OPA

Indians are operating an increasing number of the Federal Government’s programs designed to help their people find better jobs and send their young to college.

The programs themselves are not new – but the leadership, and the accent on self-determination, are.

Operated with funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency of the Department of the Interior, they symbolizes a new approach, which is steadily gaining ground.

''We intend to give Indian leadership every opportunity to operate Bureau programs,” Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said. “We have turned over authority for many types of Bureau operations to the Indian people.”

Bruce cited three local programs typical as of the "determination of this Administration to give Indians control of Indian policy.”

One is the employment and training center which was opened recently at Kansas City, Mo., by Indian Enterprises, lnc., of Horton, Kans. The corporation is made up of members of the Iowa, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sac and Fox Tribes of north-east Kansas.

Indian Enterprises will operate as an employment and training coordinator for the Bureau’s Branch of Employment Assistance which will refer to it Indian job seekers interested in working in the Kansas City area.

A similar contract with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma gives that organization the funds to operate an employment assistance service for Indians in Oklahoma’s Adair, Cherokee and Sequoyah Counties.

In New Mexico the All Pueblo Indians Council has taken over Bureau of Indians Affairs high school counseling programs. The contracting group is known as the Pueblo Indian Education Talent Project (PIETP).

One of the first actions of PIETP was to begin counseling services with sophomore rather than seniors. It includes included parents in its counseling services. Already there are indications that increasing numbers of Pueblo youngsters will continue on to college after high school graduation.

“These are programs at the local level where the basic work in rebuilding Indian communities must begin,” Bruce said. “I would emphasize that these are not one-of-a-king demonstration projects but are typical local programs to meet Indian community needs.”

“We are seeing success here just as I know we will success in our efforts to be effective Indian leadership operating at every level of government.”

With an appropriation of $87,050,000 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, an increase of $7,346,502 over the current year total, the Bureau of Indian Affairs will expand and improve its operations along several major lines, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L, Emmons said today.

The principal increase is about $4,200,000 in educational funds which will provide schooling for 5,000 additional Indian children, 2,870 in public schools and 2,130 in Federal schools operated by the Indian Bureau. It will also permit a continuation of the Bureau's new adult education program launched last year with five tribal groups.

Another important part of the increase, $2,456,000, is to broaden the scope of relocation services for Indian families and individuals seeking better employment opportunities away from the reservations. More intensive help and guidance will be available to the relocating Indians before they leave the reservations and after they arrive at their destinations.

An additional $1,588,000 for repair and maintenance of schools and other Government structures required for Bureau operations in isolated areas will permit work programming at the rate of 16 cents per square foot of floor space in contrast with a rate of approximately 8 cents for the current year.

Other increases are $833,000 for realty work to permit expansion of the Bureau Is realty staff which is urgently needed to keep abreast of the steadily increasing volume of requests from Indians for action on leases and other realty transactions involving Indian trust lands; $416,000 for strengthening the law and order program on Indian reservations; $500,000 for the forestry program designed to increase the volume of timber sales with the ultimate objective of placing on the market all timber that can be produced by the Indian forests under sustained-yield managements; and $377,000 to keep pace with a 20-year soil and moisture conservation program on Indian lands.

While the total of increases for individual items adds up to more than $10,000,000, this is offset by a decrease of about $3,000,000 in the funds for building construction and by other minor adjustments. The $7,346,502 figure represents a net increase in the Bureau's total appropriation.

The new Miss Indian America, Margery Winona Haury is in Washington for her first visit this far East, during which she plans to meet with government officials.

Since Monday, the 18-year old Indian beauty has been in Columbus, Ga., participating in a week-long TV presentation (WRBL-TV) honoring the American Indian.

Miss Haury, from Albuquerque, N.M. is a sophomore in pre-Law at the University of New Mexico. On her mother's side is Navajo and Sioux, and on her father's side, Cheyenne and Arapahoe.

She was chosen Miss Indian America XVI from a field of 32 contestants in the National Miss Indian America Pageant held annually in Sheridan. Wy., as a feature of "All American Indian Days", during which tribes from all over the country participate in songs, chants and dances.

Her personal goal is to unite and bind the tribes closer together so that all may work for common goals, among the most important of which she believes is education. As Miss Indian American XVI, she will represent over 600,000 Indian people in this country.

Before winning her new title Margery was Miss Indian New Mexico; she inherited the title of Arapahoe Princess from her grandfather, a tribal chief, and she is also a Navajo Princess. She was Miss Indian Southwest, and for two years held the title of Miss Ateed Nizhoni of Window Rock, Ariz., the Navajo tribal capital.

Her Indian name is Nah Kah, a Cheyenne name meaning Bear Woman in English. It was given to her at the age of four by her grandmother. The name. Winona, means "first born" and is always given to the first girl baby by the Sioux people.

In keeping with the Miss Indian America title, Margery will travel all over the country, visiting Indian reservations and schools, making radio and TV appearances, and like recent Miss Indian Americas before her, make at least one trip abroad, tentatively to the Exposition in Japan in 1970.

A few weeks ago, on the busy Colorado river reservation near, Parker, Ariz., Sam Lockshin, President of Prest-Wheel, Inc., turned the keys to his firm’s branch plant over to two Colorado River Indians: Vincent Scott, superintendent and Myron Murdock, production planning manager.

It’s the first time that non-Indian businessman have transformed total management responsibilities to their Indian employees. People who watch such things believe it may be a trend in the making.

Each year more and more enterprises are finding profitable locations on American Indian reservations. Bureau of Indian Affairs surveys show that 184 plants employing 6,000 Indian people are raising the standards of living of tribes on or near the reservations. Forty-two new plants, or, on the average, about one every nine days, have been located on an Indian site during the past year.

Many Indian employees hold management jobs, such as Scott and Murdock; others are being groomed for top management positions. Five of the 184 plants are completely Indian-owned. These vary from the Crow Tribe’s Poplar, Mont., operation that repairs military hardware to one owned by the Cherokee Nation in Stillwell, Okla., which manufactures electronic components.

Navajo Forest Products Industries (NFPI) is fulfilling all of the criteria for a successful industry on the reservation; making money, hiring and training Navajo and preserving the natural resources as trees are harvested on a sustained yield basis.

During the 1969 fiscal year, NFPI showed a net profit of more than $1.5 million.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, bringing lights, gas, water and sewage facilities to areas that never had them before, showed a fiscal net profit of almost 400,000.

Both enterprises operate with their own tribal board of directors.

Last year, the Bureau estimated that about 26 new Indian jobs per week were created for the Indian people through new industries on or near the reservations.

That manufacturers are satisfied with their locations is indicated by the Fairchild semiconductor Division at Shiprock, N.M., which increased its largely Navajo work force from 880 to 1,202 in the first nine months of 1969. At Fairchild, only 25 of the time employees are non-Indian, and 30 of its 33 supervisors are Indian.

In making the managerial announcement at Colorado River, Lockshin, whose Massachusetts-based company makes aluminum outdoor lawn furniture, said he will continue to maintain an Indian managerial staff and plans to visit the reservation only once a month.

He hopes to have 300 employees in Parker by 1971. Present employment is 115, of whom 93 are Indians. The plant was opened a year and a-half ago in a 65,000 square foot building owned by the tribe and leased to the firm.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the signing of a public land order which makes available for oil and gas leasing approximately 5,300 acres of tribally owned land on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah.

The lands consist of two tracts of ceded tribal land in the western part of the reservation which were included in a power-site withdrawal of 1909 and later restored to tribal ownership and added to the reservation by a departmental order of 1945. The action announced today removes these lands from the power-site withdrawal and opens up oil and gas development possibilities in the particular area. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons recommended the action.

Aided by record lumber prices, Indians in the United States earned $32.7 million -- twice the amount of two years ago -- from the sale of reservation timber in fiscal year 1969, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced.

The $32.7 million represents an increase of $11 million over the previous fiscal year. However, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said that the same level of income cannot be expected to continue in the face of recent declines in the market value of timber.

The amount of timber cut increased to 974 million board feet, 23 million board feet more than in the preceding fiscal year and 73 million more than two years ago. The most significant increases were in Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington and Oregon.

Indian timber resources are harvested on a sustained-yield basis, to prevent over-cutting and eventual depletion. Bureau officials said that the present annual allowable harvest of 1.04 billion board feet may be reached in this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 1970.

Just as important as the income from timber sales are the job opportunities in lumbering and lumber processing created by the harvest. The present allowable harvest would provide over 7,000 full-time jobs in logging and milling and, more than 4,000 jobs in supporting and service employment, with total annual wages of about $50 million, Commissioner Bruce said.

Commissioner Bruce noted that several tribes are taking an increased role in developing the industrial and business opportunities supported by their timber harvests. At present about 30 percent of the total volume of Indian timber is purchased by Indian loggers and tribal enterprises.

Restoration of mineral rights in 480 acres on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming to the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes of that reservation was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

The lands involved in the restoration were originally among the unallotted and unreserved lands of the Wind River Reservation and were homesteaded by non-Indians during the 1930's. Mineral rights, however, were reserved to the United States.

In 1940 the lands were reacquired by the United States in trust for the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes but the minerals were not at that time restored to tribal ownership.

The restoration was requested by the Shoshone and Arapaho Indians through their tribal councils and was recommended by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons.

The action of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe of New Mexico in setting up a $1,000,000 trust fund to provide college scholarships for the younger members was hailed today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons as “an outstanding example of tribal progress.”

The fund, largest of its kind ever established by an Indian tribal organization, represents chiefly income from oil and gas leasing of the tribal lands, It will be administered by the First National Bank of Albuquerque under terms of a 20-year agreement which was approved by Commissioner Emmons on July 2.

Grants will be made to candidates selected by a scholarship committee of the tribe and will be available on the basis of standards established by the committee.

The fund will be known as the Chester E. Faris Educational Fund in honor of a former superintendent of the Bureau’s Jicarilla Agency who is now retired and living in Albuquerque.

Thousands of Indian landowners in many different parts of the country will be affected by a recent Internal Revenue Service ruling which exempts from Federal income taxes the direct income derived from Indian trust lands allotted under the General Allotment Act of 1887, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons said today.

Altogether, Commissioner Emmons explained, there are more than 100,000 tracts Of individually owned Indian land totaling about 13,000,000 acres held in trust by the United States. Since the preponderant majority of these so-called “allotments'' were made under the 1887 statute, a large number of individual Indian landowners will be eligible for exemption. Mr. Emmons added, however, that each such land-owner would be well-advised to seek legal advice before claiming an exemption on income not clearly coming under the Internal Revenue Service ruling.

Types of income covered by the ruling include rentals (including crop rentals), Royalties, proceeds of sales of the natural resources of such land, and income from the sale of crops grown upon the land and from the use of the land for grazing purposes.

The Internal Revenue Service ruling was made following a conference between Commissioner Emmons and IRS officials in Washington, and is based upon the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Squire vs. Horton Capoeman et ux. (351 U.S. 1, Ct. D. 1796, I.R.B. 1956-21, 15).

A special three-day Polar Plan Conference on Arctic problems ended today with direction from Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel that future plans for the area should be viewed from an international standpoint.

"Knowledge of the world's polar regions will change not only the countries bordering on the Arctic -- it will change economic, social and cultural conditions throughout the world," Secretary Hickel said.

"I urge you to think of the Arctic as a single entity, so that all nations can contribute to its conservation and the wise use of its resources," he said.

"The North Country is beginning to undergo the most rapid and profound changes ever seen in any wilderness region in world history," Secretary Hickel said in addressing delegates to the conference. "It is unlike any other region in the world in many other ways.

"All of us -- throughout the world -- who work with the Arctic must find new ways to meet this unprecedented challenge. We need new ideas, new techniques and attitudes, perhaps even new institutions, and we need them in every nation involved in the Arctic."

The Secretary noted with satisfaction that the Canadian and Norwegian Governments had sent high officials to the Polar Plan Conference, He urged that other nations join in future efforts to coordinate Arctic planning and development.

The Conference, held at Skyland Lodge in Shenandoah National Park, brought together 100 representatives of industry, science, conservation and several levels of government to exchange ideas about the North's spectacular boom and its impact.

Secretary Hickel urged that Alaska's native Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts be given every opportunity to take part in decisions involving the Arctic and the work now being undertaken by industry and government in that State.

Unlike most other workers, he noted, Alaska Natives are accustomed to the land and its climate. Their rate of turnover on the job can be expected to remain low, he said, and their keen personal interest in preserving their environment makes them most likely to respect it and work in harmony with it as much as possible.

Human values must be given paramount attention, he emphasized, and all developmental problems must be considered in terms of their effects on people.