OPA

I congratulate the Oglala Sioux Housing Authority and Mrs. McGuire, the Public Housing Commissioner, and Housing Administrator Robert Weaver, in working out this project to enable Federal assistance to be used for the decent housing of our Indian families as it has been used for so many others.

This is the first use of public housing aid to meet the needs of our Indians and it is long overdue. It expresses our determination to extend the benefits of Federal Housing aids to all Americans. And certainly these Indian families are the first who can claim their rights as Americans.

The extension of the public housing program to our Indian reservations is a practical fulfillment of the promise I made last October to the Association of American Indian Affairs. I said then that, if elected. I intended to "make the benefits of the Federal housing programs available to Indians." At that time I said: "Housing conditions on Indian reservations are a national shame."

The Public Housing Administration, in approving this project, has opened the door to better housing for many of our low-income Indian families at prices and interest rates they can afford, and I hope that similar developments will in due time be planned by other Indian reservations.

Words are inadequate to express the pleasure with which I come to Lewiston to talk to my friends in the National Congress of American Indians.

I bring with me greetings and good wishes from the Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall. Few Secretaries of the Interior since Harold Ickes have taken the keen personal interest in Indian Affairs that Secretary Udall does. As a Congressman he had more Indians in his district than any other. He served on the Indian Affairs Subcommittee of the House of Representatives. It was his idea to create a Task Force, and it was his idea to get W. W. Keeler to head it. Under his leadership and direction we are going to have one of the truly great periods of Indian advancement.

This is now your 18th Annual Convention. From your first meeting 1944 until this convention today you have continued to grow in numbers and in stature.

Throughout this whole period I have had the good fortune to be closely associated with many of your leaders. I had the pleasure of spending Saturday with your first President, Judge Johnson, in eastern Oklahoma, only a few weeks ago.

Your third president, Joseph Garry, and I are very old associates. I also had the pleasure of visiting with him this summer when I was passing through Idaho. That Joe Garry should have been named American Indian of the Year at Sheridan, Wyoming, comes as no surprise and is a source of much pleasure to me as well as to his other friends.

Your current President, Mr. Clarence Wesley, and I are also associates of some years standing. President Wesley served as a consultant to the Secretary of the Interior and an advisor to the Task Force during the preparation of our report. It is always a pleasure to work with him and I am happy to be with him today.

In October 1953, a young woman from Denver, who had been associated with the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations, came to Washington, D. C. to represent the National Congress of American Indians full time in the Nation's Capital. I have been working with her ever since, and I have developed both affection and respect for her. She has served you well and has stood up for the cause of Indian rights on many occasions. I am very glad we were able to stand shoulder to shoulder during the legislative crisis in the fall of 1953.

I remind you of these things because I want you to know that the National Congress of American Indians and I are not strangers. Over the years I associate the NCAI with a vigorous defense of Indian rights. Among them is the right of tribal organizations to receive both recognition and support. The NCAI is the only national organization composed chiefly of organized tribes. It is important that there should be a strong, stable, national organization of this type.

The National Congress has also been a strong protector over the years of individual Indian rights. Ours is a government devoted to the preservation of individual liberties. Among the nations of the world we strive to strike a balance between personal freedom and the needs of society as a whole. American Indians are citizens of the United States and of the states in which they reside. As citizens they are entitled to the immunities and privileges of citizenship and to the equal protection of the laws; but they also have the responsibilities that go with citizenship.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is very seriously concerned about the rights and responsibilities of both the tribes and of individual Indians and so is the National Congress of American Indians. The Bureau neither wants nor expects complacent support; we know that we are never going to agree at all times. But we are natural allies for we are dealing, each in his own way, with the same problems and with a generally similar outlook. I intend to work with you and to help you as best I can to grow and to prosper.

Let me say here and now that I have had a pleasant working relationship during the past several months with the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. John O. Crow. He will be the Deputy Commissioner for the next few years. The partnership we have is symbolic of the work that Indians and non-Indians must do side by side to achieve our goal: full participation by American Indians in all aspects of our national life.

We are meeting in the home state of two strong leaders in Indian Affairs: Senator Frank Church and Assistant Secretary Carver.

For the past year or more I have been closely in touch with Senator Church on many matters of Indian welfare. We have discussed Indian Affairs philosophically, and in every other way that two good friends can talk about a matter that is meaningful to each of them. I have the utmost respect for Senator Church's sincerity and for the deep conviction with which he approaches matters of Indian welfare. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the United States Senate, he is in a position to take helpful and constructive action of great importance to Indians throughout the whole country. All of us, but especially members of the National Congress of American Indians, are very lucky to have such a man as Senator Frank Church in this key position. The task of Chairing the Subcommittee, which has a tremendous volume of legislation passing through it, is arduous, and we welcome Senator Church's dedication to this important role.

Since January of this year I have had the good fortune to be connected with Assistant Secretary of the Interior John Carver, Jr. He brings to his policymaking position broad experience in both the administrative and legislative branches of government, as well as in the practice of law. He also brings a warm heart and a willingness to think hard about difficult problems. He has come to be a good friend of mine and I assure you that he is also a good friend of yours.

This is my second visit to Lewiston this year. Earlier this summer I had a wonderful three days in this State in which I was able to see at first hand and for the first time three of the Idaho reservations: Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce and Fort Hall.

Here in Lewiston I had the pleasure of making an airplane tour of the area. This wonderful and beautiful country with its tremendous economic potential, and its great possibilities for recreation development, offers a promise which must be fulfilled. It is a source of much satisfaction to me that the Lewiston people with whom I visited--Bill Johnston of the Lewiston Journal and Ted Little--are determined that the Indian people shall share in their plans for economic improvement. That is the way it should be. It is a feeling that I know is shared by the Nez Perce tribal leaders because we met at Kamiah and explored the Clearwater together. To have close cooperation between Indians and non-Indians for the good of all is a long tradition among the Nez Perce.

In the summer of 1805 the expedition of Lewis and Clark made its way over the mountains from the east into this valley. They arrived in desperate condition; they were approaching starvation; they were eating their horses; they were weakened and were in a state of lowered morale. As they came into this valley they found a group of Indians they called Chopunnish which was translated to them as Pierced Nose or Nez Perce.

Here they were provided with maps drawn on white neck elk skin; they were provided with interpreters and with food and their clothing was repaired. They had come down out of the early snows in the mountains and they were sore-footed. They made up their minds to continue their voyage by canoe, which they modeled after the Indian dugouts. They made enough canoes to transport their whole party and all their supplies down the Clearwater, the Snake and the Columbia. The Nez Perce took care of their horses over the winter.

This was the expedition sponsored by President Jefferson that linked the two sides of this continent 0 The next time somebody wants to make a movie about cowboys and Indians perhaps it would be a good idea if they were to come and make a movie on location here and show how the explorers who opened up the great Northwest were enabled to do so by the kindness, the hospitality and by the charity--if you please, by the welfare service--provided by the Indians who welcomed them.

But that was the Old Frontier.

Let us turn to the New Frontier.

Since February of this year I have had the honor of serving as a member of a Task Force on Indian Affairs appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. Everyone in this room knows that the report was submitted in July; and that members of the Task Force were W. W. Keeler, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation; William Zimmerman, Jr., former Assistant Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and James Officer, an anthropologist from the University of Arizona} as well as myself.

On the 12th of July Secretary Udall gave general approval to the report. In its broad outlines it is quite clear that our report will be a chart for the course to be followed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the months and years that lie ahead. What is the nature of this report?

First: The report itself grew out of consultation with Indian leaders and with the Indian people. We traveled 15;000 miles; and we talked to the representatives of 200 organized tribes. We met face to face with a couple of thousand Indians and their friends; and we visited a number of reservations and off reservation communities. So although, we are the authors of the report in the sense that we wrote the words down on paper, the ideas in this report are yours. To be sure, if we didn’t agree with them we wouldn’t have made the recommendations. But by and large this is a product of the Indian leaders' own thinking. are merely the reporters who gathered them together and put them down in written form.

Second: This is a program that can be put into operation. The goals that we stated are attainable within the existing framework of authority and of appropriations. In other words, this is not a dream of the future but an action program that can be followed now.

And thirdly: This is a developmental report. This report deals with recommendations for programs that will provide maximum development and use of the natural resources which are your greatest asset. Perhaps even more important: these programs will provide for the development of people and that, after all, is why we are in business. Ours is not a materialistic approach. We are interested in the wise use of natural resources so that the men, women, and children who live on and near Indian reservations may have a better life. That means; better housing, better health, more income, more education, better training, more and better opportunity for steady work at better wages.

Let us begin by talking about the development of physical resources in the Indian country. Much development has been achieved on the reservations during the past 30 years by tribal and individual enterprise with practical help and technical guidance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If we take the 53,000,000 acres of Indian land that is in trust or restricted status and regard it as a whole unit, it is safe to say that we are producing far more income with it than 30 years ago or even 10. But it is also clear that the potential of these 53,000,000 acres has never come anywhere near fulfillment.

The existing land base could be much more profitably utilized if it were worked by its Indian owners instead of being leased, as it is so often, to non-Indian tenants. In addition to that, several hundred thousand acres of additional lands have irrigation potential but have not yet been brought under ditch. Continuing progress on this front is essential for two reasons: First, to improve the economic well-being of the Indian landowners; but also, to safeguard the valuable water rights that go with the land under various laws and court decisions, both of the Federal Government and of the States.

One of the most pressing of all Indian land problems is that which follows from the multiple ownership of land which has passed undivided to heirs of an allottee. There are now more than 10 percent of the total Indian estate--and of this land nearly a half a million acres have been found by the Senate Committee on Interior and Indian Affairs to be unproductive because of multiple ownership. Generally speaking, there are so many owners that the consent of all of them cannot be obtained to a lease.

There are some instances of checks being drawn for just a few cents. Such income means very little to the Indian owner. The cost of managing it is out of reason and brings severe criticism from Congress and from Indian groups and friends of the Indians. The solution of this problem will not wait upon our convenience. A solution is needed now.

The distinguished Senator from Idaho, Mr. Church, has offered a bill, which provides one solution: loan the tribes the money so they can buy up the multiple interests.

The Secretary of the Interior has offered another solution: permit the tribes to buy the multiple interests on the installment plan.

Out of these two bills a composite solution must be found. I hope and believe it will be found in the next session of Congress. I pledge my best efforts to work toward a common sense solution of this intensely important problem.

We are pushing with timber inventories on the commercially important Indian forest lands. The purpose is to provide better information on which to base cutting schedules. Forest inventories have now been completed on about three fourths of the area. Inventories pay for themselves not only in planning but in increased Indian income. The annual cut from Indian forested lands can eventually be increased by somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred million board-feet every year above the level in recent years, and all without hurting the basic forest.

Some tribal groups are favored by nature with rich deposits of oil, gas and other minerals which have recently been discovered, are being commercially developed and are producing substantial tribal income. A full program of resource development would provide for the use of the best modern techniques in minerals exploration and development throughout the entire Indian country.

One of the great potentials for Indian resource development is in the field of recreation. Our national population is growing, and will continue to grow for some decades, at an explosive rate. As the work week shortens, and as the ease of travel increases, the demand on recreation facilities throughout, the entire Nation will multiply faster than anyone could have imagined a few years ago. So the recreation industry, which is already big business, will become increasingly bigger business in the immediate future, and its growth will continue for a long time to come.

Think of the potential tourist attractions on many of our Indian reservations: Trout streams, natural lakes, man-made lakes, scenery, history, Indian arts and crafts. Careful planning is essential. It is necessary to maintain high standards because our national parks and our State parks have accustomed people to high quality facilities. But it seems clear that recreation is a richly promising field for Indian economic development.

Let us turn our attention for a moment to the question of industrial development. As mechanization and automation have moved into farming and ranching the opportunities for seasonal unskilled labor become smaller every year. This hits the Indian worker harder than others. How can we meet this situation? One: By economic development measures of the types I have just described we can stimulate a wage economy in the preservation areas, using the natural resources and the labor potential that are already there, adding to them capital from the loan fund. Management skill and trained workers are an essential ingredient of successful economic development. It is greatly desired that Indian tribes with assets in the form of income, cash or judgment moneys should contribute from their own capital to the fullest extent possible. Two: We can bring manufacturing employment to the reservation areas through special inducements, such as plant sites, facilities, and on-the-job training programs. This is industrial development. We have on-going programs of this type in a small number of reservations. It was the Task Force’s hope and thought that these can be substantially and swiftly increased. Industrial development, to be permanent, must be coordinated with education and vocational training programs. It must be accompanied by stable conditions of law and order and the economic and business climate which makes it attractive for manufacturing industries to locate on the reservations.

Third: a depressed reservation area can be improved by bringing individual Indians into contact with areas of greater opportunity. This means education in the broad sense; it means vocational training; it means job placement; and for those who wish it, it means relocation.

All these programs should be related to planned economic development. They are not compulsory programs. They are programs of opportunity and service. Each one of these activities has its place in a total program of reservation development. We need your help and understanding in order to make them work for Indian betterment. Education, vocational training, industrial development, job placement and relocation: These are the programs that bridge the gap between the development of natural resources and the development of people. Let's start by talking about education.

We Americans place great faith in the possibilities of education. We are inclined to think that education will solve all OUT problems if we just give it a chance. The fact that Indians share this great American faith shows how far the values of our cultures have become intertwined. But, it should be a source of concern to all of us that in all the years we have been working at this problem we still find that adult Indians living on reservations are on the average only half as well schooled as adults elsewhere. Our failures in education are also reflected in the large number of Indians who have no occupational skills; and these failures are in turn reflected in grim statistics of poverty, delinquency and dependency.

All of us working together face a major challenge in schooling and in vocational preparation. This is one of the things the Task Force meant when we suggested concentration on programs of development.

We are still short five thousand classroom seats to accommodate children of school age who are not now enrolled in any school; State, Federal or private. We need to relieve the overcrowding which has developed in many existing Bureau schools. We need to replace obsolete and dilapidated structures with up-to-date facilities. A good start has already been made, but with the population growth that faces us on the reservations we have a major challenge in this area alone.

We also ought to be working continuously on the quality of our classroom instruction. The children who come from non-English speaking homes have special needs and we want to be certain that those needs are being met. In all these matters the basic aim is to insure that the present and future generations of Indian children will receive the same educational advantages, the same educational opportunities as other children throughout the country. It is not a simple problem, and it is a very important one.

Adults beyond school age also have an intensive need. Many adults on the reservations have had little or no formal schooling in their youth. They need an educational program suited to their special situation, and our programs in this direction are just beginning.

The next generations I leaders will need to be college graduates trained in specialized schools of many kinds. But such schools accept only high school graduates; and the drop out rate of Indian youngsters in high school is very high. We need programs to make certain that we are not losing potential leaders through high school drop-out and that we have more scholarship aid for Indian high school graduates.

Because we have in mind the tremendous educational need on our reservations, let us not under-estimate the accomplishments of the Federal Indian educational system. In 1871, at the end of the treaty period, the reservations were mostly remote, roadless, Wilderness, arctic and desert areas. The Federal Government, first introduced elementary schools, then high schools, and more recently has added a scholarship program for higher education. This program has guided three generations of American Indians through the difficult years of acculturation to our industrial society and we should give it full credit for its achievements as we discuss the many serious problems that still remain.

One of the most encouraging programs at the present time is adult vocational training. I am glad to report that the Congress has approved legislation to train more adult Indians in vocational schools and in industrial plants on-the-job. If Congress provides the funds we have requested, we hope to increase that program in the current fiscal year and to double it as quickly as possible. It is one of the most satisfying and desirable programs from the standpoint of Indian participation. I think you may be interested in some of these figures.

Nearly 4,000 Indians have received training under this program up to the present time. Of those who have completed institutional training, 81 percent were gainfully and permanently employed in May of this year. Of those who were obliged to drop out for one reason or another more than half were gainfully and permanently employed at the same time. This gives us a rough idea of what vocational training and education for adults can do to raise the standard of living and improve opportunities for Indian citizens. This record of achievement compares more than favorably with history under the G. I. Bill of Rights. In adult vocational training we have a program the Bureau likes, the Indians like and Congress likes. The figures show that it is an effective program. This is a perfect example of what the Task Force meant by programs of human development.

I am confident that this program will grow and grow through the years because it is a program that pays; it pays the Indian people--it pays the taxpayer; and it pays in the rich satisfaction of human beings improving their way of life.

We have other programs that are not as far along as the adult vocational training program. For example, we hope to see a return to the greater use of the Federally employed work force, the so-called "force account" method of carrying out construction jobs needed on the reservations. The Task Force heard from many men who had received a start in life by the training they received in doing construction work under "force account."

A like number, perhaps even more, told us of their activities in the old CCC and urged us strongly to press for the establishment of the Youth Conservation Corps. Such a corps could provide young Indian men with opportunities for healthy outdoor work, for wage income, and for training. At the same time it would advance the conservation and development of natural resources on and near the reservations. Such a program would require legislation but I am sure that the Bureau would look upon it with great interest and sympathy.

Intertwined with all programs of human and natural resource development is the great need for housing on the reservations. The Task Force with careful deliberation used the phrase "truly shocking" to describe the housing conditions it saw.

Throughout this entire Nation means have been found in the urban-industrial areas to bring Federal assistance in the form of public housing, housing for elderly people, housing for educational institutions, etc.

But until the New Frontier arrived none of these measures had been brought to bear in the Indian country.

I am glad to report to you than on Wednesday morning of this week The President of the United States took part in a ceremony by which the first application for a public housing project on an Indian reservation was approved. We propose a new branch in the Bureau, the Branch of Housing, which will devote full time to finding out how to bring to bear on the reservations the resources of the Housing Agency which has already done so much good throughout the rest of the Nation.

Now one last thought before I leave this area of human development and that is the field of Arts and Crafts. Indian Arts and Crafts are important because of the dollar income they bring to people who would otherwise have little earning power. They are important because of the respect that well-made handicrafts generate in the minds of non-Indians. They are important because pride in culture is a need of every people, and that which is distinctively Indian in design, in form, and in materials, has a meaning over and above the dollar sign that can be placed on it.

I am happy to report to you that the old boarding school at Santa Fe will be reconstituted as a high school and post high school training institution specializing in Indian Arts and Crafts.

We ought to place a high value on Indian Arts and Crafts because they make up a distinctive feature of the American cultural landscape.

One year ago, John F. Kennedy, then a candidate for the President of the United States, addressed a message to this body thru its President, Clarence Wesley. He said, "I am pledged to a program for the development of the human and natural resources of the Indian Reservations".

With the creation of the Task Force and the publication of its report; with the increased ceiling on the revolving loan fund and the adult vocational training programs; and with the start towards a public housing program for the Indian country, we have indeed begun to move.

But it is only beginning and we have a long way to go.

I come to you today as President Kennedy's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. I am committed to his goals, to his ideals, to his programs. My pledge to you is this:

A New Trail stretches out ahead of us. The end is the President’s goal of human and resource development. The chart by which we reach this goal is the Task Force Report to Secretary Udall. As Commissioner, I know that to walk this New Trail successfully, you and I must walk it together. That we will do.

Philleo Nash, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, today took the oath of office as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior auditorium. He succeeds Glenn L. Emmons who resigned effective January 20.

Nash, 51, has had a career in government service, private business and higher education.

In addition to serving as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin from 1959 to 1961, he was a special assistant and administrative assistant to President Truman, specializing in Department of Interior matters, from 1946 to 1953. For four years prior to the White House assignment he was a special assistant to the Director of the Office of War Information, the late Elmer Davis.

As a student and lecturer in anthropology, Nash has had an active interest in Indian affairs throughout his adult life. Earlier this year he was a member of Secretary Udall’s Task Force on Indian Affairs which completed its study and submitted its report on July 12.

Born at Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., in 1909, Nash graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1932 and received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago five years later. From 1937 to 1941 he was a lecturer on anthropology at the University of Toronto.

In the private business field he has been president of the Biron Cranberry Company at Wisconsin Rapids since 1946 and is currently president of the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association.

He is a member of Sigma Xi (the honorary science society), the American Anthropological Association, the Society of Applied Anthropology, and the Cosmos Club of Washington.

He married the former Edith Rosenfels in 1935 and they have two daughters.

Memorandum

Attached is a news release describing the newly created Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, New Mexico. The article is intended to provide subject matter suitable for:

1. routine newspaper column write-ups
2. feature stories
3. school papers
4. information bulletins or letters
5. handout sheets

Your cooperation in action to help us publicize the Institute will be appreciated. We are especially interested in having news reach two groups of readers - Indians and those who live or work in close association with Indians.

INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS TO OPEN AT SANTA FE

The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs has set October 1, 1962, as the opening date of its newly created Institute of American Indian Arts. Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be the home city of the Institute, an Institute which promises to be unique and important in the world of the arts. Dr. George A. Boyce is-the Superintendent.

Result of need and national interest - American Indians have always caught the public eye and inspired interest. Sometimes this interest has been based on sentiment or glamour. Quite often, though, it has been sincere and deep-rooted. This type of interest has been continuous and insistent. Many persons, Indians and non-Indians alike, have used every means possible to point attention to the need for a school where the unusual artistic talents of Americas Indians may develop - a school where the best of the traditional tribal arts may be appreciated and continued - a school where the artist or craftsman will also feel free to reach for new horizons. The efforts of the many have made October of 1962 a significant date -- America is to have a national center of Indian Arts and Culture, a place where dedicated students and educators may work, STUDY, CREATE and CONTRIBUTE.

Purposes served - For Indian youth of high artistic talent, the Institute will open new doors of opportunity for self-expression in painting, in sculpture, in music, in drama, in writing and the HHOLE RAINBOW OF THE ARTS. The overall program will also include academic courses, interpersonal relations and guidance services, and wholesome campus living. The total experience should give the graduate pride and practical power for living.

Economic values too: Indian youths will also see art talent as an economic resource, a resource which, when developed to the point of practical value, may result in excellent "make-a-living" careers. Some of the graduates may work as full-time artists; others nay work in art-related types of jobs. It is hoped that all of the students will enjoy the Arts for the sake of art as another aesthetic dimension in their lives.

For Indians generally, the work of the Institute should have "impacts on man near and far. The Institute itself will create or acquire the "best" in Indian arts for man to sec and appreciate. When graduates take their places in American community life, they will represent a contribution capable of enriching the community. In a purely practical sense, the trained Indian artist will be a responsible citizen with an income adequate to maintain good standards of living for himself and family.

For the nation, the values arc unlimited. It has been said that the way to create friendship in the family of man, is to know and understand the so-called "stranger" ethnic groups. The Institute can represent a very important resource to America in telling the story of its native Indian groups to the world ... a story told by the youth of the nation's major tribes in person.... and in a setting which offers memorial evidence along with the spoken word.

It can be said that the Institute will have intimate and personal value for Indian youth. Its graduates will enrich many communities. It may become an important instrument in cur country's program of international relations.

High school and graduate programs to be offered “The Institute will offer a comprehensive academic program of studies for selected art-interested students in grades 10, 11, and 12. In addition, these students may elect courses in a wide variety of the arts.

The high school program is intended, in short, to meet the academic needs of (a) art students preparing for fine arts work in college, (b) art students preparing for technical schoe1s, (c) art students completing their formal education upon graduation from high school. The post graduate school: For high school graduates who wish to do two years of work above grade 12, an advanced program of specialized studies will be offered. This level of work will meet the needs of students who are ready in terms of high school background and maturity to engage in an art specialization. The graduate program will involve in an art specialization and selected pertinent academic courses.

Art courses to be in many fields: To the extent possible, instruction will be offered in such fields as: FINE ARTS -" oil water color, earth colors, pen and ink; CRAFTS -- ceramics, woodwork, sculpturing, weaving, metalcraft, beadwork, silk screening, leatherwork; DRAMATIC ARTS -- creative writing, dramatics, dancing, music; other courses may be added as required. Related academic courses will support art: RELATED COURSES will include: business training, business principles, business management, salesmanship, Indian history and anthropology, English, mathematics, applied science, history of art, art appreciation, and typing.

Post high school students who wish to strengthen their general education as preparation for college may also elect any of the high school offerings. Provision for individualized programs according to student needs is included in the curriculum. In some instances, students nay enroll at the college level in local colleges for limited off-campus studies.

Guidance - The guidance program will be complete and practical. Professional counselors and guidance technicians will serve as leaders in a slice involving all available human and material resources. The program will be concerned with student life on a round-the-clock, seven days a week basis, his personal well-being, his health, meals, recreational activities, work and study schedule, job placement (in-school, summer, graduate career). In short, guidance will be a program in tune with the complete life of each student.

Student body to be colorful and talented - On campus one will meet the arts elite of American Indian youth. These young people will come from all parts of the Indian country. All Federally-recognized tribes will be represented. The Eskimo of Alaska will mingle with the Seminole of Florida. Hopi, Sioux, Chippewa, Pueblo, Navaho, Apache... these, and many other tribes will make up the family of the Institute.

Faculty to be resident and visiting - To meet the instructional needs of such a specialized student group, two types of faculty will staff the classrooms and studies: a resident staff and a visiting staff of specialists. In the latter category many of the specialists may be the great names in the major fields of art.

Professional training and successful experience will be significant factors in the selection of faculty members. Selections, however, will not be made on these merits alone. The Institute will be staffed by people who also have an unusual degree of sincerity and interest in Indians and intercultural relations.

Criteria for admission - The Institute seeks students with high aptitudes in one of the arts; students who have attracted the attention of their teachers, friends, counselors or the public because of their performance in painting, music, creative writing or anyone of the various kinds of art. Evidence must be submitted. Examples: samples of art or crafts work, or of creative writing -- descriptions of achievements in music or dramatics -- written recommendations by people who know of good work dene -- listings of honors or awards won -- the cumulative record kept by the applicant's school.

Applicants must be members of a Federally-recognized tribe and have at least one quarter Indian blood. In the main, this means all tribes that have any type of relationship with the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the case where this relationship has been terminated by law, or where recognition is by the State or local group only, students are not eligible to attend.

Applicants should be in grades 10, 11, and 12 for work in the high school program. The post high school program is open to students who have graduated from high school and wish to do two years of graduate work. The age limits for both programs (high school and graduate school) are 16 through 21 years of age. Exceptions to this requirement nay be possible when the application is supported by an adequate justification.

Applicants should be persons of good character.

Students must furnish evidence of sincere interest and serious intention in the art field.

It is important to remember this. If one is currently enrolled in a public school, a parochial (mission) school, a Federal Indian school, or perhaps is a student who has temporarily dropped out of school, HE IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY IF HE MEETS THE CRITERIA DESCRIBED ABOVE. It does not matter where one has attended school. If the criterias are met, if one has art talent and feels that the Institute is the best place to develop his talent, HE IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY.

Where to, Mr. Graduate? - Two types of careers are possible: pure art careers - art-related careers.

In the pure art career field, the graduate may work as a full-time artist or craftsman. He may be independent and self-employed, or he may be a member of a guild and work with a cooperative group, or he may be employed as a staff artist in anyone of the many operations of the professions, industry or business.

In the art-related career field the title "artist" nay not actually be emphasized in his job title, but the nature of the work will be based on his art background of education. The graduate may do art-related work in museums, schools, churches, newspaper and book publishing work, research projects involving science, medicine, etc., the National Park Service, U.S. Information Agency, advertising and ether types of commercial art, illustration and design, work in the entertainment profession involving television, movies and the theatre. The field is large and varied. So, regardless of whether the graduate works in pure Indian traditional art, or in art generally as an artist or art business, or whether he follows an art related career, he can make a Good living and also contribute significantly to art and mankind. His contribution should be unique in that it stems out of an Indian background.

Additional information - Information bulletins, application forms and answers to your questions are available upon request. Address inquiries to: The Superintendent, Institute of American Indian Arts, Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The appointment of a new Commissioner provides a special opportunity to talk to you about the administration's policies with respect to American Indians. I have asked all of the Bureau's employees here in Washington to come to this meeting because I want you to know what these policies are. I have asked you because I know that almost everyone of you has some share in carrying out policies, or in applying the policies to particular cases or situations. Whatever you may be doing, even if you do not realize it at the moment, is sure to involve or affect policy. It may be the selection of personnel, the allotment of appropriated funds, the approval of a lease, the sale of an allotment of land, the release of tribal funds, even a simple letter answering a request for information anyone of these may be an expression of policy.

For some months past, if I have been correctly informed, there has been an undercurrent of expectation in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I can understand that. First you have had a new administration, with a new Secretary and a new Assistant Secretary, whose opinions, methods and convictions you have not known. Then, there has been the Task Force, and one of its members is the new commissioner. You have every reason to expect that he will, with my support, put into effect as rapidly as possible, those Task Force recommendations which can be handled by administrative action. Some of you may not have had a chance to read the Task Force report. Therefore, I want to comment now on the more important recommendations, so that you will understand what changes will be made and what the new policies are.

Let me say first that I fully concur in the three basic objectives which the Task Force has stated: (1) maximum Indian economic self-sufficiency; (2) full participation of Indians in American life; and (3) equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for Indians. The Task Force said truly that aid from the Indian community is crucial to the achievement of these objectives. Indian aid and support must be secured before projects or programs are commenced. Indians can retain their tribal identities and much of their culture while moving forward toward these objectives.

Next, The Task Force explained why it did not include "termination" as a major objective. At the hearings held by the Task Force it was clear that the Indians were seeing "termination” lurking behind every rock and every tree. I agree with the Task Force that our goal is maximum development. When we reach that goal, termination will have disappeared as an issue.

On numerous occasions I have stated my purpose to improve administration at the reservation level. After all, the reason for the Bureau’s existence ought to be the improvement of Indian life. We should send our best people to the reservations--people who can plan and work with Indians, understand them, and be understood by them. We may have to raise the pay of such people, and we shall try to find ways of keeping such people in a job they are doing well, instead of rewarding them by moving them to another agency where salaries are bigger because it has more employees and spends more money. The superintendent at a small agency, with inadequate staff and meager Indian resources may be facing a tougher job than the man at the big agency, with more money, more staff, more resources. In short, I see the main reason for the area offices and the Central Office to be the improvement of reservation administration, and that means improvement in the lives of the Indians. My ambition is to see an action program moving forward in each Indian community.

Next, I shall talk briefly about the land problem. I firmly believe that the Indian's land base is essential to a sound economic future. I intend to support Indian effort to hold their lands, and even to acquire more land where they need it and can use it productively.

Everybody has heard of the heirship problem, which has caused thousands of acres of Indian land to lie idle, and many more thousands to be used less productively than they could be. Several bills have been introduced in the present Congress on this subject. According to the Senate Committee's report on heirship, there are about 40,000 tracts, worth $180,000,000, in heirship status. If we can achieve a workable law, and then proceed vigorously, we can change materially the economic situation of many tribes.

The need for funds to lend to the tribes was one of the factors in another legislative proposal which the Department sent to the Congress, to remove the $10,000,000 ceiling on the loan fund established by the Indian Reorganization Act. The Congress did not agree to remove the ceiling, but it voted to raise it to $20,000,000. We are now seeking the appropriation of a part of this increase. More money is needed in the Revolving Loan Fund for all sorts of purposes.

Of the $140,000,000 which the Bureau requested Congress to appropriate for this fiscal year, almost exactly $70,000,000 was for education and the allied services of welfare, vocational training, and relocation. By way of showing the rapid growth and complexity of the Bureau's operations, let me point out that in Fiscal 1952, just ten years ago, the total appropriation to the Bureau, including the medical work, was $68,000,000. In the field of education there have been rapid changes of policy during those years. I agree with the Task Force that an independent study of Indian education should be made, and I shall ask the Commissioner to explore ways and means of making such a study.

Finally, one other piece of legislation suggested by the Task Force was sent to the Congress but no action was taken in this session. This is a bill to establish an Advisory Board on Indian Affairs, to be composed of not more than fifteen leaders, both Indian and non-Indian, in various fields. In approving this recommendation, it has been my thought that such a board would serve three main purposes: (1) it would be a non-partisan group which would give the Secretary advice and information; (2) both as a board and as individuals, it would help to spread accurate information to the public about Indians and the Bureau's operations; and (3) because its members would serve staggered terms, it would be a continuing body and would have a stabilizing influence on Bureau policies. It would be my hope that the Board would prevent such violent changes in policies as have sometimes occurred in the past with each new administration.

Appointment of Dr. James E. Officer of Tucson, Arizona, as Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Dr. Officer, who was instructor in sociology and anthropology and assistant director of the Bureau of Ethnic Research at the University of Arizona from 1955 to early 1961, served as a member of the task force which was appointed by the Secretary to survey the operations and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Born in Boulder, Colorado, July 28, 1924, Dr. Officer received an A.B. in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1950 and a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1958, also from the University of Arizona.

He was a radio and television newscaster and writer in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Tucson from 1942 to 1950 and served as information officer for the Department of State in Washington, D. C., and Santiago de Chile from 1950 to 1953.

In 1945-46 he was on military duty with the U. S. Army.

Dr. Officer is the author of numerous publications in professional journals and a book, Indians in School, published by the University of Arizona Press in 1956.

He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, the American Sociological Society, and director of the Association for Papago Affairs. He married Roberta Mitzel in 1946. They have one son and one daughter.

Award of a $2,988,988 contract for construction of a complete new Navajo Indian boarding school for 672 pupils at Crownpoint, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of a 23-clsssroom school with library and multipurpose room, four 168-pupil dormitories, a 672-pupil kitchen and dining room; 68 employees’ quarters, a storage and maintenance shop, a fire station, and the development of a complete utility system.

These new facilities, to be constructed at a site approximately three-fourths of a mile from the existing boarding school at Crownpoint, will provide educational opportunity for the 450 pupils now enrolled in the present school and an additional 222 pupils not now in school. The existing Bureau school facilities at the old site have been condemned and will be demolished when the new facilities are completed.

The successful bidder was George A. Rutherford, Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Six higher bids, ranging from $3,087,900 to $3,298,000 were received. One other bid was disregarded because an error was made in the submission.

The Department of the Interior today announced the appointment of E. Reeseman Fryer, Chantilly, Va., as Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in charge of resource programs.

A native of Mesa, Arizona, and career civil servant, Fryer formerly served with the Bureau from 1936 to 1942 and from 1948 to 1950. In his new post he will have nationwide supervision of the Bureau's realty, land operations, forestry and roads programs. He succeeds E. J. Utz who retired in August.

Fryer's earlier service with the Bureau was as general superintendent of the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Ariz., from 1936 to 1942, as chief of the division of Indian resources in 1948, and as superintendent of the Carson Agency in Nevada from 1948 to 1950.

Since leaving the Bureau 11 years ago he served as assistant administrator of the Technical Cooperation Administration in the Department of State from 1950 to 1953, as vice president of International Development Service (a nonprofit private agency) from 1953 to 1955, as assistant to the president of Westinghouse Electric International, Inc., from 1955 to 1957, and as vice president of Developments International Corporation for the past four years.

During the 1940's he was assistant director of the War Relocation Authority in 1942 and 1943, chief of the North African Mission of the State Department's Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation from 1943 to 1945, and director of the agricultural department of the Corporacion Boliviana de Fomento under contract with the Bolivian Government from 1945 to 1948.

Before joining the Indian Bureau for the first time in 1936 he served for several years with the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture in New Mexico and Arizona. He attended the University of Washington from 1925 to 1928 and was awarded a teaching fellowship in Land Use Administration at Harvard University in 1938.

Enrollment of American Indians for education beyond high school has more than doubled in the past six years and Indian tribes are now spending over half a million dollars annually from their own funds on scholarship aids for their young people, the Department of the Interior reported today.

In the 1954-55 academic year approximately 2,300 Indian boys and girls attended college or advanced vocational school. In the 1960-61 academic year, which ended last June, reports from the reservations indicate that the number was almost 4900, or more than twice as many as six years before.

Last March the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana appropriated $16,000 for educational grants to eligible members of the tribe. The Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico last year established a $25,000 trust fund for scholarships for higher education. These two additions bring to 29 the number of tribes providing funds for the advanced education of their most promising youth. The amounts annually available range from a few hundred dollars to the income from a $10,000,000 trust fund established by the Navajo Tribe of Arizona and New Mexico in 1957-59. In addition a scholarship fund for California Indians, resulting from a bequest by an Indian, Maple Creek Willie, became available last July.

The 29 tribes, by States, are:

Most of both the annual and trust funds have been voted by the tribes from monies received from the sale of oil or mineral rights, income from timberland or livestock, or from Government awards.

These 29 tribes conduct their scholarship programs through committees which carefully consider applications and closely follow the academic careers of the successful applicants. Terms and conditions vary with each tribe. Scholarships are ordinarily provided for students in nursing, secretarial and other vocational schools as well as at liberal arts and technical colleges.

When Maple Creek Willie, a member of the Mad River Indian Band of California, died in 1937, it was discovered that he had left his 160 acres of allotted land in Humboldt County to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In November 1959 the allotment was sold by the Government with the understanding that the proceeds were to be used to establish a fund for the granting of scholarships to worthy members of California Indian tribal groups. On July 6, 1961 the Maple Creek Willie Indian Scholarship Fund was formally established by the California Department of Education, and in August a selection board in Sacramento chose 14 Indian boys and girls to be the first beneficiaries. The fund amounts to about $130,000, and it is planned to distribute it over a ten-year period.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs also provides a number of annual scholarship grants to Indian high school students on a competitive basis. These grants may not be used for expenses in sectarian schools and are awarded only to reservation students who have one-fourth or more Indian blood. In the 1960-61 academic year Federal grants totaling approximately $250,000 were made to 623 Indian boys and girls, the average amount being $388.

Another Federal program provides "working scholarships" in Indian boarding schools situated near colleges or universities. These aids enable students to earn room and board at the boarding school in return for 14 hour of work per week. For example, Indian students who wish to study at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, may in this way obtain their room and board by living and working at Haskell Institute in the same city.

The States of Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Alaska also have special scholarship programs for Indian students.

The largest nongovernmental and nontribal source of scholarships for Indians is the service conducted cooperatively by the Congregational Christian Churches of America, the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Association on American Indian Affairs. Several western universities and a few eastern universities offer special scholarships to Indians. Probably the largest individual awards during the past academic year were the "opportunity fellowships” given by the John Hay Whitney Foundation to four Indian students for graduate work in the fields of social work, government, history, and languages.

Development of both human and natural resources on Indian reservations will be the prime objective for the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Kennedy Administration, Commissioner Philleo Nash told an audience in Denver, Colorado, Tuesday evening.

Visiting in Denver for a nationwide conference on Indian Bureau superintendents, the new Commissioner, woe entered on duty September 26, spoke on “The New Trail for American Indians” before a meeting of the Indian Visitors of the American Friends Service Committee.

In his talk Commissioner Nash indicated that in the period ahead the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be placing greater emphasis on developmental programs and less on the custodial phases of its work. The latter aspects, he added, have frequently received too much attention in previous years.

Nash warned, however, that economic development will not come easily or automatically to Indian peoples attempting to improve their lot. He listed four ingredients as essential.

“First, the tribes must be willing to invest some of their funds in the future. Some tribes have started remarkable economic projects with relatively small investments but none has been able to achieve real progress without putting at least some funds for work.

“Second, every tribe hoping to achieve substantial economic gains for its members must have and must support a tribal governing body which will study the tribe’s problems and opportunities and then work hard and consistently to accomplish the desired goals.

“Third, a sound working partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs is essential. The role of the Bureau is to provide technical assistance to the tribe, not to manage the tribal programs or do the tribe’s work. But a harmonious relationship between the tribe and the Bureau is a prerequisite to significant progress.

“Fourth, every tribe hoping to achieve anything of importance in economic development must encourage increasing cooperation between Indians and the imaginative, sympathetic, helpful people in the nearby non-Indian communities.”

The meeting with Commissioner Nash was co-sponsored by the White Buffalo Council of American Indians, the Inter-Tribal Youth Club, the Watonka Club, and other Denver organizations.