OPA

Five Bureau of Indian Affairs offices have been presented awards for rescue and supply operations following the December snow and rain storms in the Southwest, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Receiving the unit awards for excellence of service were staffs of the Navajo and Phoenix Area Offices and of the Hopi, Fort Apache and Papago Agencies, all headquartered in Arizona.

"These employees worked long and hard hours, sometimes at risk of their lives, to seek out and rescue those trapped by the storms and to bring food to isolated people and animals," Udall said.

"It would be as impossible to exaggerate the dedication and energies of these people as it would be to estimate the scope of the disaster their timely actions averted," he said.

The Navajo and Hopi areas were covered by snowfalls which ranged from 18 to 40 inches. During emergency rescue and supply operations more than One million pounds of food and hundreds of tons of hay and fuel were distributed by air and surface operations.

Bureau personnel worked to obtain and direct snow removal equipment and rescue planes and vehicles coordinated and guided rescue efforts and provided assistance to more than 22,000 students and school staffs sheltered in Bureau boarding schools.

Bureau personnel at the Fort Apache Agency coordinated several successful rescue missions for persons trapped by heavy snows in the rugged mountain areas of the reservation. One was a daring helicopter flight at treetop level to rescue the watchman at a logging camp 45 miles from the nearest town. Icing conditions forced the helicopter to the treetop level as it flew through narrow canyons.

In the Papago area more than seven inches of rain caused considerable flooding and the collapse of many adobe homes. Papago Agency employees organized many rescue operations and provided six emergency shelters for the 500 Indians made homeless by the storm.

The staff of the Phoenix Area office worked a round-the-clock logistical operation to maintain food and hay supplies for emergency flights, to brief military flight crews, to coordinate incoming supplies of clothing and other materials, and to receive and relay radio, telephone and telegraph messages from all over the distressed area.

“All of these activities reflect a devotion to duty that represents the highest standards in those whose careers are in service to their Nation," Udall said.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported today that 119 Indian children were placed for adoption during 1967 through the Indian Adoption Project. The program is sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America.

The number of children placed in 1967 almost doubled that of the previous year and compares with a total of 400 children placed during the nine years of the cooperative project program.

"Because of the isolation of Indian reservations, there previously had been long delays in finding the proper home for Indian children,” said Bennett. Nationwide Indian Adoption Project contacts have cut the time" children have had to face in prolonged care in foster homes or institutions, and provided permanent homes much sooner. “

Children placed through IAP came mostly from 12 states, with the leaders being Arizona 41, South Dakota 24, Washington 13, California 12, and Wisconsin 10.

These children were placed in adoptive homes in 25 states. Massachusetts led in total placement with 16, followed by Indiana with 14, Illinois and New York with 13 each, New Jersey 11, and Pennsylvania 10.

According to Bennett, the success of the Project has encouraged the New York-based Child Welfare League of America to establish a new agency, the Adoption Resource Exchange of North America (ARENA).

This agency will serve both Indian and non-Indian children and prospective adoptive families in Canada as well as the United States. Children for whom adoptive families are not available in their home states, and families who want to adopt these children, will be referred to the wider area that ARENA embraces.

The Indian Adoption Project will continue to function in this country as part of ARENA.

Fourteen final awards totaling almost $33 million were granted 11 American Indian groups by judgments of the Indian/Claims Commission during 1967, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

In addition, six other Indian groups were given awards in 1965 and 1967 totaling another $21,363,355.33, but these have not become final because of appeal or other legal actions.

Congress has appropriated funds for $15.3 million of the total granted. The appropriated funds earn interest for the tribes involved, while awaiting Congressional action and final disbursement.

The Indian Claims Commission was established in 1946 as an independent tribunal by Act of Congress. It hears and determines the claims of tribes, bands and other identifiable groups of American Indians living in the United States. In 1967 its membership was expanded from three to five.

Veteran members of the Commission are William M. Holt and T. Harold Scott. In December 1967, three vacancies were filled with the appointment of John T. Vance, Richard W. Yarborough, and Jerome K. Kuykendall.

As of January 1, 1968, the Commission had granted 100 awards totaling more than $225,420,000. Of a total of 586 dockets filed, approximately 242 or two-fifths, have been completed.

Most of the Indian claims filed with the Commission are for fair value of Indian lands ceded to the United States or taken by the Government in the past. Increasingly the funds received through judgments are now being invested by the tribes for projects to improve the social and economic conditions of the Indian people.

Typical projects include: Scholarships for the education of Indian youth; social services for reservation dwellers; construction of community centers and funding of community development projects; and tribal enterprises including recreational tourism development, industrial parks and other projects calculated to bring new sources of income and employment to the tribe.

Awards granted in 1965 by the Indian Claims Commission and regarded as final included:

Awards granted during 1965 and 1967 but not final pending appeal or other action:

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that a special scroll will be presented Mrs. Frank Stranahan of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in recognition of her many accomplishments in bettering Seminole Indian relations.

Secretary Udall said the press of government business will prevent both him and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett from being present when Mrs. Stranahan is honored during the Drake College Commencement on February 18, 1968.

Therefore, he has asked that Superintendent Eugene W. Barrett of the Seminole Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Dania, Fla., present the scroll.

Mrs. Stranahan was the first white teacher of the Seminole Indians in the Broward County area. She instilled in the Indians a love of country and was untiring in her efforts for more than 30 years to bring the three R's to Seminole children and through them to their parents.

It is good to be back in Alaska where I spent three of the most memorable and worthwhile years of my life: worthwhile because the experience of working for and with the native peoples of this State gave me new and deeper insight into the nature of cultural differences among American peoples; and memorable because, as you know, this land of the frozen tundra can warm your heart while almost freezing your marrow.

Alaska is a land where physical challenges give emphasis to the needs of the mind and spirit. Alaska is, therefore, a land where teachers belong, where teachers are needed, where teachers can and do bear profound influence on the lives of the young native people.

And so I feel honored to be amongst this dedicated assemblage of teachers serving the native peoples of Alaska, and I am deeply grateful to you for the devotion, the tenderness and the toughness you muster daily for your chosen work.

I also commend you for the focus this conference places upon the special educational needs of children whose backgrounds differ from the dominant culture of our country. This is a subject of concern to the Nation as a whole, because adjustment problems of the ethnically and culturally "different" are now affecting our social structure.

To the Bureau of Indian Affairs above all, it is important that we learn how to ease cultural transitions -- for all the people we serve are people at such a crossroads.

We are all here as individuals involved personally in the education of the Indian, Eskimo and Aleut children of Alaska. Let us, then make the very most of this time together by directing our attention to fundamental matters. Let us talk policies, programs and principles. Let us determine our direction. Let us make this conference a source of continuing inspiration even after the talking is done and we have returned to our posts to resume the daily patterns of our work.

But before we can discuss programs or principles, it is necessary that we are clear in our minds about matters of basic policy.

A fundamental policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for several years has been that of cooperation with State and local public school agencies to facilitate the transfer of Indian children to public schools.

Today about two-thirds of all Indian children are in public schools. From these figures it is quite evident that the policy is being pursued. However, we are confident that, in its pursuit, we are avoiding any precipitous actions that would result in lowering educational opportunity for Indian, Eskimo and Aleut children.

­­When school districts are ready, and when the native people involved are also ready, then the Bureau is ready to put the policy into effect. But there is no intention of reducing BIA's services before equivalent or better services are available.

The situation in Alaska is no different from our policy elsewhere.

I know the subject has been a matter of some speculation and apprehension among some village communities, particularly in the more remote areas.

The mutually agreed upon policy of the State of Alaska and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is outlined in the revised Governor's report entitled AN OVERALL EDUCATION PIAN FOR RURAL AIASKA, issued in 1966. As this report indicates, the Bureau of Indian Affairs operates in partnership with the State of Alaska.

It is recognized by both governmental levels that the responsibility for the education of native students rests with the State, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to operate schools and education programs where the State cannot presently assume its full responsibility.

The State plan provides for the orderly transfer of Bureau schools to non-Federal operation under the principle of mutual readiness on the part of the community, the State and then We are currently operating about 80 schools in Alaska, including the two boarding schools, Wrangell Institute and Mt. Edgecumbe; and we have transferred educational responsibility in about 60 other places.

The Bureau’s most conspicuous and unique service is to the native villages, widely scattered throughout wilderness areas.

The Federal Government is pledged to assuring these village people that services to them will continue without interruption and without reduction of standards. Indeed, it is our goal that we raise the quality of these schools to new levels, so that they will be proud showcases, both for BIA and for the State.

This brings me to the second point I wish to discuss -- the matter of what we mean by quality education and how it can be achieved and maintained even in the two-or three-teacher school, removed from the more usual cultural influences.

A big part of quality in education requires adequate financial resources, and the Congress has been increasingly liberal with appropriations for Indian education.

This has enabled us to build schools where none existed before, and to replace schools that were relics of a dismal past.

We have developed libraries of books and libraries of visual teaching aids.

We have raised the recruiting standards for teachers.

We have introduced new programs at all grade levels, but most particularly at the upper secondary and postsecondary levels, where arts and technologies are now being offered to our young people.

We have a nationwide net of adult vocational training and job placement services -- and, in Alaska, the proof is in the high wage employment of many skilled native technicians in military and other Government installations.

But lest it seem that I am saying all is well, let me hasten to add: All we have been doing is running fast to make up for long years of neglect. We are still losing the nationwide race to provide quality education and equality of opportunity for our children.

New avenues have opened up in the last year or two, and we can now plan more systematically for the kind of quality we seek.

For preschoolers, teen agers and elder citizens, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 has made it possible to launch special education and training pro­grams that are essential to the quality package.

The U.S. Office of Education, through its administration of many new Federal education aid laws, has made possible most of the experimentation, research, curriculum development, teacher training, and "hardware" and "software" purchases that we have needed for so long and are now commencing.

One of the big new efforts will be development of special materials and programs for teaching English as a second language to Indian, Eskimo and Aleut children. Techniques have been perfected to teach English to foreigners; it is equally important that we meet the special needs of our own youthful citizens of differing cultural backgrounds.

Another big effort will be the training of teachers who speak some of the native languages. Navajo is probably to be one of the prime targets of the huge Navajo-speaking population (about one-sixth of all native populations).

Other-in-service teacher training plans call for broadening of specialized institutes such as' those financed under the National Defense Education Act of 1958; special pre-training for new teachers; and possibly a schedule of sabbaticals or similar leave periods to permit teachers to undertake further training at our expense.

Salaries, we know, are still not competitive with some public school systems, and the 12 month year is a handicap to our teachers and so we are negotiating now with the Civil Service Commission to try to make some adjustments.

Last, but not least, we have entered into the development of special curriculums to meet the unique needs of children facing the cultural transition in school. We will be relying increasingly upon the classroom teachers in our schools -- the men and women on the front lines -- to provide advice and assistance.

With regard to Alaska in particular, the same general plans apply. In some respects, there is already more evidence of new developments here than in most other parts of the country. We have built about 35 new schools in the past few years and have made improvements in many others. All schools are being equipped with the kinds of equipment and materials necessary for teachers to use their skills to best advantage.

The State of Alaska itself is already leading in training for teachers, through its program at the University in cooperation with the Ford Foundation; and is also a leader in developing teacher aide programs to provide trained local help to teachers in native communities. The BIA actively cooperates in both efforts.

All of these are signals that "quality education" is more than just a phrase. We are striving for an exemplary school system, one that can serve as a model in educating the culturally different and the economically deprived child.

But money can't buy it all the way. The single most important ingredient of quality education is teacher-student-rapport. The classroom must be a physically comfortable place, but it should be more, too -- it should be a comforting place where conflicting cultures synthesize rather than polarize.

This reads to my third point: the importance of the classroom teacher in shaping the philosophical principles for our education program.

A school system is built of teachers. We are dependent upon you to help uncover the missing clue to success in bridging the culture gap so that our children will flourish, not wilt, in the halls of learning.

We ask you to be creative and innovative -- to be cognizant in all ways of the acute needs of children facing a cultural transition.

I would like to quote a man who has been one of the country's most forceful voices in focusing attention on the culture gap that is creating social havoc today. James Farmer, director of the Center for Community Action Education, recently told a national conference of State educators:

­­ "A teacher can be effective in teaching the disadvantaged only when he believes they can be taught, and believes in them -- not in a romantic way, ascribing to all of them all of the virtues and none of the vices of man, but in the realistic sense that there is among them a reservoir of submerged intelligence, talent, and ability, the discovery of which is an exciting adventure, worthy of the best in any teacher."

And Congressman Henry Gonzalez of Texas, in an article published by the AFL-CIO FEDERATIONIST last August, comments on the educational needs of Spanish-speaking Americans, as follows:

"I do not believe that it is the place of the schools to force a choice of cultures on children or suppress their native heritage ••••• Great injury is done whenever this is attempted ••••• I believe the schools must make an effort to capitalize on the special talents and attributes of the Spanish-surnamed American. This will make his education meaningful and 'will do more than any­thing else to help him realize his full potential; His special educational problems need to be solved and his assets refined •••••”

The problems created by ethnic differences -- for Negroes, for Spanish-Americans or for Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts -- frequently converge in the classroom and in daily life. There is the common tendency of the "culturally different" to look backward into their heritage and to lean heavily upon it.

This is probably truest and deepest among Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts. They are bound by cultural restraints that are all too often interpreted as manifestations of intellectual limitations, when, in truth, they are instinctive attempts to preserve their own identities. They are too frequently forced to choose between the two cultures, and rarely assisted in melding the best of both.

The native groups in this country -- both in the lower Forty-Eight and in Alaska -- are rooted in a way of life that was fully responsive to nature. Their view of nature is a spiritual one. Their economic order, therefore, was traditionally one of subsistence, not accumulation -- and this attitude frequently carries over to the present day.

Along with these basic constraints, the concepts of time and work differ from those of the Euro-American. As a matter of fact, it is believed that no tribal language had a word which described the idea of time. Work was regarded as a necessary interruption to leisure, as contrasted with our view of leisure as a reward for work.

The puritan may recoil from such concepts, but there is no place for puritanism among those who are serving Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts.

This is not to say that the values of the dominant culture have no applicability to people of other cultures. They do have great applicability, and the better this is understood by the culturally different the sooner they will emerge into fuller participation in all aspects of American life.

Part of the task of the teacher in the small community school should therefore be to encourage parental involvement in school affairs. I myself am continually urging Indian parents to take an active interest in their school -­not in a meddlesome way, but in an inquiring and helpful way. Parental attitudes, as you know, are often reflected in the students' attitudes toward education,

The teacher can help stimulate parental interest by giving due honor to the cultural influences of the child's home life; and by aiding the child to understand that the purpose of education is to help them relate what they learn at home to what they learn at school.

And so the task of the teacher becomes one of selectively mixing new and old ideas in rich proportions to sweeten the taste of transition.

This is your challenge, as teachers of the native children of Alaska. You must often proceed intuitively because there is little if any methodology upon which to draw.

But it is at least possible to draw upon the generic meaning of the word “education” – to lead each child by own special light to the threshold of intellectual and practical understanding of himself and the world around him.

The responsibility you have willingly assumed merits our profound respect. I salute you, the teacher of BIA, who are carrying the lamp of learning to the top of the world.

Although many eastern Indian tribes are now decimated or dispersed, they left a rich legacy for the people who followed. So says an illustrated 28-page booklet, "Indians of the Eastern Seaboard,” just issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The booklet is the latest in a popular series of publications about the first inhabitants of what is now the United States. It describes relationships between the Indians and the Pilgrims, the Jamestown colonists, and the Florida missionaries, and the influence this interplay had on the Nation.

The booklet describes, state by state, Indians of the past and present. Bureau of Indian Affairs services are extended now to only three tribes in the area. They are the Cherokees of North Carolina 'and the Seminoles and Miccosukees - (a branch of the Seminoles) - in Florida.

But Indian groups and Indian individuals still live along the Eastern seaboard, or left a still obvious heritage before moving West or to Canada. This new booklet tells where they are today.

"Indians of the Eastern Seaboard" is the 14th booklet in, the series on Indians of various regions.

Other titles in the series are: "Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska"; "Indians of Arizona"; "Indians of California"; "Indians of the Central Plains"; "Indians of the Dakotas"; "Indians of the Great Lakes Area"; "Indians of the Gulf Coast States"; "Indians of Montana, Wyoming"; “Indians of New Mexico"; "Indians of North Carolina"; "Indians of the Northwest"; "Indians of Oklahoma"; and "Indians of the Lower Plateau."

Each is available at 15 cents a copy from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D C. 20402. A 25 percent discount is allowed on quantity orders of 100 or more, if mailed to one address.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel, on behalf of President Richard Nixon, today announced the nomination of the following:

Hollis M. Dole, 54, of Portland, Oregon, to be Assistant Secretary for Mineral Resources;

Dr. Leslie L. Glasgow, 54, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to be Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks and Marine Resources; and

Charles H. Meacham, 43, of Juneau, Alaska, to be Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife.

Also appointed today by Secretary Hickel were:

Charles G. Carothers III, 40, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, to be Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife;

Gene P. Morrell, 36, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mineral Resources;

Alex Troffey, 48, of New York and California, as Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Information;

Donald D. Dunlop, 46, of Norman, Oklahoma, as Assistant to the Secretary and Science Adviser; and

Delbert L. Klaus, 43, of Alexandria, Virginia, as Assistant to the Secretary for Federal-State Relations.

Dole has been Director of the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources for the State of Oregon for the past 13 .years and in the mining field in the Pacific Northwest since 1933. He began with the Department in Oregon in 1946 as a field geologist and has served under five governors.

Dole was formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey in Arizona, the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Oregon, and with mining companies in Oregon and California. He has been an adjunct professor of geology at Portland State College and formerly a graduate instructor at the University of Utah. Dole earned his master’s degree in geology at Oregon State University and attended graduate schools at U.C.L.A. and the University of Utah. He is a native of Paonia, Colorado.

Dr.Glasgow teaching for the past 20 years in the fields of fisheries, wildlife and forestry. He has been Professor of Wildlife Management at Louisiana State University for 18 years. In 1966 he became Director of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.

Dr.Glasgow spent 18 years in research on wildlife wetlands management at the LSU Agricultural experiment Stations and was formerly a waterfowl biologist in the Indiana Conservation Department, He was winner of the Governor I s Award of the Louisiana Wildlife Feder1ition in 1967.

A native of Jay County, Indiana, he was graduated from Purdue University in' wildlife' and forestry, -obtained his master's degree in wildlife at the University of Maine, and his doctorate in wildlife management at Texas A&M University.

Meacham, formerly Director of International Fisheries for the Governor of Alaska, has been in fish and wildlife research and management for 20 years. He spent six years in biological work with the California Department of Fish and Game before joining the Alaska Department of Fisheries in 1956. Following Statehood, he was appointed a Regional Supervisor in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, with responsibility for commercial fisheries management and research.

Meacham has been an advisor to the Commissioners of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission, a member of the U.S. Fishing Industry Advisory Committee of the Department of State, an advisor to the Alaska Commissioners of the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission, and has been Alaska's senior member of the Alaska-Japan Fisheries Panel and Joint Research Venture. He is a native of California and a wildlife management graduate of Utah State University.

Carothers, formerly with the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, has been active in the Northeast in conservation work and is nationally recognized in the field of waterfowl conservation.

He has been an officer of Massachusetts Conservation, Inc. and its predecessor organization since 1953, a former director of the Massachusetts Wildlife Federation, Inc., and a member of the Executive Committee of Ducks Unlimited, Inc. of Chicago. Carothers is a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Wesleyan University, Connecticut.

Morrell, born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, has been in private law practice there since 1964 and previously was an attorney and geologist for the Gilmer Oil Company of Ardmore.

He is a geology graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he also received his law degree. Morrell was elected to the Ardmore City Commission in 1966 and as vice-mayor of Ardmore in 1968. A former director of the Lincoln Bank and Trust Company, he served on the 1968 campaign staff of Senator Henry Bellman of Oklahoma.

Troffey, a public relations consultant, was recently with Wolcott, Carlson & Company, Inc. of New York City. He was formerly public relations director for United Press International and public relations coordinator for Kaiser Industries Corporation.

During the 1968 and 1960 presidential campaigns, he was on the communications, staff of President Nixon. A former newspaperman on the West Coast, he is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

Dunlop was recently president of Creative Enterprises International, a management consulting firm, and president of Production Research Corporation, both of Norman. He is a former engineer with Tennessee Eastman Corp, Kingport, Tennessee; Esso Research and Engineering Co,, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Oil Recovery Corp. of Tulsa.

A graduate in chemical engineering of the University of Texas, he obtained his master's degree at Texas A&M University. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma Management School and is the holder of many U.S. patents in the chemical engineering field,

Klaus formerly was administrative assistant to Representative James A. McClure of Idaho. A native of Idaho, he served as public information director of the Idaho Department of Highways and as athletic department business manager for the University of Idaho, where he was graduated, He was formerly with Atkinson-Jones Construction Company and Kaiser Engineers.

Award of a $1,140,230 contract for construction of school facilities at Porcupine, S. D., located 26 miles northeast of Pine Ridge, S. D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that the construction, when complete, will provide classrooms adequate for a total enrollment of 330 elementary school children.

The facilities will include an instructional materials center, administrative offices, multipurpose-kitchen, a pump house building and quarters.

Other work will include site grading, utilities, sewage lagoons, drives, curbs and gutters, streets, walks and other related work.

The successful bidder was R & S Construction Co., of Rapid City, S. D. Eight higher bids, ranging up to $1,320,000, were received.

Sarah Ann Johnson, Miss Indian America XIV, will visit Washington March 3 through 7 for a round of meetings with Congressmen, Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials, and Indian leaders.

She will fly to New York March 7 for radio and TV appearances, to attend a coffee Friday morning given by the Girl Scouts of America Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett and Indian leaders will be a guest at a luncheon Friday given by industrialists who have plants on or near Indian lands.

Miss Johnson, 19, and a full-blood Navajo, was selected Miss Indian America during the annual "All American Indian Days" Pow-Wow held in Sheridan, Wyo., in August.

Indians from tribes all over the country go to Sheridan for four days of dances and displays of arts and crafts, with the pow-wow culminating each year in the selection of Miss Indian America.

Sarah Ann is typical of many of today's young Indians, steeped in the ways of her tribe and honoring its customs, while at the same time taking part in the non-Indian world around her. Born in Pinon, Ariz., she has eight brothers and sisters, and recently graduated from Winslow, Ariz., High School. She was the first Indian girl varsity cheerleader, vice president of Nurses of Tomorrow, and secretary of the Girls Athletic Association.

Between appearances at numerous conventions, fairs and pow-wows a Miss Indian America is expected to attend, she has been employed as a secretary in the tribal land investigation department at Window Rock, Ariz., the Navajo tribal headquarters.

The selection of Miss Johnson as Miss Indian America this year has special significance for the Navajo Tribe as this is the Centennial Year of the tribe's treaty with the United States.

Miss Johnson plans to continue college education after her reign, and eventually become a teacher and possibly teach in the same classrooms where she began her education.

The New York luncheon will have as honor guests Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, and Commissioner Bennett.

William W. Keeler, president of Phillips Petroleum Co., and principal chief of the Cherokee tribe, will be master of ceremonies.

The luncheon is being given by executives whose firms are established on Indian lands, to acquaint invited representatives of other interested companies of Indian workers' potential.

Miss Johnson will leave New York over the weekend to make appearances in Chicago and Cleveland during travel shows there.

The National Council on Indian Opportunity will hold its first meeting Tuesday afternoon in Washington.

Vice President Hubert HQ Humphrey, Chairman of the Council established by executive order of President Johnson on March 6, announced today plans for the meeting. Establishment of the Council was announced in the President's unprecedented message to the Congress regarding Indian Americans. The Council was to have held its first meeting on June 5 in Albuquerque but the plans were cancelled due to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

The Council will assemble in the Treaty Room of the Executive Office Building at 2 p.m. July 16. The Council consists of five Indian leaders and one Alaska Native appointed by President Johnson, six members of the cabinet, and the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity.

The Indian and Alaska members are: Wendell Chino, President of the National Congress of American Indians and Chairman of the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council, Mescalero, N.M; Cato Valandra, Treasurer of the National Congress of American Indians and President of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council, Rosebud, S.D.; Roger Jourdain, Chairman of the State Indian Affairs Commission for the State of Minnesota and Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Red Lake, Minn.; Raymond Nakai, Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, Window Rock, Arizona; Mrs. LaDonna Harris, an Oklahoma Comanche, first president of Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity and director of the Indian Peace Corps training program and William Hensley, an Eskimo member of the Alaska Legislature, Kotzebue, Alaska.

The cabinet members serving on the council are Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, Secretary of Commerce Cyrus RQ Smith, Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Wilbur R. Cohen, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Robert CQ Weaver and Acting Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity Bertrand M. Harding.