OPA

American Indian schools, fortified with a recent $9 million grant from the U.S. Office of Education, are trying out new ways to overcome the communications gap between Indian customs and conventional school methods.

The $9 million was made available to the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal year which ended last June 30, under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It has enabled BIA to initiate projects it could not have funded otherwise, even though about 65 percent of its regular budget goes for education. Title I money generally is intended for innovative and exploratory projects in the education field.

BIA, an agency of the Department of the Interior, maintains nearly 250 schools for some 55,000 Indian elementary and secondary students. The largest has more than 1,000 enrolled; the smallest, only about 30. Some are boarding schools serving Indian youngsters who live in areas too remote to permit daily attendance at schools close to home; others are day schools in places where the States and local communities cannot effectively serve Indian needs.

Problems vary widely. In certain regions, Indians want specialized training. It will help their children land good jobs in the United States economic mainstream. In others, the schools seem to many Indians too formal, too unrelated to the realities of reservation life. There is a widespread concern that Indian culture and identity may be overwhelmed by conventional teaching.

Because of this diversity of problems, the money has been put to work in a wide variety of ways. Some are long-range, others are aimed at immediate effect.

So that Indians will feel a part of these programs, some of the money is used to involve students and parents in developing a course of study that is Indian-oriented.

These long-range research projects include a detailed study to check on which areas of education Indian students and their parents consider most vital; one which sets out along innovative lines to find just where Indian students stand, scholastically, in various subject areas; and others for development of new social studies curricula which recognize the beauty and worth of native culture and provide refinements in the teaching of English to Indian children who have spoken only their native language.

Other research is being devoted to development of intelligence and achievement tests especially for Indians.

Immediate improvement in Indian education is the aim of programs involving both university and in-school workshops for teachers to update them on latest teaching methods The main uses of the money, though, were for special projects in local Indian schools, most of which are designed to persQna1ize the environment of the schools for ultimate benefit of the student. Examples:

--Rock Point residential school in Chinle, Ariz., which has about 200 students –

from beginners through fourth grade -- living and studying there during the school year, Indian adults into the dormitories and classrooms to speak to children in their doubles. All this is done in an attempt to eliminate homesickness among the students and to alleviate their lonesomeness.

--Five residential schools near Tuba City, Ariz., have each set up a homemaking center to teach their upper elementary students -- and some Indian adults from the surrounding area -- such things as sewing, nutrition, child care, sanitation, grooming and other useful but non-academic subjects.

--Sequoyah residential high school, Tahlequah, Okla., houses its 400 students in small residential units, instead of a large dormitory, to help students avoid the impersonality of a large dormitory and to find a small community or family of their own.

--Wingate residential high school at Fort Wingate, N.M., is using a flexible scheduling system within which each of its 1,000 students can find more independence and freedom to study what he needs. Wingate also has an intensified course in English as a second language.

--Pima Central school at Sacaton, Ariz., an elementary day school for 300 students, has begun a series of planned field trips to improve the motivation of its children. Intensive study precedes each trip, so students already have a good idea of what they will see and can refine their observations when they get there. A journey to a nearby canyon, for example, comes only after the students learn about the rock and rock layers visible there.

--Chemawa residential high school, Salem, Ore., this summer sent teams of five six teachers to visit students and their parents at their homes. Most of the Chemawa students come from Alaska. Purpose of the visits was to see how the children live, meet their parents, describe the school and its program, and thus help alleviate parental worry at sending their children away to school. Chemawa also provides a wide vocational education program, including a special course to train Eskimo students to become bush pilots.

--The Institute of American Indian Arts, a residential high school and post-high school at Santa Fe, N.M., this summer sent its drama and dance and music ensembles to centers of Indian concentration in Oregon and Washington, where they gave performances and help workshops to increase Indian pride and skill in their native arts.

Timber harvesting on Indian reservations set records during the 1967 calendar' year in terms of both cash and timber volume, a final tabulation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs shows.

Cash sales exceeded 900 million board-feet and provided gross receipts of $17.9 million. This compares with a total of 527 million board-feet and $10.7 million gross sales ten years ago, and about 802 million board-feet, with $15.4 million in cash sales for 1966, and 811 million board-feet and approximately $13 million in cash sales in 1965.

The 1967 sales provided an estimated 6,300 year-long jobs in the forest industries on or near Indian reservations.

Average stumpage price was $19.85 per thousand board-feet.

In addition, Indians cut over 93 million board-feet of timber for their own use, valued at $311,000, for house logs, corral poles, fencing, and fuel wood. Hogan logs on the Navajo Reservation, alone, account for about 1 million board-feet per year.

Over the past 50 years, 27.8 billion board-feet of timber, valued at $261 million has been harvested from Indian tribal and allotted lands.

The Indian owners are working closely with the Bureau to improve forestry practices in the harvest of the timber, including replanting of cut areas, and regulating the amount of the cut to insure their tribes a sound, economic base on which they can draw forever.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has announced the appointment of Henry B. Taliaferro, Jr., of Oklahoma, as an Associate Solicitor to head the Division of Indian Affairs in the Office of the Solicitor in Washington, D. C.

Taliaferro, 36, is a native of Shawnee, Okla., who graduated from high school in Oklahoma City and holds a bachelor of arts and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.

From August 1967 until recently, he was a staff member of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission). For about a year prior to that time, he organized, staffed and inaugurated a Neighborhood Legal Services program for Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, under a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity, heading a staff of 23 persons.

Taliaferro practiced law in Oklahoma City from 1956 to 1966, first as an associate and later as a partner, in the firm of Monnet, Hayes, Bullis, Grubb and Thompson, with experience in corporate and individual business counseling, considerable trial and appellate advocacy, oil and gas law, and probate and estate planning.

He is a member of phi Beta Kappa and served as managing editor of the Oklahoma Law Review. Active in civic work, he has held office with the Oklahoma Symphony Society, Travelers Aid Society, Oklahoma County Bar Association, Oklahoma Rehabilitation Association, State Mental Health Association, Rotary Club, and fraternal groups. He has been active also in Episcopal Church activities. He is married to the former Janet Stewart Myers, and they have three children.

I remember Winslow from my boyhood. It was a busy town in those days, a rail center for an otherwise remote part of Arizona. In more recent years, however, Winslow became one of the many communities throughout America adversely affected by the transportation revolution and other changing patterns in our national economy.

But Winslow is picking up momentum again, thanks to a progressive social and economic stance. This community has learned what some others have yet to learn: To survive and thrive in today's economy it is necessary to act in partnership with other communities, merge local and State efforts with Federal efforts, and move in new social directions.

Winslow took a long step forward when it helped establish a Job Corps Conservation Center here -- the first in the west, the second in the Nation. Coordination and cooperation between local citizens and the Center's administrators have made this Center a continuing success and I understand that the Corpsmen have had a part back-stage in making today's event run smoothly.

Today we are here to dedicate a million-dollar industrial plant that surely will bring lasting benefits to the economy of the Winslow area. This plant represents a venture into a new kind of neighborliness between the people of Winslow and the Hopi people whose reservation is nearby.

At a press conference in my office less than two years ago, the first formal announcement was made of the signing of the agreement between the Hopi tribe and the BVD Company's subsidiary, Western Superior Corporation, to open a new garment industry here in Winslow.

Mayor Tom Whipple was there, and I remember his comment that this was one of the biggest things that had happened to Winslow in a long, long time.

The Hopi leaders were there, too, and they told me they considered this joint economic undertaking a milestone in their history for it represented the initial step by the tribe to remold its economy into a modern cast.

As for myself, I consider the venture particularly significant because it shows the economic progress that can be made in a short period when the partnership approach is applied. The Hopi people and the people of Winslow became partners in formulating the basic plans which paved the way for a new industry to be located here. The business community joined forces with the Federal Government in attracting Western Superior to this area.

Land was set aside by the town for an industrial park, and a public-spirited developer in the community donated additional acreage. The Hopi tribe invested a sizeable percentage of its limited funds to build this plant, which will be leased to Western Superior. The Bureau of Indian Affairs provides on the-job training contracts--amounting to half the entry wages--for 13 weeks of training for each new Indian worker. Sixty Indians are now on the job and 200 or more will soon be on the payroll.

Meanwhile, the Hopis are taking another unprecedented step in the history 6f Indian affairs. They are now considering the possibility of issuing revenue bonds to finance a $2.25 million additional facility so that the industry may extend its operations and thereby provide jobs for hundreds more Indians.

Senator Carl Hayden's comment (Congressional Record, Sept. 16, 1968) epitomizes the importance of this entire industrial development endeavor. He said:

"It combines, first and foremost, a meaningful integration of red and white Americans, and, second, the integration of local and national economic interests."

The Federal Government's primary interest in this venture is that it means employment for a large number of Indians. Jobs for Indians--good jobs, steady jobs, jobs that have a future, jobs that lead to a new kind of family security-- this is the way out of the quagmire of poverty that has bogged down the Indian American for too long.

Indians are a very small minority among American minorities, numbering about 600,000 in all (according to the U.S. Census). But more than twenty-five percent of the reservation Indians live here in Arizona, and for this reason a considerable Federal effort is going into industrial, educational and community improvement programs for Indians in this State. About $52 million was expended by the Bureau of Indian Affairs alone for Arizona Indians during the fiscal year ended last June. Other agencies in the Federal Indian consortium--most notably PHS, OEO, and EDA--have contributed millions more for Indian aid.

Our concern is that Indians have not, in the past, enjoyed equality of opportunity. Their social exclusion is in large part due to economic exclusion. Industry has avoided Indian areas in planning for new sites. The employment markets for Indians have been narrow and the promise of future advancement severely limited.

But a new attitude has begun to surface in the business and industrial community, and it is typified by what is happening here in Winslow. Industry has at long last discovered that Indians are· quick to learn and .become able and loyal employees when treated with dignity by employers. Industry has also discovered that there is space for expansion in Indian country whereas space is at a premium in heavily industrialized regions.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs offers what we call a "one-stop service" to industry. It helps industry select suitable sites in Indian areas, assists in negotiations with tribal governing bodies, aids in finding capital (public and private) for the industry, assists in obtaining licenses and similar permits, helps recruit Indian employees, and provides on-the-job training contracts and employee relations assistance.

These are incentives which we hope will stimulate a full economic regeneration in Indian communities. More than 100 new industries, some of them with names that read like the WHO's WHO of American Business, have located in Indian population areas during the past three years. More and more Indian tribes are taking active part in regional planning and development programs, and this trend should stimulate still further commercial and industrial progress in the years immediately ahead.

During the 1970's, it has been forecast, our gross national product will have reached $1.2 trillion. Our farm population will be half what it is today. By the end of the decade more than half of all American families will be earning more than $10,000 per year.

The Indian American must not be excluded from his full share in the economic and social benefits that will be reaped from this national growth.

What the people of Winslow and the Hopi people have done here, together, is the beginning of a more equitable place in American life for the First Americans.

Owen D. Morken, 57, a native of Minnesota who has served in the Bureau of Indian Affairs almost 30 years, has been appointed Area Director for the Bureau at Minneapolis, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced.

Morken's appointment is effective October 6.

He succeeds Glenn R. Landb1Qom, who has been Area Director since January, 1966 and who will transfer to a position in the Division of Economic Development of the Bureau in Washington.

Born at Bemidji on February 24, 1911, Morken was graduated from Bemidji State College in May 1934 with a Bachelor of Education degree.

He was employed by the Minnesota State Highway Department from May, 1934 to January, 1939 and a month later began his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior, as a Civilian Conservation Corps superintendent at the Consolidated Chippewa Agency in Minnesota.

He served in progressively responsible positions in the Minneapolis, Phoenix, Navajo, and Aberdeen areas of the Bureau and became Area Director at Juneau, Alaska, in January, 1966. He was transferred to Washington in April, 1968 as an Assistant to the Commissioner in the capacity of an advisor on Alaskan affairs.

Morken is a widower.

He has one daughter and three grandchildren. The Minneapolis Area includes Indian communities with a Federal re1ationship in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

The award of a $3,386,999 contract for the construction of high school facilities at Sisseton, S.D., was announced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a two-story academic complex. this will include an administrative unit, general science laboratory, two biology laboratories, two home economics classrooms, a health room, and an instructional material center; a gymnasium with seating capacity for 3,000; and a kitchen-dining building with, shops and classrooms. Other work is to include site grading, heating, air-conditioning, utilities, extension of water and sewer facilities from the City of Sisseton; fencing, paving drives and parking areas and other related work.

When complete, the school will provide educational facilities for 660 students. The new plant will permit release of rented spaces in churches, stores, and assembly halls which are being used for classrooms and a library. The low successful bidder was Henry Carlson Co., of Sioux Falls, S.D. Two higher bids, for $3,468,400 and $3,547,200 were received.

About 1,000 teachers, from Bureau of Indian Affairs schools and from public and private schools attended by Indian students, are scheduled for intensive training in new teaching methods this summer, the Department of the Interior announced today. The program is being conducted for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by the University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Ariz., under a c $399,800 contract, financed with a part of a $9 million grant from the Department, of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Other programs being funded under the grant provide for cost-effectiveness studies of Bureau teaching and administration; training of BIA guidance counselors; teaching of English as a second language to Indian children; development of social and cultural understanding of and for Indian groups; and development of procedures and guidelines for Indian people to establish their own Boards of Education to take over operation of Indian schools under contract.

Working at institutes coordinated by Northern Arizona University, school administrators will study ways to improve the effectiveness of professional staff who have charge of teaching Indian youngsters.

About 1,000 participants from all over the country will be involved in a continuing program on four university campuses: Northern Arizona, South Dakota, Utah, and Central Washington. The interrelated programs are designed to provide both old and new members of the BIA education staff with the latest information on instructional techniques and analysis of Indian youth.

Typical areas that will be explored include the differences in language development in first and second languages. Example: Most Indians learn their native tongue first, then have a difficult time transferring Indian imagery concepts to the more exacting demands of English tense and gender. There will be strong recommendations for early childhood education.

Other areas include the relationship of health, family and cultural differences to the development of intelligence, and the importance of family, community leaders and home environment in the education of the Indian child.

Recognizing that the Indian child is strongly family-oriented, with Indian families working in close cooperation on the reservation, Bureau educators have been learning to bring the family into actual participation in schoolroom activities, from PTA work to direct involvement as dormitory advisors in Bureau boarding schools.

In addition to expanded instruction for educational personnel, the Bureau is seeking approval of the Civil Service Commission for establishment of rates of teacher pay that will provide additional compensation for graduate study credits and extra-duty assignments.

A new Instructional Service Center has been established in Brigham City, Utah, to direct a massive in-service training program for the education staff of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that Edgar L. Wight has been appointed director of the Center.

Wight has a background of educational experience that ranges from principal teacher in Alberta, Canada through a variety of Federal Government assignments, including a number with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also did a stint as training director for the Development and Resources Corporation, New York, in its Khuzistan Development Project in Iran on the Persian Gulf.

Because of the Bureau's increased tempo and accent on preschool and elementary education, thousands of BIA school administrators, teachers, guidance personnel and aides will be involved in a series of three and four week workshops. They will be trained in the latest and most successful instructional techniques and media in Indian education, Bennett said.

The program is being undertaken as a result of a recent agreement with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare that will provide the Bureau of Indian Affairs more than $9 million for such projects.

To be served are the education staffs of all 253 Bureau-operated schools, as well as extension of some services to public schools which educate Indian children.

The facility is located next to the Bureau's largest Indian school, Intermountain, at the south edge of Brigham City, Utah.

Wight has most recently served as BIA education assistant area director in Alaska, and on the central office staff in Washington, D.C.

The new director is a graduate of Brigham Young University, Utah State University and Calgary Normal School. He has taken advanced graduate study at Utah State.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today approval of a change in the Code of Federal Regulations regarding Indian college scholarships to conform to a new law recently signed by President Johnson.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said the new law eliminated a prohibition against Federal scholarships for Indian students at sectarian schools and the Code change carries out the intent of the law.

Other Federal college scholarship and loan programs do not differentiate between sectarian and non-sectarian schools, Bennett said. The bill changing the Indian scholarship provision, PL 90-280, was enacted March 30. The change becomes effective upon publication in the Federal Register.

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Chairman of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, announced at the Council's first meeting, July 16 that a commemorative stamp saluting the American Indian will be issued by the Post Office Department.

Humphrey said he was informed of the new issue by Postmaster General W. Marvin Watson who said first sales of the stamp are planned for October.

The 6-cent stamp will carry a portrait of Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce warrior who reluctantly fought U.S. troops in 1877 as the Indian wars entered the last tragic phase.

Basis for the stamp will be the portrait of Chief Joseph, painted by Cyrenius Hall in 1878 at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The canvas will hang in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., which will be formally dedicated October 5.

Historians of the Old West regard Chief Joseph as one of the greatest Indian war strategists and tribal leaders. Although his tribe had agreed to settle on a reservation, increasing white land hunger brought heavy pressures on the Nez Perce. Chief Joseph elected to lead his tribe east to join the Crows, then changed his plans and swerved northeast, with Canada the destination.

In the 1,700 mile zig-zag route which twice crossed the Rocky Mountains, he eluded U.S. troops when possible, fought them when necessary. Ironically, his party of about 300 braves and 400 women and children was captured 30 miles short of the Canadian border by forces commanded by General Nelson Miles.

Chief Joseph was born about 1840 and died on a reservation in Washington State in 1904.

The National Council on Indian Opportunity was created by President Lyndon B. Johnson's executive order in March. Designed to coordinate a national Indian program, the Council is made up of seven Cabinet officers and Office heads and six Indian leaders from across the Nation.