OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is learning that one of the best ways to get work done on reservations and for Indian tribes is to have the Indians do it themselves, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today.

Increasingly Indian contractors are getting a growing variety of contracts. These result in more employment for Indians, savings for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and newly developed skills for tribal members, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported to the Secretary.

"More and more, the public is hearing of these success stories, Indian style," Bennett said. "'Indian style,' because most of them mean that many Indians can continue to stay on reservations while earning a living comparable to that available in the outside world.

"And for many an Indian, that is success: To live on the land he was born to, while offering his children and his children's children the economic and social self-reliance that can preserve ancient and proud cultures. For others, employment assistance in urban areas opens the way to still another world."

Not long ago, Domingo Montoya, chairman of the All-Indian Pueblo Council at Albuquerque, N.M., signed a $6,752 contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau needed a comprehensive school census of the area. Instead of bring­ing in BIA employees to do the job, it contracted the work to the Indians themselves. The contract included transportation for the census takers, train­ing of census people, 1,520-man-hours for enumerators to go to 18 pueblos and two Navajo communities, and 625-man-hours for two clerks to assemble the results.

The Indian census enumerators turned up with discrepancies in the old census office figures, and "performed in an efficient and exemplary manner," according to BIA officials. In addition, the council had money in the bank and 39 Indians had been given needed summer employment as well as valuable experience which they could later use in other Bureau assignments.

This is a small but important example of new BIA planning -- a plan designed to more and more put Indians in charge of their own programs.

The Bureau has contracted work to Indians, and encouraged them also to initiate and expand their own programs.

This summer, the Choctaw Tribe of Mississippi contracted to furnish the labor for 25 housing units a $62,000 project. This included carpenters, electricians, metal workers, plumbers, and office help, most of them Indians. In Oregon, the Warm Springs Tribes took over the repair of flood damage under a $170,000 contract -- "a major and outstanding project," according to BIA officials.

These projects, too, became a source of income, experience and renewed confidence to the Indians, instead of letting them stand by while the white man and his know-how moved in to do the Indians' work for them.

These instances reveal the extent and depth to which the heretofore "protected" Indian is gradually taking over the management of his own affairs -- plunging, with only an assist from the Bureau, into new responsi­bilities, new jobs and new attitudes, Bennett said.

Thousands of Indian people are being put to work, the Bureau is saving money by accepting Indian bids, and thousands more Indians are being trained in skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled jobs right on their own reservations.

As a side result, tribal units find themselves forming organizational patterns of command and communication to take immediate advantage of project opportunity openings as they occur. This is important, for many government agencies have funds available to help Indians. These include the Office of Economic Opportunity; Departments of Labor; Health, Education, and Welfare; Agriculture; Housing and Urban Development; and Commerce. The tribes must be ready with the project and method of implementing it.

And there is much to be done. For example reservation roads must be improved to allow for increased tourist travel, better communication, and expanded transport services.

The Phoenix, Ariz., area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs has contracted with Indian tribes or individuals for $267,000 worth of work since last January, two-thirds of it already completed. There were no Indian tribes within the area office's jurisdiction which had the equipment, so nearby Navajos were called upon for equipment rental, material trucking, and road building.

The Bureau found the Navajos to be highly qualified for these operations.

Indian credit programs are also being expanded and entire tribal units set up to handle the paper work without involving the Bureau. And the Red Lake Chippewas of Minnesota have the added distinction of having established their own credit sources without having to fall back on government support.

Recently, the Zuni Tribe acquired valuable experience in bidding, performing under contract, financing and administering a $7,500 program for a dwarf mistletoe pest control project which was sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. The Zunis organized the Forest Improvement Enterprise and a contract was executed to do the work on 500 acres of infested reservation pine.

The enterprise employed 10 laborers and supervisor, all Zunis. In order to get working capital, the enterprise executed a 90-day loan of $4,000 and paid it back in 22 days. The Indians successfully completed the project in 31 working days, and are now preparing to bid on similar projects.

The timber harvest on Indian lands is estimated to support 8,050 jobs by 1973, yielding $19.8 million annually in stumpage and $40.4 million in wages. Obviously, many Indian tribes have a vested interest in not only good conservation practices, but the training of other Indians for the work involved.

For example, the White Mountain Apache Tribe took on a contract through the Bureau's Branch of Forestry for the personnel necessary to protect 1.5 million acres of forest and range resources. The contract was for $66,000 and provided about JO Indians with summer employment in fire protection, as well as look-out and fire warehouse experience. These Apaches, now well-experienced in firefighting, travel to battle over 250 fires in western states annually.

The Consolidated Ute Agency in Colorado assigned various jobs to Indians during Fiscal 1967, including re-roofing on buildings, storm damage repairs and floor coverings -- a total of $16,500. On North Carolina's Cherokee Reservation, the tribe handles the school bus contract and the hot lunch program. And at Rosebud, S.D., the Rosebud Sioux Tribe participated in BIA's portion of a $1.9 million housing project by providing equipment, transportation and materials

for prefabrication homes on their own reservation. The tribe's share of the contract, $137,340, provided jobs and new insights into business operations.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that, in keeping with a Congressional directive, a proposed bill to end Federal supervision over the Seneca Nation of Indians of New York has been sent to the Congress.

Udall said that Indian Commissioner Robert L. Bennett and other Bureau of Indian Affairs representatives have held several meetings with the Senecas to discuss the problem. The Seneca Tribal Council recently passed a resolution which says that while the tribe recognizes the necessity of the legislation, a majority of its members are "opposed to altering the relationship which now exists between the Federal Government and the Seneca Nation and specifically (the tribe) is opposed to any form of termination. “

Legislation passed in August 1964 awarded the Senecas $15 million for relocation and rehabilitation after one-third of their Allegany Reservation had been taken for the Kinzua Dam Reservoir. It provided for services by the BIA and other Federal agencies in effecting rehabilitation. But it also required that a plan for the complete withdrawal of Federal supervision over the property and affairs of the Seneca Nation and its members be submitted to the Congress by August 31, 1967.

The proposed bill provides that statutes of the United States which apply to Indians because of their status as Indians shall cease to apply to the Senecas on a date to be determined. This would free the Seneca Nation of Federal control over the use and disposition of its property and allow the Indians to use or dispose of their' lands, subject only to state laws.

The draft legislation would go into effect only if approved by a majority of Seneca eligible voters. It would preserve the provisions of the Treaty of November 11, 1794 between the United States and the Six (Iroquois) Nations which acknowledges the established reservations and protects the Indians in the free use and enjoyment of them. The Senecas are one of the Six Nations.

The draft bill would give the Senecas the option of accepting a lump sum payment equal to the amount which, if invested at six percent interest, would provide the $6,000 now paid the Seneca Nation annually under old treaty provisions, or of continuing to receive the annuities which would be distributed by the tribe.

The Senecas received $3 million for the actual loss of land, improvements, and wildlife, and for relocation costs, and $12 million for a comprehensive program of rehabilitation of the distressed Indian community under provisions of the law which requires the submission of a termination proposal.

In the last three years the Senecas have:

Expended about $1.97 million in settling claims of individuals for direct damages through loss of land and improvements, for loss of earnings, and for a per capita distribution.

Expended about $300,000 to improve the relocation areas.

Received more than $630,000 for reimbursement of Kinzua litigation costs and cemetery relocation.

Carried out a housing program for 120 homes, which was directly aided from the rehabilitation funds to the extent of $1.8 million

Established an educational foundation to provide scholarships from a $1.8 million fund.

Constructed two community buildings which house offices, council chambers, gymnasiums, multipurpose rooms, dining facilities a~ a cost of $1.2 million.

Allotted $2 million for the development of a 55-acre industrial park. The first plant, operated by the First Seneca Corp., to sew pillows and decorative items, is already in operation.

Created plans for a tourism and recreational development, subject to the findings of a feasibility study to be completed in October, which would involve creation of a corporation to lease tribal land and borrow up to $5.5 million from uncommitted rehabilitation funds.

Will Rogers, Jr., son of the humorist and grandson of Cherokee leader Clem Vann Rogers, has been given a temporary appointment as Special Assistant to Indian Commissioner Robert L. Bennett, it was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. Rogers took the oath of office September 18.

Udall noted that Rogers has been serving as a consultant to the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and "both Commissioner Bennett and I have been tremendously impressed with his knowledge of and concern for Indian problems and his ability to work with all kinds of Indian groups and inspire them to new efforts and insights."

Bennett said that Rogers would spend considerable time working with students and teachers in Bureau schools, and would represent the Commissioner at meetings of tribal organizations, exhibits, festivals and other events.

Rogers, 55, is a graduate of Stanford University and has been a Congressman, newspaper publisher, Army officer during World War II, motion picture actor, television commentator, writer and California State Parks Commissioner. He has homes in Los Angeles, and Tubac, Ariz. His wife, the former Collier Connell, helped found Arrow, Inc. an Indian interest organization. The couple has an adopted son, Clem, a full-blood Navajo, and a second son, Carlos.

Formal dedication of the Chippewa Ranch Conservation Center, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs near Mahnomen, Minn. is scheduled for Sunday, October 29. Principal speaker for the event will be Will Rogers. Jr., assistant to Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

In announcing the dedication of the Job Corps Center on the White Earth Reservation, Commissioner Bennett said it is the eighth center to be established on or near an Indian reservation.

"These young men are reversing the often cruel history of land-grabbing from the Indian," he said. "Job Corps trainees restore Indian lands by replanting burned forest areas, stop land erosion through dam building, repair and install Indian boundary and range fences, and construct new roads across vast reservation areas."

Nor has the Job Corps work gone unnoticed by the Indians who benefit by much of it, Bennett said.

A spokesman for the Navajo Tribe commended the Mexican Springs, N.M., Job Corps director for work the Corps did, installing a Canada goose pen at nearby Red Lake on the Navajo Reservation. A tree planting project of more than 5,000 trees drew praise from the Navajo forest managers and a tribute on the courteous conduct of the Job Corps members while on the reservation.

Recently, Wendell Chino, president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, complimented the Eight Canyon Job Corps Camp on construction work its members performed on the tribal ceremonial grounds, adding: ."The help these young men gave the tribe during the ceremonial helped us in handling the public. The men's neatness and politeness is a credit to themselves and their leaders."

Conservation centers operated by the Bureau include Fort Simcoe, near White Swan, Wash., on the Yakima Indian Reservation; Winslow, Ariz.; San Carlos on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, near Globe, Ariz.; Poston Center, Colorado River Reservation, near Yuma, Ariz.; Mexican Springs Center on the Navajo Reservation, near Gallup, N.M.; Eight Canyon Center on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, near Mescalero, N.M.; and Kicking Horse Center on the Flathead Indian Reservation, near Ronan, Mont. Planned for mid-November opening is the Swift Bird Center on the Cheyenne River Reservation, near Gettysburg, S.D.

“These centers with 1,653 young men enrolled, have accounted for more than $2.5 million worth of work in fiscal 1967 on conservation, Center and community projects, while at the same time offering new educational opportunities to high school dropouts and preparing others for work in many trades,” Bennett said.

The appraised value of work done by these corpsmen during the year ended June 30 was $1,543,038 on conservation projects, $939,308 in Center projects, and $120,747 on community projects, for a total of $2,603,093.

Projects at Chippewa are typical of those for most of the Centers. They include tree planting, construction of camp grounds and picnic areas, small bridge and dam construction, and development of wildlife habitat.

Shops are maintained for woodworking, automotive maintenance and repair, and heavy equipment work. Each corpsman receives from two to four hours of instruction per day in mathematics and reading while in the education phase of the program. Programmed materials allow each corpsman to progress at his own rate.

Firefighting, driver education and safety instruction round out center programs.

Bennett noted that the healthful, rugged outdoor surroundings of the centers contribute much toward the development of Job Corps youth, giving them a fresh viewpoint about their place and potential in the world around them,.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett announced today an Adult Education Training Seminar for Bureau of Indian Affairs personnel, November 27 through December 2, at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

The Seminar will be held at the Oklahoma Center for Continuing Education on the university campus. It will be the first national effort by the Bureau to train its adult educators intensively about the current problems of the profession.

Bennett said the Bureau will send its entire adult education staff to the seminar, along with assistant area directors and community development officers.

Some of the country's top adult education experts will appear, including representatives from the Universities of Chicago, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, and Roosevelt University of Chicago.

Other speakers will include top officials from the Adult Education Association of the United States; the National University Extension Association, and the Research Studies and Training Center for Adult Education.

"This seminar is in line with the Bureau's intensive effort to clean up the gray areas of Indian education," Bennett said o "Pre-school work, basic education, high school equivalency, and the development of human resources fall into these areas.”

Adult education is highly important to the Indian who wants to move forward in society, on or off the reservation."

Bennett went on to point out that the 48 hours of intensive instruction the seminar will offer is only part of an ever-expanding program to bring Bureau personnel up to the professional competence demanded by current innovations in the field.

Dr. William Ro Carmack, BIA Assistant Commissioner for Community Services, will wind up the five-day program by presenting certificates of accomplishment to the participants.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett today announced preparation of a roll of Upper and Lower Chehalis Indians of Washington State entitled to share in a $754,000 Indian Claims Commission judgment.

An amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations provides that "all persons who were alive on Oct. 24, 1967, who establish that they are descendants of members of the Upper and Lower Chehalis Tribes as they existed in 1855 shall be entitled to be enrolled to share in the distribution of the judgment funds."

All applications for enrollment must be filed with the Superintendent, Western Washington Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 3006 Colby Avenue, Everett, Wash. 98201 no later than Aug. 1, 1968.

The Claims Commission made the award for 838,200 acres of land in Washington State taken from the tribe without compensation in 1855 0 Some of the award will be used to pay attorney's fees, the rest distributed to tribal members. The regulation change is being published in the Federal Register o

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today approved an agreement between the Crow Indian Tribe and the National Park Service under which some of the Crow Tribal lands in Montana will be included in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

The action was requested by the Crow Tribe and concerns reservation land in Montana adjacent to the Recreation Area, which surrounds the reservoir formed by the Yellowtail Dam on the Bighorn River in South Central Montana and North Central Wyoming.

The Recreation Area was authorized by Congress in 1966, and included some Crow Reservation 1arid that had been acquired by the Bureau of Reclamation.

"This arrangement will permit a splendid Indian-owned resource to be put to use for the recreational advantage of the public, while the Indians themselves derive substantial economic benefits from the influx of tourists who come to enjoy the area I s natural beauty,” Udall said.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony in the Secretary's office by Ed1son Real Bird, chairman of the Tribal Council, and Mrs. Pauline Small, Council secretary. Director George B. Hartzog, Jr., signed for the National Park Service, which administers the Recreation Area.

Real Bird pointed out that under the terms of the agreement the tribe will enjoy significant concession rights on lands presently within the recreation area in Montana.

"Under this agreement," Real Bird said, "certain rights or privileges, including the sale of fishing and hunting permits, native handicrafts, overnight accommodations, and boat, camper and auto supplies will be extended to the Tribe."

"This joint venture of the Crow Tribe of Indians and National Park Service is of a new undertaking. It is the hope of the chairman that this cooperative method brings opportunities for my people such as employment, business, other related tourism industry, and the development of our resources. Since the Tribe is to become the principal concessioner of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, we are in hopes that this brings about the tourism that has not been available in the past, by providing motels, boating, and related recreation facilities. We feel this cooperation with National Park Service sets a new feature in government - Indian tribe relationships, and that many worthwhile ventures will materialize throughout the United States. Such endeavors will certainly bring the true image of the American Indian in perspective. We expect this agreement to be one more forerunner for the development of the Crow Tribe."

The National Park Service will assist in the development of lands, roads, trails, structures and other improvements; cooperate in Indian improvement programs, and give certain preferences to Indians in employment.

Udall noted that nothing in the agreement detracts from the responsibility of the Secretary of the Interior or of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to administer grazing permits and leases or to exercise other trust responsibilities.

The agreement is for 50 years but may be modified or amended by mutual consent.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today he is sending Robert E. Vaughan as a personal representative to Alaska to assist in drafting legislation related to Alaska Native land claims against the United States.

Vaughan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior for Public Land Management, will meet with the legislative drafting committee of the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage December 6 and 7.

Vaughan and the committee will explore the possibility of Alaska Natives sharing in revenues from the Outer Continental Shelf in payment for their land claims against the United States.

At the same time, Secretary Udall announced that he has designated Hugh J. Wade, Interior's Regional Solicitor in Alaska, as his local representative to coordinate the Department's activities on Alaska Native claims and to serve in a liaison capacity with the Natives and the State.

Secretary Udall recommended attempts to reach a common solution of the claims problem during his trip to Alaska late last month. The proposal was favorably received by representatives of the Natives and the State of Alaska.

The Secretary said he was pleased that Emil Notti, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, had scheduled a drafting session so promptly. Mr. Udall said he was making available a high level official of the Department whose responsibilities cover both the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the Federal lands and handles leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today approval of a program proposed by the Navajo Indian tribe to invest up to $10 million of tribal scholarship funds in selected stocks to increase the annual income available for education purposes.

The net annual income from the scholarship funds will be devoted to scholarships for needy Navajo youth, as has been done in the past with income from scholarship funds held in banks or the U.S. Treasury.

"Under this new program the Navajo tribe will advance another step in handling its own affairs and will move into management, with capable assistance, of funds which heretofore have been in trust status," Secretary Udall said.

"We expect that the investments in stocks will result in a larger annual net yield, thus providing more aid for advanced education of young Navajos than is available with the income from the deposits."

The Secretary gave his approval after the tribe agreed to changes that had been recommended by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett in an original stock investment proposal.

Udall wrote Raymond Nakai, Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, that it appears that under the agreements as amended "the tribe is properly protected." The Secretary commended the tribe for its action.

Under one agreement, the New York firm of Naess and Thomas will be investment counselor for the Navajos for investment of tribal scholarship funds.

Under a second agreement, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., will handle the acquisition, disposition, and custody of securities of the scholarship fund.

The portfolio of stocks will be reviewed periodically by the Navajo tribal investment committee.

The tribe has had a $10 million scholarship fund for some time, with the money invested in banks and the Treasury. The bank deposits have been earning the maximum legal yield of 5 1/2 percent, compounded quarterly. The deposits in the Treasury have earned 4 percent annually.

The shift to investment of up to $10 million in stocks is based on tribal belief that a balanced portfolio of stocks, including fixed-income blue chip securities and also growth stocks, will result in greater annual net income.

The Department of the interior said today it has proposed to Congress that a 1931 Act regarding the acceptance of gifts by the Secretary of the Interior for the benefits of Indians be broadened.

The present act authorizes the Secretary to accept contributions or donations for Indians for the benefit of Indian institutions or for the advancement of the Indian race. However, the language of the Act seems to limit the use of funds to institutions or to individual Indians, the Department added.

A requested amendment would permit donated funds to be used in such fields as educational curriculum research, research on special Indian social adjustment problems, projects to develop Indian communities and community leadership, museums to preserve Indian culture, and cooperative projects for housing improvement or resource development.

The amendment proposed by Interior states that the Secretary "may use donated property in accordance with the terms of the donation in furtherance of any program authorized by other provisions of the law for the benefit of Indians,"