organized in accordance with settlement legislation.

Small wonder, then that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is employing unusual means to comply with provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Enrollment of Alaska Natives eligible to participate under the Act has been the responsibility of the Bureau. It has involved some innovations including:

1. Encoding and microfilming at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Data Center in Albuquerque.

2. Contracting with 12 Regional Alaska Native Corporations to conduct enumeration within their regions.

3. A world-wide newspaper, magazine, radio, and TV campaign to alert Alaska Natives who are scattered throughout the world that they should enroll in order to come under the Act.

4. Production of a 16 millimeter film to describe the Act.

Bureau of Indian Affairs tribal enrollment officers estimate that about 80,000 Alaska Natives will be found eligible and enrolled by the deadline of December 18, 1973.

For purposes of enrollment under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, any United States citizen born on or before December 18, 1971 who has one-fourth degree or more Indian, Aleut, or Eskimo ancestry or combination of these is considered eligible --no matter where he was born or lives or if he has died since passage of the Act.

The Act stipulates that the State of Alaska be divided into 12 geographic regions, each region being composed of Native people having a common cultural heritage and, sharing common interests. These regions are based partially upon the boundaries of Native organizations which had been formed prior to the settlement and which has considerable influence upon it.

The completed roll will show each person as a resident of a region and in most cases a village. On that basis he or she will be eligible to become a stockholder in the regional and if appropriated, a village corporation.

Among those that may be residents of a region but not of an Alaskan village are Natives who live in Sitka, Kenai, Juneau, and Kodiak.

These were originally Native villages but are now predominately non-Native. Those who do not claim to be permanent residents of Alaska are being enrolled in one of the 12 regionals of Alaska with which they have personal or ancestral use.

The Indian Education for Health Committee of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare will meet July 19 and 20 between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. in the Indian Health Area conference room, 388 Old Post Office and Court House Building, Oklahoma City, Okla., Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs announced today.

"The meeting is to continue to develop ways and means of coordinating and improving education and health programs for Indians throughout the United States, Franklin indicated.

The proposed agenda includes presentations by representatives of organizations interested in Indian education and health programs. The meeting is open to the public.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act has three basic components: Land, money, and an interrelated corporate structure Land, money, and an interrelated corporate structure of Native villages and regions.

Since Alaska Natives -- Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts --are a land-oriented people, the cession of 40 million acres of land to them under the Act is of great importance. One-twelfth of Alaska will be in their hands starting in early 1974.

The distribution of money contributed by the State of Alaska and the United States Government to Alaska Natives under the Act will also mean change. The total amount will be $962,500,000 and it will be called the Alaska Native Fund. About $130 million will go into their hands in December 1973.

The Federal portion of this fund will amount to $462,500,000 appropriated from the general fund of the U. S. Treasury. Already appropriated is $12,500,000 for the first fiscal year, $50,000,000 for the second, and $70,000,000 for the third.

To be distributed over the next 8 ¥ears will be: $70,000,000 during each of the fourth and fifth fiscal years; $40,000,000 during the sixth fiscal year and $30,000,000 during each of the next five fiscal years.

In addition, $500,000,000 will be credited to the fund as a result of state and Federal mineral leases on a revenue sharing basis. This money will come from 2 percent of the royalties, rentals, and bonuses from leases of land or sales of minerals under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 and certain other mineral leases of the State of Alaska.

A bonus for the Natives will be the $6 million interest accumulated on the amount already appropriated but not yet distributed because of the Bureau of Indian Affairs investment program.

A quarterly distribution of all money in the fund, except for attorneys' and consultants' fees, will be made to the Alaska Native Regional Corporations. The distribution will be based upon the ratio of Natives enrolled to the total enrollment in each region. Enrollment will be completed and signed by the Secretary of the Interior by December 18, 1973.

There are now 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporations. The Act stipulates that the State of Alaska be divided into 12 geographic regions, each region being composed of Native people with a common cultural heritage and common interests. Those who do not claim to be permanent residents of Alaska are being enrolled in one of the 12 regionals of Alaska with which they have personal or ancestral ties.

In addition, there will be village corporations. Villages must incorporate before they can become eligible for lands and other benefits under the Act, and villages on former reserves must incorporate and vote on whether to keep their reserves or receive more general benefits by December 18, 1973.

During the five years following enactment of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act the minimum distribution from the Alaska Native Fund is:

1. Not less than 10 percent of all funds received by the12 existing Regional Corporations. This must be distributed among all the stockholders.

2. Not less than 45 percent of all funds. This must be distributed among the village corporations and to the stock­holders who are not residents of these villages.

3. Following the 5 year period, not less than 50 percent of all funds will go to the village corporations and village non-resident stockholders.

The regional corporations, which have only interim boards of directors will receive 16 million acres of land of which they will own both the surface and subsurface and the subsurface rights on Native lands. They will begin to acquire this as soon as they identify their stockholders, issue shares to them and elect a board of directors. In addition they will receive 22 million acres of subsurface rights on Native lands.

Seventy percent of all revenues received from timber resources and the subsurface of the land must be divided annually among the 12 regional corporations according to the number of Natives enrolled in each region.

Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today made public his remarks to Mrs. Robert Jim on the passing of her husband Robert Jim, Chairman of the Yakima Indian Tribe, Washington, member of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, and the National Tribal Chairman’s Association.

In a wire to Mrs. Jim, Franklin said: “I cannot begin to express to you the sense of loss that all of us in the Indian community feel at the passing of Robert Jim. He gave up an Indian way of life to serve to the Yakima Tribe and the Indian people as a whole. He served them at the highest possible levels.

''He was given a mandate to lead his people when he became chairman of the Yakima Tribe. He also received a mandate from the President of the United States when he was named to the National Council on Indian Opportunity.

“Few Indian people have achieved one or the other of these honors. Only a handful have achieved both. He is solely missed.”

Jim died October 30 while attending the National Congress of American Indians convention in Tulsa, Okla.

He was born June 28, 1929 at Dry Creek, Wash., and spent his early years chasing wild horses for a living. He attended public schools in Toppenish, Washington. He was graduated from high school June 1948 and enlisted in the United States Air Force September 2, 1948. He served in France, Germany, and England and was discharged April 1954 as a staff sergeant.

In subsequent years he chased wild horses, hunted, and fished at Jackson Fishing Site, Celilo, Ore., until it was inundated in 1957.

He became treasurer of the National Congress of American Indians in 1961 and Commander of Chiefs, White Swan Post 191, American Legion, in 1962. That same year he was elected secretary of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

In 1964 he became chairman of the American Indian Civil Liberties Trust, a 21 year appointment. That same year he became a delegate for the United States Department of State to Quito, Ecuador, to participate in the North American Treaty Organization. In 1972 he was elected to the board of directors of the National Tribal Chairman's Association.

He was appointed to the National Council on Indian Opportunity by President Richard M. Nixon to serve until August 31, 1974. He had been chairman of the Yakima Tribal Council since 1967.

Jim spent many years working not only for his own Yakima people in order to have 21,000 acres of land including a part of Mount Adams returned to the tribe but for other Indian groups as well. He worked on provisions of the Alaska Native Land Claims Act which provides that about $962.5 million and 40 million acres of land will go to Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska. He also helped bring about the restoration of 48,000 acres of land that had been a part of Carson National Forest, N. Mex., to the Taos Pueblo.

October 2, 1973, he was elected to the board of the American Indian National Bank.

Alaska Natives will begin to get one-twelfth of the land in their State, and a sizeable chunk of cash as well, under terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in early 1974. This will come about through a system of corporations that is uniquely Alaskan.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is now making up a roll of United States citizens who are of one-fourth or more Indian, Aleut or Eskimo ancestry or combination of these born on or before December 18, 1971.

The roll will show each person as a resident of a region and in most cases a village and thus eligible to become a stockholder in village and regional corporations.

Alaska now has 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporations. They reflect 12 geographic sections of Alaska and are composed of Native people with a common cultural heritage and common interests. Alaska Natives who do not claim to be permanent residents of Alaska are being enrolled in one of the 12 regions of Alaska with which they have personal or ancestral ties.

The 12 corporations were established by June 30, 1972. Each was advanced about $500,000 or more from the Alaskan Native Fund -- which includes $462,500,000 to be appropriated from the general fund of the U.S. Treasury and $500,000,000 credited to the fund by the State of Alaska and Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior on a revenue sharing basis.

After the Secretary of the Interior signs the roll of the Alaska Natives December 18, the regional corporations will: 1. Identify their stockholders; 2. Issue shares to stockholders; 3. Elect a board of directors; 4. Receive their first major distribution of moneys from the Alaska Native Fund; 5. Select lands for conveyance to them; and 6. Make investments. Many of these events will occur simultaneously.

The 12 regionals have been formed as businesses for profits, and their articles of incorporation and by-laws have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior. A duly elected board of directors will be charged with responsibility for the management of the regional corporation and the investment of corporate assets. Such investments might include stocks and bonds and business enterprises in construction, tourism, and service industries.

In addition to 12 regionals there will be about 200 village corporations. While they, together with the regionals, will get title to a total of 40 million acres of land and a stake in the Alaska Native Fund, the subsurface rights to the land will go solely to the regional corporations.

Up to 22 million acres of land are available for selection of surface rights by eligible Native villages. The amount each village is entitled to is determined by the Native population of that par­ticular village on April 1, 1970.

Where possible, 25 townships around each village have been withdrawn by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. A township is 36 square miles. From these townships, the village will make its selection.

This selection must include townships in which any part of the village is located. In many cases, however, circumstances -- such as an ocean, navigable river, national park, etc. -- restrict selection. The village must then make alternate selections from "deficiency areas."

Regional corporations are more restricted than village corporations in selecting their 16 million acres. They may, for example, select what have come to be known as "checkerboard lands" in the village withdrawal areas. They will get, in addition, part of 2 million acres of "hard lands.”

Hardship land grants will be distributed to regional corporations for existing cemetery and historical sites, Native groups too small to qualify as villages (less than 25 Natives), individual Natives who apply for a primary place of residence outside of the village withdrawal areas or individual Native allotment, and Natives in Sitka, Kenai, Juneau, and Kodiak. These were originally Native villages but are now predominantly non-Native.

Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton has appointed Reid P. Chambers, former Acting Professor of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles, to be Associate Solicitor of the Interior Department for Indian Affairs, effective immediately.

Chambers, 33, has had background.in Federal Indian Law, not only teaching at UCLA and the University of Colorado Law Schools, but also in litigation involving protection of Indian rights and resources.

He participated in the Pyramid Lake case, the case to establish the North Slope Borough in Alaska, a case to defend Indian fishing rights in the Columbia River, and another to confirm the treaty hunting and fishing rights of the terminated Klamath Indians.

He has served as a consultant to the Native American Rights Fund, California Indian Legal Services, and the Administrative Conference of the United States, and was an Associate in the law firm of Arnold and Porter, Washington, D. C., for three years before taking the UCLA post in 1970.

Chambers was born June 10, 1940, in New York City. He spent his entire childhood in Washington, D. C., where he attended Sidwell Friends School. He was graduated magna cum 1aude from Amherst College in 1962, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded an Amherst Memorial Fellowship to Oxford University. He earned a B.A. degree from Ba11io1 College at Oxford, England, in 1964, and a law degree (J.D.) from Harvard Law School in 1967.

He is a member of the bar, U. S. Court of Appeals, D. C. 9th and 10th Circuits, and the U. S. District Court, District of Columbia.

Chambers is married to the former Barbara Friedman, of Bethesda, Maryland, and has two children, Megan (age 6) and Randy (age 3).

Distribution of Indian Claims Commission judgments totaling $2.7 million awarded to the Peoria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, will be made beginning about September 6, Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced today.

The awards for Dockets 289 and 314D made to the Peoria’s represent additional payment for land ceded in Indiana in the 1800's and their actual fair share. Funds to cover the awards were appropriated and have been on deposit since January 8, 1971, for Docket 314D and December 15, 1971, for Docket 289 and are being distributed to the Peoria’s under an Act of Congress of July 31, 1970.

Shares to individual Peoria’s will be processed through the Treasury Department's regional disbursing office in Denver and mailed directly to each person whose name and address appear on the final roll of those eligible to share in the award. Checks that cannot be delivered will be returned to the Regional Disbursing Office in Denver and remained when the correct mailing address is obtained. Shares for minors will be held in trust.

Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, announced today that representatives of the National Center for Dispute Settlement will preside at a meeting of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe in Holton, Kansas, Saturday, September 29. A move to stop the meeting had been turned down by the Federal Court on September 11 in Kansas City, Kansas.

This meeting is a rescheduling of a meeting called last November in which tribal members were to select a committee to draft a new constitution. The prior meeting was postponed due to threats of violence to tribal members.

Earlier, in October 1972, following a prolonged deadlock and a request from the majority of the Potawatomi business committee, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had withdrawn approval of the tribe's constitution. It was hoped that this action would end the factionalism resulting from weaknesses in that governing document and clear the way for a new constitution that would unite the tribe behind its governing body.

The National Center for Dispute Settlement of the American Arbitration Association is a private non-profit organization devoted to the peaceful resolution of public and community issues.

"The purpose of having professional neutrals preside at this meeting," Mr. Franklin said, "is to foster an atmosphere wherein democratic processes and self-determination can function. This procedure should encourage a large turnout of tribal members and insure a fair and orderly selection of a representative committee."

Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Marvin L. Franklin announced today the award of a $2.4 million contract with Burgess Construction Company of Phoenix, Ariz., for the bituminous surfacing of 12.768 miles of Navajo India n Reservation road extending from Ganado, Ariz.; to the Nazlini - Sawmill Road Junction. Included in the contract is a 200-foot bridge to be built over Ganado Wash near Ganado Lake.

"The new road will provide an all-weather road for use of general traffic and commerce to the communities of Ganado and Nazlini and the surrounding area," Franklin said.

The road constructing project is in line with the Administration's program to accelerate reservation development. An immediate objective is to increase the number and improve the quality of reservation roads.

Five other bids were received, ranging to a high of $2.9 million.