OPA

Award of a $40,900 contract for construction of 20 deep-pit-type circular charcos (earthen stock water tanks) in the Sells and Gu Achi Districts of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona to L. P. McCrite & Son, Gilbert, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The McCrite bid was the lowest of 18 bids received. The others ranged from $41,600 to $193,700.

Construction of the charcos is being carried out as part of the Indian Bureau’s long-range program for developing the resources of the Papago Reservation. When completed, it will permit a better distribution of livestock and a more uniform utilization of forage than is possible with the range water facilities now available.

The contract provides for removal of an estimated 280,000 cubic yards of earthen material from the pit areas and additional borrow areas and the placement of this material in pit embankments and collection dikes adjacent to and extending from the pit. It also involves the placement of 2,000 feet of corrugated steel pipe in the collection dikes to provide for passage of the floodwaters from the collection area to the excavated pit.

Because of the warmly sympathetic interest which your National Society has taken in the welfare of our Indian citizens over a period of many years, I consider it a real privilege and an honor that you have invited me to speak to you here today on my favorite subject.

In the limited time available to me, it will not be possible to do much more than hit the high spots. But I do want to take advantage of this opportunity to give you, briefly, my own impressions of where we stand today in the complicated field of Indian affairs, where we are trying to go, and what the prospects are for the future.

In talking about where we are today, I could, of course, dwell at considerable length on the more depressing aspects of the picture--as I have done on numerous other occasions. I could talk about poverty and hopelessness, about poor health and illiteracy, about juvenile delinquency and all the other social ills that can be found in many reservation areas--particularly if you go out hunting for them.

However, without minimizing the importance of these problems for a moment, I would like to concentrate for just a little bit here on some of the brighter aspects of the picture. I do this deliberately as a kind of antidote for the type of literature with which I am sure all of you are only too familiar. It is the sort of literature which focuses exclusively on the blackest problem areas-- the Indian families huddled together in miserable tar paper shacks on the outskirts of some western town--and leaves the reader with a feeling that all is lost.

Now I feel that the facts on what we might call “the debit side of the ledger” have already been sufficiently emphasized in the public prints and are well enough known to an audience such as this one. But on the credit side there are also facts--positive and encouraging facts - which, for one reason or another, don’t always seem to command the same degree of public attention. Let me mention just a few that come most readily to mind.

For one thing, I think it is wholly clear that more Indians are voting today and playing an active part in national, state and local elections than at any previous time in our history when we recall that many of the Indians did not acquire citizenship status until 1924, the full significance of this becomes more readily apparent. It is, to my mind, a deeply encouraging fact and one that bodes well for the future of our country.

In addition, there are more Indians today than ever before attending colleges and other institutions of higher learning--about three or four times as many as there were 20 years ago. There are more Indian youngsters enrolled in the public schools of the Nation - about 72,000 in the United States and Alaska, according to our latest records, as contrasted with only 246 in 1900.

One of our proudest achievements was on the Navajo Reservation where only about half of the school-age population of 28,000 was attending school in the fall of 1953. Two years later, as a result of a "crash” program, we were able for the first time in history to accommodate all of the Navajo children who presented themselves for education. Because the Navajo population of school-age is growing constantly and rapidly, we have since dropped back a bit from this high point and are now engaged in a long-range planning of school facilities that will permit us to stay constantly abreast. But the point I want to emphasize is that we have "broken the back” of the long-standing Navajo education problem through our two-year program. If we can stay on top of this situation, we will achieve an objective of major importance to the Indian people.

On the economic side there are a number of encouraging facts. Today, for example, there are literally thousands of Indian families from reservations living in cities such as Los Angeles and Denver and Chicago who are enjoying far better living standards than they have ever previously known. There are hundreds of other families still living in the neighborhood of the reservations who are benefiting from the steady jobs made available in new manufacturing plants that have recently been set up in several of these areas. And there are many tribal groups, such as the Jicarilla Apaches of New Mexico and the Utes of Utah and Colorado, which have been receiving impressive financial benefits in recent years as a result of oil-and gas leasing on their lands. As an outstanding example of this latter activity, we have the case of the Navajo Tribe which received bonus payments of roughly 33 million dollars from this source during the month of November in 1956.

Without going further into the “credit side of our ledger,” I hope I have said enough here to indicate that the picture in Indian affairs today is not entirely black and that it does have its elements of hopefulness and progress and successful adjustment to the realities of 20th century life.

My own personal feeling has always been that our Indian people, taken by and large, are just as capable as any other group in the American population and that all they need is a chance to make a decent livelihood and to realize their inherent possibilities for advancement and personal growth. Ever since the days when the ancestors of you ladies sitting here today were fighting to establish our national independence, this country has been known as the land of opportunity. Yet the ironic fact is that this kind of opportunity has never been made fully available to our first Americans--the people whose ancestors preceded ours on this continent by probably several thousand years. My number one objective as Commissioner of Indian Affairs is to see, that our Indian people get this kind of opportunity so that they can take their rightful place alongside other citizens in the broad pattern of our national life.

Now you may well ask what is the nature of the problem here. If the Indians have the kind of natural abilities which I have been emphasizing, why is it that many of them are mired down in poverty around the reservations? Unfortunately there is no simple answer to this question but a large part of the answer, I believe, can be summed up in a very short phrase. It is "too many people and not enough land."

Although some of the tribes like the Utes and the Jicarilla Apaches have been getting excellent returns recently from the mineral resources of their lands, most of the tribes are not so fortunate. Even the Navajos, with their recent unusual 33 million dollar-bonus income, have to spread these proceeds rather thin in programs that 'Will benefit some 80,000 people and there are many tribal groups throughout the country that have never realized a dollar from mineral leasing on their lands. Taken as a whole the lands available on Indian reservations and similar areas are not large - something over 50 million acres altogether--and their capacity to provide a decent livelihood for the families dependent on them is highly restricted. On reservation after reservation we find that the present resources will furnish an adequate living for only a fractional part of the present population. And, on top of this, the Indian population is growing in most places at a faster rate than the general population of the country.

On the Navajo Reservation, for example, the population when I first came to Gallup, New Mexico, in 1919 was estimated to be around 29,000. Today it stands at 80,000; in another five years it will reach the 100,000 mark; and by the year 2000, which is only 43 years away, it could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 350,000. Yet the resources of the Navajo Reservation, even after full development, will probably never support more than 45,000 people at a level which could be considered really adequate.

There, in a nutshell, you have the problem which we face not only on the Navajo Reservation but on scores of others throughout the Western States. Now what are we trying to do about it?

First, of course, we are emphasizing the progressive development of the resources available on the reservations--the lands and water, the timber, the grass and the minerals. We want to be sure that these resources are developed to the highest feasible point and that they are producing the maximum income for the Indian people that is consistent with sound principles of conservation. And I might add that the appropriations we have for this purpose today are more than twice what they were as recently as nine or 10 years ago.

From what I have already said, however, it should be clear that resource development alone will not provide a total answer to the problem. Even with the fullest development that we can imagine, the resources of the Navajo Reservation will probably never support more than 45,000 people at an acceptable standard of living. Those on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation of South Dakota will not support more than about 500 families out of the 1,800 families now living there; those on the Papago Reservation in Arizona will not support more than about half of the present population. And so it goes.

Then we also have to think about the aptitudes and the inclinations of the Indian people. On many of the reservations the major part of the Indian land is not today being used by Indian farmers and stockmen but is being leased out to non-Indians and is producing a rental income for the Indian owners. Now, of course, there is nothing unusual about this; thousands of non-Indians throughout the country also own agricultural or grazing lands which they lease out to others for operation and production. But the point I want to emphasize is that it's only a minor segment of our population--Indian or non-Indians--which has any real aptitude or interest in making a living directly from the land. Even in rural areas, large numbers of the younger people, both Indian and non-Indian, have no desire to be stockmen or farmers today and would much prefer to be mechanics or accountants or industrial workers. I firmly believe they should have this opportunity.

So it is important to put our resource development work in proper perspective and to supplement it with other types of "economic opportunity" programs. As matters now stand, we have two of these programs actively under way and a third in the formative stages.

One of the active programs is what we call “relocation services." Essentially it's a program of guidance and assistance for Indian people--both workers and their families--who want to leave the reservations and establish themselves in metropolitan areas where jobs are more plentiful and easier to find. Under this program we have counselors on the reservations to advise the Indian people who are thinking about a move and inform them realistically about the kinds of adjustments they will have to make. Then on the receiving end--in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Chicago and St. Louis--we have offices which actively help the new arrivals in finding jobs, locating suitable housing, and getting generally adjusted to their new environment.

Now it is true that about one-fourth of the Indian people who have gone out under this program each year have eventually returned to the reservations because they found big-city life incompatible or for some other reason. But the other three-fourths, comprising about 12,000 Indian people altogether, have made some pretty remarkable adjustments. Nearly all of them are making far more money than they ever did previously; many of them are enjoying comforts and conveniences that they had never known before; and the great majority of them are gradually acquiring a new kind of self-reliance which is a wonderfully heartening thing to see.

But we also recognize that relocation is not the total answer even for the nonagricultural Indians since there are and always will be many thousands of Indian people who are understandably reluctant to leave their home areas and take up life in a city like Los Angeles or Chicago. So the second phase of our "economic opportunity” work is aimed at attracting new industries or manufacturing plants to the vicinity of the reservations. On this we are cooperating closely with the tribal organizations. Although this is a comparatively young program, dating back a little over a year, already some highly encouraging results have been achieved. Altogether six new plants have been established as a result of this program--two around the borders of the Navajo Reservation, one near the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, one in Montana near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, one at. Casa Grande, Arizona, benefiting the Pima and Papago tribes, and one at Rapid City, South Dakota, benefiting the Sioux groups of that state. Each of these is expected to provide jobs for at least 100 Indian workers after about year of operation. In the months and years ahead we are hoping and expecting that many additional plants of this kind will be established in the neighborhood of these and other Indian reservations.

Finally we are now shaping up plans for a brand new program of adult vocational training which was made possible under congressional legislation enacted last year. As you can readily appreciate, this new operation, which we expect to start next July, will tie in quite directly with the relocation service and industrial development programs and will tend to reinforce them both. It is aimed primarily at the group of Indians on reservations between the ages of 18 and 35, and is designed to equip them with the skills they need to hold down better paying jobs and improve their family standards of living. Under the plans we have in mind the training would not be provided directly by the Bureau but would be made available by vocational schools or manufacturing concerns under contractual arrangements.

I sincerely hope that what I have said here will give you at least a broad picture of where we stand in Indian affairs today, what we are aiming to accomplish, and how we are going about the job. To summarize briefly, the biggest problem we face is the imbalance between population and resources on the reservations and our prime objective right now is to provide the Indian people with the kind of opportunities which all of us so prol1dly associate with American life. Our ultimate goal is to help them in improving their economic and social status to the point where they will no longer need the benefit of special services and protections from the Federal Government. Today I am more confident than ever before that we are now moving in straight line toward the achievement of this goal and that it will be finally accomplished in the not-too-distant future.

Record highs for conveyances of Federal land in Alaska to both the State of Alaska and Alaska Native corporations were set in the year ended September 30, the Department of the Interior announced today. A total of 1.5 million acres passed to the State under the terms of the Statehood Act and 4.8 million acres were conveyed to Native ownership under the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

"The acreage conveyed both to the State and Natives was the result of a strong policy to emphasize conveyances, and a tremendous effort on the part of the reorganize

State and ANCSA divisions of the Bureau of Land Management," Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus announced. "Through the efforts of many people in BLM and the Department, the conveyance record has been turned around."

The conveyances to the State are the first major transfers of land since 1974 and bring the total acreage in State ownership to 38 million acres. Andru5 indicated that it is only the beginning of an accelerated process. The Bureau of Land Management is planning to increase its Conveyances to 13 million acres for FY 1980, and is prepared to continue at an accelerated rate until the total 104 million acres provided by the 1959 Statehood Act are in State ownership.

"Although the State selections have been slowed in the past by unsettled land patterns brought about by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the pending Alaska Lands (d-2) legislation, this renewed effort to convey as many acres as possible to the State is a high priority that is beginning to show results," Andrus said.

"We consider the work of the ANCSA staff a most promising sign that the conveyance process is on track," Andrus continued.

Since land conveyances began under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a total of 10.4 million acres or almost a quarter of the total entitlement has been turned over to Native corporations with only 5.6 million acres of that figure conveyed before 1979. It is anticipated that at this rate, the bulk of Native and State entitlements will be realized within the next 3 years. "The process is in motion and the Department of the Interior's priority for conveyances is solid," Assistant Secretary for Land and Water Resources Guy Martin said.

Martin credited the progress to Secretary Andrus who was willing in 1977 to make the major policy decisions to expedite Native conveyances and in 1978 to give BLM essential funds and staff to speed up the State conveyance process and move towards faster resolution of the status of all Alaska's lands. "Clearly, the conveyance record indicates that the commitment made by the Secretary reaches throughout the Department of the Interior," Martin commented, "and the benefits are being realized by the people of Alaska."

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today urged enactment of four Congressional bills which would in combination bring an end to Federal trusteeship over the property and affairs of 38 small Indian reservations or “rancherias” in California in line with recommendations made by the Indian owners.

The bills are H. R. 6364 affecting 10 rancherias with a total area of 1,773 acres and a combined population of 225; H.R. 2838 involving five rancherias with 760 acres and 178 people; H.R. 2824 affecting two rancherias with 39 acres and 35 people; and H.R. 2576 involving 11 rancherias with It288 acres and 455 people. The total area involved is about 3,860 acres and the total population approximately 893 Indians.

Legislation that would terminate special Federal responsibilities for all Indian tribes and bands in California, Secretary Seaton pointed out, was introduced and considered but not enacted in both the 82nd and 83rd Congresses. During the past two years the Bureau of Indian Affairs has carried on extensive consultations with selected Indian groups in California concerning the possibilities of terminal legislation. The four bills are the result of these consultations.

All of the bills give the Indians involved an opportunity to prepare a plan for distributing the assets they now hold in common or for selling these assets - and dividing the proceeds. The plan is to be submitted to the vote of the Indians who will participate in the distribution. No provision is made for any further action if a plan is not approved. The bills also contain special provisions to protect Indian water rights and to authorize improvements in roads and in irrigation or domestic water systems that may be needed.

Minor amendments, chiefly of a clarifying nature, have been suggested by the Department in all four bills.

Award of two contracts for construction of 77 flood control structures in the Schuk Toak, Gu Achi and Sif Oidak Districts of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

One contract, covering 47 structures, goes to Clyde Jones and Sons, Indio, Calif., who bid $64,705. The other ten bids on this job ranged from $65,625 to $142,000.

The second contract, for 30 structures, was awarded to Don L. Riggs of Phoenix, Ariz., with a bid of $27,550. The other 14 bids ranged from $32,025 to $77,000.

The primary purpose of the proposed structure is to slow down the damaging flood waters as they run off the hills in the western portion of the Santa Rosa drainage. Many of the structures will serve as semi-permanent stock water reservoirs in areas where there is no possibility for other types of development. In addition to the benefits on the Papago Reservation, the farm lands below will be further protected from flood damage.

The work to be done under these contracts is a portion of the Santa Rosa Drainage Flood Control Project and involves the movement of 700,000 cubic yards of earth fill and the placement of outlet structures of corrugated metal pipe in the completion of a series of flood control structures. The project is a part of the Indian Bureau's long-range development program on the Papago Reservation.

Award of a contract for construction of a pumping station and rehabilitation of irrigation works on the Modoc Point Project of the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon to C. H. Strong Engineering and Construction, Eugene, Oregon, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Strong's bid of $129,297.50 was the lower of two received. The other bid was for $154,828.45.

This construction will provide an adequate water supply for approximately 5,500 acres of irrigable land within the Klamath Indian Reservation and will put the project in first-class condition to be turned over to the water users when Federal supervision over these facilities is withdrawn in August 1958 under the Klamath Termination Act. An irrigation district will be formed under State laws to operate and maintain the project after that time.

The construction work covered by this contract includes the construction of a pumping station on the Williamson River to house two vertical shaft pumping units, rehabilitation of existing irrigation works and extension of canals and laterals. The work will require approximately one year to complete.

Award of a construction contract for a sewage treatment plant on the Fort Apache Reservation (White River), Ariz., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract was awarded to C. R. Davis Contracting Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on that firm’s low bid of $56,491.50. Two other bids of $67,381.48 and $78,000 were received.

The new plant will serve approximately 400 people at the Theodore Roosevelt School located on the reservation near White River, Arizona. There are some 346 pupils enrolled in the school.

The sewer contract calls for construction of new sewer lines and manholes, and a new sewage treatment plant consisting of sewage lagoons, complete with connecting piping.

Under Secretary of the Interior James A. Joseph has directed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to take action against the Red Lake Indian Tribe-- including the possible rejection of applications for federal grants and contracts--until the tribe allows auditors access to its

books to ensure federal funds are being properly spent.

Joseph asked the Department conduct a thorough review of the tribe’s financial records following a disturbance at the Minnesota youths died of gunshot wounds 1 related to the disturbance. Member of a tribal faction took over the BIA's criminal justice facilities, held some hostages for several hours and eventually caused over $4 million in damages to several vehicles. Some tribal and private property was also damaged.

The unrest between tribal elements stemmed from actions of the Red Lake Tribal Council which removed the tribal treasurer from office. The treasurer's supporters condemned the action as illegal and also accused the tribal government of fraudulent use of federal funds.

Joseph said that tribal officials agreed at a June 7 meeting to make tribal records available for a thorough audit of federally funded activities.

The unrest between tribal elements stemmed from actions of the Red Lake Tribal Council which removed the tribal treasurer from office. The treasurer's supporters condemned the action as illegal and also accused the tribal government of fraudulent use of federal funds.

Joseph said that tribal officials agreed at a June 7 meeting to make tribal records available for a thorough audit of federally funded activities. But since then, efforts by auditors to gain access to the records have failed. On August 24, tribal officials were warned that continued denial of access to its records could result in the discontinuation of all federal contracts and funds to the tribe.

Noting that there may have been some initial confusion due to the various federal inquiries following the disturbance, Joseph said: "Any early misunderstanding on the part of tribal officials that the comprehensive federal audit had already been completed should now have been cleared up.

Award of a $214,950 contract to Alder-Child Construction Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, for construction of dormitory facilities to house Indian children at Richfield, Utah, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Sixteen higher bids, ranging from $225,313 to $368,413, were submitted by contractors from Utah and New Mexico.

The project which is part of the Indian Bureau's program to provide broader educational opportunities for school-age Indian children, will accommodate 128 Navajo children so that they can attend the public schools at Richfield. In line with the Bureau’s policy of permitting younger children to remain at home with their families, only those who have passed beyond the fifth grade or reached the age of 12 will be included.

The contract calls for construction of one dormitory building and one duplex, comprising a total of approximately 17,000 square feet, with concrete masonry unit walls and wood frame roofs. It also includes commercial kitchen equipment, dining facilities, and minor outside utilities.

Award of a contract for grading, draining and crushed-gravel surfacing of 13.4 miles of road on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in Lyman County, S. Dak., to R. C. Van Houten and Sons, Rapid City, . S. Dak., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Van Houten's bid of $112,882.94 was the lowest of eight received. The others ranged from $115,985.94 to $168,140.82.

The project is part of a larger plan to provide all-weather transportation for a distance of about 43 miles across the reservation from the Subagency headquarters to the extreme northwest corner. Five miles of this road from the Subagency has already been improved to a standard that will meet the traffic needs.