OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has published a study of Indian tribal courts done by the National American Indian Court Judges Association.

The 200-page book, Indian Courts and the Future, provides basic information about reservation judicial systems, considers the role of the courts under the current policy of Indian self-determination and discusses future needs.

As current issues the book deals with state jurisdiction, the Indian Civil Rights Act, comity/full faith and credit, jurisdiction over non-Indians (prior to the recent Supreme Court decision), and prosecution of major crimes in Indian country. An evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses in the present court systems is included, together with model standards and a five year plan for support of Indian courts.

The BIA plans to distribute copies of the book to appropriate tribal and Federal officials. A limited number of copies will be available for attorneys and others who may have special interest in the tribal courts.

Requests should be addressed to Bureau of Indian Affairs, Attn: Judicial Services Officer, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20245

A plan for the use and distribution of more than $9 million awarded to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today.

The award is compensation for reservation land taken by the United States in the early part of this century. The reservation is in North Dakota.

The plan, approved by Congress and made effective March 13, 1978 calls for a per capita distribution of 80 percent of the fund to enrolled members of the Three Affiliated Tribes (the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Tribes).

The remaining 20 percent of the fund will be used for tribal programs, including a land purchase program, legal contingencies, community development and educational scholarships.

Regulations governing Interior Department recognition of assignments by Regional Corporations of future interests in the Alaska Native Fund are being published in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The regulations will implement Section 31 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as amended November 15, 1977, which gives the Secretary of the Interior the authority to recognize validly executed assignments made by Regional Corporations of their rights to receive payments from the Alaska Native Fund.

The purpose of this provision is to make it possible for the Regional Corporations to give assignees a secured interest in the future distributions from the Fund. This, in turn, enables the Regional Corporations to borrow necessary capital for development projects at reduced interest rates.

The Secretary, under Section 31, may recognize Regional Corporation assignments only to the extent that they do not interfere with required redistributions of certain percentages of the Fund receipts to the Village Corporations in the region and to certain stockholders.

The rules require that a regional corporation provide evidence that the corporation's board of directors has authorized an assignment and that it specifically intended that the Secretary recognize that assignment.

The regulations are to be effective on the date of publication.

Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today that: he is initiating action to help the Oneida Indians of New York resolve internal governmental problems.

Since 1975 the tribe has had no recognized governing body to handle tribal affairs, including negotiations of two large tribal land claims in the state. They had previously functioned under a consensus form of leadership.

Gerard has previously appealed to competing leadership groups to resolve their differences. In January he invited the various leaders; to meet with him to negotiate an internal compromise but only one of the competing groups attended the meeting. Other efforts to have general membership meetings in New York also failed.

Gerard said that his first step toward resolving the governmental impasse would be to complete and certify a roll of tribal members. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Gerard said, has assigned a specialist to complete this task as expeditiously as possible.

This roll would be used to identify persons eligible for BIA services and any settlements from the current claims. It would also establish the eligible participants for choosing a governing system for the tribe.

Gerard said that the Federal Government deeply respects the tribe's right to manage its internal affairs, He added, however, that "as trustee for the Oneidas I have concluded that the importance of the current land claims demands that I involve myself and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in attempting to bring about an equitable solution." I will continue to work with the Oneida people to achieve a working government for the tribe.

Representatives of the Interior Department, other, U.S. agencies, and Alaskan Eskimos met last weekend and reached an understanding on the identification and counting of endangered bowhead whales in an effort to avoid exceeding the Eskimo quota for this year.

The International Whaling Commission last year fixed a quota of 12 bowheads landed, or 18 struck, whichever occurs first. Within the overall quota the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission allocated small quotas for each of the Arctic villages which traditionally rely on the rare whales as a source of food and to perpetuate their ancient culture.

During the past week there have been reports from official sources that one village exceeded its sub-quota. Eskimos contended that some of the landings consisted of another subspecies of right whales, of which bowheads are one group.

Interior officials said this week that following the meeting, Eskimo villages had withdrawn most or all of their whaling crews from the Arctic ice­pack, now undergoing its spring breakup. To date, nine whales have been reported taken by the Eskimos overall.

Last Friday, Interior cautioned the Eskimos about possible quota violations in a message signed by Under Secretary James A. Joseph. It was addressed to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and to Eben Hopson, mayor of Alaska's North Slope Borough. The text follows:

"I am concerned about reports that some of the Eskimo whaling villages are continuing to hunt bowhead whales when they have already reached and surpassed their quota. These quotas were set by the AEWC and incorporated into U.S. law to comply with the decision of the International Whaling Commission.

"The Department of the Interior provided strong support for the Eskimo positions on whaling and self-enforcement of quotas and regulations set by the AEWC. If the reports of whaling in violation of U.S. law and the AEWC regula­tions are true, I strongly urge the Eskimos to take firm actions now to implement their self-enforcement measures to stop any whaling which violates the village quotas.

"I clearly understand the feelings of the Eskimos who have hunted the bowhead as an integral part of their culture for centuries. Throughout the United States struggle on this issue I have maintained that both the Eskimo culture and the bowhead whale must be protected. In doing so I have considered the ramifications of my position from the international level down to the whaling villages, and have been particularly mindful of our special responsibilities to Alaska Natives. Neither the scientists nor this Department, nor the AEWC until this time, have made the subtle distinction of type of whale within the basic species to which the bowhead belongs, and a justification of continued whaling based upon such a fine distinction raises a question of the sincerity and straightforwardness of Eskimo representations in our effort to obtain adequate hunting provisions this year.

"The United States through the National Marine Fisheries Service is now conducting several scientific studies to determine how many bowhead whales exist. The United States intends to use this information, and information from this Department's cultural/ nutritional study to try to obtain a more adequate provision for the hunting of bowheads by Eskimos. For this to succeed it is essential that regulation and research on bowheads continue in cooperation between the United States Agencies and the Eskimos.

"The Alaskan Eskimo Whaling Commission agreed in March to abide by the quota, on a village-by-village basis. This is an excellent opportunity for Eskimos to prove their ability to self-enforce, and I call upon the Eskimos to act under the AEWC regulatory scheme to continue to respect that quota."

Franklin L. Annette, a Chippewa Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Technical Assistance Center in Denver, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

Annette in his new position will be responsible for the administration of programs designed to help Indian tribes and individuals to develop capabilities to construct, maintain, operate and manage tribal facilities and businesses.

He has worked in the BIA's Aberdeen, South Dakota, Area Office since 1973. He was Enrollment and Indian Rights Officer and then Director of Tribal Government and Indian Rights.

A 1968 graduate of the Moorhead, Minnesota State University Annette earned a Master's degree in education counseling from North Dakota State in 1973. He was an instructor and director of Indian programs at North Dakota while completing his studies there.

Annette, 37, has previously worked for the Lutheran Social Service of North Dakota and for the Department of Employment at St. Paul, Minnesota. He served in the United States Marine Corps 1961-1964.

Edwin L. Demery, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been named Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Minneapolis area Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

In his new position, Demery is the BIA's top official in the four states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa.

A native of Fort Yates, North Dakota, Demery has been since 1970 Superintendent of the Minnesota Agency at Bemidji, Minnesota.

He began his career with BIA in 1952 as a teacher at the Crow Creek Agency in South Dakota. After serving at the Cheyenne River Agency in South Dakota and the Winnebago Agency in Nebraska, Demery came to the Minnesota Agency in 1957 as the Employment Assistance Officer.

A World War II Army veteran, Demery is a graduate of the South Dakota State University.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, both of the U. S. Department of the Interior, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further the cause of dam safety. The purpose of the memorandum, according to Commissioner of Reclamation R. Keith Higginson, is to identify those areas where Reclamation can provide technical expertise to assist BIA in developing formalized program for dam safety.

The memorandum points out that the BIA will retain ownership of its darns and continue to be responsible for their safety. The responsibility for correcting any safety problems will also be that of the BIA.

Services to be provided by Reclamation upon request would include:

• Technical expertise for review of existing structures including studies of hydrology, hydraulics, geology, seismology, seepage, inundation maps and structural stability.
• Technical expertise to perform inspections of dams with recommendations for corrective work if necessary.
• Technical training to establish a program for periodic surveillance.
• Recommendations for establishing emergency preparedness plans, installing monitoring instruments, developing communication and warning systems.

Similar Memorandums of Understanding between the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service respectively, are currently under consideration.

Twenty Alaska Natives from villages in the Kuskokwim Delta area came to Washington, D.C., in mid-May to tell United States Congressmen how pending legislation, H.R. 39, involving millions of acres of Alaska land could affect their lives.

The Eskimo group raised funds for the trip through tribal activities in 56 villages. For most of the group it was a first visit to the Nation’s Capital.

The group planned to visit the offices of 200 Members of Congress in their week's stay in Washington. They divided themselves into five working groups for these visits. Representatives of the group said that they felt it was important to try to help Congressmen from the other states to understand their subsistence culture and way of life and how the designation of D-2 lands in the bill touched on their village life.

While in Washington the group also visited with Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard to inform him about their efforts, to thank him for his support and to request the Department to develop a policy on subsistence. "It involves every part of our life," one of the group told Gerard. "It's an issue that won't die with Title 7," of H, R. 39.

The bill, passed in the House May 19 by a vote of 277-31, would set aside almost 100 million acres of federally-owned lands to be added to the United States systems of National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, Wild and Scenic Rivers and National Forests.

Stemming from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, it has been described as the largest land conservation proposal in United States history.

The Department of the Interior is seeking public comment on regulations proposed for establishing public easements across Native lands in Alaska. The proposed regulations are published in the May 25 Federal Register. They carry out the policy decisions which were announced on March 6, 1978, following months of work by the Department with the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission, Alaska Natives and the State.

In announcing the proposed regulations, Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus said, "We have eliminated major roadblocks here which halted previous efforts to transfer title of land from the Federal Government to Alaska Natives under terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

The proposed regulations are designed to provide a minimal, non-duplicative set of easements across Native lands which will protect both Native property rights and the public right of access to public lands. The proposed easement regulations are designed to simplify the easement reservation portion of the land conveyance process.

The easements across Native lands are necessary to guarantee reasonable public access to public lands and major waterways. The easements, though, are not designed as recreational areas themselves, only as passage-ways between public lands and waterways.

"These proposed regulations," Secretary Andrus said, "protect the rights of all parties. They allow access to public lands while giving Native land owners the same basic right of control over their lands that is enjoyed by all other private landowners in other states. The early adoption of these regulations will end years of inaction and speed transfer of land to Alaska Natives."

Copies of the proposed regulations are available in the Federal Register or may be obtained at BIM offices throughout Alaska or by writing to the Bureau of Land Management at 555 Cordova Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, Telephone: 907-277-1561.

Comments must be received by the Bureau of Land Management in Washington by June 26, 1978. They should be addressed to: Director (210), Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, Washington D.C. 20240.