OPA

Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to come back to Oregon as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This is the State where I began professional interest in the American Indian almost 30 years ago. I was a graduate student in anthropology at that time and did field work on the Klamath Reservation in the summer of 1934 and through the fall, winter and spring of 1935 and 1936. The learning process is still going on--seven days a week, 365 days a year.

I am honored to be selected by the City Club of Portland as your guest speaker today. I welcome the opportunity of sharing with you some of the things I have learned about Indian affairs over the past three decades and of reporting to you, briefly, on the current status of our programs in the Bureau of Indian affairs.

Two years ago this month an important milestone was reached in the history of the Bureau. On July 10, 1961 a task force of four members, including myself, completed an intensive three-month study of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We submitted a report of our findings and recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Stewart L. Udall. The report was subsequent approved, in the main, by Secretary Udall, and it became the charter of our present-day policies and programs. The keynote recommendation was a call for much greater emphasis on Indian development--both the development of Indians as people and the economic development of Indian-owned resources on the reservations.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of the oldest agencies in our Federal Government. Our origins go back to the colonial period and we have been in continuous existence for 139 years. Over this period of nearly 14 decades Congress has from time to time redefined and expanded the work of the Bureau until today our organization bears little resemblance to the pure diplomatic and trade-regulating agency that was original established in 1824.

At present about 380,000 people come within the scope of our programs. This includes not only the Indians living on reservations throughout the country (like Warm Springs and Umatilla here in Oregon) but also all the people in the native villages of Alaska--Indian, Eskimo and Aleut--and large numbers of Indians living on trust or restricted land in former reservation areas of Oklahoma.

The responsibilities that we have with respect to these people are essentially twofold. On the one hand, we provide them with a variety of services such as education, welfare aid, police protection and road construction and maintenance in locations where these services are not available from the usual state and local agencies serving non-Indian citizens. Secondly, we serve as trustees for about 50 million acres of land that belongs to the Indian people. This includes most of the land making up the reservations as well as a number of scattered tracts known as public domain allotments. Nearly four-fifths of the total acreage-- about 39 million acres altogether--consists of tribal land which is the property of a whole tribal group. The balance is made up of comparatively small tracts which were allotted by the Government many years ago to individual tribal members& Because of the processes of inheritance, the ownership of many of these allotments has become exceedingly complex and this "heirship problem", as we call it, is one of our most troublesome administrative responsibilities.

As trustees, we are responsible not only for protecting the Indian owners of this land, tribal or individual, from improvident disposition or leasing of the property. We also assist them to achieve the highest possible income from the lands and related resources that is consistent with sound conservation principles. And this gets us into a second group of programs, mainly technical in nature, in such fields as forestry, range management, irrigation, credit, and leasing for mineral development or for surface uses such as agriculture, grazing, or commercial and industrial development.

So much for the older program operations of the Bureau--those that go back, or 40 years or even back to our beginnings. In the last dozen years or so, the Bureau has launched a number of new programs aimed at quickening the pace of economic advancement for Indian people and helping them to higher standards of living.

One of these, for example, is a program of employment assistance. This involves vocational training and the relocation of wage-earners and their dependents to urban-industrial areas for direct employment.

Another is our industrial development operation. By this program we encourage the establishment of manufacturing plants of the light-industry type on or near the reservations so as to provide more steady jobs for Indian workers.

Still another example is our work in the field of housing development. Those of you who have visited Indian country know that their housing is truly shocking. Our newest program is an effort to improve the situation by adapting the established programs of the Federal housing agencies to reservation needs.

This will, I hope, give you some idea of what we are doing in the Bureau. It is, as you can see, a highly complex and multifaceted operation.

Three main goals were recommended by the Task Force. They now provide the orientation of all our program activities. They are (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency, (2) full participation of Indians in American life, and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians.

These are not novel goals. They are merely a statement with respect to Indians of what the rest of us seek for ourselves. The question is not whether they are desirable goals. I have yet to hear anyone disagree with them. The question is, "What are the best means by which these ends may be reached?"

There are two philosophies. One holds that the reservation system, with attendant trusteeship and the existence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs with its programs of property management and human betterment hold back individual Indians from reaching these desirable goals.

The other philosophy holds that the protection of property and the provision of special services is all that stands between Indian individuals and ultimate poverty, destitution, and dependency.

The truth, as usual, lies between the two extremes. Our present programs are designed to take into account the realities of Indian life as it is actually lived on and near the reservations, not as the ideologists of either extreme visualize it. The facts are that Indian people themselves place a high value on the Indian trusteeship. In the main they do not wish it to come to an end but regard it as a necessary and desirable relationship which is due them in return for lands ended and promises made long ago. Individually they chafe under its restrictions collectively they resist efforts to end it.

Alongside this is the fact that most reservations are places of little opportunity. Life on a reservation can be grim and harsh. Although many prosperous and happy persons live on reservations and prefer it, they are the exception. Reservation life, for the bulk of Indian people, has meant an educational level half that of the national average; an income one-fourth to one-third the national average; an unemployment rate six or seven times the national average; and age at death two-thirds the national average.

It has long been the objective of various Commissioners of Indian Affairs to bring these deplorable figures of human welfare closer to the American standard. As long as reservations exist, the trusteeship continues, and people live on reservations, it is the duty of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to devise programs and operate them so that these conditions of life will improve.

It was the opinion of the Task Force that the goals we described are attainable, not a dream. Life on the reservations can be much better; while those who desire to leave the reservations and seek opportunity nearby or in metropolitan centers should be prepared and helped to succeed. The programs outlined by the task Force now being placed in effect by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are programs of education and individual betterment both on and off the reservations; and of economic and community development on the reservations, looking toward a better life for all.

How much progress have we made in the two years since the Task Force Report was submitted? What remains to be done?

Let us look first at education, which is fundamental in any long-range program of human betterment. In the early part of 1961, even before the Task Force was appointed, President Kennedy urged the Congress to provide funds for an accelerated program of Indian school construction. The Indian school plant stretches from the Everglades of Florida to the Arctic Coast of Alaska. It includes nearly 300 separate installations, some old, some new, some large, some small. The older buildings are badly deteriorated and in urgent need of rehabilitation or replacement. Furthermore, there have never been enough classroom seats, especially on the Navajo Reservation of the Southwest, and in Alaska, to accommodate the school-age population. The goal of President Kennedy's program in early 1961 was to provide facilities for all Indian children and to relieve overcrowding and hazardous conditions in obsolete boarding and day schools without delay.

Over the past two years Congress has responded generously. Enough funds have been provided to rehabilitate and modernize some of our worst "problem” structures. But the main effort has been to expand the capacity of the entire system by about 7,000 classroom seats and associated dormitory beds. Some of the projects made possible by these appropriations have now been completed. Many more are under construction. The rest are in the design stage. In the meantime, of course, our school-age Indian population has been relentlessly increasing year by year along with the school-age population all over the country.

Aside from the construction aspect, we have made many other improvements in our education program over the past 24 months. Two-thirds of the Indian children go to public schools, but one-third of them live in isolated areas and are not served by public schools. Eighty percent of these children come from homes where English is not the household language. So we are giving much more attention to improving the techniques of English language instruction which I regard as crucially important.

In our boarding schools, where the children are our responsibility 24 hours a day and seven days a week throughout the academic year, we have substantially enlarged our staff of attendants and counsellors. We have upgraded the requirements for many of these positions, and have increased their in-service training.

We have greatly expanded the scope of our summer programs which involve student employment, outdoor sports, acceleration of academic work, and pre-school classes for children, and organized trips to national or regional points of interest for the older students. In the summer of 1960 about 2,000 Indian students took part in these programs; last summer the number was nearly 13,000; and this year it will go still higher.

During this period we have also established a new school, the Institute of American Indian Arts, on the grounds of our old boarding school at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our purpose here is to provide a first class residential high school plus two years of post-high school technical training. The students selected are Indian young people with special aptitudes in painting, sculpture, design, music, creative writing, ceramics, textiles and many other fine and applied arts. The school opened last fall on a partial basis with an enrollment of about 140 students from 74 tribes. This fall we are planning for a student body of approximately 250 in the arts courses. We will eventually reach 500.

Meanwhile we have expanded our adult education program on the reservations for the benefit of those adult Indians who went through childhood without sufficient schooling. We are now conducting adult education programs at 127 locations in Alaska and on Indian reservations here below. Two years ago the number was 97. Some of these are evening or day time classes to make up for lost schooling. Others are programs of community development.

In the field of higher education advances have also been made. Last year nearly 2,900 Indian young men and women were attending classes in colleges and diversities, 724 of them with help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Each year since the Task Force Report we have doubled the Federal money available for higher education grants and loans.

One program of the Bureau that especially impressed us on the Task Force during the course of our study was that of adult vocational training. This activity was started in 1958; by the spring of 1961 it had shown itself to be a highly successful operation. It was equipping Indians, generally in the age bracket from 18 to 35, with marketable skills, boosting their earning power, and was providing them with greater job security than they had formerly known as unskilled workers. The rate of employment for those who finished training compared very favorably with that of the 01 training program of the veterans Administration. The Indians themselves were highly enthusiastic about these opportunities.

In the original legislation authorizing this program the amount of annual appropriation was limited to $3,500,000. In 1962 Congress more than doubled this authorization, raising it to $7,500,000. As a result of the steady increase in the money available, we now have twice as many Indians enrolled in vocational schools as we had two years ago; more than 1,300 at the end of May. Over the whole five-year period since 1958 more than 8,900 Indians have received training under the auspices of this program--about 6,800 in vocational schools and the rest through on-the-job training in manufacturing plants on or near the reservations. Together with their dependents about 21,000 individual persons have enjoyed direct and indirect benefits from this program.

Within the past several weeks we have asked Congress for a further increase in the authorized amount of annual appropriations for this program--stepping it up from $7,500,000 to $12,000,000. If this is approved, it will enable us eventually to enroll over 3,900 Indian trainees in vocational schools during the course of a single year--not all at the same time, of course--and to provide on the-job training for an additional 1,500.

So you can see that we have made good strides since 1961 in the area of human development. Now, how about the development of the physical resources?

The program to encourage the establishment of industries with their payrolls on or near the reservations has been strengthened and enlarged. Since early 1961 arrangements have been completed for bringing 19 new plants into the Indian population areas and the great majority of them are now in operation. These, together with plants established earlier, are now providing steady employment for over 1,000 Indian workers who comprise about 75 percent of the total payroll. In some places like the Oglala Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, the additional jobs have already produced tangible benefits in the form of smaller welfare caseloads, better school attendance, and improved housing.

We have also been greatly helped by an allotment of funds under the national Accelerated Public Works Program for a variety of urgently needed projects on the Indian reservations. At the peak in April, nearly 5,700 Indians were at work on these APW projects on 88 reservations in 18 States. This represents about one out of every eight of the unemployed Indian labor force. They are working to improve reservation roads, to upgrade stands of Indian timber, to build community centers, and to protect soil resources against the ravages of erosion. All of it was work that needed to be performed eventually; the allotment of these funds has permitted us to schedule it earlier and to find productive work for several thousand Indians. Nothing can equal the moral boost of a real job with a regular pay check.

I mentioned our credit program earlier and I want to return to it now. To provide the financial lifeblood for significant economic development on the reservation, large amounts of credit are needed. Under our program we give first emphasis to helping tribal organizations and individual Indians obtain financing from banks and other sources that serve citizens generally; in 1962 Indians received about $88 million of financing from these sources. We also help the tribes to organize and administer credit programs of their own for the benefit of their members and the tribes are now using nearly $26 million of their funds for this purpose. Supplementing both of these resources is the revolving credit fund of the Bureau. At the time of the Task Force study the total amount which Congress had appropriated for this fund over a 25-year period was a little under $14 million. In our report we pointed out the need for more ample funds. The Department of the Interior followed this up with a request to the Congress which has since appropriated an additional $10 million. In the last two years, loans from the fund have averaged over $5 million a year in contrast with an annual average prior to 1961 of about $1 1/2 million. These more recent loans have been made for a wide range of enterprises. They include such enterprises as a tribal sawmill on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona (now nearing completion), an arts and crafts cooperative in Alaska, and a plant manufacturing beauty products on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina. All of them are enterprises which will bring tangible benefits to Indians in the form of increased tribal income or more jobs for tribal members or both, and invaluable work experience.

One item I want to be sure to include in this two-year progress report is Indian housing. Although the programs of the Federal Government in the field of housing were initiated during the decade of the 1930's, their benefits were withheld from Indian reservations for nearly three decades, chiefly because of complications arising from the trust status of Indian lands. Since 1961, however, these difficulties have been effectively resolved. Today, Indians on reservations are eligible as are other citizens for mortgage insurance in the building or improvement of homes under the programs of the Federal Housing Administration. They are in a position to form tribal housing authorities and establish low-rent Projects under the programs of the Public Housing Administration. Two such projects on Indian reservations are now actively under way. Altogether 11 tribal housing authorities have requested loans from the Public Housing Administration for 861 dwelling units.

Over and beyond this, we have been working closely with the Public Housing Administration on a new program that is likely to prove even more broadly beneficial on Indian reservations. This is a mutual-help program based on the same principle as the old-fashioned barn-raising when a group of neighbors got together and polled their manpower and resources on a common project. On Indian reservations self-help housing will be a joint enterprise involving a group of Indian families, a tribal organization, the Public Housing Administration, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. BIA will organize and supervise the projects; PHA will provide loan funds for the purchase of materials and the employment of skilled labor; the tribe will make the land available; and the individual Indians will furnish the bulk of the labor working as a team. Monthly payments will be modest and the plan contemplates that the Indian occupant will own his home free and clear in 16 to 18 years. Because the rents that have to be charged even in low-rent public housing projects are beyond the reach of most Indian families on the reservations, we believe that this new program is needed as a supplement to bring about a nationally significant volume of Indian housing improvement over the next five or ten years.

From this brief survey I hope it will be apparent that we are not just drifting along with the tide in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, performing our custodial functions as the trustees of Indian property, and trying to stay out of difficulty. We have expanded and re-energized the developmental activities of the Bureau we have broken new ground; and I believe we have made measurable and encouraging progress over the past two years toward the three prime goals I mentioned earlier.

But we are not complacent.

In the field of school construction, for example, despite our good progress over the past years, we have not yet caught up with the needs of the rapidly increasing school-age Indian population for classroom and dormitory space. The earliest date when we could reasonably hope to do so is the fall of 1965. There was too big a backlog of unmet need in 1961. Moreover, the school-age population growth since that time on the reservations has been too rapid for us to get on top of this problem in just two years. Once we do, we will still be faced, of course, with the need to keep pace with the population increases of the future and we will still have overcrowded and obsolete structures to repair and replace.

In addition, we have to worry about a drop-out rate in our Federal Indian schools which runs about 50 percent higher than the national average. We have a great deal more to do in improving our techniques of English language instruction. We need many more counsellors in the dormitories of our boarding schools. I am hopeful that the proposed National Service Corps can eventually provide us with additional manpower for this purpose.

On the economic development side, the needs are almost overwhelming. I mentioned earlier that we now have over 1,000 Indians working in manufacturing plants on or near the reservations and that we have another 5,500 at work on comparatively short-range projects under the Accelerated Public Works Program. Measured against these encouraging statistics, we have some others which are not quite so exhilarating. One is the fact that the average annual income of Indian families on reservations is still somewhere between one-fourth and one third of the comparable national figure. And the current rate of unemployment on the reservations is about 40 percent, which is roughly seven or eight times the present national average. So you can see that, as far as income and employment are concerned, we have actually moved only a few feet on a mile-long journey. When we look at the needs and the opportunities for resource development, a similar picture comes into focus. On the Colorado River Reservation in western Arizona, we have the oldest federally sponsored irrigation project in the United States. It was started right after the Civil War, in 1867. Today, as it approaches the centennial mark, it is still only about one-third completed; in fact, we do not have one major irrigation project, out of the many dozens that have been started on Indian lands, that has been developed all the way to its full potential. We also have great unmet needs in the development of forest and range resources, in the exploration for economically valuable minerals, and in realizing the tremendous tourism potentials that lie in Indian country.

For the fact is that Indian reservations with their 742,000 acres of lakes, their 7,400 miles of rivers and streams, their 13 million acres of timberland, and their mountain and desert scenery now provide us with some of the most desirable open space we still have left here in the United states. In the years ahead one of our major objectives will be to develop these potentials into a major outdoor recreation resource of the Nation and a source of both income and employment for the Indian owners.

To bring about widespread and large-scale economic development of Indian reservations, tremendous financing will obviously be needed. Some of it will have to come from public funds, but the major part of the financing will probably have to come from private sources, either in the form of loans or as venture capital. Even with the recent increase in our revolving loan fund, we in the Indian Bureau are in much the same position as a small country banker who has in his neighborhood a huge mining complex, a major real estate development and a large industrial corporation. As matters stand today, we cannot meet adequately the financial demands for Indian developments.

One important potential source of funds for the financing of tribal programs and tribal enterprises is the judgment money resulting from claims filed against the United States by tribes with the Indian Claims Commission. For the most part these are claims based on inadequate compensation for lands which the tribes sold to the national government many years ago. The Indian Claims Commission was established in 1946 for the specific purpose of adjudicating such claims.

So far net awards have been granted in 43 cases and Congress has appropriated nearly $86 million by way of compensation. But there are still 641 claims awaiting final settlement and among these are some of the biggest claims filed with the Indian Claims Commission--several of them potentially larger than any judgments that have been awarded to date.

As trustees for Indian property, we in the Bureau have a clear-cut responsibility to safeguard the Indian beneficiaries against a dissipation of these funds. One way in which they can be dissipated with little or no lasting benefit is through a blanket per capita distribution of the entire amount to the individual beneficiaries. A single example will, I believe, serve to illustrate the point. One of the largest awards so far made by the Indian Claims Commission was in the amount of nearly $15 million. Now, this sounds like a good round sum which might well put a number of Indians in a highly advantageous economic position. But the difficulty is that the beneficiaries of this award are the Indians of this particular tribe who were on the tribal rolls when they were closed nearly 60 years ago. There were nearly 42,000 of them at that time. Needless to say, the great majority of these original enrollees are no longer alive and the shares of those who have died must be distributed among their heirs in the same way as any other inheritance. So the net result is that some individuals will be entitled to payments of less than $10 each, and practically no one will receive more than $280.

Another way in which tribal funds can be dissipated is through a liquidation 0f all the tribal assets and a division of the proceeds among the members. This kind of program is beneficial to those Indians who have left the reservation but decidedly unfair to those who have stayed behind because it leaves them resident but without an economic base. A much more equitable and broadly beneficial way of handling these judgment moneys, we believe, is to use them in part for the financing of tribal enterprises which can yield regular income for all tribal members over an extended period and in part for planned program of family expenditure by tribal members both on and off the reservation.

I could go on endlessly with the ramifications of this perplexing and fascinating field of human affairs. I hesitate to describe such a complex aspect of our national life in a phrase because, as everyone in this room knows, there are as many problems in Indian affairs as there are human beings concerned. Each has his own problem--each, perhaps, has his own solution. But if I were compelled to describe this phenomenon in a phrase I would say it is "Poverty in the midst of abundance."

A small but historically and emotionally significant segment of our population has been largely left behind the major economic and social advances made in the United States during the first three-fifths of the twentieth century. The conscience of the American people is from time to time aroused over injustices to the First Americans. One such great reappraisal was made in the late 1920's and early 1930’s. Now, the country is again going through a reappraisal of the Indians' well-being.

As Commissioner, I welcome the awakening of the national conscience and the spotlight that is focused on the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the revitalized bureau of today we are determined to bring the reservation communities into the stream of social and economic advance, so that they, too, may be swept along to a better life and a brighter future. Our goals have been stated and our programs have been tested to the point where we know they will work if they are adequately funded and efficiently executed. We intend to meet that challenge.

Transfer of Will J. Pitner, area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Anadarko, Okla., for the past nine years, to the national office of the Bureau at Washington, D. C., and appointment of Leslie P. Towle, superintendent of the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, to succeed him, were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

On August 18, Pitner will become chief of the branch of land operations, Succeeding Evan L. Flory, who recently retired. Towle's transfer will be effective August 26. His successor at Pine Ridge has not yet been named.

Towle, 61 years old, has been superintendent at Pine Ridge since 1957. He joined the Bureau in 1933 as an auditor accountant at Billings, Mont. In 1938 he transferred to the national office of the Bureau as senior administrative assistant in the branch of roads and five years later was named assistant director of the branch. In 1946 he moved to Portland, Oreg., as district administrative officer and three years later was promoted to assistant area director. After six years in this post he transferred to a similar position at Aberdeen, S. Dak., and stayed there two years before becoming superintendent at Pine Ridge. He was born at Littleport, Iowa, and was graduated from the University of Iowa in 1922.

Pitner entered the Indian Service in 1940 after being graduated from the University of Nebraska. He served with the Marine Corps in World War II and saw action in China. After the war he returned to the Bureau as soil conservationist at the Winnebago Agency, Nebraska. After a year there and one at Rosebud Agency, Rosebud, S. Dak., he transferred to Albuquerque, N. Mex., in 1948, as area soil conservationist and in 1952 returned to Rosebud as superintendent. Two years later he was promoted to area director at Anadarko. He was born in Atwood, Kans., in 1914, and attended public schools in Stratton, Nebraska.

Approval of $1,852,000 in additional Accelerated Public Works projects was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. The funds will be invested in a wide range of forest conservation activities in 19 States. Most of the work is scheduled to begin within 30 days.

Secretary Udall said the projects will provide approximately 4,200 man months of on-site employment and generate additional jobs by creating a demand for goods and services.

Projects included in today's announcement cover improvements to public lands, national parks, national monuments, wildlife refuges, and Indian reservations. Besides providing much-needed employment, they will improve facilities used by millions of hikers, picnickers, and campers; help promote tourism, and conserve the Nation's timber and water resources, Secretary Udall said.

Thus far, the Department of Interior has received a total allocation of $63 million in APW funds from the Area Redevelopment Administration, which has overall charge of the program. Approximately $51 million of this has now been committed to specific projects.

The 67 projects included in today's announcement are located in approximately that many counties. Four bureaus of the Department of Interior are involved. The largest share of the work--34 projects, valued at $1,337,000--will be in areas administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife is in charge of 22 projects, representing an investment of $945,000; the National Park Service has six, totaling $350,000; and the Bureau of Land Management has five, involving $220,000 in betterments.

Following are the latest projects, arranged on a State by-State basis.

ALASKA

Central

The Bureau of Land management plans to build a new warehouse and garage at Central, northeast of Fairbanks, which will be used to store firefighting equipment. This project, valued at $23,000, will provide an estimated 12 man months of employment, and is scheduled to start in November. The facilities should be completed in February 1964.

ARIZONA

Fort Apache Reservation

Forests on the Fort Apache Reservation, in Apache, Navajo, and Gila Counties, will be thinned and reseeded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to remove fire hazards and enhance their commercial, recreational, and ecological values. The work in each county involves about 84 man-months of labor and represents an investment of $50,000. All three projects are scheduled to start in 30 days.

Hualapai Reservation

Similar activity is planned by the Bureau of Indian .Affairs on the Hualapai Reservation in Coconino and Mojave Counties, The former project, valued at $7,000, will provide 12 man-months of employment, and the latter, representing an investment of $20,000, 36 man-months’ work. Both are scheduled to start in about 30 days.

Navajo Reservation

The Wheatfield’s Timber Access Road will be built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Apache County portion of the Navajo Reservation, and construction of various forest protection truck trails is planned on the Navajo and Coconino County portions of the reservation. The first project is valued at $400,000. It will provide 684 man months of employment and start in JO days. The other two, beginning about the same time, involve a total investment of $100,000 and 178 man-months of labor.

ARKANSAS

White River National Wildlife Refuge

A previously approved $50,000 forest preservation project at the White River National Wildlife Refuge, involving replanting, removal of fire hazards, and related work, has been expanded, the job has been increased to a total of $110,000, and will provide an extra 60 man-months of employment.

­­­­ CALIFORNIA

Trinity

About 250 acres in Trinity County will be reforested with Ponderosa Pine seedlings by the Bureau of Land Management. Additional surfacing and grading work on Brock Gulch Access Road is also scheduled. The total value of the project is $70,000, and it will provide 36 man-months of employment. This is an expansion of a previously-approved, $101,000 APW allotment.

Shasta

An additional $17,000 is to be invested by the Bureau of Land Management in replanting and road maintenance work in Shasta County. Previously, $40,000 had been approved for this project. The addition will provide an extra 12 man-months of employment.

Humbolt

Picnic tables, benches, stone fireplaces and other campground facilities will be provided in Humbolt County by the Bureau of Land Management. This work, valued at $80,000, will provide 84 man-months of employment.

Tuolumne

An additional $30,000 worth of grading on Big Jackass Creek Road is planned the Bureau of Land Management in Tuolumne County. The original allotment was$100,000. Twelve more man-months of employment will be created, some of which will be used to eradicate bark beetle infestation in evergreen timber adjoining the road.

FLORIDA

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

A forest preservation project is scheduled at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson County by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. The work is valued at $25,000 and will provide 30 man-months of employment.

Everglades National Park

The National Park Service plans to improve fire-control facilities in Ever­glades National Park for $200,000. Approximately 180 man-months of employment will be created.

GEORGIA

Blackbeard National Wildlife Refuge

Forested areas at Blackbeard National Wildlife Refuge in McIntosh County will be replanted and selectively thinned by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. Forty eight man-months of employment will be provided by this $40,000 project.

­­­­­­­­ Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge

Similar forest preservation work is scheduled at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, also in McIntosh County. This job, representing an investment of $25,000, will provide 30 man months of employment.

Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge

The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife will undertake a $30,000 forest preservation project at the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County, valued at $30,000 and creating 36 man-months of employment.

IDAHO

Nez Perce Reservation

The Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Nez Perce Reservation in Clearwater, Idaho, and Lewis Counties plans to thin timber, reseed, remove snags, and improve multiple use development of the forested areas. The total value of the three projects is $60,000 they will provide 108 man months of employment.

ILLINOIS

Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refugee

Timbered areas in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, Williamson County, will be thinned, reseeded, and better-protected against various natural hazards by the Bureau Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, under $50,000 expansion of a previously approved APW project. The total value of the work is now $165,000. The addition will provide approximately 60 man months of employment.

KENTUCKY

Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge

The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and wildlife plans to invest $5,000 in a forest preservation project at Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge in Fulton County. It will provide six man months of employment and is scheduled to begin in September.

MAINE

Washington County

Forest preservation work valued at $100,000 and providing 120 man-months of employment will be undertaken in Washington County by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. It is scheduled to begin in September.

Acadia National Park

Fire roads and trails will be rehabilitated and fire hazards reduced in Acadia National Park, Hancock County, by the National Park Service. This work, valued at $28,000, will provide 90 man-months of employment. It is scheduled to begin within 30 days.

MARYLAND

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Wooded areas along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a popular tourist attrac­tion near Washington, D. C., will be cleared of debris by the National Park Service. This project represents an investment of $50,000. It will provide 132 man-months of employment and is scheduled to begin within 30 days.

MICHIGAN

Seney National Wildlife Refuge

Forested areas in Seney National Wildlife Refuge, near Escanaba, will be reseeded, selectively thinned, and upgraded by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. The work is valued at $100,000 and will provide 120 man-months of employment.

MINNESOTA

Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge

At the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Aitkin County, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife is expanding a previously approved forest preserva­tion project by $70,000. Total value of the work is now $110,000, and the addition will create 84 additional man-months of employment.

MISSOURI

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge

A $40,000 forest preservation project at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Wayne County has been expanded to provide an extra 48 man-months of employment. Total value of this Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife project is now $115,000.

NORTH CAROLINA

Eastern Cherokee Reservation

Forested areas on the Eastern Cherokee Reservation in Swain County will be thinned, reseeded, and prepared for multiple-use development by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under a $200,000 APW allotment providing 60 man-months of employment.

Blue Ridge Parkway

New scenic vistas will be cleared and the soil and moisture balance of forested areas will be improved along the Blue Ridge Parkway by the National Park Service. This work, valued at $20,000, will provide 24 man-months of employment and is scheduled to begin within 30 days.

Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge

At the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County, $50,000 will be invested in thinning and replanting forested areas. This Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife project will provide 60 man-months of employment and is scheduled to get underway in September.

OKLAHOMA

Five Civilized Tribes Reservation

The Latimer and Le Flore County areas of the Five Civilized Tribes Reservation will be the site of a $200,000 APW project administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and involving work on the Bengal-Talihina Timber Access Road. A total of 360 man-months of employment will be provided by this construction activity, scheduled to begin in 30 days. A major expansion of visitor-use facilities is planned on those areas of the reservation in Atoka, Coal, Choctaw, Bryan, Delaware, McCurtain, Pontotoc, Pittsburg, Pushmataha, and Sequoyah counties. This work, valued at $100,000, will provide 170 man-months of employment timbered areas also will be thinned and replanted and existing safeguards against fire will be improved. Approximately 170 man-months of employment will be generated by this activity as well. It represents an investment of $100,000. The value of the work in each of the 10 counties is $20,000, and the corresponding employment figure is 34 man-months.

PENNSYLVANIA

Erie National Wildlife Refuge

At the Erie National Wildlife Refuge, in Crawford County, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife has a $50,000 forest preservation project planned. It is scheduled to start in September and will provide 60 man-months of employment.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge

A previously authorized forest preservation project at the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge has been expanded to provide an additional 120 man-months of employment. The new work will involve an investment of $100,000, bringing the total value of the project to $300,000.

Santee National Wildlife Refuge

Forested areas at the Santee National Wildlife Refuge in Berkley County will be cleared of snags, and protected against timber pests by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. This $35,000 APW project will provide 42 man-months of employment. Similar work is planned in the Clarendon County area of the Refuge. Here, $40,000 is to be invested in a project involving 45 man months of employment. Both jobs are scheduled to begin in September.

TENNESSE

Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge

Approximately $115,000 in forest preservation work is planned by the

Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife at the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge in Humphreys, Benton. Henry, and Decatur Counties, The individual figures are Humphreys, $20,000 and 24 man-months; Benton, $25,000 and 30 man-months; Henry, $60,000 end 72 man-months; Decatur, $10,000 and 12 man-months.

Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge

In the Lake and Obion County areas of Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife plans additional forest preservation work valued at $20,000 and providing 24 man-months of employment. Half of the labor and half of the investment is earmarked for each county. This project is separate from that authorized for the Kentucky portion of the refuge,

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Fire trails will be built and improved at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Claiborne County by the National Park Service, This project, valued at $12,000, will provide 44 man--months of employment.

Shiloh National Park

Additional picnic and sanitary facilities will be built at Shiloh National Park in Hardin County, and several abandoned roads will be obliterated by the National Park Service to remove fire hazards. Approximately $40,000 will be invested in this project. It will provide 84 man-months of employment.

The Department of the Interior today invited the submission of proposals for leasing and development of three separate parcels of undeveloped Indian land comprising nearly 13,000 acres with a frontage of about 10 miles along the Colorado River in the States of Arizona, California and Nevada.

The tracts being offered are within the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation about 10 miles north of Needles, Calif., and 66 miles west of Kingman, Ariz. The lands have excellent possibilities for recreational, commercial, business and residential development not only because of the frontage on the river but also because of the proximity of major population centers in the three States.

The lease or leases to be granted will be for 25 years with an option for 25-year renewal. Interested parties are invited to write the Superintendent, Colorado River Indian Agency, Parker, Arizona. He will provide full details and "a copy of the lease form to be used.

Each proposal must be accompanied by the following:

1. A preliminary planned schedule for general development of the areas, including annual development expenditures for at least the first five. (5) years of the term of the lease.
2. A proposal for the payment of a fixed annual ground rental for each specified area. Only ground rental commensurate with a fair return on the present capital value of the land will be considered.
3. A proposal for the payment of a percentage of the gross receipts as defined in the lease form, from all operations on or involving the leased area, including but not limited to hotels, motels, apartment buildings, trailer or mobile homes, marinas, stores and other retail establishments, and all entertainment, food and service enterprises.
4. A proposal for the payment of a percentage of the rental that may be received for residences or lots for residences, apart from those in No. 3 above.

Bids will be received at the Colorado River Indian Agency until 10 a.m., May 25, 1961. Each bid must be accompanied by a cashier's check or certified check made payable to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the amount of the bidder's proposed ground rental for the first year.

Offering of the Fort Mojave Indian lands for long-term leasing was made possible by the Act of August 9, 1955 (69 stat. 539) which authorized leasing of Indian lands for terms up to 25 years with a possibility of a 25-year renewal. Under previous law such leases were generally limited to a 5-year term.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has already assigned staff to prepare plans that will provide 5,000 additional school seats for Indian and Eskimo pupils and correct unsafe and obsolete Federal Indian school facilities in line with yesterday’s mandate from President Kennedy, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Swift action was possible, Secretary Udall added, because the Bureau has for some time been formulating long-range plans for expanding and modernizing its nationwide school system for Indian youngsters.

As soon as the plans have been completed, the Secretary said, a specific request for funds will be submitted to Congress. It is expected that Indian Bureau planning to meet the needs will be completed in a week or ten days.

“The most urgent needs, II he continued, "are in the Navajo area of New Mexico and Arizona where we have a shortage of about 3,700 seats and in Alaska where we need roughly 1,000. About 300 additional seats are needed in the Choctaw area of Mississippi and in other scattered locations."

The five-man task force now studying the organization and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of meetings with Indian tribal representatives at seven key points throughout the western half of the country starting March 20, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The meetings will be held at Oklahoma City on March 20 and 21; at Albuquerque, N. Mex., on March 22 and 23; at Prescott, Ariz., on March 24 and 25; at Pierre, S. Dak., on March 27 and 28; at Duluth, Minn., on March 29 and 30; at Spokane, Wash., on April 10 and 11; and at Reno, Nev., on April 13 and lit.

Indian tribal representatives in the regions around each of these cities are being invited by Secretary Udall to take part in the sessions.

The task force was appointed by Secretary Udall in early February and has been meeting continuously over the past several weeks in Washington, D. C. The chairman is W. W. Keeler, executive vice president of Phillips Petroleum Co. Other members are Philleo Nash, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin; James Officer, Arizona anthropologist; William Zimmerman, Jr., former Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and John O. Crow, present Acting Commissioner of the Indian Bureau.

The task force has been charged with recommending plans for reorganizing the Bureau and for improving its policies and programs.

To have the opportunity to address the group that represents so many of America's first citizens is indeed an honor for the Secretary of the Interior.

It is good to have the opportunity to get away from Washington, D. C. and out in the land, with you - America's first citizens. It is good to join you in celebrating this 25th anniversary of the NCAI.

Through your organization, America's Indians, individually and collectively have made great strides, unfortunately, the NCAI and all of the other Indian groups, for too long have been trying to carve out their niche alone.

Government, in my judgment, has not met its responsibilities in helping you to secure your goals. In this respect, and before I go any further, I want to make one thing crystal clear: This Administration is dedicated to improving -- not destroying -- that special relationship that exists between Government, the Indians, and the land.

We are not a pro-termination Administration. Several weeks ago, I was quoted in the press to the effect that "Hickel is for termination." Let me set the record straight here this afternoon so that there will not be any further misunderstanding. Neither I, nor this Administration, have a pro-termination policy.

Such a policy can only be established by the Indian community itself, through a clear mandate on the part of your people.

Another way of putting it is that I personally, as Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is under my jurisdiction, do not intend to tell you what to do. Rather, we will listen to you, work with you, and implement the policies which, through mutual understanding, will be designed to further improve your state in life.

I also want you to know that President Nixon agrees with me completely in this line of policy thinking. He put it so well when he said that he will "help the Indian people reach the set goals that they themselves have set and will set."

Not all the publicity surrounding the Secretary's job has been the most favorable as we build this new Administration.

One cartoon I saw showed one Indian saying to another: "If you liked Custer, you'll love Hickel." I hope that such cartoons will soon read: "If you like Indians, you'll love Hickel."

I have searched long and hard to find the right man to represent all of America's Indians as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In some areas, this delay has caused a rightful concern.

Happily, out of our search, and with your help -- came Louis R. Bruce. He is a man many of you know and have worked with as a founder of this National Congress of American Indians.

And I want to tell all of you that Commissioner. Bruce has my support and my ear.

I have told the Commissioner that I will insist that the American Indians have an important place in determining and making Indian policy, and implement Indian programs.

There will be no plans concerning Indians without having Indians in the planning. There will be no programs for Indians without Indians running the program.

I believed in Indian participation while I was Governor of Alaska, and I had many Indians on the staff in my Administration.

All American Indians can be assured that I have lost none of my beliefs. I know that you have the ability and I intend to utilize your talents.

Let me issue you an invitation to work with us, to begin to take action now for a rewarding future.

In our planning, I have taken two steps. First, I have announced the establishment of an Advisory Committee made up of your chosen representatives and Interior Department representatives.

Second, I have named Morris Thompson, an Alaskan Indian (who is sitting right here), as my Special Advisor on Indian Affairs in Washington. He will remain here in Albuquerque this week and will be available to meet with you.

Only you know who your best spokesmen are. Tell Morris who they are. And tell him what items the Committee should face up to.

When he returns to Washington, Morris, Commissioner Bruce, Assistant Secretary Harrison Loesch and I will sit down and set up a meeting of the Advisory Committee.

We want this first meeting to be soon. And at each meeting we want your chosen representatives telling me the policies you want implemented.

We will also be in constant touch with the Vice President's Council on Indian Opportunity so our programs will be coordinated. I know that Vice President Agnew's aid will be invaluable.

There must be no conflicts with individuals or agencies, no interests greater to Interior than improving the quality of life for the American Indian.

First, there must be a general rise in the quantity and quality of education, and Indians must participate in that rise.

Indians must direct school boards. Indian parents and tribal leaders should be involved in school affairs.

Indian curriculums must be geared to the needs -- both occupational and cultural -- of the Indian.

And, we should remember that education can be both vocational and academic.

Good education is a community effort. And the school must be part of the community. This is being done at Rough Rock. It can be done elsewhere.

Next, we must make sure that unemployment doesn't start when education ends.

It is time to stop thinking merely of "economic development." Lets start thinking in terms of jobs.

For those reservations that don't want industry, we must make other plans.

Together we can develop plans so that Indians themselves contract to provide services in and around the reservations. We can establish more employment for Indians by having them meet the needs of other Indians.

It is important that we build for the future as well as the present. It is important that we build for pride.

Without quality, as well as quantity, there can be no pride in your home. Without challenge and diversity, there can be no pride. Without pride in your home, it is doomed to a life of neglect and disrepair. We must work together to build that house.

As important as jobs and education and housing are, land and water daily affect each and every one of you. But the needs and problems vary from tribe to tribe and area to area.

As trustee for Indian Tribes, I have a duty to protect and defend your rights against all efforts to diminish or destroy them. I will fulfill that duty.

Many of you know that as your Secretary, I have fought hard to get a generous settlement of the Alaskan land claims.

I have worked for legislation to get surplus government lands for the Indian tribes, with favorable legislative reports from our Department on such projects as Cheyenne River, Fort Berthold Laguna, Pueblo, Standing Rock, and Taos Pueblo.

And I have called a hearing at the request of the Fort Mojave Indians. They will be heard.

There are many other concerns in protecting the Indian land rights. I have been greatly troubled by the threat to Pyramid Lake in Nevada. I had opportunity to see the Lake and to meet with the Pyramid Lake Indians prior a meeting with the Governors of California and Nevada concerning the use of water in this basin.

There has been some misunderstanding of this complex matter, but I want you all to know that I am standing firm on providing sufficient water for the preservation of Pyramid Lake and protecting the rights of the Pyramid Lake Tribe.

I want to thank you for the Pyramid Lake Resolution No. 31 that passed last year's NCAI convention and was sent to me. It helped me adopt my policy.

Let me use this meeting to pledge to you that the American Indian will not be the "Forgotten American" in this Administration.

I worked hard as Governor of Alaska to improve native conditions there, now as your Secretary, I have the same will to bring full citizenship to
American Indians.

There are many other needs -- needs for all Indians, needs for just one tribe, needs for just one Indian.

The challenge to meet the needs is ours--yours and mine. I gladly accept that challenge and I know that you do, too.

With your ideas and your trust, we can make words come to life.

I can help. But, in the final analysis, the future of the Indians -- America's First Citizens -- must be shaped by the Indians, for the Indians.

A legal brief strongly supporting Navajo Indian voting rights was filed March 10 by Secretary Stewart L. Udall in the New Mexico election contest between Joseph A. Montoya and seated Lt. Governor Tom Bolack, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Secretary Udall’s brief relied heavily upon the words of his late father, Chief Justice Levi S. Udall of the Arizona Supreme Court, whose 1948 decision confirmed the Indians' right to vote in that State.

Secretary Udall is appearing in the case as a friend of the court. Oral arguments will be heard March 14 in Albuquerque before District Judge John B. McManus.

Secretary Udall has designated Max N. Edwards, Assistant to the Secretary and Legislative Counsel, to represent him at this hearing where arguments will be focused on matters questioning the legal residence of the Navajos and the constitutionality of a New Mexico law prohibiting "Indians not taxed” from voting.

Montoya lost the November election by 287 votes and his suit against Bolack challenges the voting rights of over 29,959 Navajos residing on the New Mexico part of the Navajo Reservation.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today expressed gratification over the selection of Mrs. Clara B. Gonzales, a school principal on the Zuni Indian Reservation in New Mexico, as one of the recipients of Seventh Annual Career Service Awards which are being presented by the National Civil Service League at a Washington banquet ceremony on March 21.

Mrs. Gonzales, Secretary Udall pointed out, is the first woman employee of the Department of the Interior, and the first person from the ranks of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to receive this award over the seven-year period of its history.

A native of Paulina, Louisiana, Mrs. Gonzales has served in the school system on the Zuni Reservation for more than 37 years. Starting as a teacher at a salary of $760 a year, she was given steadily broadening responsibilities over the years until 1955, when she was appointed top administrator of the Indian Bureau's school program on the reservation. For the past year the Bureau has had no direct school operations at Zuni, and Mrs. Gonzales has been serving in a liaison role with the public school authorities.

During her long period of service, Secretary Udall said, Mrs. Gonzales has made outstanding contributions to help Indian adults as well as students broaden their horizons and adjust to the changing world around them. When she came to Zuni in 1923 only a small percentage of the Indian children were enrolled in school. In recent years the rate of enrollment has been generally higher than in nearby non-Indian communities, and is now virtually 100 percent.

Mrs. Gonzales is traveling to Washington with her husband for the award ceremony. Secretary Udall is a member of the Washington sponsorship committee for the awards banquet.

The Department of the Interior today announced a change in the schedule of meetings to be held in March and April by the five-man task force on Indian affairs at key western points.

The locale of the March 24 and 25 meetings has been shifted from Prescott, Ariz., to Phoenix. Otherwise the schedule remain3 as announced in the Department's press release of March 10.