OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that it plans to initiate a nutrition program, including delivery of hot meals, for elderly residents of the former Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area.

Required stock reduction in the heavily over-grazed area has greatly reduced the supply of available mutton, the traditional meat food.

The BIA is contracting with the Navajo Tribe's Aging Office for the administration of the program.

Joint Use Area administrative funds have been reprogrammed to fund the nutrition program. In addition, meat purchased for stock reduction purposes will be donated to the program.

It is estimated that about 1,200 Navajos will be eligible to participate in the program.

The appointments of three officials to serve in administrative positions on the Navajo Reservation were announced today by Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard.

Ted S. Koenig was named Assistant Area Director for Resource in the Navajo Area Office.

Albert L. Keller was appointed Supervisory General Engineer for the Navajo Irrigation Project.

Thomas H. Begay was made Superintendent of the Chinle, Agency on the reservation.

Koenig, who has a degree in forest management from North Carolina State University, has worked for the Federal Government in forestry and resource management since 1960. He had been a supervisory forester in the Navajo Area and had, most recently, been Acting Superintendent of the Fort Defiance Agency.

Keller received his degree in agricultural engineering from South Dakota State University. A 24-year employee of the Bureau of Indian Affair, he worked on reservations in South Dakota before coming to Navajo. He has been Natural Resource Manager at the Shiprock Agency.

Begay, a full-blooded Navajo, served in both the United States Marine Corps and Army. A Utah State alumnus, he began his career with BIA in 1958. He was the Vocational Development Officer at the Chinle Agency.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today he will review the Department's policy requiring five years' occupancy before land can be withdrawn under the 1906 Alaska Native Allotment Act.

Action on such withdrawals will be suspended pending the review, the Secretary said. A notice of the review and suspension was published in the Federal Register July 11, 1978

Before the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was passed in 1971, Alaska Natives could get title to public land under the 1906 Act. ANCSA expressly repealed the 1906 Act but protected the several thousand claims pending on the date of the repeal--December 18, 1971.

In 1973, the Department began requiring a five-year occupancy of the land be completed before it could be withdrawn for a Native allotment As a result, many application were denied. Several lawsuits were filed against the Department and some of them are still pending.

"Because of the understandable concern of the Alaska Natives, I have decided to review, with the Solicitor, the policy of requiring the full five year' occupancy to have been completed before withdrawal," Andrus said.

Those interested in commenting on the policy under review will have 30 days from the date notice appears in the Federal Register in which to submit their views. Comments should be sent to the Associate Solicitor, Indian Affairs Office of the Solicitor, Department of the Interior, Washington D.C. 20240.

Bureau of Indian Affairs plans to poll Osage Indian descendants to obtain their views on the future form of the Osage tribal government.

Under existing legislation, the present system of tribal government will expire January 1, 1984, if not extended. The extent of authority of the present Osage tribal government is also being questioned in litigation by some tribal members.

In a July 10 letter to Osage tribal members, the BIA announced that, in its role as trustee, it will " involve itself directly in effort to assure for the Osage a continuing tribal government of their choice. The July 10 letter asked for information to complete mailing lists for the survey and requested suggestion on topics of questions to be included in the poll.

Bureau expects to be complete the survey by October, 1978.

Osage descendants, who may not have received the July 10 letter, are invited to send their mailing address to the BIA, Washington D.C. 20245 not later than July 28. They may also suggest material for inclusion on the questionnaire.

Interior Solicitor Leo M. Krulitz announced today he has named Claudeen Bates Arthur a Field Solicitor for the Window Rock, Arizona, and Office, which provides legal service to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Ms. Arthur, 36, is now an attorney in the Division of Indian Affairs in the Solicitor's Washington Office. She will begin work in Window Rock on August 14, replacing Dale H. Itschner who was transferred to the Portland, Oregon, Regional Solicitor's Office.

"I know of no more challenging legal assignment in the Department and of no one better qualified to meet it that Ms. Arthur," said Krulitz. "Her background experience and proven legal talent make her uniquely suited to the Window Rock post and I'm delighted she's available to fill it."

The Window Rock BIA office, Krulitz said, is the largest outside Washington, D.C. with over 5000 employees and an annual budget in excess of $130 million to serve the Nation's largest Indian tribe and the largest Indian reservation.

Ms. Arthur, a Navajo was born in Ganado, Arizona, and attended elementary and high school at the Navajo Methodist Missionary School in Farmington, New Mexico. She was a 1960 National Merit Scholar.

After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1965 from New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, she was a caseworker for the New Mexico Department of Welfare in Farmington, the taught science and English at her old high school for three years.

Ms. Arthur entered the Arizona State University Law School in 1971, earning her juris doctor degree in 1974. She was awarded an American Indian Lawyer Training Program fellowship and worked as an attorney in Shiprock, New Mexico, before starting her own general law practice on the Navajo Reservation. She left private practice to join the Solicitor's staff in Washington in the fall of 1977.

She is a member of the State Bar of New Mexico and the Bar of the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court of New Mexico and the Courts of the Navajo Nation. She and her husband, Harris, have three children.

A plan for the use and distribution of approximately $1.4 million awarded to the Creek Nation of Indians by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today

The award is additional compensation for 1.4 million acres of land in Alabama and Georgia taken from the tribe in 1818.

According to the plan, approved by Congress and made effective June 15, 1978, the funds will be divided between the Creek Nation of Oklahoma and an unorganized group of descendants of the Creek Indians east of the Mississippi.

The funds apportioned to the Eastern Creeks will be distributed on a per capita basis after an updated roll of eligible persons is presented by the Secretary of the Interior.

The funds received by the Creek Tribe of Oklahoma will be used for social and economic development programs for the benefit of the Creek members by blood.

Creek Freedmen, former slaves and their descendants who were granted rights of citizenship in the Creek Nation by an 1866 treaty, will not participate in the distribution of the award because they were not affiliated with the tribe in 1818 when the land was taken.

A plan for the use and distribution of $725,000 awarded by the Indian Claims Commission to the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington is being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The award is compensation for lands taken from the Joseph Band of the Nez Perce in 1875.

According to the plan approved by Congress, effective May 1, the portion of the award going to the Colville Tribes will be distributed on a per capita basis to the members.

The Nez Perce Tribe will use twenty percent of its portion for tribal industrial, recreational, agricultural and financial investment programs. The remainder will be distributed per capita to tribal members.

An Indian Claims Commission award of almost $44 million for Sioux lands ceded the Indians in 1868 "is not a settlement of the much publicized Black Hills Claim;" a Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman said today.

The Black Hills Claim, not yet settled, is for land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota ceded by various Sioux groups in 1876.

The $44 million award, largest yet made oy the Commission, is compensation for lands in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and an area east of the Missouri River in South Dakota.

If the award, granted July 19, is not appealed, the Bureau of Indian Affairs will proceed to determine which modern Sioux tribes and groups are the proper beneficiaries of the award.

The award is for lands held by the Teton (Lakota or Western) Sioux West of the Missouri River (excluding that in South Dakota) and lands east of the river held by the Teton Sioux and the Yanktonai Sioux. The Yankton Sioux (a group distinct from the Yanktonai) had an interest, together with the Teton group, in the western lands. The Yankton interest, however, is not included in this award. It will be considered by the Commission in another docket.

Under the provisions of the Indian Judgment Funds Act of 1973, the Secretary of the Interior will submit his recommendations to Congress, in the form of a proposed plan or proposed legislation. These recommendations will include the identity of the beneficiary tribes or groups, the division of the funds and the plan for distribution and use of the funds.

Revisions in the regulations governing contracts and grants under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance (P.L.93-638) are being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The most significant change is the addition of procedures to deal with situation in which a contract proposal is adequate but the Bureau does not have sufficient funds to finance it.

The revisions, published as proposed regulations in March, 1976, will be effective 30 days after publication.

The Bureau is also publishing in the same issue of the Federal Register proposed regulations to revise the hearings and appeals procedure when proposed contracts are declined under provisions of the Self-Determination Act or when the Bureau lacks funding for the proposal.

Written comments on theses proposed regulations should be sent within 30 days to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Self-Determination Staff (code 106), 18th and C Streets, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20245.

The Department of the Interior and the State of California today announced all fishing for fall chinook salmon and steelhead trout will be closed at midnight Sunday, August 27 in the Klamath River below the Highway 101 bridge, and severely curtailed above the bridge.

The emergency closure is necessary because of the limited return, compared to previous years, of adult fish of both species. Indians and non-Indians alike expressed grave concern for perpetuation of these valuable commercial and sport fish if a sufficient number of adults is not permitted to ascend the Klamath and Trinity Rivers to reproduce.

"Population estimates for the years 1976 and 1977 suggest the Klamath River chinook salmon population approximates 200,000 fish." said Interior Solicitor Leo M. Krulitz. "To perpetuate this run, biologists estimate that 115,000 adult fish must return to the spawning grounds annually. Available data for this year suggest that probably less than 10 percent of that expected number of fish have entered the river."

"Although catch statistics for the Indian commercial fishery are unavailable sketchy information on all catches for previous years suggest that the river harvest this is considerably lower than in years past."

At least two explanations are possible for the apparent low numbers of fish accounted for in the Klamath River this year. First, the run may be delayed or reduced as a result of some environmental factor in the ocean.

There is some indication that this may be the case as anadromous fish runs are the late or smaller in a number of other major west coast rivers.

Second, an increase in the ocean harvest, possibly enhanced by the delayed entry into the river, might reduce the number of fish available to enter the river, of particular interest is the fact that the California ocean harvest of chinook salmon was considerably higher in 1978 than for the same period in 1977, especially for the area around the Klamath River.

The available data are inadequate to determine whether the run has been delayed or if the population is below anticipated levels.

"There is no question that the number of fish which has entered the river is much below the number at this time in the past years. However, the cause for the poor return is of less importance than the biological consequences for the resource," Krulitz said.

Consultation with qualified Indian fishermen and California State personnel has resulted in substantial support for the need to close all fishing below the Highway 101 bridge, the area of greatest fish vulnerability, and to close all commercial fishing and sports fishing for salmon above the bridge.

Commercial fishing is considered to have a greater impact on the resource than taking fish for ceremonial or subsistence purposes. For that reason, Indian subsistence fishing will continue to be allowed five nights per week above the bridge.

"All of these decisions reflect tremendous cooperation and substantial meant by all parties concerned," said the Solicitor.

The closure will be in effect until sufficient number of all chinook salmon have passed the Highway 101 bridge check point to guarantee conservation of the fishery.