The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced a series of hearings throughout Indian country on its proposed plans to close all but three of its off-reservation boarding schools. Notice of the hearings is being published in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith said today.
Schools slated to be closed at the end of this school year are the Wahpeton Indian School in North Dakota; Concho Indian School in Oklahoma; and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in New Mexico. The phase-out plans for the closure of the Intermountain School, Utah and Mt. Edgecumbe in Alaska at the end of the 1982-83 school year; Sequoyah Indian School, Oklahoma and Flandreau in South Dakota at the end of the 1983-84 year; and the Phoenix Indian School at the end of the 1984-85 school year.
The three schools to be continued would be Chemawa, Oregon, Sherman, California and Riverside, Oklahoma.
The first hearings would be March 30 at Anchorage, Alaska and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Others will be April 1 at Sitka, Alaska and Phoenix, Arizona; April 6 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; April 13 at Minneapolis, Minnesota and Portland, Oregon; and April 15 at Billings, Montana and Aberdeen, South Dakota.
The hearings will begin at 10 a.m. at each site. For the exact location or additional information please call the local BIA area office or Ms. Carmen Taylor at 202/343-4493.
Persons wishing to file written testimony should send it no later than April 16th to the Director of Indian Education Programs, BIA, 18th and C Sts., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20240.
