Adoption of regulations for preparing a membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska was announced today by the Department of the Interior.
The roll is to be compiled under a 1962 law giving enrolled tribal members an opportunity to express themselves for or against division of the tribal assets among themselves. Those on the roll would be the beneficiaries if division of the assets is approved.
Those eligible for enrollment will include all persons living on September 5, 1962, whose names appear on the Ponca census roll of April 1, 1934 and the supp1ement of January 1, 1935, regardless of their degree of Ponca blood, descendants of such persons having one fourth or more Ponca blood, and children of tribal members adopted by non-Indians if they are otherwise qualified.
Proposed regulations on this subject were published in the Federal Register February 15, 1963, and several suggestions for change received from interested parties were accepted by the Department. The most important change is an increase in the time given descendants to file applications for inclusion on the roll. Under the proposed rules they would have been given two months after publication of the final regulations in the Federal Register. This period has been lengthened to six months. The full text of the regulations is being published in the Federal Register.
