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·Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus and Under Secretary James Joseph reported today that they have reviewed and approved the general principles of a reorganization plan for the administration of Indian affairs.

Andrus and Joseph said that implementation of most major features of the plan, developed by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard, and would begin promptly after analysis of the plan's details.

Gerard's recommendations, which he announced today at the National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Rapid City, South Dakota, include:

--The appointment of a Commissioner of Indian Affairs to direct the day-today activities of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

--An emphasis on policy, planning and evaluation at the Assistant Secretary level.

--Continuation of the BIA's area offices as intermediate levels of authority, with any future changes in the role of these offices to be determined through studies to be made in each of the areas.

Gerard, in submitting his recommendations to the Secretariat, said: "Improvements in management systems are of greater importance than shifting boxes on an organization chart...I intend to institute changes which will be fundamental, extensive and enduring."

Gerard's recommendations embodied the basic concepts of recommendations submitted to him by a reorganization task force appointed last December. The recommendations of this group were published April 17 in the Federal Register for review and comment by the Indian community.

The task force had recommended that the top leadership for Indian affairs consist of the Assistant Secretary and three deputies. Gerard's proposal is that the Assistant Secretary with one deputy function at the departmental level and the Commissioner and a deputy operate at the bureau level.

Gerard said that this arrangement would permit the Assistant Secretary to give undivided attention to his "responsibilities as principal advisor and policy maker for the Secretary on matters of Indian affairs affecting the whole Department and the Administration, " while the Commissioner provides needed leadership and direction for the Bureau.

The new organization structure calls for a strong planning and evaluation function within the Office of the Assistant Secretary. Two staff offices are proposed.

One would be concerned with oversight of administrative functions, reviewing the allocation, use and control of resources. Functions would include fiscal audits, personnel and procurement reviews and ADP policy planning.

The other staff office reporting to the Assistant Secretary would be responsible for policy, planning and evaluation. Functions would include policy formulation and analysis, management and program audits and systems and action plan development.

The reorganization plan calls for a review of each area office to determine the future role each should have. Gerard said he did not think the area offices need to be mirror images of the central office nor identical to each other. He said these offices might reflect the diversity among tribes with structures designed to meet tribal problems.

Eliminating the area offices, a recommendation of the American Indian Policy Review Commission, would have resulted in a minimum of 82 agency superintendents reporting directly to Washington. Gerard described this as an "unworkable" span of control for the Commissioner.

Gerard stressed that "a fundamental prerequisite to implementing the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the involvement of Indian tribes and Alaska Native groups. These will be consulted on actions that affect service delivery to their people throughout this effort. "

Senator Milton Young of North Dakota and Robert Richmond, a Brunswick Corporation executive, will be honored for "outstanding contributions to economic development on American Indian reservations," Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today.

Bureau of Indian Affairs' Economic Development Award plaques will be presented to the honorees October 19 in a ceremony on the Fort Totten Reservation in North Dakota.

Senator Young has helped the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe, the Turtle Mountain Tribe and the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation to establish and develop tribal business ventures. The three firms have more than 400 employees, most of them tribal members.

Richmond is a general manager of the Devils Lake Sioux Manufacturing Corporation, a joint venture of the tribe and the Brunswick Corporation. The company, started in 1973 under Richmond's direction, has been a very successful enterprise. It was recently awarded a $13 million contract for the manufacture of camouflage materials for the army. Richmond initiated a college work program for employee’s children and through incentive programs and other programs has made the plant a Brunswick production leader.

Assistant Secretary Gerard, who will make the presentation of the awards, said that "Senator Young and Bob Richmond have been true friends of the Indians of North Dakota. Senator Young has been a consistent supporter of Indian economic development; his guidance and encouragement have been most beneficial. Bob Richmond has given his technical expertise to the Devils Lake Sioux venture. But he has also brought a genuine sense of concern and human caring to help members of the tribe to learn and to perform -- so that the company is truly a tribal venture."

Award of an $198,000 contract to Price, Waterhouse & Co. to aid the efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to bring integrity in the use and control of funds to the Bureau's financial and accounting systems was announced today by Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard.

Gerard said "Project Integrity" is at the heart of a general Bureau overhaul to clarify how funds are used and their purchasing power in programs and services designed to benefit the Indian people. The scope of the contracted project ranges from improvement of financial recording and reporting systems to development of program performance standards, and will establish administrative programmatic review techniques.

"At my confirmation hearing," Gerard recalled, "I promised the Senate Committee and the Indian people that the BIA would address questions about the effective use and control of BIA money. To fulfill this promise, I have initiated 'Project Integrity.' This contract award to Price, Waterhouse is a major step toward achievement of 'Project Integrity' goals: attainment of the highest standard in BIA fiscal management and significant improvement in the federal-Indian delivery system."

In April of this year, the Assistant Secretary informed the BIA field staff of his "Project Integrity" plans, explaining that, while much of the work would be done by BIA staff, "outside expertise is also needed to bring to the Project an unbiased, objective and broad-based perspective."

Work under the contract is planned for four phases: 1) information gathering and identification of needs and problems, to be conducted through extensive consultation with tribal personnel and BIA staff; 2) improving the financial recording and reporting systems; 3) designing program performance measures and reporting systems; and 4) developing standards and procedures for administrative and programmatic reviews.

With the salmon spawning run on the Klamath River in California nearly over, the Department of the Interior announced today that it is opening portions of the river to Indian subsistence fishing.

The action, which is effective at 12:01 A.M., October 11, 1978, follows earlier closure of the entire river to commercial fishing and portions of the river to subsistence fishing by the Yurok and Hoopa Indian tribes. The earlier closure order was based on surveys by biologists of the Department's Fish and Wildlife Service and State of California which indicated that the number of fish entering the river was very low compared to previous years.

With the 1978 run almost complete, interior officials indicated that reopening of the Indian subsistence fishing, under the rules promulgated early in July, will not substantially harm the fishery.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus said today that the Department's aim from the outset has been to take all necessary actions to save the salmon resource. "While I regret it was necessary to curtail Indian and other fishing on the river, I am delighted that present indications are that we have succeeded and that the fishery resource, with proper management, can be preserved," he said.

Biologists now believe that the 1978 Chinook run will approximate 125,000 fish, or about 90% of expected numbers. Although the size of the returning population is reduced, they said, the closure instituted by in-season adjustments resulted in about 100,000 of the returning fish reaching the spawning area.

With proper management of future off-shore and river fishing efforts, this population will perpetuate the run, they said. Indiscriminate fishing pressure will further reduce the population, they warned, unless sound management practices such as the restricting of fishing effort, both offshore and in the river, are implemented in the future.

Fishery biologists will continue to monitor the fishery and use data collected in formulating future management plans and operations.

A formal agreement has been signed by the Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) with the Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) of Washington, D.C., for a comprehensive $700,000 study of surface mining of coal on Indian lands, OSM Director Walter N. Heine announced today.

The study, expected to take nine months, was contracted by OSM under Section 710 of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. CERT was organized three years ago by 25 Indian tribes.

"The CERT report," Heine said, "will be incorporated into a broader study being undertaken by the Interior Department to examine the question of regulation of surface mining on Indian lands in compliance with the new Federal law which recognizes the special jurisdictional status of these Indian lands."

Heine said the Secretary's study also will be performed in consulta­tion with Indian tribes, and will incorporate proposed legislation designed to allow the tribes to elect to assume full regulatory authority over the administration and enforcement of surface mining.

The CERT study is scheduled for completion by July 31, 1979, he reported. The report has several major objectives. These include:

• providing background information, analysis and evaluation capabilities to assure regulatory authority over surface mining of their lands;
• enabling the affected tribes to evaluate their functional of tribes organizations and structures and
• Developing regulatory program models consistent with both tribal capabilities and the goals and objectives of the 1977 Federal Act.

It was noted that CERT membership, according to a tribe magazine, claims ownership of 15 percent of total U.S. coal reserves, including 30 percent of all surface coal reserves west of the Mississippi River. In 1974, a CERT spokesman said, Indian lands yielded over 15 million tons of coal.

A draft environmental impact statement considering the consequences of transferring certain public lands to the Navajo Tribe under the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act, P.L. 93-531, is now available.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register August 18, single copies of the statement may be obtained from the Flagstaff Administrative Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P.O. Box 1889, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002.

The legislation provided that the tribe be given the opportunity to purchase 250,000 acres of public lands to facilitate the relocation of some 3,000 Navajos from the former Navajo-Hopi joint use area.

The EIS considers land, applied for by the tribe, in Arizona's House Rock Valley and Paria Plateau and five alternate tracts in Arizona and New Mexico.

Public hearings on the statement will be held September 11 at Farmington, New Mexico; September 12, Oraibi, Arizona; September 13 Page Arizona; and September 15 at Phoenix.

Comments on the statement should be sent within 4 days to William Benjamin, at the Flagstaff address above. For further information call Benjamin at 602-774-5261.

A $34 million Bureau of Reclamation contract has been approved for award on September 22, for construction of the Central Arizona Project's Havasu Pumping Plant on the Bill Williams Arm of Lake Havasu, Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today.

The Secretary said the contract will go to S. J Groves and Sons Co., Sparks, Nevada, on the lowest of 13 bids opened in Phoenix last August 16. Guy F. Atkinson, Company, South San Francisco, California, was second with $34.3 million while Mardian Construction Company, Phoenix was third low bidder with $34.6 million. The Engineer's Estimate was $30.8 million. There was less than $5 million difference between the lowest and the highest of the 13 bids.

The job calls for construction of a reinforced concrete pumping plant structure with dimensions of 304 by 137 feet; two 12-foot inside diameter steel discharge pipes; and intake channel and inlet transition. Also included are metalwork, mechanical items, and embedded parts of electrical systems; roadways, service yard, parking area, highway detour, highway bridge and flood protective drain.

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The building, most of which will be below ground surface, will be constructed in a previously excavated area. It will house six pumping units, each with a capacity of 500-cubic-feet-per-seond, and other equipment. The contractor will have 975 days to complete the work. Commissioner Higginson said this will be the third of four major contracts required to deliver water from Lake Havasu into the Granite Reef Aqueduct, which has a capacity of 3,000 cubic feet per second.

The first was construction of the Lake Havasu Intake Channel Dike and partial excavation of the pumping plant site completed in 1973. The second is construction of the 6.8-mile-long Buckskin Mountains Tunnel, begun in 1975 and scheduled to be completed in early 1980. The fourth will be for purchase of the pumps and motors for the Havasu Pumping Plant in 1979. Higginson said the Havasu Pumping Plant, when completed, will lift an average of 1.2 million acre-feet of Colorado River water annually about 800 feet from Lake Havasu to the inlet portal of the Buckskin Mountains Tunnel through two buried discharge pipes. The tunnel will deliver the water into the Granite Reef Aqueduct, now under construction, for a 190-mile trip to the south side of the Salt River in eastern metropolitan Phoenix. An extension of the aqueduct system will carry water as far as Tucson.

The Central Arizona Project will deliver supplemental water to farms cities, and industries in the Phoenix-Tucson Area. First delivery of water to the Phoenix area is scheduled in 1985 and to the Tucson area in 1987.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today released a draft supplement to the 1974 final environmental impact statement covering Executive Branch alternatives for protecting Alaska National Interest Lands until Congress can take final action.

Andrus said he was "obligated" to examine ways to provide interim protection for federal wildlands in Alaska when Congress adjourned without meeting its own deadline. The so-called "d-2" withdrawals expire on December 18. The 28 volume Environmental Impact Statement on Alaska lands issued in 1974 did not cover Executive Branch alternatives. Comments on the draft supplement are due by November 20.

"Although Congress has struggled with this issue for seven years, many roadblocks were thrown up along the way. Congress did a tremendous job of documenting the need for ambitious conservation action in Alaska," Andrus said, "and there is no question that Congress shares our desire to protect Alaska's natural crown jewels."

The draft supplement covers three major authorities available for protecting federal lands in Alaska:

The Antiquities Act of 1906 allows the President to proclaim National Monuments for the protection of "objects of historic or scientific interest."

Alaska's untouched natural communities and untouched geological paleonto­logical and archaeological resources are just a few examples of the historic and scientific values of these lands.

In addition, the Secretary has temporary and permanent withdrawal authorities under Section 204 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (the Bureau of Land Management Organic Act). These authorities allow the Secretary to segregate or set aside land for up to two years or to withdraw it for up to 20 years. Such withdrawal could include transfer of management responsibilities to another agency such as the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Secretary may also transfer Bureau of Land Management land to National Wildlife Refuges to replace the values in existing refuge lands selected by Alaskan Native villages. The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates the total of village selections in Refuges could be as high as three million acres. This authority is contained in Section 22 (e) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Finally, the Secretary is obligated under Section 603 of the FLPMA to study all road less tracts over 5,000 acres on the public lands for inclusion in the national wilderness system. Pending the study, the lands are to be managed in such a way as not to impair their wilderness characteristics. Congress has not appropriated any funds for such studies in Alaska, but that does not relieve the Secretary from the obligation to protect those lands until funds for the studies are available, Andrus said.

"The Chairman of the House Interior Committee, Congressman Udall, made it very clear that the requirement to carry out those studies before any development takes place on those lands was not extinguished by the failure to fund them this year," Andrus said.

The draft environmental supplement, the Secretary emphasized is a "decision - making tool. While we are determined to afford interim protection to Alaska National Interest Lands, I have not yet decided exactly which authority or combination of authorities I will recommend to the President to assure that protection. I will not preempt the process. No final decision on precise authorities will be made until comments are received on the supple­ment," Andrus said. Comments should be returned by November 20, 1978 to the following offices:

For comments from Alaska:

Special Assistant to the: Secretary

Attn: Regional Environmental Officer

U.S. Department of the Interior

Office of the Secretary Box 120

Anchorage, Alaska 99510

For comments from Continental U.S.:

Alaska Task Force (TWE)

National Park Service, Denver Service Center

P. 0. Box 25287

Denver, Colorado 80225

Martin E, Seneca, Jr., has been named Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerrard announced today.

Seneca, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Seneca Sr., Brant-Reservation Road, Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, will act as the functional and operational head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the agency until the post of the Commissioner is filled on a permanent basis.

A member of the Seneca Indian Nation of New York, Seneca has been serving as the Director of the Office of Trust Responsibilities for the BIA since January, and prior to that time served as Assistant General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy. He is a graduate of the Harvard School of Law and earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Seneca, 36, is a former White House Fellow and was on the faculty of the University Of Utah School Of Law before entering government service.

Gerard said announcing the appointment, "Mr. Seneca brings to this job the valuable managerial and professional skills needed to guide the Bureau through this crucial time."

Jack R. Ridley, a Washoe-Shoshone Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Tribal Resources Development in Washington, D.C., Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today

Ridley has served as Director of the Center for Native American Development at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho since 1977.

In his new position, one of five directorates in the Bureau's Central Office structure, Ridley will be the top staff official responsible for assisting tribes in Indian business enterprise develop­ment, credit and finance, job placement and training, and transportation programs. He will also supervise the operation of the Indian Technical Assistance Center in Lakewood, Colorado.

A native of Stewart, Nevada, Ridley came to the University of Idaho in 1966 as an assistant professor after earning his doctorate at the University of California at Davis, California. He graduated with a B.S. degree from the University of Nevada in 1961 and received a Master's from the same school in 1963.