Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today made public his remarks to Mrs. Robert Jim on the passing of her husband Robert Jim, Chairman of the Yakima Indian Tribe, Washington, member of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, and the National Tribal Chairman’s Association.
In a wire to Mrs. Jim, Franklin said: “I cannot begin to express to you the sense of loss that all of us in the Indian community feel at the passing of Robert Jim. He gave up an Indian way of life to serve to the Yakima Tribe and the Indian people as a whole. He served them at the highest possible levels.
''He was given a mandate to lead his people when he became chairman of the Yakima Tribe. He also received a mandate from the President of the United States when he was named to the National Council on Indian Opportunity.
“Few Indian people have achieved one or the other of these honors. Only a handful have achieved both. He is solely missed.”
Jim died October 30 while attending the National Congress of American Indians convention in Tulsa, Okla.
He was born June 28, 1929 at Dry Creek, Wash., and spent his early years chasing wild horses for a living. He attended public schools in Toppenish, Washington. He was graduated from high school June 1948 and enlisted in the United States Air Force September 2, 1948. He served in France, Germany, and England and was discharged April 1954 as a staff sergeant.
In subsequent years he chased wild horses, hunted, and fished at Jackson Fishing Site, Celilo, Ore., until it was inundated in 1957.
He became treasurer of the National Congress of American Indians in 1961 and Commander of Chiefs, White Swan Post 191, American Legion, in 1962. That same year he was elected secretary of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.
In 1964 he became chairman of the American Indian Civil Liberties Trust, a 21 year appointment. That same year he became a delegate for the United States Department of State to Quito, Ecuador, to participate in the North American Treaty Organization. In 1972 he was elected to the board of directors of the National Tribal Chairman's Association.
He was appointed to the National Council on Indian Opportunity by President Richard M. Nixon to serve until August 31, 1974. He had been chairman of the Yakima Tribal Council since 1967.
Jim spent many years working not only for his own Yakima people in order to have 21,000 acres of land including a part of Mount Adams returned to the tribe but for other Indian groups as well. He worked on provisions of the Alaska Native Land Claims Act which provides that about $962.5 million and 40 million acres of land will go to Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska. He also helped bring about the restoration of 48,000 acres of land that had been a part of Carson National Forest, N. Mex., to the Taos Pueblo.
October 2, 1973, he was elected to the board of the American Indian National Bank.
