OPA

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today that a proposal has been sent to the Congress recommending designation of the Lewis and Clark Trail as a National Historic Trail in the National Trails System.

Legislation proposed earlier to the Congress would add National Historic Trails as a new category of trails within the National Trails System. They would complement the existing three types of trails: National Scenic Trails, National Recreation Trails, and connecting or side trails.

A study of the Lewis and Clark Trail was conducted by the Interior Department's Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, pursuant to the National Trails System Act of October 2,1968, Public Law 90-543. The Bureau was assisted in the study by the Federal agencies which administer lands along the proposed route, by the States through which the trail passes, The Lewis and Clark Heritage Foundation, Inc., and by other interested organizations and individuals.

The proposed Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail would cover some 3.700 miles following the outbound and inbound routes of the 1804- 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. The trail begins near St. Louis. Missouri and is primarily water-based along the Missouri Snake and Columbia Rivers. The route crosses portions of Missouri. Kansas. Nebraska. Iowa. South Dakota. North Dakota. Montana. Idaho. Oregon and Washington. Its western terminus is the mouth of the Columbia River.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 is considered by many historians to be the most important event in the development of the Western United States.

BOR studies indicate that despite extensive development and alterations along both the land and water passages, significant segments of the Expedition's route offer a variety of historical, scenic, and recreation opportunities.

According to the BOR surveys, land ownership along the trail route is approximately 46 percent public; 5 percent Indian; and 49 percent private. Nearly 15 million people live within 100 miles of the trail corridor.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today urged the Senate Energy committee to adopt President Carter's recommendation to designate 92 million acres of federal lands in Alaska as new or expanded units of the National Park, Wildlife Refuge, Wild and Scenic River or National Forest systems.

"Through enactment of these proposals, we can be certain that the crown jewels of Alaska -- its most spectacular natural environments, recreation areas and wildlife habitats -- will remain intact for the benefit of our nation's citizens," Andrus said.

"It is only in Alaska -- out of all our great nation -- where we can still see land much as the first migrants across the Bering Sea from Asia must have seen it tens of thousands of years ago," Andrus told the committee.

The recommendations would add about 45 million acres to the National Park system in 13 units and about 42 million acres to the Wildlife Refuge systen1 in 13 units. In addition about 3 million acres will be added to the Tongass and Chugach national forests in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, and 33 rivers with a total area of about 2.3 million acres will be added to the Wild and Scenic River System.

The House Interior Subcommittee on General Oversight and Alaska Lands began marking up similar legislation this week.

The recommendations offered by Andrus today stem from Section 17(d)(2) of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act which directed the Secretary of the Interior to nominate land in Alaska for inclusion in the four conservation systems. The act set a deadline of the end of 1978 for Congressional action on the Secretary's recommendations.

In his testimony, Andrus noted that there were "hard decisions," over the classification of certain areas. But, he said, the decisions "reflect my best judgment."

He also said they reflect "the Interior Department's, and this Adminis­tration's commitment to protect Alaskan wildlands while remaining sensitive to Alaska's and the Nation's need to own and develop resources."

An Interior Department task force working on the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs has scheduled field conference meetings in five locations between January 30 and February 8. Notice of the meetings is being published in the Federal Register.

The purpose of the meetings is to receive comments concerning issues and problems involving the BIA reorganization. Persons wishing to testify are asked to give four days' prior notice.

Meetings will be in Phoenix, January 30; Oklahoma City and Denver February 1; Port1andt Oregon February 2 and Du1utht Minnesota, February 8.

Notice should be given to the BIA offices in Phoenix (261-4101), Minneapolis (725-2037), Oklahoma City (231-4217), Denver (837-5301). For additional information contact or Portland (234-3361). Jack Rushing, Task Force Director, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240, 202-343-6010.

In a step aimed at clearing the way for an exchange of land between the Federal Government and the Navajo Indian Tribe, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is proposing the withdrawal from mineral entry of 57,000 acres of public land in San Juan County, New Mexico.

The land exchange would allow the Navajos to acquire land where Tribal families are now living. The Bureau of Land Management would acquire approximately 80,000 acres 'in McKinley County within the El Malpais Outstanding Natural Area south of Grants, New Mexico.

The Navajos and BLM have been working on this exchange for several years and the Tribe has been acquiring land in El Malpais for trading stock. When finalized, the exchange will allow the Navajos to hold the land they acquire in trust for Tribal members currently using the area. The land acquired by the Federal Government would allow BLM to "block up" the Outstanding Natural Area to help preserve the unique lava flow and other geologic features for the public.

Purpose of the proposed withdrawal is to prevent additional staking of mining claims in the 57,000 acres to be acquired by the Navajo Tribe. There is 'some uranium in the area and some claims have been staked. The exchange will be subject to a reservation of coal and other minerals to the United States, and after the exchange is completed, the withdrawal would be revoked and the lands reopened to mineral entry.

Interior spokesman explained that the land is being temporarily withdrawn from mineral entry because mining claims staked on public land carry an encumbrance on the transfer of surface rights. No such encumbrance is incurred after surface rights have passed from Federal ownership. The BLM State Director in New Mexico will work out an agreement with the Navajo Tribe concerning the conditions for transfer of mineral rights after surface rights have passed to the tribe.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today the appointment of George V. Goodwin and Rick C. Lavis as Deputy Assistant Secretaries for Indian Affairs.

Gerard said that organizational changes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs to create the double deputy positions were recently approved.

Goodwin has been functioning as an Acting Deputy and Lavis as a consultant in the Assistant Secretary’s Office. Goodwin, a member of the White Earth Chippewa Tribe, was formerly BIA Area Director at Minneapolis. A graduate of Bemidji State College in Minnesota, Goodwin was Executive Director of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and, earlier, worked with other groups in the state in community action programs.

Lavis was from 1971 to 1976 legislative assistant and administrative assistant to Arizona’s Senator Paul Fannin. In this position he worked closely with Gerard, then a professional member of a Senate committee staff in the development of the important Indian-related legislation of this decade --including the Indian Self-Determination Act, Indian Health Care Improvement Act and the Indian Education Act. An Arizona State University graduate, Lavis was honored by the National Congress of American Indians at its fourth annual awards dinner: as a key legislative staff member.

Under the revised BIA organizational plan, Goodwin will have primary responsibility for management and administrative functions of the Bureau and Lavis will be responsible for program operations.

Goodwin will have under his direct supervision. The Office of Administration, which includes financial management, personnel, automatic data processing, contract and grants administration and other management services. He will also supervise the Bureau's Public Information staff, Intergovernmental Relations staff and Correspondence staff.

Lavis will have under him the Bureau's four program offices; Trust Responsibilities, Tribal Resources Development, Indian Services and Indian Education Programs. The Congressional and Legislative Affairs staff and the Indian Self-Determination staff will also be under his supervision.

In the absence of the Assistant Secretary, Goodwin will perform his functions Lavis will act in this capacity when both the Assistant Secretary and Goodwin are absent. Goodwin, 35, was born in White Earth, Minnesota. He did post-graduate studies at the University of New Mexico and the University of North Dakota. He is a member and former officer of the National Congress of American Indian; and has been active in the American Indian Management Institute, Native American Rights Fund and the State of Minnesota Advisory Commission on Economic Development.

Goodwin initiated major developmental changes in the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in his term as Executive Director. When he began the tribe had four employees and a budget of $90,000. In 1975, when he left the tribe had 85 employees in 17 programs with a budget exceeding $4 million.

Lavis, 37, is a native of Mount Kisco, New York. He majored in political science at Arizona University and did course work toward a law degree at the University of Arizona, where he also served as a teaching assistant. Before joining Senator Paul Fannin's staff he was Director of Development and Alumni Affairs for the Orme School at Mayer, Arizona. In the fall of 1976 he became Legislative Representative in Washington for the El Paso Natural Gas Company.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has requested an increase of $62.1 million in appropriated funds for fiscal year 1979. The Bureau's request submitted January 23 to Congress as part of the President's budget asks for $949.5 million of Federal appropriation. This includes $761 million for the operation of Indian programs; $86.8 million for the construction of irrigation systems, building and utilities; $71.4 million for road construction, and $30 million payments under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Federal funding for these purposes in fiscal year 1978 was $846.7 million. The 1979 fiscal year begins October 1, 1978 and ends September 30, 1979:

For Indian education programs --the largest of BIA's programs --$271 million, an increase of $11.1 million, was requested. This includes $41.4 million for higher education assistance grants for approximately 20,000 Indian college students.

The request for $194.7 million for Indian services exceeds 1978 funding by $18.3 million. These funds are used for tribal governments, social services, law enforcement, Indian self-determination programs and housing. The $20.3 million for housing will provide for the building of approximately 430 new homes and the renovation and/or enlargement of about 2,650.

The $70.3 million requested for natural resources development will be used to continue intensive mineral inventories and energy resource development planning. A major program of forest development will be continued and funding of $3.2 million is requested to continue farm unit development work on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project. The decrease of $7 million is the result of Congressional add-ons and supplemental funding requests for drought emergencies in Fiscal Year 1978 not included in the 1979 request.

The FY 1979 request for $42.4 million for programs to carry out the Federal trust responsibility represents an increase of $7.5 million over FY 1978 trust responsibility role of the Bureau is the cornerstone of Federal- ~l relationships, and one of the primary goals is to strengthen that role.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today the appointment of Irene Sparks Rowan as his Special Assistant for Alaskan Affairs.

Rowan, an-enrolled Alaska Native, is President of Kish Tu, Inc., an Alaska-based research and consulting firm. She is also the former elected Chairperson and President of Klukwan, Inc., her Alaska Native village corporation.

Gerard said, "Mrs Rowan's expertise and knowledge of Alaskan affairs will be immensely valuable to me. The implementation of the Alaska Native: Claims Settlement Act now going on together with the other developments in Alaska make this a particularly critical time for the Alaska Natives."

In her work with Kish Tu, Rowan has been responsible for the preparation and publication of socio-economic reports on Alaska Natives. She has designed and conducted more than 20 workshops for the State of Alaska, prepared and published a booklet on native villages and was responsible for the campaign to inform Alaska Natives worldwide about the reopening of the Settlement Act enrollment.

Rowan, who is one-half degree Tlingit Indian and a native of Haines, Alaska, was manager of a social research organization, Rowan Group, Inc., from 1972 to 1976. She has been a teacher in the state school system in Bethel, Alaska and was the manager of an Eskimo Arts and Crafts Shop.

A graduate of Western Washington State, she has her B.S. in business education. Her publications include villages Survive? a booklet used as a study tool for the Alaska Federation of Natives convention workshops. She has also published a report on the problems of Alaska Natives in the Anchorage area, a study of changes that have occurred as a result of the Settlement Act and a report of the problems and progress of Alaska Nativei3 and their corporations.

Assistant Secretary Gerard stated that Ms. Rowan will serve a short period of orientation in Alaska before reporting to Washington.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest J. Gerard said today he was disappointed by the United States Supreme Court ruling March 6 that Indian tribes do not have criminal jurisdiction over non Indians on reservations. He said that he thought the decision would inhibit the development of tribal self-government and the maintenance of criminal justice systems on the reservations.

Gerard also said that he did not believe that the decision applied to matters of civil jurisdiction. In a memorandum to Bureau of Indian Affairs field officers, Gerard wrote: “The Supreme Court did not consider or decide the issue of whether tribal courts may exercise civil jurisdiction over non-Indians. Your decision on approval of ordinances or resolutions asserting only civil jurisdiction over non-Indians should not be affected by this decision. “

The Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe that Indian tribal courts do not have inherent criminal jurisdiction to try and punish non-Indians. With the development of Indian self-determination as a national policy, a number of the tribes have asserted the need and the right to exercise criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians on the reservations. The Oliphant decision denies this right.

Gerard instructed BIA field officers that tribal ordinances or resolutions asserting tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians must be disapproved. The memo also gave directions, in accordance with the ruling, for BIA law enforcement officers.

Gerard said that he would continue to work with the tribes, other Federal agencies and state and local governments to try to provide full protection against crime for all persons on the reservations.

Sidney L. Mills, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has been named Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Albuquerque area, Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today. Mills was formerly Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Gerard also announced the appointment of Roland Johnson as Deputy Director of the Albuquerque area. Johnson, a former tribal operations officer in the area office, has been on leave from BIA to serve as the Governor of the Pueblo of Laguna.

The Albuquerque area, one of 12 regional jurisdictions for the Bureau, includes most of New Mexico and Colorado. It includes three agencies serving Pueblo Indian groups, and five other agencies serving the Jicarilla Apaches, Mescalero Apaches, Ramah Navajos, Southern Utes and Ute Mountain Utes.

A Navy veteran, Mills, 52, entered Federal service in 1973 in the Aberdeen, South Dakota Area Office. He was the Supply and Contract Officer and, for almost a year, the Acting Deputy Area Director before transferring to Washington, D.C, in August 1975.

Mills had been Purchasing Manager for the Great Western Sugar Company; Merchandise Control Manager, Creative Merchandising Inc.; and Purchasing Manager for Sundstrand Aviation, all in Denver, Colo.

A native of Porcupine, South Dakota, Mills attended the Santa Fe Indian High School and completed numerous courses in management, marketing, and other subjects at Colorado, Arizona, Stanford, Denver and Harvard Universities.

Johnson, a full-blooded member of the Laguna Pueblo, has been Governor of the Pueblo since January, 1975. Prior to becoming Tribal Operations Officer in 1971 in the Albuquerque office, he was Chief Staffing Specialist and Servicing Personnel Officer in the BIA's Central Office in Washington, D.C.

An alumnus of New Mexico State University, Johnson, 39, began his career with BIA in 1965. He worked in personnel and employee relations in both the Navajo and Albuquerque area offices. He graduated from the Albuquerque Indian High School and completed Interior's Departmental Management Training Program in 1970.

Johnson received New Mexico's Distinguished Public Service Award in 1975.

Proposed rules, revising and updating regulations implementing a section of Public Law 93-638 concerning the construction of public schools on or near Indian reservations, are being published in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (P.L. 93-638) authorized the Secretary of the Interior to contract with state education agencies or school districts for the construction or renovation of public school facilities serving reservation Indian students.

The proposed rules incorporate recommendations obtained in consultations Indian tribes and organizations since the original regulations were made effective in December, 1975. In both 1976 and 1977 Indian groups were asked to comment on the regulations and suggest changes.

The proposed rules also reflect a memorandum of agreement between the U. S. Office of Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on procedures for implementation and funding of the construction contracts.

Comments on the proposed rules should be sent within 30 days after publication to the Indian Self-Determination Staff, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 18th and C Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20245.