OPA

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today plans for establishment of an Educational Cultural Center for Alaskan Native students between the ages of 17 and 20 in cooperation with the University of Alaska.

Udall said the signing of an agreement with the University of Alaska by the Bureau of Indian Affairs brought to successful culmination negotiations which began on June 4, 1968.

The Secretary had directed that steps be taken looking to establishment of such a center following a report to him on April 1, 1968 by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, based on personal observations of four members during a trip to Alaska, which included this statement:

"The Board found that education which gives the Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut knowledge of--and therefore pride in--their historic and cultural heritage is almost non-existent, either in BIA or in State public schools in Alaska."

The agreement between BIA and the University of Alaska calls for preparation by the University by July 1 of a preliminary proposal for developing a model for an educational cultural center for Alaskan Native students.

It is hoped that at least a pilot program of instruction may get underway by next September. A budget of $50,000 for the 1969 calendar year is to be funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The University will appoint a full-time project director to develop the curriculum and methods of teaching, staff requirements, facility needs, counseling services, student eligibility standards and selection procedures, and so forth. The director also will develop a proposed operating budget for at least three years.

The proposal states that the aim will be to develop an exciting and totally new concept for the education of the native people of Alaska, using as a basis an arts centered curriculum.

"The Center would be an innovative institution where selected high school native students will have an opportunity to complete their high school education and learn to become contributing members of society, drawing from their own heritage for strength, and utilizing it in devel­oping the skills and knowledge necessary to participate fully in today’s society," the agreement adds.

It is pointed out that the proposed center would be another benchmark in efforts to implement programs called for by President Johnson in his unprecedented message to the Congress last year on the plight of the American Indians and Alaska Natives.

In discussing the objectives, the agreement says:

"The development by the University of Alaska of a model for an

Educational Cultural Center for the Alaska Natives would unite the forces of the Federal government, the University of Alaska, the State Department of Education, and the greater Indian community in one concen­trated inter-institutional offensive against existing educational, economic, cultural, and social problems confronting Alaskan students today. The approach will be to help the Natives identify themselves through the cultural arts so that they can successfully complete their education and take their full place in the world.

"The program to be developed will be based on a curriculum designed to meet the unique needs of the Native students of Alaska. The program will give the Native students’ knowledge of their historic and cultural heritage and will attempt to develop in the students pride in their cultural heritage in order to help them develop a positive self-image. It is felt that a well-defined interpretation of their heritage will assist the Alaska Native youths to attain the security necessary to become contribut­ing members of today's society.

"Specialized techniques for assisting the Native students of Alaska to enter contemporary society with dignity and confidence will be developed. It is believed that by linking the best in native culture to contemporary life, the Alaskan Natives will find adjusting to today's society much easier."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today a new edition of its popular, "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 Indians having a service relationship with the Federal Government, giving information on pow-wows, rodeos, dances, religious observances, and arts and crafts exhibitions.

Typical entries include the Southern Ute Bear Dance at Ignacio, Colo., in May; the Custer Reenactment at Crow Agency, Mont., in late June; the July 4th Swinomish Reservation Festival at LaConner, Wash.; All-American Indian Days, the first week-end in August at Sheridan, Wyo., the Climax of which is the selection of Miss Indian America; the World Eskimo Olympics held in Fairbanks, Alaska in early August; the mid-August Intertribal Indian Ceremonial at Gallup, N.M., and the Navajo Tribal Fair at Window Rock, Ariz., in early September.

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 choose the day when portents seem best to them. It is suggested that tourists check in advance with tribes, local Bureau offices and chambers of commerce for specific dates.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett pointed out that some Indian reservations have some of the best fishing, hunting, hiking and sight-seeing areas in the country.

"Indian areas are often less crowded than national parks and similar facilities," he pointed out, at the same time cautioning that Indian land sometimes doesn't have modern facilities and vacationers who don't have full camping equipment should plan to stay in towns outside the reservations unless they arrange ahead for accommodations in the Indian areas.

"Visitors are welcomed by most Indian people," he said. "Each reservation has its own simple rules and they should be observed. The use of liquor is forbidden on most reservations, and the taking of pictures should be 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 45¢ and may be obtained by writing for Number I20.2:C12/2/969, the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced award of a contract for $1,098,491.74 to provide for bituminous surfacing of 11.28 miles of road on the Navajo Indian Reservation, from Indian Service Route 12 to Washington Pass, via Crystal, N.M.

This project is the first half of an eventual all-weather road from Crystal through Washington Pass to Sheep Springs, N.M., on U.S. Highway 666.

The successful low bid was submitted by Nielsons, Inc., of Dolores, Colo. Eight other bids were submitted, ranging from $1,199,481.91 to a high of $1,496,646.90.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian. Affairs, announced today that Wallace E. Galluzzi has been named Superintendent of Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kan.

Haskell is a post high school vocational training school for Indians. Galluzzi was principal at the Institute and has been acting superintendent the past two months since the former 3uperintendent, Thomas Tommaney, became assistant area director for education at Muskogee, Okla.

Galluzzi, a native of Brockway, Pa., is a graduate of State Teachers College, Slippery Rock, Pa., and holds a master's degree from Northern State Teachers College, Aberdeen, S.D. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior in 1949 as a teacher at Standing Rock Agency, N.D. He served in positions of increasing responsibility as a teacher and education specialist before being named principal at Haskell in 1963.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced the appointment of Howard E. Euneau, a program staff officer in the Interior Department's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, as Superintendent of the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota.

Euneau, 45, was born on the Turtle Mountain Reservation at Belcourt, N.D., and is a member of the Chippewa Tribe. He received a B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of North Dakota in 1949 and prior to that served in the Army during World War II.

Before joining the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in 1959, he was a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, entering BIA service in 1951 as an appointment clerk in the Aberdeen Area Office.

During service with Commercial Fisheries, Euneau served as manager of St. Paul Island, Alaska, and received a quality increase for superior performances for his contribution to the development of self-sufficiency among the Aleut people on the Island.

Euneau is married and has two children. His appointment is effective November 17.

The Center for Arts of Indian America is presenting its Fourth Invitational Exhibit of Indian Arts and Crafts in the Gallery of the Department of the Interior, 18th and C Streets, N.W., in Washington, D. C.

Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, executive director of the Center, said more than 40 Indian tribes and Alaska Native groups are represented, including Eskimo, Spokane, Cherokee, Navajo, Delaware, and numerous Pueblo tribes.

The exhibit is open free to the public, through December 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, exception holidays.

Prizes have been awarded in various categories, and many of the exhibits are offered for sale -- available in time for those who want to buy with Christmas-giving in mind. Prices range from $10 for small jewelry, pottery and basket pieces, to $3,000 for Yeffe Kimball's (Osage) "Apollo Wing" of aluminum.

The grand prize of $300 went to George Morrison (Chippewa) of Providence, R. I., for a collage of driftwood, entitled "New England Landscape II".

First prize in painting was given Patrick Swazo Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo), Berkeley, Calif., for an oil and acrylic, "From the Earth We Came"; first in Graphic Arts to Frank La Pena (Wintun), San Francisco, Calif., for an untitled lithograph.

Tony Sandoval (Navajo), Santa Fe, N. M., won first, second and third prizes for his sculptures, his wrought-in-metal "Plains Dancer" winning the first prize.

In basketry, Eva Wolfe (Cherokee), Cherokee, N. C., was awarded first prize for a river cane basket; in jewelry, Roger Tsabetsaye (Zuni) of Zuni, N. M., was first with a turquoise and shell ring; and Marie Z. Chino (Acoma), San Fidel, N. M., was first with a clay pottery design of a canteen.

First prize in textile design went to a Bureau of Indian Affairs arts and crafts specialist, and designer of the current exhibit, Edna H. Massey (Cherokee), Washington, D. C., for a silkscreen-on-linen design of Indian birds. A first prize in carving was awarded Lawney Reyes (Colville), Seattle, Washington, "Owl Dance $1."

Three leases covering approximately 120 acres of the Seminole Indian reservation in Florida under which Joseph L. Antonucci, mobile home manufacturer and trailer park operator, will establish both a plant site and trailer park were signed here today.

The leases between the Seminole Nation of Hollywood, Fla. and Antonucci were formalized in a ceremony at offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They call for an initial payment to the tribe of $70,000 for the first year, and escalations in succeeding years, including tribal participation in the profits in the future.

Participating in the ceremony were Antonucci and members of his firm; T. W. Taylor, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and Seminole representatives Bettie Mae Jumper, Chairman of the tribal council, and Joe Dan Osceola, a council member.

Immediate construction plans call for the building of a 55,000 square foot plant for the manufacture of mobile homes and the stocking of spare parts.

According to Bureau officials, members of the Seminole Tribe will be employed in the operation, whenever possible.

Antonucci, who has been identified with trailer parks and mobile home manufacture both in Florida and in Chicago, visualizes production on the Hollywood Reservation as running to 12 units per day, with a cost per unit ranging between $4,000 and $7,000.

Market for the units at the outset will be in the local Florida area.

The results of a cultural exchange of high school students as far apart as Alaska and Arizona, have turned out to be a happy success.

At the suggestion of a group of Navajo Indian high school students, selected student volunteer from Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska, High School exchanged classes at the beginning of the school year with their opposite numbers from two Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools in Arizona. The three schools are boarding schools to serve children from isolated homes in Alaska and in Navajo land.

The idea, first advanced by the students and Allen D. Yazzie, Chairman of the Navajo Education Committee, at a Navajo Youth conference held at Many Farms. Ariz., last year, was enthusiastica11y supported by both groups: the Eskimos, Aleuts and Tlingits of Alaska, and the Navajos of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Conference is an annual affair sponsored by the Education Committee of the Navajo Tribal Council, made up of Navajo high school and college students attending Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, as well as public and private schools and colleges.

The four students who regularly would attend Mt. Edgecumbe are Margaret Prokopiof, from St" Paul Island, and Effie Vent, from Huslia, both seniors, and Harry Mandregan, St. George Island, and James Shanigan, Pilot Point, both juniors.

The exchange group from the two Arizona schools consists of Marie Holliday, senior from Blanding, Utah, Patrick Platero, sophomore, Holbrook, Ariz., and Melvin Bigthumb, sophomore, Ft. Defiance, Ariz. Marie and Melvin re9ul.arly attend Fort Wingate High School, Window Rock, Ariz.; Patrick attends Holbrook High School in Holbrook, Ariz.

The Arizona boys both say that they like the idea of the Mt. Edgecumbe exchange, reporting that academic standards are similar to those of their regular southwestern schools.

Marie is enthusiastic in her praise of Alaska, a state she has always wanted to see.

According to Yazzie, Navajo youngsters understand the necessity of working within the framework of the BIA schools in order to concentrate on correction of language deficiencies, and similar programs not usually offered in other schools.

"But at the same time," he points out, "it is equally important that they be exposed to the attitudes and interests of other tribes."

After the volunteers have been away from their home territory for one year, they will return to their regular schools and graduate with their class.

Business, industry, and Government in the Washington, D.C., area now have a convenient source of Indian skill, talent and labor, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs said, in announcing the opening of a Field Employment Assistance Office, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs building, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW.

This is the eighth such "Indian Employment Agency" to be run by the Bureau, the Commissioner pointed out. The others operate in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Oakland-San Francisco, and San Jose, Calif.

The Washington, D.C., office is headed by Mary Ellen Rawley, until recently director of the Seattle, Wash., Orientation Center, a Halfway House conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts of Alaska relocating to the "lower 48."

Any Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut on or near a reservation or trust land may request the help of the Bureau in finding a job in Washington, D.C. and relocating here, Miss Rawley said. An Indian who relocates ordinarily does so because the economic base of his reservation is too small or too poor to provide sufficient new job opportunities; or because of interest in a field not available locally.

The Employment Assistance Office gets details of possible jobs from a prospective employer. It attempts to have interviews available for a specific Indian applicant before he arrives in Washington, D.C.

The Indian jobseeker makes his wish to leave his reservation known to his local Bureau of Indian Affairs agency. He is counseled on possible vocations to enter and suitable geographic locations available. Those who specifically request Washington, D.C., may be attracted by the type of work here or personal factors, Miss Rawley said.

The Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut may come to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area by automobile, bus, train, or airplane.

In any case, he is met by a member of the staff of the Employment Assistance office and taken to temporary housing.

Orientation is conducted by the Employment Assistance office before and after the relocate is placed in a job. The Bureau of Indian Affairs makes an effort to see that the newcomer has found permanent housing as attractive as he can afford, knows the fundamentals of budgeting a paycheck, has met a minister of his church, and located a suitable school if children are involved. Counseling to ease the transition from the previous rural environment to urban living is available.

Since the Washington, D.C. Employment Assistance office was opened in mid-summer, 31 Indian, Eskimo and Aleut jobseekers have been placed, Miss Rawley said. Among other employers, they are now working for the Department of State, Department of Defense, Indian Claims Commission, Philco-Ford Corp., U.S. Public Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, FBI, Giant Food Corp., the Girl Scouts of America, Smithsonian Institution, and the Department of the Interior.

Prospective employers who wish to consider "hiring Indian" are urged to get in touch with the Washington, D.C. Employment Assistance office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs by calling Mary Ellen Rawley, 343-3331.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced issuance of a new publication of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board which he said gives added dimension to understanding of the unique contribution of the Institute of American Indian Arts.

The cultural heritages of over 80 different Native American groups are being creatively explored today by more than 350 artistically talented Indian, Eskimo and Aleut youth at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico," Secretary Udall said.

The booklet is entitled, "Institute of American Indian Arts."

Founded in 1962 and operated by Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Institute of American Indian Arts is a national training program in virtually every art form, l tailored to meet the special educational needs of artistically gifted Indian, Eskimo and Aleut youth throughout the United States.

To bring the Institute's program and the achievement of its unique student body to the attention of the general public, the publication has been specially compiled by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, an advisory agency headed by five Commissioners appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.

Containing a foreword by Vincent Price, Chairman of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, the publication features an important article, "Cultural Difference as the Basis for Creative Education," by Lloyd New, Director of the Institute, who also serves as a Commissioner of the Board.

Citing the far-reaching accomplishments of the educational programs of the Institute, not in its sixth year of operation, Mr. New states in his 'article, "We have found that by stressing cultural roots as a basis for creative expression and by offering a wide range of media in which to work, Indian students can be inspired to new personal strengths in dimensions heretofore unrealized."

Featuring over BO reproductions, an illustrated section of the publication is devoted to Institute students and their works, highlighting all phases of the diversified training and experience in the arts offered by the Institute, 'from painting, sculpture and the crafts to creative writing, the dance and dramatic productions.

Copies of the booklet, "Institute of American Indian Arts, issued in the Board's Native American Arts series of special titles, are available for 65¢ each from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.