Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has scheduled a conference of top field administrators of Indian reservations for June 16-18 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It will be the second such conference since 1938 and a sequel to one called by the Secretary in 1961.
In making the announcement today, Secretary Udall said:
"This conference promises to be one of the most significant government meetings on Indian affairs in many years. We shall have the opportunity to examine the problems of reservation Indians in relation to President Johnson's war on poverty and in the broad perspective of our striving toward the great society."
Secretary Udall will deliver the keynote address at the opening session of the Santa Fe meeting on June 16. The three day conference will be attended by more than 200 delegates and invited guests.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior John A. Carver, Jr., Martin Vigil, Chairman, All-Pueblo Council, and Philleo Nash, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, will also speak at the first day's session. Governor Jack M. Campbell of New Mexico and Mayor Pat Hollis of Santa Fe are among invited guests.
Invitations also have been extended to representatives of the President's Task Force on the War against Poverty, the Public Housing Administration, the Indian Health Division of the U. S. Public Health Service, the Area Redevelopment Administration, and other agencies. Indian tribal officials and leaders of the National Congress of American Indians, the Indian Rights Association, and the Association on American Indian Affairs are also expected to attend the opening session.
Discussions will focus on the role of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the national war on poverty, with specific reference to Indian reservation needs in industrial and commercial development, education and housing.
The opening meeting, scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 16, will be held in the gymnasium of the Santa Fe Institute of American Indian Arts, a high school and vocational institute operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Tuesday session will be open to the press.
Secretary Udall has scheduled a press conference for 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 16, at the Institute.
