OPA

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced appointment of George W. Hubley, Jr., Director of the Maryland Department of Economic Development, to the post of Assistant Commissioner for Economic Development in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Hubley, 56, has 25 years’ experience in public and private resource development and planning programs in Maryland, Kentucky, New Mexico, Georgia, and Ohio. He developed Maryland's first State-wide program of economic development and in his previous post of Kentucky Commissioner of Economic Development worked extensively with programs to reduce economic distress in the Appalachian areas of that State.

Udall said that Hubley's "overall experience, and particularly his work in the Appalachian area, will enable him to continue the programs the Bureau has in operation and to initiate more realistic, progressive, venturesome, and farsighted projects so urgently needed by our Indian people."

The BIA Division Hubley will direct is responsible for development and use of Indian resources; the promotion of locations in Indian areas for industrial plants, commercial endeavors and tourist enterprises; the encouragement of Indian-owned and operated economic ventures; mobilization of credit and financing for these activities; and improved management of Indian lands and resources.

Hubley is a director and past president of both the National and Southern Associations of State Planning and Development Agencies, a member of the National Council of the National Planning Association, the American Industrial Development Council and the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.

A native of Louisville, Ky., he has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Louisville and has done graduate work in the same subject at the University of Chicago. Hubley succeeds E. Reesman Fryer, who retired recently after 34 years of Government service.

The Radio Corporation of America has informed the Department of the Interior it is offering a $1,300 scholarship 'to a Choctaw Indian trainee from the Philadelphia, Miss. area for computer system work, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said today.

RCA Service Coo, an RCA subsidiary, is conducting for the Bureau of Indian Affairs an occupational training, basic literacy education, and job placement program for the Choctaws of Mississippi.

Scholarship candidates will be chosen by the Bureau and tested by RCA, Bennett said. The most promising person will be given an intensive, 48-week course at RCA's Cherry Hills, N. J o, Technical Institute, including work with electronic computer systems and digital computer techniques.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will pay living costs of the scholarship winner during the II-month training period at RCA.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said today he is scheduled to discuss soon with H. H. Mobley, executive vice president of Quality Courts Motels, Inc., of Daytona Beach, Fla., .details of a program which could place swank tourist motel facilities on Indian reservations.

The talks will be an outgrowth of intensive investigations by the industrial development department of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, and in keeping with the recent appeal to Congress by the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Bennett for imaginative, new approaches to the use of Indian land and resources.

A meeting is planned for August 9, in Washington, D.C.

Although the idea is still in the discussion stage, as proposed by Quality Courts Motels, a nationwide franchise operation, Indian tribes would be helped to plan, finance, construct and staff a series of motels across Indian country, each with its own distinctive architecture, reflecting the various tribal heritages.

"The fact that the motels would be Indian owned and operated, and on or near reservation land, will make them a 'plus' tourist attraction," Mobley said. "In addition, they can act as an outlet for tribal arts and crafts, and where possible, for use of other features of the reservation area, such as fishing, boating, swimming and hunting."

But it would be the tribes, themselves, which would negotiate with Quality. Bennett pointed out that the heart of current Bureau policy is to give the Indians a chance to move ahead on their own.

The financing of each project would vary with the tribe. Costs of motel construction, nationally, vary from $6,500 to $7,500 per unit, exclusive of land and furnishings, and as Quality's minimum requirements call for at least 40 rooms, some tribes would have to look about for private loan sources or Federal agency loans. Some tribes may draw on their own treasury. A bill now before Congress would give the tribes access to an increased revolving loan fund and other means of raising capital.

Mobley said locations will be analyzed for economic feasibility prior to final site determination. Quality Motels would then work with the tribes on design, financing, construction and staff training.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today the appointment of Lloyd H. New as Superintendent of the Institute of American Indian Arts, a school operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Santa Fe, N. M. New has been the Institute's Arts Director.

His promotion is effective August 13.

A member of the Cherokee Tribe and a native of Fairland, Okla., New operated his own fabric and commercial design organization in Scottsdale, Ariz., prior to 1962 under the name Lloyd Kiva. His designs and fashion items have been featured in national publications and exhibited in many museums. In addition he served on museum boards, did field research in a variety of Indian Art forms, and was President of the Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale. He joined the Institute staff in 1962.

Prior to that he had served as an arts and crafts instructor in the Bureau's Intermountain Indian School at Brigham City, Utah, and from time to time as a consultant on matters dealing with arts and crafts.

New was graduated from the Chicago Art Institute. He served as a Navy Lieutenant during World War II. He is married and the father of two children.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has approved changes in Federal regulations governing conduct of certain tribal elections authorized under the Indian Reorganization Act. The changes, which are being published in the Federal Register, are designed primarily to facilitate tribal government.

Comments received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since proposed changes were announced in February have been considered in preparation of the new regulations.

The Bureau informed Secretary Udall that shifting Indian populations have had the effect of often invalidating elections because only a small percentage of a tribe voted.

Under the revisions, which are in keeping with national, state, and local custom, tribal members would be required to register in order to vote in elections authorized by Section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act. At least 30 percent of those on the registration list would have to cast ballots for an election to be valid.

Under present procedures, registration is not a factor. Rules require that at least 30 percent of "all" eligible voters have to vote for an election to be valid. This often results in no decision, because many eligible voters lack interest and do not bother to vote.

Provision is continued for registered, eligible tribal members to vote by absentee ballot. When prepared, the life of any list of registered voters will extend for three years, with the responsibility upon the registrant to make changes in his status as necessary.

Another change establishes a definite, consistent standard for deciding whether sufficient eligible voters 'actually sign an election petition when such a procedure is recognized for effecting elections.

In conjunction with elections, the tribal election board will be required to notify by mail all adult Indians of the tribe of the need to register if they intend to vote.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that Charles N. Zellers, Deputy Associate Commissioner, Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, has been named Assistant Commissioner for Education in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Udall said that he and Indian Commissioner Robert L. Bennett believe that Zellers "is the kind of administrator the Bureau needs to fulfill President Johnson's mandate that we provide every Indian child and youth the finest quality education program possible." The Secretary pointed out that "more than one-half of the budget and more than one-half of the total number of employees in the BIA are involved in educational programs."

Zellers, 49, was born in Columbiana, Ohio and received a BA degree from Youngstown University. He also has a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

After serving as Assistant Professor in the School of Business Administration at Youngstown University, Zellers was named Deputy Superintendent for the District of Columbia School system in 1951. In that position he worked on fiscal, administrative and legislative activities. In November, 1957, he was appointed Comptroller for the University of Pittsburgh.

Zellers joined the staff of the Office of Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1960 as Executive Officer, Division of State and Local Schools. He was promoted to Deputy Associate Commissioner in 1966.

He has worked with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act programs, the Educational Television Facilities Act program, the implementation of the National Defense Education Act, the National Teacher Corps and a wide variety of administrative programs involving legislative policy, church-state relations, interagency activities and state and local school policy coordination.

He received a quality salary increase in 1964, and an HEW Superior Service award in 1965.

A veteran of Navy service during World War II, Zellers lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife and 4 children.

Zellers will assume his new duties September 3.

The actual celebration -- the throwing of a switch to turn on electric power at Puertocito -- takes place August 26, but the real significance of the event extends both ways in time from that date, according to the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Puertocito is a remote Indian reservation in west central New Mexico, the home of the Alamo Navajos, a tribal group separated from the main or "Big Navajo" Reservation 100 miles to the north during the Navajo's struggles with Kit Carson and the U.S. Cavalry 100 years ago.

The reservation's 155 families live scattered over 52,000 acres in an arid region about 60 miles from the county seat of Socorro, N. M.A matriarchal society, they have survived through subsistence farming, grazing and performing seasonal labor at neighboring farms and ranches. They are named for a local spring, Alamo Spring, Alamo being the Spanish word for cottonwood.

In recent years this group has been strengthening its ties with the Big Navajo government and sends a representative to Navajo Tribal Council meetings at Window Rock, Ariz. In turn, the Big Navajo have put their self-help program -- the Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity (ONEO) -- to work at Puertocito.

With ONEO assistance the people of Puertocito, under a mutual-help program, constructed 60 new houses to replace the traditional single room hogans and shacks that had been their homes. Designed and built by the Navajos themselves, the buildings are constructed of native stone or adobe (mud) brick. By suburban standards they are exceedingly modest. By Puertocito standards they are a giant step forward.

As the building program progressed, the Alamo Navajos contacted the Socorro Rural Electric Cooperative, which agreed to bring in electric power if 100 families would subscribe. One hundred families did, and the power line, financed by a Rural Electrification Administration loan to the Cooperative, was started toward Puertocito.

At the same time the Bureau of Indian Affairs agreed to provide the materials, tools, and supervision for wiring the individual houses. A separate wiring plan was required for each house. ONEO provided local Indian labor under a manpower training program. The home wiring program began Jan. 21, 1967 and was completed April 29.

It produced, at a cost of $156 a house, adequately wired dwellings -- meeting all electrical code requirements except for number of outlets -- and ten Navajos who earned $1.25 an hour while acquiring the skills to make them qualified electrician's helpers. These men not only have increased employment opportunities in the area but have the skills necessary to maintain an electrical system which operates in ways completely mysterious to most residents of the community. Their first jobs are likely to come in the expansion of the new system to additional Indian homes.

For the future, the immediate impact of electricity at Puertocito is not difficult to comprehend. Electric lights, refrigerators, washing machines, mixers and the many other genies of the kilowatt will move the Alamo Navajos a big step closer to a standard of living approaching the national average.

But much more than convenience and ease of living is involved. Through improved communications, especially television and radio, the aura of isolation that has compounded the difficulties of helping these people toward an understanding of the culture and habits of mid-century Americans will be reduced.

When Puertocito youngsters leave for Magdalena, 35 miles to the south, where they attend public school and stay in a BIA dormitory, they will have a better understanding of what to expect in this new environment. This understanding is expected to cushion the shock of this new experience and result in better school enrollment and attendance.

A similar acquisition of cultural understanding will assist the adults in the community as they press forward with the most difficult task of seeking economic and social equality for themselves and their community. The new ideas and new developments which have resulted from the improved working relationship with Big Navajo organizations should be accelerated as knowledge and understanding open new options for community improvement.

Actual day-to-day communications with the surrounding communities will be greatly improved by a two-way radio the Cooperative plans to install at Puertocito.

Indicative of the spirit of progress now in evidence at Puertocito is the work underway with the Indian Health Division of the Public Health Service to plan a water system for the community.

Receipts from sales of Indian timber totaled a record high of $15.9 million in Fiscal Year 1967, which ended last June 30, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

This was an increase of nearly $1.6 million over Fiscal Year 1966, which was itself a record year, with an increase of $2 million over Fiscal Year 1965.

The Bureau also reported that in the last five years, the volume of Indian timber cut increased by 258 million board feet and stumpage receipts increased by $7.6 million, as shown by Fiscal Year 1967 and 1962 totals.

In Fiscal Year 1967, increased timber sale activity in the Billings, Mont. area returned more than double the income of the previous year. Unfortunately, this was not the case in California, where market conditions resulted in volume cut being less than half the Fiscal Year 1966 harvest.

Fiscal Year 1967 also reflected income from the first large Indian timber sale in Alaska, on the Annette Islands Reserve in the Juneau area, and sales from public domain allotments in the Haines area.

The volume harvested in Fiscal Year 1967 was slightly less than the previous year; 803 million board feet compared to 848 for Fiscal Year 1966.

However, good market conditions in most areas provided for the increased income.

Vincent Price, the actor and art connoisseur, has accepted reappointment to another 4-year term on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and has been elected chairman by the other members, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The Secretary also announced the appointment to the Board of Royal Brown Hassrick, widely known anthropologist and former curator of American and American Indian art in the Denver Art Museum, to succeed Dr. Frederick J. Dockstader, director of the Museum of American Indians, New York.

Dr. Dockstader has been chairman of the Board since 1962 and a member for many years.

Secretary Udall wrote Dr. Dockstader a letter of appreciation for his years of service in the effort to maintain high standards of workmanship for Indian arts and crafts and at the same time assist in developing policies and procedures to expand the market for such products.

Price, who lives in Los Angeles, has been a member (commissioner) of the Board since 1962, having first been appointed to fill an unexpired term.

He has established the Vincent Price Awards in Creative Writing, which are given annually at the Institute of American Indian Arts, operated by the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs at Santa Fe, N. M.

Activities of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board will not be new to Hassrick. He served as assistant general manager for the Board in Denver in 1952-54 and as curator of the Interior Department's Southern Plains Indian Museum at Anadarko, Okla., in 1948-52.

Hassrick was born in Ocean City, N. J., July graduated with a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College work at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania number of books on Indian affairs. 10, 1917. He was and did postgraduate He is the author of a number of books on Indian Affairs.

He served as Executive Director of the Association on American Indian Affairs in 1942-44, was with the Office of War Information in 1944-45, and in the Army in 1945.

He joined the staff of the Denver Art Museum in 1955, following his service with the Interior Department. He makes his home at Lone Star Ranch, Elizabeth, Colo.

Arizona Indians have formed the first organization in the country designed to involve all of the Indian reservations in a State in a program for mutual planning and economic development help, Secretary Udall said today.

Called the Indian Development District of Arizona, the group initially is made up of nine of the 17 reservations in Arizona, combined into a statewide corporation that will enable Indian tribes to qualify for Economic Development Administration districting funds.

Rupert Parker, Hualapai leader from the Grand Canyon country, who has been elected first president of the organization, says that other tribal groups are expected to join soon.

The program is the result of the combined efforts of local Bureau of Indian Affairs officials under Phoenix Area Director W. Wade Head, and EDA personnel, working with Arizona's Governor Jack Williams.

The state-chartered corporation, IDDA, is expected to result in the development of strategically located planning areas. There will be from three to five of these initially, with more to follow.

Each area will hire professional staff funded by EDA under title IV of the EDA Act, to cover up to 75 percent of costs. The annual IDDA budget is estimated at about $200,000. The remaining 25 percent of costs are covered by in-kind contributions from the planning area, and includes outlays for office space, desks, typewriters, supplies and related items.

Each associated tribe has one representative on the IDDA board of directors. In addition to President Parker, they include:

Robert Mackett, Papago, and Howard Schurz, Salt River, vice presidents; Alexander Lewis, Gila River, secretary-treasurer; Jay Gould, Colorado River; Reeves Steele, San Carlos Apache; Fred Banashley, White Mountain Apache; Clinton Pattea, Fort McDowell; and Llewellyn Barrackman, Fort Mohave.

Once established, the planning area administration committee will hire a professional staff. The committee will be made up of area board members plus an additional member from each area reservation. This group in turn will then select up to an equal number of non-Indians from neighboring communities bordering the reservations.

The result, according to BIA Area Director Head, will be to foster Indian and non-Indian interaction, working for a common objective. This is significant when it is realized that in Arizona, where only Indian reservations are designated as eligible to receive assistance from EDA programs, 17 percent of- the land is privately owned while nearly 30 percent is Indian owned.

Initial coordination of the plan is being provided by a Navajo Indian, Art Hubbard, on Governor Williams' staff. This is a temporary arrangement until IDDA becomes operational.

When the professional staffs are set up, each will layout economic development needs in its area and then research and implement indicated planning. The staffs will also assist in the preparation of applications for technical assistance and funding from various Government and private sources. ln the end, though, the tribes themselves will be the applicants for such help.

Arizona's three state universities are expected to take part in the IDDA program, and planning committees may call on business and engineering consultants for further advice.