OPA

Hailing it a "landmark study II Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today made public the report of a three-man task force which last year studied the problems of the 43,000 Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska.

The study group, which was headed by William W. Keeler, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indian Nation, and chairman of the executive committee of the Phillips Petroleum Company, traveled more than 5,000 miles throughout Alaska, visiting many of the native villages and holding conferences with native leaders.

“The report faces up to some problems and the Congress have kept in the closet now be dealt with in a positive way that, in the past, both the Executive It is my hope that these problems will now be dealt with in a positive way.

"The report of the three-man task force on Alaska Native Affairs is a landmark study, and I have read it with keen interest. It is the first comprehensive study in depth of the complicated problems of the Alaska native peoples. It puts their hopes and opportunities in sharp focus and also defines clearly the responsibilities both State and Federal governments must discharge if these citizens are to achieve their full potential.

"This is a highly constructive report. Mr. Keeler, Secretary of State for Alaska Hugh Wade, and James E. Officer, Associate Commissioner of Indian Affairs, deserve high praise for this specialized study, II Secretary Udall said.

Among the items covered in the report are native land problems, the Bureau of Indian Affairs loan program which has made it possible for the Indians of southeast Alaska to operate village salmon canneries, the Eskimo reindeer herding program, and hunting and fishing matters which are of vital concern to the native population.

In the report, the authors discuss the controversy over enforcement of the migratory bird treaty of 1916. This compact between the United States and Great Britain forbids the hunting of certain types of migratory fowl in Alaska between March 10 and September 1. Since the late spring is a season when fresh meat is in short supply, the natives feel that the treaty discriminates against them in favor of the sportsmen of the West Coast States. During the fall and winter, when the Alaska season is open, there are few birds in the northern parts of the State, the cold weather having driven them south. Furthermore, some of the remaining birds, which the natives contend are not migratory in the sense implied by the treaty, are still on the restricted list.

In this connection, the Task Force recommends a thorough study by the Department's Fish and Wildlife Service to determine which birds are migratory and which are not. It also suggests that if relief cannot be provided for the native subsistence hunters in this fashion, negotiations be undertaken to have the treaty amended.

The Task Force report devotes a lengthy chapter to land problems, pointing out that in the Alaska Organic Act of 1884, the Congress promised that the natives would not be disturbed in the use of land then occupied or claimed by them, but reserved unto itself a determination as to how title to these lands might be conveyed. As a result of the Alaska Statehood Act of 1958, which authorized the State to select more than 100 million acres from the public domain, the question of native rights under the 1884 Act has now become a main issue. Some of the lands claimed by the Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts have already been selected by the State, and the Department of the Interior has been faced with the problem of deciding whether to comply with the State's request and transfer title to it, or to wait until Congress acts to define native rights more precisely.

The Task Force suggests a number of steps for resolving this controversy. These include granting individual natives the title to home sites and hunting and fishing sites; withdrawing small acreages in the vicinity of the native villages for their future growth and development; establishing native hunting and fishing privileges in larger areas; and setting up a special tribunal in which to consider native claims for lands taken from them by others in the period since 1884.

It also recommends that Congress prescribe a definite period of time in which to adjudicate native claims so that the State land selection program will not be indefinitely postponed.

In a chapter on health problems, the Task Force lauds the Division of Indian Health of the U. S. Public Health Service for its effective program of reducing the death rate and bringing hospital and other medical services to the residents of the villages.

Other Task Force suggestions include transferring to the State administrative authority for the education of native children and the operation of a general assistance welfare program for the native population; encouraging the native villages to incorporate under the municipal laws of Alaska; Federal supplementary assistance for an existing State program of public works; increased vocational training and placement for natives; and the use of “peace corps type" workers in the native villages.

The Task Force report was submitted to the Secretary in December 1962, and some of its suggestions have already been carried out. For example, Secretary Udall on December 27, 1962, announced that the Tsimpshian Indians of the community of Metlakatla would be permitted to continue using fish traps to support their salmon cannery during the 1963 season. Responding to another recommendation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs added an advisor on native housing to its Juneau staff, and placed economic development officers at field locations to help improve the economic situation in the native villages.

The Task Force was in the field during the month of June 1962, and Mr. Officer returned to Alaska for additional information in October. The report, which contains 110 pages, is available on request from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

An exclusive two year permit to prospect for minerals other than oil and gas on 19,200 acres of tribal land on the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix, Ariz., together with an option to lease, has been granted to Bear Creek Mining Co., Salt Lake City, Utah, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The company paid a bonus of $10,000 for the permit, which can be renewed for an additional two years with a further payment of $3 an acre for the acreage retained in prospecting. During each two-year period the company is required to spend $60,000 for prospecting and exploration.

Leases issued under the permit will provide for a graduated royalty schedule ranging from 5 percent on ores having a net smelter return of $5 per ton or less up to 25 percent for ores valued at over $35 per ton. Beginning with the fourth lease year, a minimum of royalty of $4 per acre will be required. Annual rental on the leased acreage will be $1 per acre.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs reports no previous mineral activity in the Gila River Indian Community.

Three Oklahomans will take on new responsibilities April 1 in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a series of related personnel transfers announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Graham E. Holmes, area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Muskogee, Okla., for the past year, has been named Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau in charge of legislative activities.

Holmes succeeds Martin P. Mangan who was recently appointed president of a new development corporation in American Samoa. At the Muskogee area office, Holmes will be replaced by Virgil N. Harrington, superintendent of the Bureau's Seminole Agency at Dania, Fla., since 1958.

The new Seminole superintendent, succeeding Harrington, will be Doyce L. Waldrip, administrative officer under Harrington for the past three years.

A lawyer by profession, Holmes first came with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 as a probate attorney at Wewoka, Okla. Two years later he moved to the area office at Aberdeen, S,. Dak., as area counsel and in 1955 was appointed program officer at Aberdeen. The following year he was selected superintendent of the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota. In 1959 he transferred to the Southwest as assistant area director at Gallup, N. Mex. After two years in this post he was appointed Assistant Solicitor of the Department of the Interior in charge of Indian legal activities at Washington, D. C., in May 1961. The following January he moved to Muskogee as area director. He was born at Whitefield, Okla., in 1913 and holds a law degree from the University of Arkansas. Before joining the Bureau he served for a number of years as a county judge and county attorney at Stigler, Okla.

Also a native Oklahoman, Harrington was born at Ward Springs in 1919. He has been with the Bureau since November 1948, when he was appointed soil conservationist at the Pawnee Agency, Pawnee, Okla. In 1955 he transferred to the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., as land operations officer and served there for three years before being promoted to superintendent of the Seminole Agency. Before coming with the Bureau, he spent several years with the Naval Ordnance Depot at McAlester, Okla. He is a 1942 graduate of Oklahoma A&M College.

Waldrip has been with the Bureau since 1950. His experience prior to the Seminole assignment included six years as a teacher on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and four years on the Fort Totten Reservation in North Dakota as field representative and administrative officer. He was also born in Oklahoma, at Hollis in 1924. He is a graduate of West Texas State College and also attended New Mexico A&M State College. From 1943 to 1946 he served with the Army Air Corps.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash will make his first official visit to Indian Bureau installations and native villages in the State of Alaska January 20 through 29, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Mr. Nash will dedicate new school buildings constructed by the Bureau at Kotzebue on January 21 and at Barrow on January 23, attend the inauguration of Governor William Egan in Juneau on January 26, and visit the Bureau's Mount Edgecumbe boarding school near Sitka on January 28.

Plans also call for visits with native people in their homes at Kotzebue and Barrow and, weather permitting, for visits in the smaller villages of Buckland, Deering and Minto, or other nearby Athabascan communities.

The Department of the Interior announced today the award of a $1,149,000 contract for construction of high school facilities at the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona.

The contract calls for the construction of a seven-building complex, approximately 61,500 square feet in enclosed area, arranged around an open court. Included in the project are 28 standard classrooms, home economics and science laboratories, a library and instructional materials center, and administrative and guidance areas.

The construction will provide modern, adequate high school facilities at a central location, eliminating the need to use various makeshift classrooms at scattered locations throughout the campus. More than 1,000 Indian children are now enrolled in grades seven through 12 at the Phoenix Indian School.

The successful bidder was James Rae, and James Rae Construction Co., a joint venture, 400 West Camelback Road, P. O. Box 7367, of Phoenix, Arizona. Ten higher bids were received, ranging from $1,158,400 to $1,269,290.

The Department of the Interior announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation will undertake the planning and construction of the $135 million Navajo Indian Irrigation Project in New Mexico, which will then be operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Congressional legislation authorizing the project was signed by President Kennedy on June 13, 1962.

All appropriation requests for the project will be made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the funds will be transferred to Reclamation to cover planning and construction costs. No funds have yet been appropriated to start construction.

When completed, the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project will provide facilities for delivering water to approximately 110,000 acres of Navajo Indian lands in two large areas on an elevated plain in San Juan County, New Mexico, south of the San Juan River. The facilities will include canals, laterals, tunnels, siphons, and pumping plants. Federal legislation also authorizes capacity for municipal and industrial water supplies in the proposed Navajo Canal.

Water for the project will be diverted at an average annual rate of 508,000 acre-feet from the San Juan River at the Bureau of Reclamation's Navajo Dam Reservoir, about 40 miles upstream from Farmington, N. Mex., and some 150 miles distant from the project lands.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has estimated that some 14 years will be required to complete the planning and construction of facilities for the project, although delivery of water to the first of the project lands could be accomplished within five years after construction begins.

Construction of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project can be expected to generate about 7,000 man-years of on-site work and to require an equivalent of more than 12,000 man-years of work in other areas throughout the country in providing the necessary services, materials, and equipment. An additional stimulus to the economy, roughly the equivalent of another 27,000 man-years of employment, will result from increased demand by on- and off-site workers for such items as clothing, food, furniture, gasoline, and other consumer goods.

Reclamation will be responsible for the development of a firm complete project plan acceptable to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for all construction activities, utilizing the special knowledge and capabilities of Indian Affairs in the preparation of a project plan and for preconstruction and construction

I have looked forward to this day -- to the chance to meet with you, to share in your 25th Anniversary celebration, to congratulate you - and especially your charter members, some of whom are here today -- for your vision and leadership.

An impressive as your past growth has been, even more impressive are the prospects for your contributions to the Indian future. As never before, the nation is aware of Indian problems and the need for clear, decisive Indian leadership.

As a representative of government, I am especially interested in Indian leadership because I am convinced that the Indian people and their Federal government must work closely than ever before.

The President's statement, delivered to the last NCAI Convention in Omaha, still stands. This Administration opposes termination. This Administration favors the continuation of the trust relationship and the protection of Indian lands and Indian resources.

Let us now and forever put to rest all fears and begin positive action together. For every Indian problem there is also an Indian opportunity. Building upon that special relationship between Indian tribes and the Federal government, we will solve the problems and open the opportunities.

There is no question that this special relationship will and must continue. It is its quality that should concern us most.

Not one of us who has responsibility can be complacent about Indian Affairs. And no one is sincerely interested will allow the plight of the Indian people to be used for publicity, politics or personal advantage.

I see no merit in trying to place blame for the present situation. Too much energy has been diverted already to excuses for conditions of life that any sensitive person can see are inadequate.

You do not want our apologies and you do not need our explanations. You want and need action. And it is time for action.

There is a desperate shortage of job opportunity. Indian unemployment runs up to ten times the national average in this year of record employment,

• Housing shortages still plague more than half the families living in Indian communities
• Schools for Indian children are underfinanced and deficient
• Hardship invades almost every phase of individual and
  community life.

I do not have to go into details with you. You know the facts better than I. It is time to move forward. We must have improvement and sense of direction.

This Administration understands that there is no single solution to Indian problems. There is no such thing as "the Indian problem." A rich diversity of culture, language and background characterizes Indian communities across America. No single set of programs will fit everywhere.

This Administration does not even expect complete uniformity and agreement among Indians as to their own goals or needs or desired programs. We must be flexible. For too long the Indian has been forced to fit a particular program. From now on the programs will be tailored to fit the particular Indian requirements. We will work with the Indian people on a community-by-community and tribe-by-tribe basis to develop programs best suited to local needs and priorities.

Indian tribes possess a unique and direct relationship with the Federal government which is derived from several sources. First, it is a legal relationship. Through treaty and law, Indian communities are entitled to certain services from the Federal government.

As a result of the treaties, the Indian people surrendered their land to the Federal government under certain conditions of trust and good faith. The government undertook a sacred trust to finance basic programs such as health and education. In attempting to respond to their obligation, Congress has enacted much legislation affecting Indians. Some of it has been successful but too much has failed to carry out its objective.

It is important to remember that Federal support of Indian services is, to a great extent, legally due to the Indian community. These are not services offered at the pleasure of the government but solemn obligations to a people who accepted a good faith settlement in reliance on governmental integrity.

Moreover, there is a formal basis for the special relationship between the Indians and their government. Congress, by establishing the Indian Claims Commission, acknowledged the integrity of Tribes as legal entities. This created the way for government to acknowledge debts and obligations to the Indian people.

Thus, the special efforts to offset costs of certain services in Indian communities are the rights of the communities and the legal and moral obligations of the Federal government. But there remains a crucial distinction that has been generally ignored for the past 150 years.

Government may have the absolute duty to provide services, but that does not necessarily imply that government must perform and administer those same services.

Appointment of John H. Artichoker, former director of Indian education for the state of South Dakota, as superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Agency, Lame Deer, Mont., effective September 8, 1963, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

An Oglala Sioux Indian, Mr. Artichoker was born at Pierre, S. Dak., in 1930 and holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree in education from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. For the past seven months he has been tribal affairs officer for the United States Public Health Service at Aberdeen, S. Dak. In 1962 he held a similar position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Billings, Mont. Prior to that he was for over 10 years director of Indian education for the State government of South Dakota. He is the author of several articles on Indian education.

At Lame Deer, Mr. Artichoker succeeds Don Y. Jensen, who recently became superintendent of Cherokee Agency, Cherokee, N. C.

The Department of the Interior has asked Congress for legislation to authorize disposition of funds arising from a $567,000 judgment in favor of the Snake or Paiute Indians (in this case, the names are synonymous) of the former Malheur Reservation in Oregon.

A proposed bill submitted by the Department brings to light an obscure and interesting bit of American history and focuses attention on the complexities, hat often arose as a result of the settlement of Indian tribes on reservations. The requested legislation would authorize and direct the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a roll of persons of Snake or Paiute Indian blood living on the date the bill becomes law, who were members or who are lineal descendants of members of the bands as they existed in 1879 and whose chiefs or headmen were parties to an unratified treaty of December 10, 1868.

The problem is that records of membership and of descendancy establishing membership are vague and unreliable.

The Snake Indians are a group of the Shoshonean stock which inhabited the great plateau lands of western Utah, northern Arizona, southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, Nevada, and southern and eastern California. The name of Northern Paiute was given to, and has been retained by, the tribes or bands of the Paviotso of Nevada and the Snakes of eastern Oregon.

Tribes of the Shoshoni were affected along with other Indian tribes, by the great western migration of settlers; the hysteria occasioned by the discovery of gold and other ores; and the introduction of livestock to lands used by the Indians as a source of food plants and animals. Completion of the first trans-continental railroad in 1869 brought the native period in that area virtually to an end.

The Federal Government, three years earlier, had extended its authority without formal purchase over the territory of the "Western Shoshoni" and included within it the northern part of the lands occupied by the Northern Paiute tribes, assuming "the right of satisfying their claims by assigning them such reservations as might seem essential for their occupancy and supplying them in such degree as might seem proper with necessaries of life."

From 1864 to 1874 the President, by Executive Order, created several reservations to accommodate the Northern Paiute, including, in 1872, the Malheur Reservation for the Snake Indians. The lands were taken into possession by the Government "without formal relinquishment by the Indians," who did not, by any means, confine themselves to the reservations established for them.

In December 1868, the chiefs and headmen of the Snake--We-you-wa-wa, Caha-nee, E-hi-gast, Po-nee, Chaw-wat-na-nee, Ow-its, and Yash-a-go--signed a treaty with the Federal Government. The treaty was never ratified by the United States Senate. Thereafter, and for diverse reasons, the Snake or Paiute Indians became increasingly hostile to the changes that were taking place around them and reluctant to accept the reservation environment that was eventual thrust upon them. The Bannock, a detached branch of the Northern Paiute, enlisted the sympathy and support of the Snake in an uprising in 1878 occasioned by the loss of Bannock lands, failure of the buffalo herds, and the lack of prompt relief on the part of the Government.

The uprising was suppressed in 1879 by Gen. O. O. Howard and the Snake were removed by the military to the Yakima Reservation in the State of Washington. Soon after their arrival on the Yakima Reservation, the Snake or Paiute began drifting away. Many went back to their old home country in Harney Valley and settled in what is now the town of Burns, Oregon, where some still reside. Some affiliated with other bands of Paiute. Others settled on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. The Malheur Reservation, upon which they were originally settled, was abandoned and later restored to the public domain without compensation to the Indians.

As a result of the scattering of the Snake following settlement on the Yakima Reservation, and their continued affiliation with the Bannock, efforts to locate a record of the members of the respective bands of Snake or Paiute Indians whose chiefs were parties to the unratified treaty of December 10, 1868, have been unsuccessful. An 1877 census roll and an 1875 subsistence list appear to be the best records available to establish eligibility of living Snake or Paiute Indians to share in the distribution of the judgment funds. However, these records not on list the names of Indians who were members of the seven bands whose chiefs signed the unratified treaty, but they include names of all individual Indians who were living on the Malheur Reservation and who were eligible to receive subsistence at that agency. Some of these Indians were Bannocks, who have no legal claim to compensation for the lands comprising the former Malheur Reservation, the Department said.

The proposed bill, recognizing the lack of adequate official records of membership, includes language which will permit persons who were members of the seven Snake or Paiute bands who are still living, and descendants of the original members of the bands, to apply for enrollment, using whatever records are available to establish the validity of their claim to benefit in the judgment funds, regardless of their present tribal affiliation.

Under the proposed bill, the Secretary of the Interior would be authorized to prorate the funds and distribute the shares of the living enrollees directly to such enrollees, or in such manner as he decides is in the best interest of the enrollees. This will permit pooling the shares of those who are enrolled or are eligible for enrollment and who elect to spend their shares for reservation development. It also permits payment directly to adults having no present affiliation with other enrollees, and provides for Secretarial responsibility for disposition of shares of minors or persons under legal disability.

The judgment fund constitutes payment for the lands which were set aside by Executive Order in 1872 for use and occupancy of the individual bands of Snake or Paiute Indians and were, by Executive Orders issued in 1882 and 1883, restored to the public domain without payment of any compensation to the Indians. Legal fees and other expenses reduced the amount of $468,395.50, but this, drawing interest at 4 percent per year, had grown to the substantial sum of $519,827.49 by June 5, 1963.

A study of ways to enhance the tourist attractiveness of the tribally owned and operated Hot Springs Enterprise at Hot Springs, Mont., on the Flathead Indian Reservation, is being undertaken by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research of Montana State University, the Department of the Interior has announced.

Purpose of the study is to accumulate market data which will enable the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation to participate are fully in the growing tourist business of the Northwest.

The $4,000 study is being financed on a 50-50 basis by the Confederated Tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The $500,000 Hot Springs Enterprise, with its famous Indian Spa, is on the west side of the Flathead Reservation at the foot of the Cabinet Mountains, just west of Montana Highway 28. It was established in 1948 and includes an outdoor swimming pool, an open-air foot bath, and a modern bath house. The bath house features dry-heat rooms, steam rooms, hot mineral baths, massage rooms, and walk-in mud baths.