OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today that a completely updated "American Indian Calendar" is available for purchase from the Superintendent of Documents in Washington, D.C.

The Calendar, a much-requested booklet, lists important Indian events primarily in the 25 states where there are Indian areas with an official Federal relationship, gives information on pow-wows, rodeos, dances, religious observances, and arts and crafts exhibitions.

Typical listings include: June and July celebration of the Navajo Tribe's Centennial in Arizona and New Mexico; the Cherokee drama, “Unto These Hills," performed from June through Labor Day at Cherokee, N.C.; an August all-tribes pow-wow in Sheridan, Wyo., climaxed by the election of a new Miss Indian America; a Choctaw Indian Fair in mid-August at Philadelphia, Miss.; the late November wild rice harvest at Nett Lake Village, Minn.; the Creek Indian Stick Ball Game throughout the summer, near Holdenville, Okla., and the numerous Pueblo dances and observances throughout the year in New Mexico.

In announcing the booklet, the Bureau noted that many Indian observances depend upon seasonal activities and cannot be pinned down in advance to exact days. Tribal medicine men sometimes choose the day when portents seem best to them. Tourists are advised to check in advance with local Bureau offices and. chambers of commerce for specific dates.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett suggested that because of restrictions on foreign travel, many thousands of people this year will turn to Indian reservations for fishing and hunting, hiking and sight-seeing.

"In almost every case, visitors are welcomed by the Indian people," he said. "Each reservation has its own simple rules and they should be honored. The use of liquor is forbidden on most reservations, and the taking of pictures should be carefully checked with local authorities."

Pictures may not be taken of certain religious ceremonies, and it is advisable to ask permission before taking pictures of individuals.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' "American Indian Calendar" is priced at 30¢ and may be obtained by writing the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today the release of a new, updated booklet, "Answers to Your Questions about American Indians."

Earlier editions have been popular with persons interested in the American Indian. The questions answered are chosen from the many thousands directed to the Bureau during the past years.

According to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett, the answers to some of the questions will startle those with preconceived ideas about Indians and their status in this country.

"For example," said Bennett, "many people don't realize that Indians are citizens of the United States, have the same rights, and pay the same applicable taxes that everyone else does. They vote, serve their military obligation, and may drink liquor except, perhaps, in their own communities where the tribe has control of such things."

Other items: Indians do not have to live on reservations, although more than 300,000 out of a 552,000 total (1960 Census figures) do so. In fact, the Bureau has a continuing program of technical education and assimilation that includes voluntary movement of Indians to the big cities to work as qualified mechanics, secretaries, service men, laborers, and white collar workers.

There was never a written Indian language before the corning of the white man, and today there are possibly 100 different Indian tongues.

Since 1854, Bureau policy has given employment preference to persons of one-fourth or more Indian blood; more than half of the 16,000 Bureau of Indian Affairs employees are of Indian ancestry.

Another frequently asked question about Indians concerns the country's 290 Indian land areas under Federal jurisdiction. Only 25 states have federally related Indian reservations, most of them in the West. The booklet identifies reservations as land set aside for specific Indian use through treaties, Congressional acts, executive orders, and agreements.

Indian land has become big business, according to the publication. The tribes lease mineral rights, farming and ranching acres, conduct their own logging operations, and have set out to bring industrial firms to their areas, thereby getting employment for Indians and profiting from the lease arrangements involved.

There are over 50 million acres held in trust by the Department of the Interior for Indian use; 39 million of this is for the tribes and 11 million for individual Indians. An additional 5 million acres of Government-owned land is administered by the Bureau for Indian use.

Reservations range in size from California mini-acre rancherias to the vast Navajo Reservation of 14 million acres sprawling across northern Arizona into New Mexico and Utah.

To the question, "Can Indians live off the fruits of their lands?" the booklet gives a qualified answer. A few Indian areas have enough resources to support their Indian residents, but most reservations are facing a rapidly growing population explosion, expanding at a rate equivalent to 2 to lover the non-Indian areas of the country.

Where there is income, the funds generally go into the tribal treasury for improvements that may include better housing, roads, education and law and order.

Bennett noted that another common misconception cleared up by the new publication is that Indians are not getting the same help that the urban poor receive.

"Actually," he said, "the War on Poverty is welcomed by most Indians and has been markedly successful. The Office of Economic Opportunity, for example, funded $32 million for Indian programs in fiscal 1967, with the greater amount going toward easing the problems of poor health, inadequate education, unemployment and substandard housing."

Head Start prepares the Indian child with important pre-school learning experiences (for many Indians, English is a second language and lack of knowledge of it prevents their moving ahead in English-speaking schools), as well as medical and dental attention and proper nutritional care.

Indian job programs, including a unique family program that involves the entire family as a unit, are becoming models for similar work with the urban poor. Under the plan, the father is taught a trade or skill, the youngsters go to school and receive specialized instruction if necessary, while the mother is prepared to take care of a modern home, evaluate prices, do the shopping.

"Answers to Your Questions" also deals with Indian schools and health services, Indian charity and interest groups; contains a bibliography on Indians, lists of publications dealing with Indians, and locations of famous Indian museums.

The booklet is available at 25¢ a copy from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, by sending a check or money order. A 25 percent discount is allowed on quantity orders of 100 or more if mailed to one address.

Two contracts totaling $3.7 million for Indian family residential training programs in California and New Mexico have been renewed for 1968, Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian of Affairs, announced.

The two programs, operated at deactivated Air Force bases, give Indians the academic, vocational and urban life training they need to live and work effectively in modern society, Bennett said.

Families in the programs live in what was base housing. Single persons live in dormitories. Both take an active part in the life of the community; children are enrolled in local schools.

One contract, for $2 million, is with the Thioko1 Chemical Corp., Ogden, Utah, which operates the Training Center at Roswell, N.M.; and the other, for $1.7 million, is with the Philco-Ford Corp., which runs the Training Center at Madera, Calif. Total enrollment at both centers is 115 families and 315 single persons.

"These concentrated, individualized programs can help Indians overcome several educational and social handicaps in relatively short periods of time," Bennett said, "and help them become not only self-sufficient as wage earners but self-respecting as independent and contributing members of society."

A new "exemplary" Indian school, set up to pioneer new teaching techniques; will open this fall at Concho, Okla., Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.

The 256 pupil boarding school, to be operated.in a new $2.5 million building complex, will be used to develop new educational method's' to overcome the cultural and linguistic differences which often handicap Indian children in a traditional learning experience, Bennett said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has entered into a contract with Southwestern State College at nearby Weatherford, Okla., to provide consulting services to devise, test and evaluate new educational techniques under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The exemplary program, Bennett said, 'will continue the thrust of our present day educational planning, which seeks to emphasize the variety of experience and background that make up the American population, and the fact that the many Indian cultures in our land can and should make a contribution to our society. At the same time his own culture can provide the Indian student with the sense of personal identification and belonging so necessary for emotional growth and learning."

Southwestern State College has had considerable experience training teachers for public schools in western Oklahoma which have large Indian enrollments, Bennett said, and "it is enthusiastic about exploring these new means for breaking down the barriers which have slowed Indian learning, and creating new ways to prepare the Indian student for a productive and self-sustaining life in American society." The inquiry process which stresses thinking through a problem, rather than memorizing answers to the teachers' questions, will be stressed throughout the school's program, he said.

Part of the exemplary program will be a low pupil-staff ratio, a strong guidance program and the use by students of many of the college facilities. Both Southwestern staff and students will be working "seven days a week" with the Concho School students and staff, Bennett said.

The Concho School complex will contain 10 classrooms, special subject rooms for music, practical arts, home economics, multi-purpose activities and a kitchen and dining room in addition to administrative office and two dormitories, each housing 128 pupils.

“In this exemplary school we recognize that only through the development of the most effective educational tools and concepts will we be able to give Indian children the education they must have to live of their own choosing in 20th century America,” Bennett said.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today a Washington exhibit of a series of 17 Indian dance paintings by Phyllis H. Kellar of Lead, S.D., and Santa Fe, N.M., together with a display of turn-of the-century photographs, reproduced from original. "negatives" so old they are printed on glass slides.

The showing will be free to the public in the lobby of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., Monday through Friday, May 20 through June 7, except for the Memorial Day holiday.

The paintings by Mrs. Kellar include authentic portrayals of dances by the Zuni, Hopi, Sioux, Mohawk, Iroquois and other tribes, and feature the hoop, buffalo, scalp and other traditional dances of the various tribes.

Mrs. Kellar paints many subjects using varied media, but has primarily dedicated herself to the portrayal of Indian culture. Five years ago she began preliminary research and sketches, working closely with the National Museum of History and the Bureau of Ethnology, and drawing from National Geographic and American Heritage research sources.

During the past three winter seasons, at her studio in Santa Fe, she put on canvas the result of her personal observations of the dances, together with the background she had gathered. The work is a continuing one and will include other tribal groups in addition to the Sioux, Five Nations and Southwest Indians included in the present exhibit.

The glass-slide collection which will be shown as a complement to the colorful paintings, was recently discovered among old Department of the Interior files and was turned over to the Smithsonian Institute for identification. Labeled, "Indian Faces; Turn of the Century," the photographs include portraits of Indian chiefs, braves, women and children, as well as graphic portrayals of Indian life.

This will be the first time that either exhibit has been shown to the general public.

The Education Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of four special conferences this summer to orient field personnel to recent developments in teaching American Indian children in BIA schools, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today.

"The Bureau is striving to keep its education personnel updated on the latest information available on teaching and working with Indian children," Bennett said. "Through these conferences, teachers, administrators, even dormitory representatives will be exposed to the newest education principles and current philosophies and practices in the teaching of the Indian student."

Conference sites include Jamestown College, Jamestown, N.D., July 8-10; University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., July 24-26; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., August 5-7, and Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., August 21-23.

The BIA educators will be assigned in groups of 35 to the conference schools.

The program will include reports and studies of the Bureau's new kindergarten program; ways in which to strengthen the current Head Start program, and explanation of the functions of the Pupil Personnel Services of the Bureau, a program which includes providing more teachers with specialized training for Indian schools.

Bureau education directors in various areas plan to invite representatives from the Division of Indian Health, Tribal Council members, Head Start and Community Action Program workers and other community resources specialists, in addition to regular Bureau education personnel.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Owen D. Morken, Area Director based in Juneau, Alaska, will be reassigned to Washington, D.C., as Special Assistant to the Commissioner" for Alaskan Activities.

Charles A. Richmond, Superintendent of the Bethel, Alaska, Agency, will be promoted to be Juneau Area Director, Bennett said. The changes become effective on April 7.

Morken, 57 has been Area Director since 1965. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps program in 1939 and served in progressively more responsible positions in Minnesota, the Southwest and the Plains States. He was Assistant Area Director at Aberdeen, S.D., before going to Alaska.

A native of Brainerd, Minn., Morken was graduated from Bemidji, Minn., State College.

Richmond, 42, was born in Huntington, N. Y., and received a bachelor's degree from West Texas State University. He joined the Bureau as a teacher at the Unalakleet, Alaska, and school in 1954 and assumed progressively more responsible teaching positions. He became Superintendent of the Bethel Agency in 1966.

A veteran of Navy service in World War II and the Korean conflict, Richmond has received two Interior Department Outstanding Performance awards.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that a new outdoor furniture plant to employee up to 300 workers will be established on the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona by Prest Wheel, Inc., of South Grafton, Mass.

Bennett said the firm will be located in an existing industrial building which the firm will purchase from the Economic Development Administration. Area Indians will be given on-the-job training to qualify for jobs in the new plant, he said.

"I note with real pride," Bennett said, "that these plans have been completed in less than four months from Prest Wheel's initial contact by our Industrial Development office. This new facility and its welcome employment potential is an indication of real cooperation between company officials, tribal leaders, EDA, 'and the Bureau of Indian Affairs."

The plant is expected to begin operations in September, Bennett said, with an initial employment of 125, which should grow to 300. Most employees will be Indians from the area, which includes members of the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Navajo, and Hopi tribes.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, today announced that Leonard M. Hill, Area Director for the Sacramento ' Area, has been reassigned as Special Field Representatives for the Southwestern United States.

Hill will be succeeded in the California assignment by William E. Finale, now serving as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Community Services. The reassignments are to become effective April 7. As Special Field Representative Hill will assist Indian groups in making plans and surveys for community development projects.

A native of Ashton, Idaho, Hill, 59, is a veteran of more than 30 years of Government service, including 16 years as Sacramento Area Director. He joined the Department of Agriculture as a clerk in 1935, transferring to the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation in 1946 and to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an economist in 1950.

Hill has a Bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Idaho and a Master's degree in economics from State College of Washington now Washington State University. He served as a, naval officer in World War II.

Finale, 43, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Political Science from Western Reserve University. He joined the Department of the Interior in 1951 as an education and training specialist with the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a program officer in 1961.

Finale also served as a naval officer in World War II.

Although credit is more and more essential for the Indian individual or tribe as emerging economic units, the Bureau of Indian Affairs revolving fund for Indian loans was $18.5 million short of demands upon it during fiscal 1967, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reported today.

The revolving fund for Indian loans was first authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, to total $10 million. The authorization was increased by several legislative acts between 1936 and 1967 until nearly $25 million was appropriated, and all this was loaned. The revolving fund is now being operated entirely with repayments on loans previously made and interest payments.

Although loan commitments are made and applications are authorized on a fiscal year basis, all commitments are made subject to the availability of funds. During fiscal 1967, Indians given expectations of loans to the extent of $18.5 million were disappointed when the funds failed to materialize under the authorization and appropriation limitations.

Requests for financing pending last June 30 totaled $743.5 million. These must be investigated to determine whether the proposals are economically sound and whether other sources of financing are available. In addition, various tribes made requests for loans totaling $84 million for tribal land purchases during fiscal 1967.

A survey conducted by the Civil Works Administration about the time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed -- nearly 35 years ago -- showed an Indian credit need of $65 million.

The Commissioner's announcement came with release of the "Annual Credit Report -- 1967" of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Economic Development, which contains credit data for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1967.

"The revolving fund is woefully short of the amount needed to enable the Indians to participate more fully in American social, economic, educational, and political life and permit them to exercise greater initiative and self-determination," said Commissioner Bennett.

The Commissioner pointed out that an Indian Development Loan Authority would be authorized by the proposed Indian Resources Development Act now before the Congress. Said he:

"The main feature of the Indian Resources Development Act is that it authorizes the appropriation of $500 million, not more than $100 million in the first five years after enactment, for an Indian loan guaranty and insurance fund and for a direct loan revolving fund.

"The loan Guaranty and insurance fund will be used to guarantee not more than 90 percent of anyone loan or to insure repayment of 15 percent of aggregate loans made by one lender. Direct loans will be made from the revolving fund to Indians who cannot obtain commercial loans either with or without a guaranty."

Tribes and other Indian organizations that have available funds on deposit in the United States Treasury or elsewhere are required to use their own money before applying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a loan. Some tribes operate credit and financing programs entirely with tribal funds. Others use their own money to the extent available, and supplement their funds with those borrowed from the United States.

At the close of 1967, tribes were using a total of $81.74 million of their own money for credit and financing. Customary lenders, both private and governmental, supplied $183.44 million. These lenders include banks, the Farmers Home Administration, savings and loan associations, and so forth.