OPA

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today called for a ten-year plan "to raise the standard of living on Indian reservations above the poverty line."

In a memorandum transmitted through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to reservation superintendents and other top administrators of the Bureau, the Secretary restated the goals of manpower and resource development on reservations that have characterized the Department's administration during the past three years.

October 1, 1964, was set as the deadline for submission of reports by Bureau officials spelling out ways and means to institute a ten-year plan, and outlining needs on each of the 300 reservations under the Bureau's trusteeship.

Calling for the "best, boldest and most imaginative thinking" on the part of Bureau officials, the Secretary listed the following five factors to be considered in preparation of reports on reservation needs:

"1. New ideas for state or Federal programs or laws that would help raise the level of economic opportunity at Indian reservations.

"2. New program efforts that might be financed by outside capital provided from invested savings or by income from the tribe.

"3. Identification of the probable amount and probable time of receipt of any forthcoming judgment funds or large oil or mineral royalties, with indications of present plans of affected tribes for use and investment of such funds.

"4. A conservative estimate of the probable costs of each new program, aside from expected expansion of existing, ongoing programs.

“5. Projection of probable population changes in the ten-year period ahead.”

Each of these five points reflects the tenor of Bureau programs since 1961, when a Task Force on Indian Affairs, appointed by Secretary Udall, called for action leading to economic self-sufficiency for reservation Indians and full participation in American life.

The Bureau's programs are currently focusing on two interrelated objectives: education and vocational training, and economic development.

Programs and services instituted or expanded since 1961 include the following: Low-cost housing (in cooperation with the Public Housing Administration) and tribal housing projects improved real estate appraisal services to assure fair value to tribes and individuals in sale and lease of lands; economic feasibility surveys to determine industrial and business potential on reservations; school construction to provide sufficient classrooms for all Indian children who have no access to public schools; relocation, vocational training and job placement for adults; and industrial development on reservations (resulting in the establishment thus far of 40 small private manufacturing plants on or near reservations).

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today released details on 14 Job Corps camps for more than 1,300 men which are to be activated in the early fall. The camps are in national parks, wildlife refuges, on reclamation projects and Indian reservations, and other public lands administered by Interior. Decision to open the camps was announced August 15 by President Johnson. Eight additional camps will be operated by the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Each camp, Secretary Udall said, will originally take about 100 men of the Job Corps, and a few of them will gradually be built up to handle 200. In getting the program started, existing facilities are being used to the fullest extent possible, he added.

The 14 sites selected for early use are in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Men will start arriving at the camps in October, Secretary Udall said, and will immediately begin their combined program of work and education.

Secretary Udall explained that Interior's Job Corps camps will be located on public lands managed by the Department. Administration of the camp8 will be handled by bureaus of the Department with the education and welfare programs for the men being drawn up and overseen by the new Office of Economic Opportunity, which the President has announced will be headed by Peace Corps Director R. Sargent Shriver.

The work program at each camp will include a wide variety of conservation projects--providing more outdoor recreation facilities, reforestation and timber stand improvement, wildlife habitat development, stream clearance, and others.

"There is no 'made work' here," Secretary Udall stressed. "The work that the Job Corps will do will help us catch up on a backlog of much-needed conservation work that has been piling up for nearly three decades, while at the same time--and more importantly--thousands of young men will be gaining new skills and new confidence in their ability to become full participants in the bounty of this Nation."

"Each of these camps will also be a great community asset. Local payrolls and expenditures will amount to more than one-half million dollars the first year," Secretary Udall said. "By the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1965, Interior will open more than 75 camps in about 30 States."

Following is a brief description of each of the 14 camps selected for activation on early this fall:

ARIZONA

Winslow Base. This camp is designed for 300 enrollees and is located on the Navajo Reservation eight miles from the town of Winslow in Navajo County. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has facilities available at this site. The enrollees at this camp will be involved in streambank protection and stabilizations, channel erosion control, fencing, brush control, windbreak and shelter" belt planting, and road improvement. They will also assist in community improvements for schools and community centers, recreation development programs at Canyon Diablo and Grand Falls and in the rejuvenation of prehistoric ruins. CALIFORNIA

Lewistown Facilities are available for 200 enrollees at this site in Trinity County one mile south of Lewistown and about 35 miles from Redding. This camp is located on Bureau of Reclamation land. The enrollees will assist in roadside fire hazard reduction in the Trinity Lake area and the construction of campgrounds and picnic areas. In addition to these projects, the enrollees will be engaged in making property line surveys, assisting in helistop construction, fuel break construction, recreation and administrative road construction and rehabilitation and construction of trails.

Ryan

This camp site, on National Park Service land, is 14 miles from Death Valley National Monument in Inyo County. The 100 enrollees will be given the opportunity to work in many phases of wildlife and land management including development of game watering holes, game management and protection, and erosion control; conservation, preservation and interpretation of natural features, including fencing, walks, trails, exhibits and displays

Toyon.

Most of the necessary facilities for 100 enrollees are available at this camp site on Bureau of Reclamation lands. It is 13 miles from Redding in Shasta County. This area provides tremendous opportunity for conservation work--wildlife habitat improvement, timber stand improvement, timber planting and seeding and trail rehabilitation and construction. In addition, the enrollees will construct campground and picnic areas and timber access roads. Major projects the enrollees will assist in will be the ShastaKeswick Erosion Control Project, and roadside fire hazard reduction in the Shasta Lake area.

Legislative authority for sustained yield management of Indian forest lands and more judicious procedures for sale of Indian timber are incorporated in proposed regulations announced today by the Department of the Interior. The changes would conform to Public Law 88-301, enacted April 30, 1964.

The sustained-yield principle involves the harvesting of timber in line with replacement growth rates so that the forest resources are conserved, maintained, and improved. The proposed provisions would broaden the concept of management on tribal land to include modern si1vicu1tura1 practices for harvesting other than mature and dead timber to accentuate the growth and increase values of the residual stand.

The proposed rules would also simplify procedures governing sale of timber from individually owned allotted land, and place foremost as objectives the needs and best interests of the Indian owner and his heirs. Factors to be weighed .nc1ude the state of growth of the timber, the need for maintaining and increasing productive capacity of the land, the advisability of diverting land use to other than growing timber, and the present and future financial needs of the owner and his heirs.

Other proposed amendments to the regulations are also directed toward timber sales on allotted Indian lands. They would grant the Secretary of the Interior the following authority: to approve the sale of timber from allotted lands without the consent of the owners where such action is necessary to prevent loss of values resulting from fires, insects, disease, windthrow, and other natural catastrophes; to permit the sale of timber with the consent of a majority of Indian interest instead of the total interest; to act for persons Who cannot be located after a reasonable and diligent search; and to protect the interests of persons whose ownership in a decedent's estate has not been determined and for minors and others who are incompetent by reason of mental incapacity.

The proposed rule changes would also grant authority to the Secretary to handle the sale of timber in the inseparable undivided interests in allotments which are sometimes inherited by non-Indians. With the consent of such unrestricted interests they may now be included in timber sales along with the restricted Indian interests.

The full text of the proposed regulations is being published in the Eedera1 Register. Interested persons may submit written comments, suggestions, or objections to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 20240, within thirty days of the date of publication.

This is a proud and happy day for the Nez Perce Indians and for their many non-Indian neighbors and friends as well. This new community at Lapwai which we are dedicating today and the one dedicated at Kamiah yesterday could not have been built without the dual effort of the Tribe and the Federal Government. Tribal funds and Federal funds through the Accelerated Public Works program--have been pooled to erect two structures that symbolize the growing spirit of community action among the Nez Perce Tribe.

We are gathered here today for a dedication ceremony. But the real dedication of these two buildings will be by the men, women, young people, and children who will use them in the years ahead. We know the new centers will be used for many purposes--for athletic games and exhibitions, for banquets and dances, for tribal meetings and lectures, for concerts and exhibits--and for other similar occasions signaling the community spirit of the people.

Community centers, such as this beautiful building at Lapwai, and its companion building at Kamiah, also on this Reservation, are monuments to a war on poverty. They help combat poverty of spirit because they bring people together to exchange ideas and share experiences.

The building of community centers is an important part of the total Bureau effort to combat Indian poverty and help the Indian people attain in full the experience of participating citizenship. There are 64 such structures built" enlarged, or renovated on reservations in the last two years with Bureau aid. Another 18 have been built or are being built with loans or grants under APW. Some are multipurpose buildings with gymnasium, auditorium, and kitchen. Others are more modest. But all of them reflect the felt needs of the people for a place to come together.

Some important discussions have been held in community centers--discussions that have led to changes in education programs, to creation of new business and industry, to improvements in management of natural resources. Community centers can be, and have been, strategy planning sites for the war on Indian poverty.

As you know, we in the present administration in Washington, first under President Kennedy and now under President Johnson, have been striving the last three years to raise the economic level of life on the Indian reservations. This has involved us in many programs to develop for income or for jobs the natural resources of the reservations--their fields, their forests, their mineral deposits, and even their beauty and scenery for the attraction of tourists.

But we nearly always find that we cannot get very far in this direction without encountering the problem of first developing the human resources of the reservations--their men, women, and children. That is why more than half the generous appropriations which Congress has been giving us the past few years is devoted to education.

Money, even though schools, cannot, however, accomplish everything. We need on the Indian reservations, among the Indian people, themselves, I believe, a still greater concern by adults for both the opportunities and responsibilities of young people. We need to find new ways to reduce the number of dropouts from school and to lessen juvenile delinquency. We need to encourage young people to do the best they are capable of, and to discourage them from the idleness that too often breeds violence and lawlessness. It is to this important end that the two new community centers may make their most vital contribution.

Of all the Indian people, the Nez Perce have the finest precedent for giving first thought to the welfare of their children. You may remember that when Chief Joseph and his valiant band were finally hunted down and surrounded by General Miles' troops, the chiefs held a council to decide whether they should surrender. Several of the chiefs wanted to fight on. But Joseph pointed to the starving women and children in the shelter pits and to the babies that were crying around them.

"For myself I do not care," he said. "It is for them I am going to surrender."

In the spirit of Chief Joseph, these buildings might well be dedicated to community concern for the growth in body and mind of the present generation of Nez Perce children.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today authorized release by the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation of its report recommending that federally controlled recreation lands at Allegheny Reservoir (Kinzua Dam) in western Pennsylvania be administered by the Forest Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Secretary Udall has sent copies of the report to Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara for review and comment.

The Bureau report also recommends preparation of an overall master recreation plan for the lands associated with the reservoir in Pennsylvania and New York, and formation of an advisory council composed of Federal agencies, the Seneca Nation, the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and three affected counties.

Allegheny Reservoir, now under construction by the Army Corps of Engineers, will inundate a maximum of 21,175 acres of land in New York and Pennsylvania. The summer pool will have a surface of 12,050 acres, a length of 27 miles, and a shoreline of approximately 90 miles. Seventy percent of the shoreline will be in Pennsylvania.

The reservoir lies in a scenic mountain setting where extensive public and private outdoor recreation facilities are already established. The population within 125 miles of the reservoir is approximately 11 million, more than nine million of whom reside in urban areas. Population of the area is expected to double by the year 2000.

To date, several Federal and State agencies, the Seneca Nation, and private individuals have prepared plans for the area, but no master recreation plan for the reservoir and its zone of impact has been developed.

"Orderly development of the reservoir area for public recreation use is of major importance to millions of citizens," Secretary Udall stated. "An overall plan should consider existing and planned developments of Federal, State, and local agencies and private endeavor, as well as the plans of the Seneca Nation."

Secretary Udall pointed out that Kinzua Dam will be finished in about six months. "Since recreation use of the reservoir and the surrounding area will accelerate quickly once the dam is completed, it is important to resolve the problem of administration immediately," the Secretary stated.

This conference is auspicious for more reasons than one. It has brought together the key field personnel of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and officials of several other Federal agencies that are involved in President Johnson's War on Poverty.

We have had the good fortune to have with us the Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, Assistant Secretaries John A. Carver, Jr., and John M. Kelly, Public Housing Commissioner Marie c. McGuire, Area Redevelopment Administrator William L. Batt, Jr., Dr. E. S. Rabeau, Deputy Chief, Indian Health Division of the Public Health Service, and Don Carmichael of the President's Task Force on the War on Poverty.

This roster of names and titles is indicative of the tempo of the times and the tone of this conference. This is the second gathering of the Bureau and field staffs since 1961 and that meeting, in Denver, was the first since 1938. It set perhaps a new precedent in Federal-Indian affairs.

In the past three years many changes have been made in the administration of Indian affairs. The changes reflect new approaches to help the Indian people obtain the education and economic self-sufficiency that will give them full status as participating citizens of this country.

The changes are marked in particular in the area of vocational training, industrial development of reservations, and improved community services. Shifting emphasis is apparent in policy and in personnel throughout the Bureau of Indian Affairs. More than one-half of all the reservation superintendents and nearly all area directors have new assignments.

We have had more than two years to work at the economic development program and now the time has come to examine the record for that period. Now the time has come to regroup our forces on our own war on poverty as we become part of the major War on Poverty declared by this Administration. The Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe is an appropriate locale for our conference because this school has moved ahead swiftly in the past two years. Opened in 1962, it has achieved a reputation among its students and prospective students--and among the general public--as a good basic high school and as an excellent vocational institute for the fine and applied arts.

Its art program attracted the attention of Mrs. Stewart Udall, and it was largely through her enthusiasm and efforts that an exhibit of American Indian student art is now being shown in the Department of the Interior in Washington. Public interest in Indian Affairs has been stimulated by this exhibit which nearly 2,000 people have already visited.

I hope that all the superintendents here this week will visit the classes and students and workshops at this Institute. You are the people who initially selected the students as candidates. It is important that you witness its impact on its students who are learning a new appreciation of Indian culture while they are being trained realistically for the world of work.

Education and vocational training are the underpinnings of all the Bureau's present policies, but in order to achieve our still unmet needs in education we must continue to examine all aspects of our youth resource picture.

Let me summarize now.

Three years ago we were organizing to carry forward the recommendation of Secretary Udall's Task Force on Indian Affairs. Since that time we have, I am convinced, made real progress, particularly on the bedrock issues of Indian education and vocational training.

Here are a few statistics: Total school enrollment of Indian children, to 18 years old, in public, Bureau, and mission and other private schools, rose from 112,746 in 1961 to 121,236 in 1963. In the same period the number of Indian young people attending colleges, universities, and post-high school vocational schools increased from 4,884 in 1961 to 5,431 in 1963.

Similarly, our vocational training program has climbed steadily, fiscal year 1964 showing an enrollment of 4,500, including youth and adults.

Along with stepped-up education programs, new housing programs for Indians have been launched with the help of the Public Housing Administration. Increased health protection through programs of the United States Public Health Service have paralleled education and housing improvements.

But the hard core of our Indians' problem--unemployment--persists. There is no need for me to describe to this audience the poverty which still exists on many Indian reservations. The combination of a growing population and a fixed base of economic resources often makes it extremely difficult to lift per capita income.

Unemployment problems, are not, however, exclusively Indian. We find them today in the half-deserted coal mining towns of Appalachia, in some of the once prospering farming communities of the West, and in Negro sections of both Southern and Northern cities. These are places which, for one reason or another, have been tragically bypassed in America's recent march forward to a higher standard of living.

The Department of the Interior announced today that Kenneth K. Crites has been appointed superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Mt. Edgecumbe School at Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska, effective August 30. He succeeds Robin Dean, who retired recently.

Mr. Crites began his service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1938 as a teacher at the Wahpeton, North Dakota, and Indian School. He held positions of progressive responsibility at the Rosebud Indian School in South Dakota, Shiprock school in New Mexico, and the Chinle (Arizona) Boarding School, and in 1952 Was made assistant area director of schools at the Bureau's Juneau Area Office.

A native of Buckhannon, West Virginia, Mr. Crites received his bachelor's degree in Education from Salem College, Salem, West Virginia in 1938, and did graduate work at George Washington University in Washington, D. C., during 1937-38.

OLSON APPOINTED UNITED PUEBLOS AGENCY SUPERINTENDENT IN NEW MEXICO Appointment of Walter O. Olson as superintendent of the United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, N. M., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He succeeds Guy C. Williams, a Federal career employee, who is retiring.

Olson has been tribal operations officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Area Office at Phoenix, Ariz., the past year. He joined the Bureau in June 1940 as a trainee in the Southwest field training program under a Rockefeller Foundation grant, National Institute of Public Affairs. In 1941 he was named assistant superintendent, United Pueblos Agency at Albuquerque.

After two years of military service, Olson returned to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1946 as assistant superintendent of the Zuni Agency in New Mexico, and two years later was named associate area director of the Window Rock Area Office in Arizona. His service with the Bureau was again interrupted in 1952 by an l8-month assignment with the Technical Cooperation Administration as deputy assistant administrator for the Near East and Africa.

Olson returned to the Bureau in December 1953, first as superintendent of the Mescalero Agency in New Mexico, and later as assistant area director of the Gallup, N. M., area office.

A native of St. Anthony, Idaho, Olson holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Idaho.

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of two road construction contracts in South Dakota by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to replace existing reservation roads to be inundated by Oahe Dam Reservoir on the Missouri River.

Totaling $477,387, the contracts are part of the Bureau's diversified rehabi1itation program designed to alleviate distress to area residents of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations of South Dakota as the reservoir project advances.

A $247,369 contract for Standing Rock provides for 10.9 miles of grading and gravel surfacing on the Fort Yates-Kene1 Road, in Carson County, South Dakota.

The successful bidder was Archie Campbell Inc., Hew Rockford, North Dakota. Fifteen other bids were received ranging to $333,790.

A $230,018 Cheyenne River contract covers grading and gravel surfacing on 14.7 miles of the Whitehorse-Promise Road in Dewey County, South Dakota. This new road will provide year-round travel to marketing centers, access for tourists, and better mail and school bus services. The contract was awarded to Brezina Construction Company, Inc., Rapid City, South Dakota. Seven bids were received ranging to $271,715.

When Congress authorized the acquisition of Indian lands and other properties for the Oahe Project, it resulted in the reestablishment of 200 families and loss of 117,000 acres of land at Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and the relocation of 190 families and loss of some 55,000 acres at Standing Rock Reservation. In addition, the tribes will lose an approximate combined total of 160,400 acres to be covered by waters of the Oahe Project.

Congress, however, provided reestablishing the Indian families affected and for rehabilitating all members of the tribes. The goal as to develop community, individual and family plans and to relocate, establish, and provide other assistance designed to improve the economic and social conditions of all recognized members of the tribes.

Today, improvements are visible in the many new housing units established on the reservations, the better furnishings and modern conveniences in the homes, improved water supply and sanitation facilities, and the neat and orderly appearance of hone sites.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said there is growing evidence of a changing attitude among many people, reflected in the increasing participation in all phases of the rehabilitation program. Tribal councils also are taking the initiative and assuming greater responsibility in promoting better tribal enterprises, the Bureau added.

The Government, attempting to ease the burden of relocation and to preserve the culture of the Indians, has attempted to record and salvage valuable data concerning notable Indian historic sites to be affected by the inundation. The National Park Service, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, conducted a program of photography and an archeological excavation of the ·many ancient Indian villages in the reservoir area.

The Bureau said road building is only part of the large long-range program designed to aid the Indians of Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations, whose lives were disrupted by the Government's comprehensive plan for developing the Missouri River Basin. At a time when the Indians are striving to improve their tourism and recreation industry, new and better roads leading to the reservations will be a definite asset, the Bureau explained, adding that continued improvement projects along these lines are planned for the immediate future.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today told a group of 200 Bureau personnel and high-ranking officials of other Federal agencies that the Administration's projected war on poverty "may…stimulate us to review, appraise, and revise our own ideas" relative to Indian social and economic aid.

He addressed a conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, of all superintendents of Indian reservations, the second since 1938 and a sequel to one held in Denver, Colo., shortly after Nash became Commissioner in 1961.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall opened the conference Tuesday, June 16, with an appraisal of the potential of the Economic Opportunity Act. Commissioner Nash's comments today summarized the three-day discussions, which focused on Indian needs in education, vocational training, housing, development of resources, and encouragement of business and industry.

"In less than three years' time, we have made real progress, particularly in the bedrock issues of Indian education and vocational training," the Commissioner said. "But," he continued, "The hard core of the Indians' prob1em-- unemployment--persists, the result of a combination of a growing population and a fixed base of economic resources"

The ultimate goals for the Indian people, the Commissioner emphasized, remain those stated in the 1961 report of the Secretary's Task Force on Indian Affairs. Nash was a member of that Task Force. The goals are: L Maximum economic self-sufficiency; 2. full participation in American life; 3. equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities.

Programs enlarged in the last three years are, he said, adult education, college scholarships, vocational training, industrial development, tourism and recreation development, and trades and crafts training.

New programs include provision of modern housing; employment of Indians on construction and other Government projects; improvement of real estate appraisal to insure fair market value for sale or lease of Indian lands; feasibility studies for economic development; and establishment of community centers to encourage civic activities among Indians., "In effect," the Commissioner said, "what we are doing is trying to pave the way for all Indians to enter the mainstream of American life, either on or off the reservations."

Nash’s speech is attached.