OPA

Have you been on or near an Indian reservation and become the proud owner of a concho belt, a squash blossom necklace or earrings, a beadwork purse, some linens, an Indian doll, or some other product representative of the resident Indian tribe? Are you sure that what you bought was a genuine handicraft of the Indians? It is easy to be fooled, and many manufacturers and dealers are getting rich by fooling you.

A special exhibit, "Indian Handicraft, the True and the False," on display in the Department of the Interior Museum at Washington, D. C., turns the spotlight on bogus Indian art.

In comparatively recent years, genuine Indian crafts have gained a growing popularity among the general public as more and more tourists and vacationers have traveled through so-called "Indian country", and as these crafts have appeared in shops and stores elsewhere.

Indian handicrafts began to be imitated as a profitable enterprise almost as soon as they created a market. Some Indians, of course, are pleased to cater to the "souvenir" penchant of many non-Indians by turning out cheap and virtually worthless wares as "Indian-made" curios. But the real competition--much of it unfair in the view of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs-- stems from manufacturers and dealers who flood the market with imitations of Indian crafts from moccasins to linens to more expensive silver and gem-set jewelry, all mass-produced by machinery, much of it shipped in from Asiatic countries, and most passed off as the genuine Indian article.

"The American public, often unable to tell the difference between the genuine and the counterfeit, has unwittingly helped create a multimillion dollar industry in imitation Indian goods--an annual volume exceeding by far that of the genuine product," says Philleo Nash, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. "Not only are Indian citizens being denied a much-needed source of income, but they are being victimized by injustice and dishonesty which threaten the standards of fine Indian craftsmanship and the very existence of true Indian handicrafts. Moreover, the public is being cheated in dollars and cents and given a false idea of Indian arts and crafts."

Today Indian craftsmen are becoming increasingly proficient in the creation of imaginative and beautiful crafts. They are guided in the production of their crafts by their traders, their tribal arts and crafts guilds, and by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior.

Probably the real heart of the imitation problem is that it is virtually impossible to copyright the individual Indian designs of the various crafts. Most Indian artists make up designs for each separate item of jewelry or other craft. The designs are purely imaginative, are not symbolic, and often have no particular Indian meaning. Even if Indian designs could be copyrighted, an imitator has only to alter a design in some trivial or minute way to avoid prosecution.

There is no law which prohibits the production or sale of imitations as long as they can be readily identified or recognized as such, but several States and the Federal Government have attempted by law to prevent the advertising or sale of imitations as genuine Indian products. The Federal law provides heavy fines-- up to $2,000 and jail sentences for those who knowingly sell imitation Indian items as the genuine article.

It is not easy to prosecute under this law or the similar State laws because of the lack of evidence in many instances, says Commissioner Nash. The duped are generally removed by time and distance from the event by the time they discover they have been cheated. Some are not aware that they can bring legal action; others apparently are indifferent.

Manufacturers and dealers in imitation Indian crafts flourish under the most obvious misrepresentation and sometimes blatant false advertising. Genuine articles and imitations are often displayed side by side, or intermingled, with the hope that the public will think the entire display is genuine. The device of the price disguise is used to influence those who are aware of the higher costs of genuine Indian crafts. An exorbitant price tag is affixed to an imitation of little value to mislead the prospective customer into thinking he has spotted an authentic article, and can get it at a bargain, perhaps.

Misleading labels are an effective device for fooling the public: PI Indian Design," "Indian Style," middle in the Heart of Indian Country," "Indian Type Jewelry, II and other designations that suggest, but do not openly say, that an article is a genuine, hand-made Indian craft.

Jewelry is an item that lends itself readily to duplication and machine production, and some of the imitation Indian jewelry is extremely hard to detect from the authentic. The use of sterling silver and genuine, hand-cut stones may result in a product of monetary and aesthetic value. It does not, of course, have the authenticity which probably led the buyer to make the purchase in the first place, and which he has every right to expect.

Changes in the material content and design of genuine Indian silversmithing, however, have made it a bit easier to spot the counterfeit from the genuine. The best Indian silversmiths use heavier silver than that used 15 or 20 years ago, and they have departed from the highly decorated, ornate pieces favored by the buying public before World War II. Today their designs are simple and clean lined in accordance with the Indian preference. The imitators, in many cases, seem not to have caught onto this departure yet, and many continue to turn out articles of lightweight metal with elaborate designs. Dealers often try to convince prospective purchasers that the design is a complex Indian symbol which "tells a story. If it does not.

The turquoise used by the Indian lapidarist, of whom the Zuni is considered most proficient, adds to the general confusion because of the colors and variety of the gem in its natural state. Zuni workers are true artists in cutting, polishing, matching and setting gems, and they work with coral, jet and shell as well as turquoise. But turquoise remains the most popular stone, and blue turquoise, preferred by the Indians, also is preferred by most non-Indian purchasers. The turquoise ranges from deep blue to deep green and some think the green shades are inferior stones. Actually, the color has no relation to the quality of the gem. Adding to the value of the stones, however, is the matrix, or design, formed by streaks of other metals in the gem, which make the "spider web", an effect that is highly prized.

Turquoise is easily duplicated in plastics, and some of the false stones are almost indistinguishable from the real gems. Some manufacturers also use a poor grade of turquoise which has been treated by oil or water baths to give it a temporary luster or sheen. In time, this dulls and "grays out."

In addition to the Indian jewelry of silver and turquoise, one of the most abused Indian crafts in forgeries and imitations is the beadwork of the Woodland and Plains Indians. This is being duplicated and shipped into the United States by the ton, mainly from Hong Kong, where it can be produced far cheaper than the American Indians can make it. The Asiatic producers have obtained samples of Indian designs and they are swamping the American curio market with beadwork belts, cigarette cases, purses and other articles, says Commissioner Nash.

Indian handcrafted baskets have come in for some duplication by producers and importers from other countries, but the distinctiveness of Indian designs and the high quality of Indian workmanship in basketry have made this craft less a victim of the imitator.

Navajo rugs and Pueblo pottery, too, are less vulnerable to the imitation market because they cannot be duplicated easily by machine methods to produce an inferior product at cheaper prices. The main exploitation of Pueblo pottery is done by some Indians who have lowered their standards to meet a tourist demand for small curio or souvenir articles. Their products are low-grade pots whose colors are put on with show card paint after firing. The finest Indian pottery is painted before firing with colors made permanent by being burned in through firing in a natural kiln.

Some manufacturers of blankets have produced coverings in Indian designs and often called their products "Indian blankest but generally only the most gullible are fooled. The Navajos do not make blankets, but produce varieties of rugs which are distinctive and identifiable with the type of weave, coloration and design. Depending upon their design, size, and coloration, they are used as wall tapestry or floor coverings.

Mr. Nash points out that there are many honest dealers in imitation Indian goods who indicate by proper labeling and by verbal explanation that their wares are not genuine Indian handicrafts. Unfortunately, some dealers in imitation Indian goods are as unable as their customers to tell the real from the false, and may themselves be the victims of false advertising.

"The best protection against trickery in the purchase of Indian crafts is a thorough knowledge of the characteristics of fine craftsmanship as originated by Indian artisans," says Nash. It was with this in mind that the Arts and Crafts Board assembled its True and False exhibit in the Department of the Interior Museum, where many Washington, D. C., visitors and residents drop in daily. But even experts can be fooled by some of the imitations being turned out today, so there are good tips for everyone to follow to avoid being duped and cheated in the purchase of Indian products:

1. Buy only from a dealer whose reputation for honesty and for handling authentic Indian goods is above reproach. Local inquiry can generally establish who these dealers are. As a rule, they will be the tribal guilds, the traders on the reservations, or dealers whose business reputation is based on the sale of only authentic crafts of the highest quality. The latter is likely to be an expert on Indian crafts, and he will get his wares directly from the craftsman or from a source he knows to be absolutely reliable.
2. In cases where the dealer's reputation cannot be easily or conveniently established, your best safeguard is to ask some rather pointed questions. Ask the dealer if the piece is handmade by an Indian; ask him where it was made; obtain the name of the artist and get the name of the tribe to which he belongs. Write down the answers.
3. If you purchase the item, ask for a receipt and the dealer's written certification that the article is, to the best of his knowledge, handmade by an Indian and of genuine materials. No honest dealer will refuse this request. If you find later that a dealer's personal certification is false, so advise the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C., and send along your purchase so that the Board may refer it to the appropriate district attorney for legal action.
4. Look for labels that guarantee authenticity and do not be taken in by those which may have a misleading implication. Mail order purchases should be questioned as thoroughly as those made personally, and a dealer's certification of authenticity obtained.

"Indian craftsmen fear an increasing loss of income from their work, and fear also that continued sale of the cheap imitations will result in lowered respect for true Indian craft," Commissioner Nash says.

"Only the buying public can remedy the situation, by being hard to fool, and firm in demanding genuine Indian crafts of the highest quality. Then those producing forgeries and imitations no longer will find it profitable to deal in duplicity or duplication."

Robert G. Hart has been promoted from Assistant General Manager to General Manager of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, the Department of the Interior announced today. He succeeds J. Edward Davis, who retires after 12 years of service with the Board and 10 years as General Manager.

A native of San Francisco, California, Hart has had extensive experience in the production, promotion and marketing of arts and crafts. He first served with Indian Arts and Crafts Board in 1952 on a temporary assignment as Production Specialist at Anadarko, Oklahoma, where he organized the production and sales program for the Oklahoma Inter-tribal Crafts Association.

He served again, from 1954 to 1957, as Production Specialist stationed at Santa Fe, New Mexico, rendering specialized and technical production and marketing advice to Indian and Eskimo craft enterprises in the States of New Mexico, Arizona, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, the Territory of Alaska and others. He rejoined the staff in 1961 as Assistant General Manager in the Board is Washington, D. C. office.

Hart began his career as an employee of commercial banks in San Francisco and Kodiak, Alaska. Following a three-year period in the United States Army, he went to New York City where he served as Treasurer for the Westbury Music Fairs, Inc. He has worked as a consultant for the Industrial Research Advisory Council, Honolulu, Hawaii, and for the State of New York. He has also served as Manager of a Southern Highland Handicraft Guild Shop in New York City, and has worked with the State Department, the United Nations, and the Governments of Haiti and Mexico in the promotion, production, marketing and development of arts and crafts programs. Previous to joining the Board staff in 1961, he was Editor for the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of two books and has also written numerous magazine articles, pamphlets and brochures.

Davis began his career with the Board on May 1, 1950, as Arts and Crafts Specialist at the Cherokee Agency, North Carolina, and in July of that year, was appointed Executive Officer. Transferred to Washington in December 1950 as Business Manager, he was appointed the General Manager in February 1952. A native of Kentucky, Davis is a craftsman with wide experience in teaching crafts and as a craft shop owner and manager. Before joining the Federal Service, he was associated with the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild in North Carolina for several years in various administrative capacities and was named Director of the organization in 1948.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board is an agency of the Government created by an Act of Congress in 1935 to promote the economic welfare of Indian people through development of their arts and crafts and expansion of the market for such products.

An unusually large volume of legislation that will bring far-reaching benefits to American Indians was enacted by the recently adjourned 87th Congress, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today.

During its first and second sessions in 1961 and 1962, Secretary Udall pointed out, Congress enacted 885 public laws and 61 of these involved Indian matters. Appropriations for the programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the two years totaled $358,699,000, more than half going for education and construction of schools, and for the Indian health program of the United States Public Health Service an additional $126,464,000.

Among the outstanding laws that will benefit Indians, Secretary Udall cited one increasing the authorized amount of annual appropriations for the Indian Bureau's adult vocational training program from $3.5 million to $7.5 million, another increasing the authorization for the Bureau's revolving loan fund to finance Indian economic enterprises from $10 million to $20 million, and a third which extends the life of the Indian Claims Commission for an additional five years to 1967.

In enacting the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961, Secretary Udall added, Congress explicitly made Indian reservations eligible for assistance under its provisions and many have already benefited from AHA grants for economic development studies and for worker training. In a more recent enactment Congress made Indian tribes eligible for loans from the Housing and Home Finance Agency for the construction of community facilities, such as common meeting houses and public utilities.

Under the recently enacted Federal Aid to Highways Act, the authorization for work on roads serving Indian reservations was increased from the current level of $12 million to $16 million in 1964 and $18 million in 1965.

In addition, many laws were enacted that will bring benefits to particular tribal groups.

One of these was the act authorizing the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project which will provide for the irrigation of 110,000 acres of Navajo land in northwest New Mexico. When completed, the project is expected to benefit 17,000 tribal members through new' farming opportunities and associated commercial enterprises.

Two other laws will greatly benefit the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux Tribes of South Dakota in recognition of the acquisition of some of their lands for the Big Bend Dam and Reservoir on the Missouri River. In addition to direct damages and reconstruction settlements, the laws provide for rehabilitation funds totaling about $5.7 million ($3.8 million for Crow Creek and $1.9 million for Lower Brule) to help in making necessary community adjustments. The $2,250 per person figure used in determining the rehabilitation funds, Secretary Udall pointed out, is the most generous of all such land-taking settlements in the Missouri Basin.

Another law authorized financial assistance totaling $1,098,000 over a five-year period to Menominee County, Wisconsin, which is the successor to the Menominee Indian Tribe. Purpose of the grants is to cushion the tribe’s transition to unrestricted status under a law enacted in 1954.

Federal lands totaling 71,500 acres were transferred under laws of the 87th Congress to several Indian pueblos of New Mexico, the Zuni and Jicarilla Apache Tribes of the same State, the Cocopah’s of Arizona, the Crow Creek Sioux of South Dakota, the Eastern Cherokees of North Carolina, and the Quinault’s of Washington.

Leasing of Indian lands for periods up to a maximum of 99 years was authorized on the Dania Reservation of Florida, the Southern Ute Reservation of Colorado, and the Colorado River Reservation of Arizona and California. These laws are expected to benefit the Indians by facilitating leases which involve substantial amounts of invested capital.

It is good to be back at the University of Toronto—this time as a guest rather than an employee. I still have many warm memories of the four years I spent here as a lecturer in anthropology from 1937 to 1941. So I am especially grateful for the opportunity of corning back to renew old acquaintances and establish new ones in this outstanding Canadian academic institution.

The subject of my remarks on this occasion is "Indian Administration in the United States." It is, as some of you know, a subject in which I have long had an active interest dating back even before my tour of duty at this University to the period of the early 1930’s when I did anthropological field work on the Klamath Indian Reservation shortly after receiving my bachelor degree. Over the years I have had an opportunity to observe the administration of Indian affairs in the United States from several different points of vantage - from the White House as an assistant to former President Harry S. Truman from a State capitol as lieutenant governor of my native Wisconsin, more recently as a member of a four-man task force appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to make a detailed study of the operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for the past 15 or 16 months as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the administrative head of the Bureau. I probably don’t need to add that the picture looks somewhat different to me today, sitting in the Commissioner's chair, than it did some 30 years ago to a young anthropologist on the Klamath Reservation; in fact, it looks a lot different than it did just 18 months ago to a member of Secretary Udall's Task Force on Indian Affairs.

The challenge of working out an accommodation with an aboriginal people who were gradually overwhelmed by superior technological force and a sharply alien culture is one which Canada and the United States have both had to face throughout their histories. From the time of the earliest colonial settlements down to the American Revolution it was, of course, a mutually shared experience for all the peoples of North America under British rule; and, as we look back on it now, it seems that most of the enlightenment and humanitarianism emanated from London rather than from our colonial forebears. But, in all fairness, it was probably a great deal easier to cultivate an enlightened and humane attitude toward the North American Indian when separated from him by some 3,000 miles of ocean than it was precariously perched on a wild and hostile frontier.

In any event, starting in the final quarter of the 18th century, the common stream of experience in Indian affairs diverged along one line in Canada and another in the United States. There have been, of course, many striking similarities and parallels in the governmental administration of Indian affairs on both sides of the border: there have also been profound and significant differences, In my remarks here, however, I am going to leave the comparisons aside - since I feel sure that the members of this audience are unusually well informed on Indian administration in Canada - and focus my attention entirely on the southern side of the border.

Our story begins, as I have already suggested, in 1775 when the Continental Congress, as one of its first acts, set up three departments of Indian affairs-northern, middle and southern - and designated commissioners for each. This is where the title which I now have the honor of holding had its origin and it is indicative of the importance attached to the office in those day’s that two of the first commissioners named for the Middle Department of Indian Affairs were Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry. But these early commissioners were essentially diplomats

rather than administrators and the Bureau of Indian Affairs was not actually established until nearly half a century later in 1824.

The history of Indian affairs in the United States throughout the 19th century is, of course, a vast and enormously complex subject which I can touch on here only very lightly. It includes many of the darkest pages in the history of my country, many incidents that have been burdening the collective conscience of thoughtful American citizens for generations. But it was not totally black. Along with ruthless disregard for elementary human rights and the forceful uprooting’s of whole tribal populations, there were evidences of concern for Indian welfare from the very earliest days of our national history. Throughout most of the 19th century the various church denominations of the United States, both Catholic and Protestant, established missions in nearly all sections of the Indian country and labored earnestly to bring Indians at least the rudiments of formal education and protection against the ravages of disease. Starting aroux1d the 1870's and 18801s, after most of the tribal groups had been subdued by force of arms, the Federal Government became increasingly concerned with such matters and growing attention was given both in Congress and the Executive Branch to finding an appropriate place for the Indian in the spectrum of our national life.

The solution that was gradually evolved in the latter years of the 19th century was not altogether a happy one - although it may have been the best that would be accomplished under the exceedingly difficult circumstances that prevailed. The relationship that developed between the Federal Government and the Indian population was essentially that of guardian and ward - a deeply paternalistic relationship that constituted an affront to human dignity and planted the seed for much sour fruit that we are still trying to weed out of our garden. But at least the guardian-ward approach to administration of Indian affairs was an improvement over earlier policies of military conquest and compulsory mass migration and it probably was a halting step in the right direction.

During the present century we have been moving steadily away from the all-pervasive paternalism of the 1880's and 90’s toward a more wholesome respect for the human dignity of individual Indians as well as for the values of age-old tribal cultures. In 1924 our Congress enacted a law declaring that all Indians born in the United States are citizens of the United States without giving up their tribal affiliations. Ten years later Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act, another milestone piece of legislation, which explicitly recognized the right of Indian tribes and bands to self-government and established basic principles to be followed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in dealing with tribal governments and helping to strengthen their operations.

These two statutes are both important planks in the platform on which we are now conducting our operations in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They have set the stage, so to speak, and provided much of the legal underpinning. But there is also a tribal Congressional plank which is equally significant. This is the marked tendency which Congress has shown over the past dozen years or so to appropriate liberally for activities aimed at the ultimate objective of bringing Indians up to a state of general parity with the rest of the population in terms of health, education, occupational skills and economic opportunity. Even a cursory review of Congressional appropriations for

Indian affairs since 1950 will clearly reveal both the scope and the depth of Congressional intention along these markedly progressive lines.

So much, by way of a very quick sketch indeed, for the historical background. Now let us consider some of the major dimensions of the job we have to do. According to the 1960 Census, we have in the United States today about 550,000 people who are identifiable as Indians plus an additional 25,000 or so Eskimos and Aleuts in the State of Alaska - who are also a concern of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But only about two-thirds of these people - roughly 380,000-come within the scope of the programs conducted by our Bureau. The balance of Indian population - around 170,000 - consists of people who live away from Indian country and are, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from their non-Indian neighbors.

So it is the 380,000 who directly concern us and there can be no doubt that they constitute on8 of the most seriously disadvantaged groups we have in the United States. Largely because of this unfortunate historical background which I have tried to highlight for you, Indian reservations were for many years almost hermetically sealed off from the main tides of progress that flowed across our country and - with a few exceptions here and there - did not participate adequately in the advances that were taking place elsewhere in education, public health protections, and opportunities for economic growth. As a result, we have a great deal of catching up to do. One way of summing it up is to point out that adult Indians living on reservations today are, as a group, only about half as well educated as other citizens, have approximately two-thirds the life expectancy, and are receiving somewhere ·between one-third and one-fourth as much income.

Many of the newer programs which we are now operating in the Bureau are specifically designed to diminish - and eventually eliminate - these grievous disadvantages. Others are intended to fulfill historic responsibilities which our Bureau has long had under Congressional enactments and, to some extent, under treaties. And some, as we shall see, are serving a dual purpose.

Although the Bureau no longer exercises a comprehensive guardianship over the persons of individual Indians as it did 75 or 80 years ago, it still functions in a very meaningful way as the trustee for much of the Indians t property. Included in the scope of this trusteeship are about 50.5 million acres of land, located mainly on Indian reservations. Roughly two-thirds of this acreage is tribally owned and the balance consists of tracts that were allotted for the most part many years ago, to individual tribal members. As the administrators of the Federal Government's trust responsibility, we in the Bureau have on our hands one of the biggest and most complex real estate operations that has ever come to my attention. The mere job of record keeping is almost staggering and all I can say is thank the Lord for automatic data processing. But the job goes far beyond the keeping of records; it involves the actual supervision of all types of realty transactions such as sales, exchanges, rights-of-way and leases both for surface use and mineral development. It involves the collection of rents, fees, royal ties and other income as well as the distribution of these proceeds to protect the best long-range interests of the Indian owners—tribal or Individual in all of these transactions.

Furthermore, the job is not merely a negative one of protecting the Indians against unwise use or disposition of their assets; it also carries a positive or constructive responsibility to help the Indians in realizing the best possible income from their lands and other resources consistent with

some conservation principles. Thus we are engaged in far-reaching and highly technical programs of forest management, construction and operation of irrigation projects, range management soil and moisture conservation, and practical guidance in farming and home-ranking practices.

All of these functions are directly related to the basic trust responsibility they constitute one important phase of our total operation. A second phase, which also embraces several of our older programs, finds us providing Indians with several types of public services which have traditionally in the United States been furnished to non-Indian citizens by State and local units of government. Included in this category are education for the young, welfare aid1 law and order activities and the construction and maintenance of local roads. The Bureau’s involvement in these fields was an inevitable outgrowth of the fact that Indian trust lands have always been, with a few rare exceptions, exempt from local real estate taxes and outside the sphere of State criminal and civil jurisdiction. So the Bureau has been compelled over the years to develop its own school system, its own welfare organization, its own law enforcement staff, its own program of road construction and maintenance.

Let me quickly add, however, that the picture today on Indian reservations is by no means one of pure Federal activity in these various fields, Over the past 25 years or so, largely as a result of Federal subsidies made possible by the Johnson O'Malley Act of 1936, many of the States have taken over a substantial share of the responsibilities for educating Indian children on reservations and several of them are now educating all Indian children without financial help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. To a lesser extent similar progress has been made in welfare, law enforcement end road operations.

Despite this recent trend, however, the Bureau still remains highly active in all four of these fields and actually, the scope of our operations today is bigger than ever on most fronts because of the steady increase in reservation populations.

Education is by far the biggest single function of our Bureau both in terms of manpower and in terms of dollars. If you include construction of schools and directly related facilities in addition to the operation and maintenance of existing schools, then education today accounts for just about three out of every five dollars that we spend in the Bureau. During the fiscal year that ended last June we operated a total of 263 schools ranging in size from single classrooms in trailers or Quonset huts at remote locations on the Navajo Reservation to the Intermountain School at Brigham, Utah, which has an enrollment of over 2,100 students. About 75 of these schools are boarding institutions and in them we have the responsibility not merely for providing instruction but also for feeding the students three meals a day and for maintaining and staffing dormitories. All in all, it adds up to quite a sizable operation and it requires a very substantial number of personnel.

In the welfare field the task of the Bureau is greatly diminished by the fact that Indian people qualifying for certain types of categorical public assistance-old age assistance, aid to the blind, aid to dependent children, and aid to the permanently and totally disabled - receive this assistance from State and country welfare agencies on the same basis as other citizens. So the Bureau's

welfare job our primarily one of furnishing aid to needy Indians who do not fall into one of our major categories plus a great deal of family counselling and child welfare help.

In approaching the subject of law enforcement on Indian reservations in the United States, I feel almost as if I were opening up Pandora's Box. It is a subject of tremendous complexity and full exploration of its many ramifications could undoubtedly keep us occupied for the next several hours. To spare you this ordeal, let me just say that most Indian reservations, but not all, are still outside the sphere of State criminal and civil jurisdiction, and are subject to Federal jurisdiction for the major types of felonies and to some form of tribal ,jurisdiction for the lesser crimes and misdemeanors. The Bureau maintains law and order personnel on most reservations and they work quite closely with the tribes in providing police protection.

The Road program of the Bureau differs from the other functions I have just been mentioning since it has been administered for many years in the same division of our organization as the various resource activities I spoke of earlier. Yet I bring it in here because road construction and maintenance is - like education, welfare and law-enforcement - essentially a local governmental function in the United States apart from the ma.jar Federal highway system and, of course, the Indian reservations, The Bureau's system now includes about 16,000 miles of road altogether and it is being improved at an encouraging rate and expanded somewhat thanks to substantially increased appropriations in recent years. Especially on the 25,000-square-mile Navajo Reservation in our Southwest, we are now bringing all-weather roads into remote localities that have been virtually isolated for generations. I realize of course, that some of my fellow anthropologists may view this development with mixed emotions. But certainly there can be no argument about the desirability of putting in bus routes so that children can attend school regularly for the first time in their lives or of giving isolated settlements quick and easy access to hospitals and other medical services.

And this brings up another phase of Federal activity in the field of Indian affairs which I want to mention briefly even though it is no longer a function of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Up until 1955 the Bureau administered a rather far-reaching health program for Indians which included both curative and preventive medical activities. It involved the operation of about 60 hospitals and a large number of health centers and clinics as well as a wide range of activities to promote better environmental sanitation in Indian communities. Since 1955 this program has been administered by the United States Public Health Service and its scope has been substantially enlarged as a result of increased appropriations. Today all qualified observers agree that health conditions across the Indian country generally are markedly better than they were seven years ago and are steadily improving. We in the Bureau of Indian Affairs have a working relationship with our Public Health Service colleagues which is on the whole excellent and we maintain a continuing active interest in effective health protection for Indians.

That pretty well covers what we might call the “old line" functions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs with one major exception which I will mention later in another context. Before moving on to describe some of the more recently initiated programs of the Bureau, let me first set the stage by telling you about the task force study which provided the basis for our policies and program emphases under the present Administration.

There were four of us appointed to the Task Force on Indian Affairs by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and all of us had extensive backgrounds of experience in Indian affairs. Yet we spent about five months - from February until July of 1961 - going over the whole Indian Bureau operation from top to bottom. We travelled about 15,000 miles altogether and we consulted with spokesmen for just about every tribal group either in cities near the Indian country or at exploratory sessions in Washington.

Eventually we wrote a report of some 77 pages which was given broad approval by Secretary Udall. It contains a large number of detailed recommendations which need not trouble us here but there are two aspects of it that I do want to mention.

The first is the statement of basic aims or objectives for the Bureau which will give you some idea of how we are oriented, where we are trying to go. The goals which we formulated on the basis of our consultations with Indians are threefold. To a person experienced in Indian affairs none of the three goals will seem startingly original. Yet the articulation of the three together in just this form seems to have struck the right chord because I have not yet heard one word of criticism or disagreement since they were first made public. The three basic aims are (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency, (2) full participation of Indians in .American life, and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians.

Now, the second aspect of the Task Force Report I want to emphasize has to do with the central avenue of approach which we propose to follow in moving toward these three objectives. In the course of our five-month study we came to the conclusion that the Bureau was spending far too much of its time and energies on the custodial phases of its work - the keeping of land records and the like and not nearly enough on the more dynamic aspects which lead to development of Indian resources and development of Indian people. So we have made development the keynote for our present administration of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and this brings us quite logically to a consideration of the newer and more forward-looking programs.

The first one I want to mention is what we call Employment Assistance. It had its genesis in the late 19401s on the Navajo Reservation and has gradually developed over the years into a nationwide operation of ·major importance, In essence, it involves two principal phases: relocation for direct employment and occupational training.

Relocation for direct employment is the older part of the program and just about what the name implies. It is, of course, a wholly voluntary operation a service that is made available to Indians who have decided on their own initiative" to leave the reservations and re-establish themselves in urban communities where jobs are more abundant. The Bureau operation is designed to help them in, just about every conceivable way in making this transition. At the departure end, on the reservation, we have staffs of trained persom1el who counsel with the Indians contemplating a move and give them firm, realistic advice on the kinds of difficulties they may expect to encounter; in many cases, these interviews have resulted in a decision not to relocate. But where the decision is affirmative, the Bureau provides transportation and subsistence not only· for the job seeker but for all his immediate family dependents. On the receiving end we maintain offices in eight Middle Western and far western cities staffed with personnel who socialize in job placement, the location of suitable housing, and all the many

other phases of adjustment to the urban environment that are inevitably involved. The transition is, of course, an almost traumatic on for many Indian people and involves a wide variety of services and assistance sometimes over a period of many months.

In 1956 Congress enacted a statute, designated as PubJ.ie Law 959, which enabled us to broaden the scope of our employment assistance work along lines which have already proved highly beneficial. This law authorized us to provide Indians, principally between the ages of 18 and J5, with three kinds of occupational training. One is vocational training in regularly established schools which equips the trainee with a skill which he or she can use in a wide variety of job situations. The second is on-the - job training which involves orientation of the trainee to the requirements of a particular job in a particular plant. And the third is training for apprentices.

The program came along at just about the right time since one of our major difficulties under the earlier operation was that we were relocating a large number of wholly unskilled workers who presented an increasingly challenging problem of -placement. Today we are placing the unskilled workers in schools both in the states where the reservations are located and in the cities where we maintain an urban offices. We are providing on-the-job training for others in plants situated on or near the reservations. And we have recently started to move actively on an apprentice training program.

Through this operation we are turning out skilled machinists, welders, barbers, beauticians, and people trained in just about every other occupation you can think of that does not require the achievement of a college or university degree, The program has been tremendously popular with the Indians and one of our major problems has been to keep abreast of the constantly growing number of applicants. Fortunately the program has also won widespread Congressional approval and just last year Congress increased the authorization for annual appropriations to finance this program from $J. 5 million to $7.5 million. During the present fiscal year we have nearly $5.5 million available for training activities and this enables us to keep about 1,400 Indians, as a general average, in training status. The average cost per trainee is about $250 a month.

Admittedly, this is a rather expensive operation since it includes not just the costs of tuition but also the living expenses for the trainee plus family dependents, if any, during the course of instruction. But there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits amply justify the expense Acquisition of a salable skill makes an almost night-and - day difference in the economic prospects of the individual Indian. It greatly enhances his chances of being hired, boosts his earning capacity, provides him with additional job security, and broadens his chances for steady advancement.

In addition to the training made possible by our funds in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indians are also benefiting nowadays from training grants made by the Area Redevelopment Administration of the Department of Commerce and this promises to be a resource of continuing importance in the future. Furthermore, a third resource for training of Indians is now shaping up in the United States Department of Labor under provisions of the Manpower Development Training Act enacted by Congress earlier this year. So the outlook for moving substantial numbers of Indians out of the unskilled category and giving them new status as skilled workers is today much more promising than it was as recently as 1960.

Another one of the Bureau’s recent programs that has special relevance in this context .is our work in the field of industrial development. This program was started about six or seven years ago and is designed to help tribal organizations in attracting new manufacturing plants - usually of the light industry type-to the areas on and around the reservations as a means of making additional jobs available for Indian workers. This is not easy to accomplish since the local competition for industrial plants in our country is exceptionally keen - as it is also in Canada, I suspect - and many of the reservations are unfortunately, located in sections of the Nation which have never been especially attractive to American private industry. Nevertheless it seems clear to me that we should by all means continue this activity since any progress we make is better than nothing at all, one of the big problems we have faced for many years on a large number of the reservations is the fact that steady, year-round jobs are simply not available. And so the Indian families have had to depend to a large extent on seasonal work on nearby farms and ranches supplemented by relief checks during the off-season.

Establishment of new plants with more or less dependable payrolls provides an opportunity to break away from this age-old pattern and move in the direction of greater economic and social stability.

The tools that we have available for fostering greater industrial development in the Indian country are essentially threefold. In the first place, something is gained, believe, simply "by having a staff of industrial development specialists - even though it is a small one - who are constantly in touch with industrial managers, picking up information about plans for establishing new plants, spreading the word about available sites in the Indian country and the advantages that can be offered; we now have such personnel stationed in Los .Angeles and Chicago as well as in our national headquarters at Washington, D. C., Secondly, we are in position to help industrial companies meet some of the "start-up" costs involved in establishing new plants close to Indian population centers by reimbursing them for on-the job training provided to Indian workers; this is made possible by authority of the adult vocational training act. And finally we can provide some loans to tribal organizations for use in building or equipping plants as an additional inducement to the manufacturing companies.

Today we have a total of 26 plants operating in predominantly Indian localities, including eight that have been established in the calendar year 1962. Altogether these plants are providing jobs for some 1,300 Indian workers and the prospects are that they will eventually hire about twice this number. This, of course, is not a staggeringly impressive total out of the 380,000 Indian men, women and children who come within the purview of Indian Bureau responsibilities. But on several reservations the industrial payrolls have already helped perceptibly to brighten the local economic and social atmosphere And I am optimistic that further important alleviations of chronic Indian poverty can be made through this avenue of approach.

In addition, we are giving greatly increased attention to the encouragement of tribally sponsored and tribally financed business enterprises that will create more jobs for tribal members. Earlier I mentioned that I was deferring discussion of one of the Bureau's "old line" programs and it seems logically appropriate to go into it here. This is the revolving credit program which was originally authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. .A total appropriation of $10 million was made possible by the 1934 enactment and this was increased by subsequent statutes

of more limited geographic scope to $17 million. Over the years the Bureau has used these funds to good advantage to finance many Indian enterprises, both tribal and individual, which have produced significant and durable economic benefits. The record of repayment has been excellent and the loan collections have been used to make additional lending’s in accordance with the revolving principle.

Meanwhile Indian tribes, with help and guidance from the Bureau's credit specialists, have been receiving an increasing amount of financing from banks and other sources that serve the non-Indian citizen. In fact, the total amount of financing obtained by Indians and Indian tribes from such sources has for years far exceeded that made available by the Bureau. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly apparent that if we are to make a truly significant break-through against Indian poverty - and the whole gamut of human ills that accompany it - there will be a need for financing of Indian agricultural and business enterprises, on repayment terms that only the Bureau can provide, far beyond the" dimensions that were contemplated when the revolving loan fund was first set up in the middle 1930’s.

In partial recognition of this, Congress in 1961 increased the authorization from $17 million to $27 million and appropriated an additional $4 million for the fiscal year that ended last June 30. For the current fiscal period another $4 million was provided. With these funds we have been able to make a number of important loans that will finance tribal developments of outstanding potentiality. The backlog of tribal requests and applications for loans that we have not been able to act upon, however is both voluminous and impressive. So we are making plans and hoping for a really sizable increase in our loan fund authorization; I personally believe it is crucially important to our whole effort.

Yet the availability of credit funds is only part of the story of expanding tribal economic development. Another important part is the resources of managerial skill available within the tribal group. In some tribal areas, of course, the potentialities for economic development are wholly obvious and need only the infusion of finance capital to set the machinery in motion, More often, however, these potentialities are obscure or marginal or speculative and have to be carefully examined by people with special skills in this type of analysis before you can be fully sure of your ground. In the first half of this year a total of 19 surveys and studies were initiated by our Government to explore the feasibility of specific economic development enterprises on Indian reservations and in Alaskan communities. These studies are being made under contract by private organizations well experienced in this sort of work through the use of funds supplied by the Area Redevelopment Administration of the Department of Commerce. As I indicated earlier, the ARA has also been helpful in connection with the training of Indian workers and will undoubtedly be making still further assistance available to Indian tribes in the form of loans and grants for broad economic development programs. In enacting the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961 Congress explicitly mentioned Indian reservations as areas potentially eligible for assistance under its provisions and this feature of the law has already brought forth important benefits. I feel certain it will yield many more in the period ahead.

There is one final activity of the Bureau which I want to mention before I close. This is the work that we have very recently undertaken in the field of Indian housing. Because the United States Government has a wide array of housing programs designed to meet a great variety of citizen

needs, we have not felt that it would be wise or justifiable for the Bureau to become directly engaged in such activity on Indian reservations. We have, however, recruited a small staff of specialists who devote full time to the housing needs of Indians - which, incidentally, are tremendous - and to serving as our liaison with the existing housing agencies of the Federal Government.

Over the past 18 months there have been encouraging break-through on two fronts. For nearly 30 years now our Government has had a program to insure housing loans made by private lending institutions meeting certain requirements and this has been an important element in the growth of our whole housing industry, Because of complications arising out of the trust status of Indian land, people living on reservations have for years not been able to participate in the benefits of this program and have thus been denied a resource available to other citizens. Within the past year, however, these difficulties have been resolved and Indians today can participate equally with others.

Similar difficulties also stood in the way of Indian participation in the program of low-rent public housing which is designed to provide decent, safe and sanitary dwellings in place of quarters in Urban or rural slums for people of low income. Here, too, the complications have been worked out and the first low-rent housing project on an Indian reservation - at Pine Ridge, South Dakota - was formally dedicated in ceremonies which I attended less than two months ago. Other projects of this type are definitely in prospect on several additional reservations.

While these developments are encouraging, I doubt that either or both of these programs will meet more than a fractional part of the enormous needs for better housing on Indian reservations. Because Indian family incomes are characteristically so deplorably low, only a tiny segment of the population on most reservations today can qualify for Government-insured private housing loans. And in many places there are only a comparatively small number of Indians who can even afford to pay the low rent in public housing projects. The point is of course, that most reservation Indians are not accustomed to paying any rent at all so that even the carefully adjusted schedules of the public houses can and do seem like a gigantic burden.

In the light of all this, we are now exploring the possibilities of self-help housing along lines that have already proved successful in Puerto Rico and other areas. The method of approach here would be for the Bureau to provide the Indians with some building materials and technical guidance and for them to supply the labor, working as teams in most cases for the construction of new and better homes. On their own initiative, the Indians of the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona have made a small but encouraging start along this line and we look forward hopefully to launching a substantial number of such enterprises in other tribal areas.

In these remarks I hope I have been able to give you some insight into the nature of the problems that we face. In the administration of Indian affairs in the United States, the kinds of goals and objectives we are striving to accomplish, and how we are going about the job. As you can see, we are using many, many different avenues of approach. We are also trying to keep ourselves flexible, receptive to the influx of new ideas and - above all - keenly aware of the precious human values that are so deeply involved in all our operations, the path ahead will undoubtedly have its thickets and its pitfalls, its disappointments and its setbacks. Yet I remain resolutely optimistic.

Although I could not prove it like a mathematical theorem, I feel deeply that the Indians of the United States are further along toward those three goals I mentioned earlier than they were just two or three years ago. And I believe also that the pace of advance can and will be additionally accelerated as some of our recently initiated programs come to full fruition. All my contacts with Indian people over the years convince me that they will not be satisfied with anything less. Nor should they be.

Dear Friends:

We are sending the attached Philatelic Release from the Post Office Department as an item which may be of interest to you. We understand that this is the first commemorative stamp to feature an Indian motif.

Black-and-white photographs of the stamp design may be obtained without charge by writing to Mr. J. F. Kelleher, Special Assistant to the Postmaster General, Washington 25, D. C.

M.M. Tozier

Information Officer

Justifiable pride in the many historic accomplishments of Oklahoma Cherokee Indians must not be permitted to divert attention from the problems of present-day Cherokees struggling to make a livelihood on unproductive lands, Philleo Nash, Commissioner-designate of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior said today.

In a talk at the annual celebration of the Cherokee National Holiday at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the former Wisconsin lieutenant governor nominated by president Kennedy as Commissioner of Indian Affairs paid tribute to outstanding Cherokees, past and present. Along with this he also pledged a more effective concentration of Indian Bureau resources in Indian areas where the human needs are greatest.

“The history of your Nation,” Nash told his predominantly Cherokee audience, “is a bright record of industry and achievement. It is marked by the scholarship and wisdom of the great Sequoyah; the political sagacity of men like Ridge, Boudinot, Watie, Bushyhead, Rogers, Owen, Hastings, and Carter; and the leadership you are getting today from personalities such as Justice N.B. Johnson (of the Oklahoma Supreme Court) and your Principal Chief, W.W. Keeler, with whom I recently had the pleasure and privilege of serving for several months on Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall’s Task force on Indian Affairs.”

Award of a $962,754 contract that will double the enrollment capacity of the Wide Ruins Boarding School on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of two 80-pupil dormitories, a kitchen-dining hall, and an addition to the existing school consisting of three classrooms and a multipurpose room. Sixteen employees' quarters, a 4-car garage and a storage, maintenance and fire house are also to be constructed. The outside work to be accomplished will include demolition of several old structures, bituminous paved roads, perimeter fencing, concrete sidewalks, water and sewage lines, an elevated water tower, and extension to the electrical distribution system.

This construction, when complete, will provide for 90 additional pupils and replace unsafe or overcrowded facilities now accommodating about 90 pupils.

The successful bidder was B & E Constructors Incorporated, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ten higher bids, ranging from $989,454 to $1,249,950, were received,

The unparalleled development of human end natural resources that has taken place on the Navajo Indian Reservation since the end of World War II is "only a prologue:" to the further development that must be accomplished over the coming decade, the Commissioner-designate of Indian Affairs, Philleo Nash, told a predominantly Navajo audience today.

Speaking at the annual Navajo Tribal Fair at Window Rock, Ariz., the Commissioner-designate of the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs emphasized the need tor educational opportunities for all Navajo children; the need to equip adult Navajos with the knowledge and skills required for family betterment; and the need to improve economic growth throughout the entire reservation area.

"To anyone familiar with the conditions of deep poverty and dark despair that prevailed on Navajo lands in the late 1940’s,” Nash said, “the picture today borders on fantastic. Yet all of us must recognize that many of the problems of that earlier period still persist and much remains to be done. It will not be easy to create a climate of expanding opportunity so that a rapidly growing population can move toward full-scale sharing in the rewards and benefits of modern American life. It will require energy, imagination, a willingness to experiment, and the closest kind of working partnership between the Tribe and the Bureau. My pledge today is that the best possible efforts of the Bureau will be unswervingly dedicated to the achievement of this high objective.”

Assignment of an Indian Bureau economic development officer to work with the Miccosukee Seminole Indians living along the Tamiami Trail in Florida on plans for improving their economic and social status was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The man chosen for the assignment is Reginald C. Miller, a veteran of 23 years' service with the Bureau, who recently completed a survey of the Miccosukees' situation and prospects at Secretary Udall's request.

The decision to assign an economic development officer to work with the Miccosukees was reached at a meeting in Washington on September 5 involving officials of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and William Kidd, administrative assistant to Florida's Governor Farris Bryant.,

At the meeting Miller reported on his survey findings over the past several months. He emphasized that highway expansion and drainage construction projects of both State and Federal agencies now under way or planned in southern Florida will shortly bring the Miccosukees within reach of profitable cattle and ranching operations, tourist enterprises and other opportunities for economic development. To take adequate advantage of these opportunities, he added, will require a stable Miccosukee business organization.

In his 23 years with the Bureau Miller has had a wide variety of assignments chiefly in finance, auditing and credit positions. His most recent post before undertaking the Miccosukee survey was as assistant manager of the Menominee Indian Mills, Neopit, Wise. Prior to that he served for two years as a credit officer at the Seminole Agency, Dania, Fla. Born at Gresham, Wisconsin, in 1918, he is of Indian descent and attended Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kans., in 1937 and 1938.

Miller is now living with his wife and three children at Homestead, Florida, but plans to establish new headquarters at some point on the Tamiami Trail in the near future.

The Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, will be the first Indian Tribe to develop low-rent public housing since the local- federal program began nearly 25 years ago, Public Housing Commissioner Marie C. McGuire announced today.

Interest expressed by this tribe in the early weeks of the Kennedy Administration will shortly lead to the signing of a preliminary loan contract with PHA and the Local Housing Authority established by the Indians.

Under the contract, PHA will lend $30,000 for the planning of 150 low rent homes to be built on the reservation. In the first phase of the development it is planned to construct 50 units in Pine Ridge.

The Oglala Sioux Housing Authority has submitted an approvable program for community improvement to Housing Administrator Robert C. Weaver. This program is a prerequisite to federal assistance in community development.

The Oglala Sioux were the first of many tribes seeking federal assistance to better their housing conditions.

The Indians' housing program now being started, according to Mrs. McGuire, is part of a program to carry out President Kennedy's expressed goal of "…providing for the housing needs of all segments of our population."

In announcing the first step in the program -- the loan to the Oglala Sioux -- Mrs. McGuire made this statement:

“I am disappointed and surprised that the public housing program was not adapted to the housing needs of Indian communities, or apparently even seriously considered, until the Kennedy Administration took office. Our preliminary economic and technical surveys have revealed what all observers of the Indian scene in this country have long known -- that many reservation Indians are living under appalling conditions of utter privation.

“Many of the Oglala Sioux, for example, are obliged to weather the sub-zero temperature of South Dakota in self-made log huts and tents. No American in our country, which has the highest living standards in the world, should be forced to live under such conditions."

In launching the Indian housing program, Commissioner McGuire emphasized that in addition to working closely with tribal leaders" the Public Housing Administration will consult with Indian experts to create housing peculiarly adaptable to the various tribes involved. For one thing, Mrs. McGuire said, if the Indians so desire, efforts will be made to follow architectural design to conform to traditional patterns of the tribe. For another, efforts will be made to employ Indian labor in construction to better the tribal economy while supplying the desired housing.

The FHA has been offered the full cooperation of the Indian Bureau, the Department of Labor and other government agencies in working out economically feasible programs for the various reservations.

"Depending upon local interest and initiative," said Commissioner McGuire, "our organization is prepared to assist our Indian citizens 'in meeting the housing needs of their low income families."