Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today that recent weeks had brought "heartening examples of solid economic gains for American Indians as the result of a determination to put tribal resources and energies to work for the benefit of all."
Udall approved plans last week for a multi-million dollar forest product complex on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon that will create 250 jobs for Indians and bring about $2 million in annual revenues to the tribe.
"This is not a Federal project," Udall said. "The money involved is tribal money and the basic negotiations were between tribal officials and officers of the Jefferson Plywood Co. of Madras, Ore., the firm that will run the sawmill and plywood complex under contract with the tribe.
"Indians will be represented on their board which fill direct operations from harvest through sale. The direct benefits, such as an Indian payroll of $1.5 million annually, will be great, but equally important will be the experience gained, by a people learning, under our competitive American enterprise system, to put their resources and their abilities to work for a better future."
Udall noted also that during a trip to Arizona last month he helped break ground for an industrial park on the Gila River Reservation south of Phoenix.
"Five industrial firms -- producing products ranging from marine hardware to asphalt -- will form the nucleus of an industrial complex of tremendous growth potential," he said. "And the tribe has a detailed social action and community development program underway so that individually and collectively the tribe can grow with the industry.
"These are results of programs operated by the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Indian Affairs that brought 26 new industrial plants to Indian areas in the past year," Udall said. "And these plants are to create 1,700 new jobs.
"A little more than a year ago I suggested at a conference of tribal, Congressional and Government leaders in Santa Fe, N. M., that 'the time has come to operate on our hopes instead of our fears.' I think we are beginning to see the results of that policy in action now."
Other promising developments within the past year, cited by Udall, are:
- The dedication of a new electronic connector plant on the Seminole Indians reservation at Hollywood, Fla. The site is leased by the tribe to the Amphenol Corp. of Chicago. The plant will have an initial workforce of 200, one-half of whom will be tribal members. The company is already looking to future expansion
- On the Makah Reservation in Washington, Indians are repairing and enlarging a pier to serve as the floating fish processing facility of the Cape Flattery Company. Cape Flattery will process all kinds of fish into fish protein concentrate, a product recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human consumption. This is one of the first private domestic ventures in this field. A separate pilot plant is to be constructed under a program sponsored by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries.
- The Indians, in addition to owning a part of the business through an investment of $50,000 of their own funds, will share in the plant employment and will operate a fleet of fishing vessels to provide, daily, the 200 tons of fish the company is expected to process.
- The Navajo Tribe will begin construction next week on a plant at Fort Defiance, Ariz., where General Dynamics Corporation will produce components for the Standard Missile. The tribe will provide training facilities during the construction period for Navajos expected to fill most of the 200 jobs to be created by the plant. Annual payrolls are estimated as approaching three-quarters of a million dollars
- The receipt of $757,938 in high bonus bids for copper leases on the San Xavier Reservation in southern Arizona. Tribal officials anticipate that this figure will be far surpassed by tribal revenues resulting from royalties and mining payrolls.
- The receipt of $2.6 million in high bonus bids for new oil and gas leases by the Tyonek Village of Alaska which used $12 million in earlier oil lease funds to completely refurbish their village and acquire real estate in downtown Anchorage, renting office space to clients who include the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"These are solid achievements in just one field of endeavor," Udall said. "They will be matched by progress and innovation in the areas of education, on-the job training and relocation programs, as we expand our efforts and further develop the new feeling of partnership in progress that is developing under Commissioner Bennett in the Bureau of Indian Affairs."
