I remember Winslow from my boyhood. It was a busy town in those days, a rail center for an otherwise remote part of Arizona. In more recent years, however, Winslow became one of the many communities throughout America adversely affected by the transportation revolution and other changing patterns in our national economy.
But Winslow is picking up momentum again, thanks to a progressive social and economic stance. This community has learned what some others have yet to learn: To survive and thrive in today's economy it is necessary to act in partnership with other communities, merge local and State efforts with Federal efforts, and move in new social directions.
Winslow took a long step forward when it helped establish a Job Corps Conservation Center here -- the first in the west, the second in the Nation. Coordination and cooperation between local citizens and the Center's administrators have made this Center a continuing success and I understand that the Corpsmen have had a part back-stage in making today's event run smoothly.
Today we are here to dedicate a million-dollar industrial plant that surely will bring lasting benefits to the economy of the Winslow area. This plant represents a venture into a new kind of neighborliness between the people of Winslow and the Hopi people whose reservation is nearby.
At a press conference in my office less than two years ago, the first formal announcement was made of the signing of the agreement between the Hopi tribe and the BVD Company's subsidiary, Western Superior Corporation, to open a new garment industry here in Winslow.
Mayor Tom Whipple was there, and I remember his comment that this was one of the biggest things that had happened to Winslow in a long, long time.
The Hopi leaders were there, too, and they told me they considered this joint economic undertaking a milestone in their history for it represented the initial step by the tribe to remold its economy into a modern cast.
As for myself, I consider the venture particularly significant because it shows the economic progress that can be made in a short period when the partnership approach is applied. The Hopi people and the people of Winslow became partners in formulating the basic plans which paved the way for a new industry to be located here. The business community joined forces with the Federal Government in attracting Western Superior to this area.
Land was set aside by the town for an industrial park, and a public-spirited developer in the community donated additional acreage. The Hopi tribe invested a sizeable percentage of its limited funds to build this plant, which will be leased to Western Superior. The Bureau of Indian Affairs provides on the-job training contracts--amounting to half the entry wages--for 13 weeks of training for each new Indian worker. Sixty Indians are now on the job and 200 or more will soon be on the payroll.
Meanwhile, the Hopis are taking another unprecedented step in the history 6f Indian affairs. They are now considering the possibility of issuing revenue bonds to finance a $2.25 million additional facility so that the industry may extend its operations and thereby provide jobs for hundreds more Indians.
Senator Carl Hayden's comment (Congressional Record, Sept. 16, 1968) epitomizes the importance of this entire industrial development endeavor. He said:
"It combines, first and foremost, a meaningful integration of red and white Americans, and, second, the integration of local and national economic interests."
The Federal Government's primary interest in this venture is that it means employment for a large number of Indians. Jobs for Indians--good jobs, steady jobs, jobs that have a future, jobs that lead to a new kind of family security-- this is the way out of the quagmire of poverty that has bogged down the Indian American for too long.
Indians are a very small minority among American minorities, numbering about 600,000 in all (according to the U.S. Census). But more than twenty-five percent of the reservation Indians live here in Arizona, and for this reason a considerable Federal effort is going into industrial, educational and community improvement programs for Indians in this State. About $52 million was expended by the Bureau of Indian Affairs alone for Arizona Indians during the fiscal year ended last June. Other agencies in the Federal Indian consortium--most notably PHS, OEO, and EDA--have contributed millions more for Indian aid.
Our concern is that Indians have not, in the past, enjoyed equality of opportunity. Their social exclusion is in large part due to economic exclusion. Industry has avoided Indian areas in planning for new sites. The employment markets for Indians have been narrow and the promise of future advancement severely limited.
But a new attitude has begun to surface in the business and industrial community, and it is typified by what is happening here in Winslow. Industry has at long last discovered that Indians are· quick to learn and .become able and loyal employees when treated with dignity by employers. Industry has also discovered that there is space for expansion in Indian country whereas space is at a premium in heavily industrialized regions.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs offers what we call a "one-stop service" to industry. It helps industry select suitable sites in Indian areas, assists in negotiations with tribal governing bodies, aids in finding capital (public and private) for the industry, assists in obtaining licenses and similar permits, helps recruit Indian employees, and provides on-the-job training contracts and employee relations assistance.
These are incentives which we hope will stimulate a full economic regeneration in Indian communities. More than 100 new industries, some of them with names that read like the WHO's WHO of American Business, have located in Indian population areas during the past three years. More and more Indian tribes are taking active part in regional planning and development programs, and this trend should stimulate still further commercial and industrial progress in the years immediately ahead.
During the 1970's, it has been forecast, our gross national product will have reached $1.2 trillion. Our farm population will be half what it is today. By the end of the decade more than half of all American families will be earning more than $10,000 per year.
The Indian American must not be excluded from his full share in the economic and social benefits that will be reaped from this national growth.
What the people of Winslow and the Hopi people have done here, together, is the beginning of a more equitable place in American life for the First Americans.
