OPA

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands on the. Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah for periods up to a maximum of 99 years.

Under present law the maximum term permitted for such leases is 25 years with an option to renew for an additional 25 years. In a report on H. R. 9382, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst pointed out that the bill is needed to permit leases with a long enough term so that the lessee can obtain financing for the type of real estate development contemplated on the Navajo Reservation. In some parts of the reservation intensive development for residential or commercial use is being considered.

Mr. Ernst explained that difficult problems arise under present laws limiting leases to what is the equivalent of a 50-year period due to the fact that by the time financing is obtained by the lessee, the lease has less than 50 years to run, while the Federal Reserve Act and the National Housing Act require a minimum of 50-year leases before approving loans secured by lease holdings.

In its report the Department called attention to the 99-year leasing legislation enacted last year for the Palm Springs Reservation in California and pointed out that H. R. 9382 in its present form would substitute the Navajo for the Palm Springs Reservation. The Department recommended that the bill be modified so that the Navajo authorization would-be in addition to rather than in lieu of the Palm Springs authority.

The Department of the Interior announced today it has submitted to Congress proposals for legislation that would end Federal trusteeship and supervision 0ver two small Indian reservations in western Washington.

The reservations affected are Lower Elwha embracing 372 acres in Clallam County near Port Angeles and Shoalwater Bay which comprises 334.75 acres in Pacific County southwest of Hoquiam. There are about 80 Indians in the Lower Elwha group and 11 residing on the Shoalwater Bay Reservation.

Under the Department's proposals, which have been endorsed by a majority of the Indians in both groups as well as by State and county officials, the lands on the reservations would be conveyed to the Indians in fee simple or unrestricted status.

In the case of Lower Elwha, the governing council of the Band would provide for a division of the lands among the enrolled members. In the case of Shoalwater Bay, where there is no tribal organization, the legislation divides among the 11 residents all reservation lands except for a cemetery which is to be turned over to a public or nonprofit body.

On both reservations the Indians are well assimilated with the surrounding Don-Indian communities and have been managing their own affairs for a generation more with only a minimum of assistance from the Indian Bureau.

Promotion of Llewellyn Kingsley from the post of administrative officer at the Uintah and Ouray Indian Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah, to the position of superintendent of the Winnebago Agency, Winnebago, Nebraska, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Kingsley will assume his new duties effective March 6. He succeeds Allan M. Adams who recently transferred to the Washington Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a realty officer.

The new Winnebago superintendent first came with the Bureau in 1936 as an assistant clerk at the Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Ariz. Two years later he moved to the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Ariz., as foreman of water development. After 13 years in this post he was named chief clerk of the Hopi Agency in 1951 and was then promoted to administrative officer of the same agency in 1953. Three years later he transferred as administrative officer to the San Carlos Agency, San Carlos, Ariz., and in 1958 moved to his present position at Fort Duchesne.

Before joining the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he was associated for nine years with an oil company in Oklahoma. He was born at Canton, Oklahoma, in 1904 and attended the University of Colorado from 1923 to 1926.

Of the 31,259 Indian people who have moved away from their reservations to western and Midwestern cities since 1952 with help provided under the relocation services program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior, about 70 percent have become self-supporting in their new homes, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons reported today.

"The highest rate of successful Indian relocations," Mr. Emmons said, it was 16 percent in 1955. The lowest was 61 percent in 1958. Over the whole period since the entirely voluntary program started in February 1952, the rate has been just about 70 percent.

"When we consider the numerous difficulties which many Indians from reservations face in adjusting to the complexities of life in our larger cities, this stands as a highly remarkable record. It shows what Indian people can do in taking their place alongside citizens of other races if they are only given a reasonable opportunity.”

As further evidence of Indian success under the auspices of the relocation services program, Commissioner Emmons cited a recent report made by a four-man committee of the Navajo Tribe of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo group, representing the biggest tribe in the country, visited a large number of relocated Navajo families and single individuals in their new city homes in the latter part of 1959.

Commenting on these visits, Hoska Cronemyer, Chairman of the Navajo committee, had this to say:

"Any program of this size is bound to cause some difficulties. But we resent individuals and organizations taking advantage of these difficulties and exploit19 the victims to fight the Indian Affairs Bureau and the whole relocation program for their purposes or for publicity.

"In general, we think that if a man does the right thing, he'll do all right for himself and his family wherever he is, we think the relocation program is one of the best plans the Federal Government has ever had. Had it been in effect 50 years ago, the Indian would be much better off today.”

Commissioner Emmons also reported "gratifying progress in the Bureau's more recently initiated program to provide adult Indians with vocational training.

"Over a two-year period from the start of the program in February 1958 through the end of December 1959,” he said “2,017 individual Indians have been enrolled at Government expense in vocational schools throughout the country. Of these, 611 have completed their training, 629 have discontinued, and 777 are still in training. In addition, we have a backlog of 778 Indian applicants who are awaiting placement in vocational schools as soon as the funds can be made available.”

Plans for further insuring the secrecy of absentee ballots in Osage Indian Tribal Council elections, and representation proportionate to each voter’s financial interest in the Osage mineral estate, were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

In a letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the Department said it has submitted a notice of the proposed changes for publication in the Federal Register.

The Department said the proposals resulted from hearings by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Osage Agency headquarters in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, last September.

"The great majority of Osage people who expressed themselves have indicated that they favor a change in the election procedures to further insure secret ballots," the letter said.

Heretofore, absentee Osage voters have been permitted to cast their ballots through other voters who were not necessarily election officials. The new regulation would require that executed absentee ballots be sent by the absent voters directly to the supervisor of the election board.

Under the present election rules, all Osage Indians with an interest in the Osage estate are permitted to vote. Each vote is equal, irrespective of the voter's percentage of interest in the estate. Under the proposed regulations, the Department said, "voting will be in proportion to each person’s interest in the Osage estate.”

The headright interest that a member of the Osage Tribe has is shown on the Osage annuity roll. Under the revised rules proportionate voting would be accomplished by assigning to each ballot exactly the same value as the voter’s headright interest shown on the annuity roll.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said the change would result in a more businesslike administration of the Osage estate by giving the Osage Indian "stockholders” a voice in elections in proportion to their respective interests.

The Department said all interested persons are invited to submit in writing their views, data and arguments on the proposals, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C., within 30 days of the date of publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

Additional progress toward the goal of full educational and economic opportunities for American Indians was accomplished by the Bureau of Indian Affairs along many different lines in the fiscal year 1957, the Department of the Interior reported today.

In the field of juvenile education the Department's report called attention to the record enrollment of 132,000 Indian children in schools of all types throughout the country, a seven-percent increase in Navajo enrollment to a new high of over 27,000 and the initiation of active steps to enlarge school opportunities for the Choctaws of Mississippi and the natives of Alaska.

Greater attention than ever before was also given to the educational needs of Indian adults. The adult literacy training program, launched by the Bureau on five reservations in 1956, was continued in 1957 and expanded to additional tribal groups in Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska. Plans were shaped up in fiscal 1957 for the adult vocational training program which was formally initiated on July 1.

On the economic side one of the most important developments of the year was the establishment of eight additional industrial plants near Indian reservations. Three of these were in South Dakota, two in Arizona, and one each in Montana, North Carolina and Washington. One of them, however, located at Flagstaff, Arizona, found it necessary to discontinue operations after the end of the fiscal year. Those still operating are expected to train and employ as many as 500 Indian workers during fiscal 1958.

Nearly 7,000 Indians received assistance in 1957 under the Bureau's relocation services program in finding jobs and establishing homes away from the reservations in cities such as Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and St. Louis. This compared with slightly over 5,000 aided under the program in fiscal 1956.

Income to Indians from oil, gas and other mineral leasing of reservation lands nearly doubled as compared with the previous year, rising from about $41,000,000 in fiscal 1956 to over $75,000,000 in 1957. As usual, some groups and individuals benefited far more heavily than others. A large part of the increase was accounted for by the nearly $35,000,000 in bonuses received by the Navajo Tribe for oil and gas leases in the “four corners” portion of the reservation.

Two tribal groups reached the point of final divorcement from Federal trusteeship in fiscal 1957 under the provisions of laws enacted in 1954. These were the coastal Oregon tribes of the former Grand Ronde-Siletz jurisdiction and four small Paiute bands of Utah.

The withdrawal of 1,393 acres of public lands in New Mexico for scientific research by New Mexico’s A. &M. College with a special provision protecting the traditional right of local Indians to use a portion of the area for religious purposes was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The lands are located in Dona Ana County. They Hill be used by the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts for research on electromagnetism and other subjects.

The order provides that the Tortugas Indians may continue crossing the area on foot to visit a piece of land located on a hill near the College which they have traditionally regarded as sacred. Some members of the small Tortugas band live in Mexico and others in the United States. They are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Subject to valid existing rights, the lands are withdrawn from all forms of appropriation under the public land laws, including mineral leasing and mining Grazing Hill be permitted to continue, Bureau of Land engagement Director Edward Woozley said.

Notice of the application for withdrawal was published in the Federal Register on March 11, 1959. No comments were received.

Education and training programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs benefited an increasing number of Indians of all ages during the fiscal year 1959, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said today in releasing the Department1s annual report.

Adult vocational training under Indian Bureau contracts with trade schools throughout the country was furnished to 1,547 Indians during the year. This contrasted with 376 trainees in 195B, the first year of the Bureau's adult vocational training program.

Enrollment of school-age Indian children in schools of all types increased to an all-time high figure of approximately 132,000, about 92 percent of the school-age children Sixty-one percent were enrolled in public schools, 30 percent in 285 Federal schools operated by the Indian Bureau, and 9 percent in mission and other private schools.

Adult education courses on the reservations for the benefit of illiterate or inadequately educated Indians were conducted by the Bureau at 80 locations in 1959 as compared with 75 in 1958.

Grant funds were made available by the Bureau to help over 500 Indian students in obtaining an education beyond the high school level.

Another major development of the fiscal year, according to the Bureau’s section of the annual report, was Secretary Seaton’s radio address of September 18, 1958, clarifying the Department's position on the centrally important question of determining trust responsibilities for Indian tribal groups.

Referring to the resolution on this subject adopted by Congress in 1953 (House Concurrent Resolution No. 108 of the 83d Congress), the Secretary cited varying interpretations given to this document over the preceding five years and mentioned the impression created by some interpreters that "it is the intention of Congress and the Department of the Interior to abandon Indian groups regardless of their ability to fend for themselves.

Secretary Seaton strongly repudiated any such interpretation. Summarizing his position, he said: " ••• no Indian tribe should end its relationship with the Federal Government unless such tribe or group has clearly demonstrated--first, that it understands the plan under which such a program would go forward, and second, that the tribe or group affected concurs in and supports the plan proposed."

The one piece of new Indian terminal legislation enacted by Congress during fiscal 1959 was in full harmony with the Department's position. It covers 41 small Indian groups in California which had explicitly asked for such legislation and provides for a referendum on each property distribution or termination plan before it becomes effective. By the end of the period 23 of the groups had submitted such plans and all of these had been tentatively approved by the Department.

Income to Indian tribes and individuals from leasing of their lands for oil and gas development declined for the second year in a row from the record-smashing total of nearly $72,000,000 reached in 1957. In 1959 the income from this source totaled $46,587,458. This was the third highest figure ever recorded. Although, there was a substantial decrease in bonus income during 1959, the increasing production on Indian (especially Navajo) lands was reflected in an all-time-high royalty income figure of $30,172,382. This compared with $18,453,532 in 1958.

Sales of timber from Indian lands advanced during the reporting period and cash receipts from this source totaled about $9,000,000 as compared with approximately $8,500,000 the preceding year

Transfer of Howard S. Dushane, superintendent of the Fort Belknap Indian Agency at Harlem, Montana, to the comparable position at the Cheyenne River Agency in South Dakota, effective February 20, was announced today by the Department of the Interior. He succeeds Noralf Nesset who was named superintendent of the Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak., last December.

Mr. Dushane is of Indian descent and has been with the Bureau since 1934. His first assignment was at Valentine, Ariz., where he remained in positions of increasing responsibility until 1944 when he transferred to the Fort Apache Agency in the same State as personnel clerk. Five years later he was appointed chief clerk at the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Ariz. After one year in this post he transferred to Hoopa, Calif., as district agent. In 1952 he was designated program officer in the area office at Sacramento, Calif., and three years later moved as program officer to the area office at Portland, Oreg. He was named superintendent of the Fort Belknap Agency in 1957.

Mr. Dushane is a native of Seneca, Mo., and a graduate of the Haskell Indian Institute at Lawrence, Kans.

Legislation that would make it a Federal criminal offense to trespass for hunting, fishing or trapping purposes on Indian reservations and other Indian lands held in trust by the United States is needed to protect the property rights of Indian tribal groups, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst said today.

The Interior Department, Mr. Ernst pointed out, has reported favorably to Congress on H.R. 7240, a bill which would provide such protection by amending appropriate sections of the United States Code.

"In a great many instances," Mr. Ernst said in the report, "fish and game are much more plentiful on Indian reservations than on adjacent lands, and non-Indian hunters and fishermen come on the reservations to hunt and fish. Indian tribes have the right to control or to prohibit hunting and fishing on their reservations, and to charge fees for permitting hunting and fishing. Sometimes the money derived from hunting and fishing permits represents sizable portion of the tribal income.”

While there is authority in an 1834 statute which provides some measure of protection against such trespass, this authority is limited in scope and not adequate for meeting present-day needs. Over the past several years the Bureau of Indian Affairs has received many requests from Indian tribes for more adequate protective legislation.

The Interior Department recommended deletion of one provision in H.R. 7240 which would make it a Federal offense to destroy, remove or deface boundary markers on Indian reservations. This provision is not needed, the Department said, since the subject is adequately covered by existing law.