OPA

Louise Perkins, Tribal Government Worker, is Buried: Louise Gilbault Perkins, of Michigan Ottawa who worked 36 years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, died November 22. Louise was administrative officer for the division of tribal government services. After attending Haskell Institute in 1941-42, Louise went to work for the BIA in Chicago as a Clerk-stenographer. She came to Washington in 1949 to work in the office of tribal relations under D'Arcy McNickle and has been since then part of the Washington scene for most tribal delegations. She was an expert on matters of tribal funding and budgets and she worked closely with many of the tribes on matters pertaining to the Indian Claims Commission. The funeral was at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, and burial at the Washington National Cemetery. She was survived by four sisters and two brothers. The family suggests memorial contributions be made to the Louise G. Perkins Memorial Fund, American Indian Society, Bureau of Indian Affairs, care of Mitchell L. Bush, Jr., 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20245.

Final regulations governing the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Housing Improvement Program (HIP) published in the Federal Register May 2 become effective June 1, the Bureau said today.

The program is primarily aimed at helping Indians make needed repairs, renovations and enlargements of their hares.

It provides grants up to $10,000 for such work when the homes can thereby be brought up to standards. Grants up to $2,500 are permitted for work on dwellings which cannot be brought to standard, but need work to reduce safety or health hazards and improve livability. This is done only as a stop-gap measure until standard housing is available.

Assistance is based on need in relation to family size, income and the unavailability of other housing assistance.

Grants are also available to make Indian families eligible for housing loans from tribal, Federal or other credit sources. The program can also provide grants for financing new housing when there is no prospect of standard housing being financed from other sources.

Approximately $10 million was appropriated for the program for the year ending June 30, 1975.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Van A. Peters as Superintendent of the Stewart Indian School, Stewart, Nevada.

Peters, a member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada, has been a school principal in Elko County, Nevada since 1972. He was previously a teacher and athletic director in Reedsport, Oregon.

A United States Army veteran, Peters earned both his B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Nevada.

Peters, 40, is a member of the Elko County Administrative Association and the Nevada Secondary School Administration Association.

Stewart Indian School, operated under the BIA's Phoenix Area Office, is a secondary school serving approximately 500 residential students.

Final regulations governing the administration of the Indian Loan Guaranty and Insurance fund have been published in the Federal Register by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Fund, established by the Indian Financing Act of 1974, is to be used to make more feasible normal commercial financing of economic enterprises which will benefit the economy of an Indian reservation. The Act authorized appropriation of $20 million for each of the fiscal years 1975, 1976, and 1977. These funds could generate up to $200 million in additional financing for Indian tribes, organizations and individuals. The $20 million for 1975 has been appropriated.

Loans made under this program may be guaranteed or insured up to 90 percent of the unpaid, principal, and interest. No guaranty or insurance will be provided, however, when financing on reasonable terms and conditions would be available without this assistance.

Loans for housing on reservations can also be guaranteed or insured under certain conditions.

The program also provides for the payment of interest subsidies to reduce the interest rate paid by the borrower to a rate comparable to that paid on loans from the Indian Revolving Loan Fund, established by Title I of the Financing Act.

Loans will be guaranteed or insured only when there is a reasonable prospect of repayment of the loan. Further information about the program can be obtained from BIA Agency or Area Offices.

Acting Secretary of the Interior, Kent Frizzell today announced approval of new procedures on appeals from administrative decisions of the Commissioner and the Area Directors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Under the new procedures, review authority is given to the Board of Indian Appeals of the Department's Office of Hearings and Appeals on all appeals except those requiring the exercise of the Secretary's discretion and appeals from decisions concerning tribal enrollments.

The Department amended Department Hearings and Appeals Procedures to provide for the taking of appeals, except tribal enrollments, directly to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals by persons aggrieved by administrative decisions of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in cases involving determinations, findings and orders protested as in violation of the legal rights or privileges of the appellants. Cases requiring exercise of the Secretary's discretion will be decided finally by the Commissioner.

Exercise of the Secretary's review authority by the Board of Indian Appeals in these matters insures impartial review in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, free from organizational conflict in that the Board is a part of the Office of Hearings and Appeals in the Office of the Secretary and as such is independent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Solicitor, Acting Secretary Frizzell said. The new procedures will also streamline the appellate process in appeals to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Originally published in the Federal Register on December 19, 1973, as proposed rulemaking the new rules received favorable public comment. The final version includes only minor changes suggested in written comments and in oral statements submitted.

The new rules are effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, and will govern all proceedings commenced after the effective date and all pending proceedings except to the extent that application of the amendments in a pending proceeding would not be feasible or would work injustice. Copies of the revised regulations may be obtained from the Department's Office of Hearings and Appeals, 4015 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Va. 22203.

An April 24 White House announcement that a supplemental appropriation of $10.9 million for law enforcement on Indian reservations was being requested from the Congress by the Administration was welcomed by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson.

"The Indian community will be pleased to know that this request is being submitted to the Congress," he said. "The upgrading of law enforcement services, including the operations of the tribal courts, is badly needed."

For the 1976 fiscal year beginning July 1, 1975, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had requested $13.6 million for law enforcement. The request for a supplemental appropriation brings the total requested to $24.5 million. In the current fiscal year $10.1 million was appropriated.

If the funding for law enforcement services on the reservation is increased, a major part of the additional funds will be used for expanding staffs.

In some states Indian reservations are under state jurisdiction. In others, the state has no authority on the reservations, and both civil and criminal justice is the joint responsibility of the tribes and the Federal Government.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has appointed Alton R. Nordwall Deputy Director of the BIA's Muskogee Area.

Nordwall, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, worked in the Muskogee office for nine years, 1964-73, as the Area Budget Officer. He left Muskogee to complete a Department of Interior nine-month Manager Development Training Program. Since June of 1974 he has been Assistant Area Director for the Minneapolis Area.

Nordwall, 47, has a BS degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University. He had formerly received a commercial certificate from Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Junior College.

A long-time Bureau of Indian Affairs' employee, Nordwall began his career in 1952 as a clerk-steno at the Pawnee Okla., agency. He subsequently completed his college work and moved up the ladder through various positions in Kansas, Oregon and Montana.

He is married to the former Eva L. Fields, a Pawnee Indian from Oklahoma They have two sons and two daughters.

The tribal land of the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin once again became a reservation today when Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton in a ceremony in his office formally accepted the deed conveying it to the United States in for the tribe.

Ada Deer, Chairperson of the Menominee Restoration Committee, the tribe's interim governing body, described the transfer plan as "the epitome of Indian self-determination." She said, "It gives the tribe Federal protection without Federal domination.”

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson and Ms. Deer participated with the Secretary in the signing ceremony. Members of the Restoration Committee and other guests were present.

Fourteen years ago the United States terminated its special relationship with the tribe, removed the land from trust status and discontinued Federal services. For the tribe this was disastrous. The tribal resources, some 200,000 acres of forest land and a sawmill, became subject to taxation and the tribal corporation, established after the termination to hold and manage this property, encountered financial difficulties.

After years of legislative efforts by the members of the tribe, Congress passed legislation, signed by the President December 22, 1973, to restore the tribe to Federal status. Today's action was a major step in the implementation of the Menominee Restoration Act.

In addition to restoring the land to trust status, the Secretary signed three other documents related to the restoration. These were:

1. A supplemental bond indenture, shifting the payment obligation for bonds issued by Menominee Enterprises, Inc., the corporation established after the termination, to the tribe and making the United States secondarily liable for interest only;

2) A management and trust agreement, giving the tribe management authority over tribal properties and business;

3) A management plan calling for the establishment of a tribal enterprise for the operation of the business activities of the tribe.

The transfer plan, approved by Congress, provides for maximum tribal control over its own affairs, with the Secretary exercising his trustee responsibility over the tribe's lands and natural resources.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be chartered as a junior college.

The school, established in 1962, has had for many years a post­secondary program in the fine arts and has many distinguished Indian artists among its alumni. It has not been, however, a degree granting institution.

The Indian Board of Regents at the school, and other Indian leaders, have requested that a junior college program be established at the Institute. The school will now expand its curriculum and seek accreditation to issue an associate of Fine Arts degree.

Operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the school will continue to provide a high school program for junior and senior Indian students interested in studying fine arts.

IAIA has long been recognized as a unique center of Indian culture and arts. An excellent museum and the Bureau's Cultural Studies and Resource Materials Development Center are located on the campus as part of the Institute. Articles about the Institute have been published in the New Yorker, Life, American Education, the London Observer and other publications.

Students for the school come from Indian tribes throughout the United States.

Lloyd Kiva New, a Cherokee artist renowned for his work in textile and fashion design, is Director of the Institute.

The need for families in Hooper Bay, Alaska, to send their children away from home to get a high school education will be ended, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today. A contract to construct a new, $3.2 million high school complex has been awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Walsh Construction Company of Anchorage, Alaska.

The new school is designed to serve 100 students in the 9th through 12th grades. The BIA now operates an elementary school with an enrollment of more than 200 in the area.

The new complex will include classrooms, science lab, home economics lab, a vocational shop area, administrative facilities, gymnasium and kitchen. There will also be an addition to the existing sewage treatment plant and an apartment building with five sets of quarters for staff personnel.

There is now no high school serving the Hooper Bay region and consequently, the students have had to participate in boarding school or other dormitory-type programs in larger cities.