OPA

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith said today that a notice proclaiming the establishment of a reservation for the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe of Washington is being published in the Federal Register.

According to the notice, the new reservation would be comprised of five tracts of trust land totaling 99 acres in Skagit County. Four of the five parcels are located approximately seven miles north of the present tribal offices in Burlington, Washington. The other parcel is located two miles northeast of the town, Sedro Wolley.

The reservation is under the administrative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs area director in Portland, Oregon.

Interior Secretary James Watt, and Ken Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, flew into Navajo land for a brief visit September 17. En route from Phoenix to Denver, the Navajo stopover marked another leg of Watt's three-week tour of western states.

Watt was given a blessing by a Navajo medicine man, high on a chilly ridge facing a steep canyon wall. He and Smith visited the hogan of a traditional Navajo couple -- a home without electricity or running water and then were taken to the council chamber for a special evening session of the Navajo Tribal Council.

In visiting the Navajo Nation, though briefly, Watt was fulfilling promise he had made to Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald.

"As far as Indian affairs are concerned, we don't know what kind of job you will do," MacDonald commented in introducing Watt to the 87-member Navajo Tribal Council.

"We will not judge you," the Chairman continued. "We will give you every opportunity to write a new and great chapter in the nation's history."

He then went on to talk about the Former Joint Use Area, from which several thousand Navajos are facing forced relocation by act of Congress, and he called for a "blue-ribbon commission" to investigate the situation.

Watt made no promises, saying he would have to comply with the law, but said he would instruct Smith and the BIA "to move with understanding and compassion."

MacDonald, in his introductory remarks, also alluded to Federal budget cuts which have already had an impact on the reservation. He noted that the reservation has no private sector to take up the slack for withdrawn federal funds.

MacDonald called for continued support of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project in northwest New Mexico for which funding has been severely reduced. Watt replied he would support this project with available funds.

With Ken Smith at his side, the Interior Secretary praised him as a good advocate for Indians and called him "a good advisor" and "a good counselor" on Indian affairs.

Smith, who carne to his position after a successful career as general manager of the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes, said the Bureau could look for further budget cuts as "President Reagan seeks to turn the economy around" and he called for good leadership and good fiscal management among tribes and reduced dependency on the federal government.

Smith, a Wasco Indian, said he knew he was on an Indian reservation as soon as he got off the plane -- "sagebrush, poor roads, no running water and no electricity."

Watt was dressed more appropriately for Phoenix, from which he had come, than for the high altitude of Window Rock. Coatless and in shirtsleeves, he was given an outdoor blessing ceremony by Navajo medicine man Robert Shirley. He stood beside a small juniper tree while Shirley intoned the Navajo "prayer of protection." Later, he was given an eagle feather and an arrowhead to protect him.

The visit with MacDonald rounded out Watt and Smith's meetings with all tribal chairmen in Arizona, having lunched with the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona earlier in the day at Phoenix.

The entourage from the Window Rock airport to the site consisted of a car carrying MacDonald's wife Wanda, the hostess, Watt, his wife, Smith and greeter Caleb Roanhorse, followed by about a dozen other cars. It rambled along a rutted, dirt road, past goats and horses and a few homesteads the high ridge where the ceremony was held.

On the way back the trailing car was stopped by a Navajo resident.

"What in the world is going on here?" the man asked.

Told that the "big land boss" and the "big Indian boss" had been taken on a tour of the countryside the man seemed pacified, then commented: "I hope you told him about this road!"

Others traveling in the Secretary's party were Steve Shipley, executive assistant to the Secretary; Doug Baldwin, Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Public Affairs; Ralph Smith, Assistant to the Secretary; and Carl Shaw, Assistant to Smith.

Dr. S. Gabe Paxton, Jr., a Choctaw Indian, has been appointed to serve as Deputy Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, Kenneth L. Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced today.

Most recently, Paxton held positions of Area Vocational Development Officer and Area Indian Self Determination Officer at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Muskogee Area Office in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1977 he was the Associate Deputy Commissioner for Indian Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Since joining the Bureau in 1953, Paxton has served in positions of increasing responsibility at the Colorado River Agency, Hopi Agency, and Pima Agency in Arizona, at Sherman Indian High School in California, and at the Sequoyah Indian School in Oklahoma. From 1970 to 1974 he was the Assistant Area Director for Education at the Bureau's Anadarko Area Office in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Paxton received a B.S. degree from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1951, a M.A. degree from Northern Arizona University in 1964, and a Doctor of Education Degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1974.

He was born January 18, 1925, in Talihina, Oklahoma.

Cuts in federal funding for Indian education programs cannot be allowed to affect the quality of education being provided to young people, Kenneth L. Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said today.

Addressing the National Indian Education Association conference in Portland, Oregon, Smith said budget reductions are coming and Indian education would have to shoulder its share.

"But it is my hope and belief that diminished federal funding does not mean the quality of the education we provide our children must also suffer," he said. "Good education primarily depends on people. Honey helps, but people who care make the difference."

Smith told the educators that forthcoming budget cuts would be "deep and substantial" and added that some programs must be sacrificed in order to save others more central to the mission of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"Expensive post-secondary specialty schools, such as the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, may have to be closed," Smith said. "Boarding schools may be consolidated as those with small student populations are shut down."

However, Smith said he felt confident that Indian education could meet the challenge of the 1980s by continuing the progress established in the past decade.

"The progress of the American Indian community in education in the 1970s was fantastic," he said. "The most obvious evidence of this can be found on college and university campuses where more than 40,000 Indians are now enrolled. It is up to us to continue the work that has begun so well. "

Smith said specific objectives in BIA education programs would include the reduction of overhead and administrative costs, the reduction of the ratio of administrative personnel to teachers, and a paring back of bureaucratic layers even further than already accomplished.

"Above all, I want to work to build up tribal governments so they can more effectively and ably direct the education programs their people," he said.

The Assistant Secretary said that since taking office he has stressed the point that the federal government's role is auxiliary and that tribal governments have the primary responsibility for the social and economic well being of Indians on reservations.

"I think it is very important that the Indian community accepts and recognizes this primary responsibility for the education of Indian children," he said. "The federal government has an important helping role, and the states also have a clear responsibility, but the Indian community must make the decisions, provide the leadership, and shape the education your children receive."

Smith did point out, however, that the federal government would not abdicate its responsibility for providing education to Indian young people.

"There is a long history of federal law that specifically sets out the responsibility of the U.S. government for Indian education, he said.” I do not intend to abridge those laws or diminish that responsibility."

Smith said in spite of the fact that he was not a professional educator he had a strong commitment to Indian education.

"I am not a professional educator, but I am a professional manager and good management is needed in schools as well as in factories and offices," Smith said. "I am convinced we can improve the use of our educational resources through improved management.

"Even with reductions in federal funding, we can -- and we will - have improved schools and education programs for Indian students," he added.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is publishing in the Federal Register October 14, a proposed rule to establish procedures for the preparation of a roll of Mohave Indian descendants enrolled as members of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The Mohave Indians placed on this roll would share with the members of the Fort Mohave Indian Tribe an award of $468,358 from the Indian Claims Commission.

According to the proposed rule, the BIA's Colorado River Agency Superintendent will publish a list of persons determined as meeting the qualifications for enrollment. Persons who believe they are qualified but are not on the list could then appeal the omission within thirty days and submit information supporting their claim.

Comments on the proposed rule should be sent to the Division of Tribal Government Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1951 Constitution Avenue, Washington, D. C. 20245

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kenneth L. Smith today pledged involvement of tribal leaders through a more effective consultation process and warned that budget cuts will require sound management of all Indian programs.

Addressing the 38th annual convention of the National Congress of American Indians in Anchorage, Alaska, Smith said he had made consultation with tribes a priority item and stressed the need for recommendations and suggestions from tribal leaders.

“We are going to do things openly," Smith said, "so you can see and know and comment.”

He said one way of achieving the goal of keeping tribes better informed would be to establish better communication with Bureau of Indian Affairs area and agency staffs.

“We are going to involve our line officers at the area and agency levels much more in the consultation process," he said. "Unfortunately, in the past they have sometimes been the last ones to know about plans or actions of the central office. We intend to change that."

The top Indian official said that while he would actively seek the views and suggestions of tribal leaders, consultation did not mean asking for permission to make a decision.

“We cannot abdicate our management responsibility,” Smith said.

Smith said his office would have to apply principles of sound management to all programs to minimize the difficulty involved with spending reductions being sought by the Reagan administration.

“We are going to have to get our house in order very quickly,” he said, 'Because we must anticipate further reductions for the entire federal government in 1983 and 1984. We simply cannot afford wasteful management practices.”

He said that while the Bureau of Indian Affairs fared better than most agencies in the administration's first round of budget cutting, an additional 12 percent cut would have to be taken in the 1982 budget.

“We were also told that it had to be 12 percent from each of our major appropriation items," he said. “As a consequence, we couldn't take the easy way of making the cuts by taking most of them in construction,” He said the 12 percent cut required hard decisions that had to be made very quickly.

“We tried to protect those activities which we consider basic to our mission,” Smith said; “These would include our elementary and secondary schools, law enforcement, general assistance for needy people, payments for dependent and abused children, trust and natural resource programs, and the basic maintenance and operation of facilities and roads.”

The Assistant Secretary said he would be asking for volunteer tribes to experiment in 1982 with a consolidated block funding project.

“When this concept was introduced in our budget request earlier this year, it was tied in with the funding reduction . . . and encountered opposition,” he said. “We think its flexibility makes it a useful instrument for tribes and we are going to ask a few tribes to try the idea this year.”

Smith said he would request additional funding in 1983 to help small Indian tribes and to use as "seed" money to assist Indian enterprises.

“In fiscal 1983 we plan to request $5 million to provide a previously unavailable baseline of government support for small tribes which do not have the financial resources to maintain an adequate government,” he said.

“We also intend to seek $10 million for 'seed' money grants to assist Indian enterprises to realize opportunities for development of Indian resources," Smith said. “We anticipate requiring that at least 75% of the project funding be non-federal.”

Smith added that these grants would not be “giveaway money” and said an investment criteria similar to those used by banks would be adopted.

The Assistant Secretary said in anticipation of future reductions in the budget, his office was considering closing or consolidating several area offices by the end of fiscal year 1982. He also said additional savings would result from the closure of some off-reservation boarding schools operated by the BIA.

Smith said he would push for legislation to establish "enterprise zones" on reservations to provide tax credits and other tax incentives to investors.

“And we will support a bill to permit tribes to issue tax-free bonds as municipal and other local governments now do as a means of raising capital,” he said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has announced its intention to do an environmental impact statement on a proposal to allow commercial harvesting of anadromous fish on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northern California, has scheduled a series of 1 meetings in the area, December 7-14 to identify significant issues related to the proposed action and to determine the scope of the study.

BIA officials expect the draft EIS to be prepared and available for public review by the end of March, 1982.

Information concerning the public meetings, the proposed action, draft EIS or submission of written comments is available from Donald B. Knapp, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Cottage Way, Sacramento, California.

The schedule of public meetings is as follows : December 7, 1:00p.m., Bureau of Indian Affairs, Salmon Blvd. Klamath, California; December 7, 7:00p.m., Cultural Convention Center, Front and "K" Streets, Crescent, California; December 8, 1:00 p.m., Ramada Inn, Valley West Blvd., Arcata, California; December 9, 1:00 p.m., and 7:00p.m., Bureau of Indian Affairs, Loop Road, Hoopa, California; December 9, 7:00p.m., Jack Norton School, Pecwan, California; December 10, 1:00 p.m., Karok Tribe, Community Building, Orleans, California; December 10, 7:00p.m., Weitchpec Elementary School, Weitchpec, California; December 11, 7:00p.m., Happy Camp Elementary School, Happy Camp, California; December 1 1:00p.m., and 7:00p.m., Siskiyou County Court House, 311 Fourth Street, Yreka, California, December 1 7:00p.m., Civic 6484-439 Defense Hall, Weaverville, 2800 California.

A top Interior Department official from Washington, D. C. will be in Northern California December 1-3 to meet with state officials, Indian leaders and others about the management of the Klamath River fishery on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Roy Sampsel said the meetings would "provide opportunities for identifying problems and seeking coordinated approaches to improved management of this important resource.

Sampsel will be on the reservation December 1 and 2 to meet with staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Fish and Wildlife Service as well as representatives of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes. On December 3 he will be in Sacramento for meetings with representatives of the Governor's office, the California Fish and Game office, and the Pacific Fishing Management Council.

"We have a great concern," Sampsel said, "for the continued strength and viability of the Klamath fishery. We will be meeting with others who share this concern. I think that should be useful."

John W. Fritz, senior corporate counsel for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, has been named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Interior Secretary James G. Watt announced today.

Fritz, 33, will manage the day-to-day operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in his new Senior Executive Service (SES) position and will serve as one of two deputies to Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kenneth L. Smith. Fritz is a member of the Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma. ''We consider ourselves fortunate to find a person with the background and qualities of Mr. Fritz," Watt said. "This administration is committed to establishing a strong record in Indian affairs and I feel certain Mr. Fritz will be able to provide the kind of leadership and managerial expertise we need to fulfill our vital mission of responsibility to American Indian tribes."

He joins Roy H. Sampsel, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, working directly under Smith.

After graduating from the University Of Minnesota Law School in 1973 Fritz joined the 3M company in its office of general counsel in St. Paul, Minnesota; he was elevated to senior attorney last August.

In the summer of 1971, Fritz was employed as a law clerk in the Interior Field Solicitor's Office at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and in the summer of 1972 worked with the Interior Department's Indian Civil Rights Task Force in Washington, D. C.

Fritz is also a graduate of South Dakota State University at Brookings, South Dakota. His father, Eugene Fritz, was a noted athlete at Haskell Indian Institute in the 1930s and later became an educator and guidance counselor.

Following his graduation from law school in 1973, Fritz served in the U. S. Army at the Southeastern Signal School at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and is currently a Captain in a reserve unit, the Military Intelligence Corps, 523rd U. S. Army Security Agency in Minnesota.

He is a member of the American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, American Indian Bar Association, and Minnesota Bar Association. He is also a member of the Minnesota State Board of Law Examiners and the Minnesota State Bar Advisory Council. He was on the University of Minnesota Law School Dean Search Committee and is presently on the Board of Directors of the American Indian Lawyer Training Program and a member of the Governing Board of the American Indian Law Reporter.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt today awarded 23,000 timbered acres on Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska to the Sitka-based Shee-Atika Native Corporation in satisfaction of its selection rights under the 10-year-old Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

"This land transfer fulfills Interior Department obligations set forth by two separate Acts of Congress," Watt said. "The 1971 Native Claims Settlement Act gave this group of Tlingit Indians entitlement to 23,000 acres of land to be selected by their Native Corporation. Selection was frustrated by years of delay, as opponents filed repeated protests and appeals against Shee-Atika's original selection at Hood Bay on Admiralty Island.

"Eventually Shee-Atika was offered a different tract by Congress, this one on the northwest side of Admiralty Island, but the administrative obstacles continued. In passing the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, Congress specifically mandated the Secretary of the Interior to convey the selected lands to this corporation. We were ready to comply last August, but the Sierra Club and other opponents took their complaints to two administrative appeal boards. Finally, last week we exercised our jurisdiction at Shee-Atika's request to dismiss the appeals, and thereby cleared the matter for the action taken today."

Watt noted that Admiralty Island contains about 1 million acres, of which some 90 percent was formally designated wilderness by the 1980 law. The conveyance signed today implements Section 506 of that legislation.

"This decision exemplifies the kind of balance that must be struck between preservation and human needs," Watt said. "With the overwhelming majority of the island protected under law as wilderness, we also had to consider our obligation to the original Alaskans who live in that region and who depend upon its natural resources for a livelihood for themselves and their descendants."