OPA

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said today he has directed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to review the termination program affecting the Klamath Indians in Oregon, with a view to preparing appropriate amendments to the Klamath Termination Act of 1954 for presentation to Congress early next year.

The proposals would be designed particularly to protect the Klamath timber-land and the tribe's interests in this resource, the Secretary said.

This action followed Secretary Seaton 1s recent visit to the Pacific Northwest. During that trip, Secretary Seaton said, he discussed Klamath termination problems with former Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, and it was agreed between them that a review of the whole program was desirable.

Secretary Seaton expressed his concern about the Klamath matter in a letter to Mrs. Harlan P. Bosworth, Jr., of Medford, Oregon, who had written to him as a representative of the Medford Council of Church Women. Secretary Seaton wrote Mrs. Bosworth to assure her that: "I share your feeling that the termination of Federal trusteeship should be scheduled so that no sale of the ponderosa forest will either harm the sustained yield program or result in marketing the Indian holdings at 'fire sale' prices.

“I have asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs and my personal staff to review the Klamath termination program, and to be prepared to submit proposed amendments to the Termination Act to the next Congress, when it convenes in January, to permit the intent of Congress expressed in the Klamath Termination Act to be carried out without any unfortunate consequences."

Regarded as the greatest asset of the Klamaths, the tribal timberland extends over some 850,000 acres and embraces an estimated 750 million board feet of reserve stands on cut-over lands. The Klamath lumber industry dates back to 1913.

In order to clarify the position of the Department of the Interior with reference to the so-called ''Wyandotte Indian Cemetery" in Kansas City, Kansas, Secretary Fred A. Seaton today issued the following statement:

“Numerous inquiries have been made of the Department concerning the recent newspaper stories relating to the disposition of a two-acre tract in Kansas City, Kansas, that was reserved for a burying ground under a treaty made in 1855 with the Wyandotte Tribe of Indians. The provisions for such disposition are contained in an act of the 84th Congress approved August 1, 1956, "To provide for the termination of Federal supervision over the property of the Wyandotte tribe of Oklahoma and the individual members thereof and for other purposes.”

"Representative Scrivner of Kansas has asked that the cemetery not be sold until Congress has had a further opportunity to consider the desirability of preserving it as an historical site. The normal procedures required for carrying out the Act of August 1, 1956, will provide time for the appropriate congressional committees to consider the subject, and the Department of the Interior will be glad to cooperate.

“Under the statute, the Wyandotte Indian tribe has six months in which to prepare and submit to the Secretary a proposed roll of its members, which will be published in the Federal Register. Sixty days thereafter are allowed for any person to file an appeal contesting the inclusion or omission of the name of any person on or from such roll. After Secretarial disposition of such appeals, the final roll will be published in the Federal Register. Only then will it be possible to identify with certainty the members of the tribe who actually have an equity in the property.

"Upon the request of the tribe, the Secretary is authorized within three years from the date of the act to transfer title to all or any part of the tribal property, which includes the Kansas city cemetery property, to a legal entity organized by the tribe or to one or more private trustees designated by the tribe, or to distribute the property among the members, or to sell the property and distribute the proceeds of sale. The act also specifically provides that the Secretary may in his discretion provide for tribal referendums on matters pertaining to management or disposition of tribal assets. As far as disposition of the cemetery is concerned, I have decided that a referendum should be held among the tribal members before any final action is taken. The Business Committee of the tribe has indicated that it will request a sale of the property, reinterment of the bodies, and distribution of the net proceeds of sale (after deducting the costs of reinterment) to the tribal members. However, there may well be, as there was in the period from 1906 to 1913, deeply felt opposition to a sale among many of the descendants of the Indians buried in the present site. Such sentiments should certainly be given an opportunity for expression through the referendum process.

“Meanwhile, the congressional committees will have time to consider new legislation which we understand is to be introduced to determine the historical importance of the cemetery, and whether the cost of acquiring the Indian interest in the cemetery should be borne by private associations or by the local, State, or

Federal Government. If the cemetery should be found not to have national historical importance, it may have sufficient local historical importance to warrant its preservation by private or local authorities.

“The cost of acquiring the Indian interest for continued use as a cemetery would be the full appraised value of the land less the cost of moving the graves. That is the net sum the Indians would get if the cemetery were sold for commercial purposes, and they might appropriately be paid the same amount if the site were purchased for preservation as an historical site.

“One point should be emphasized. The Department of the Interior has consistently maintained over the past half century that the equitable ownership of the cemetery is in the Wyandotte Indian Tribe. We believe that the Indians have the right to dispose of the property if they vote to do so, or to be compensated for their interest if the land is acquired by a private association, by local agencies, or by the national government for public purposes. I am advised that the tribe has no objection to the use of the land as an historical site if it is compensated.

"The Wyandotte Indians were the last tribe in Ohio which ceded their reservation in that State to the United States. This was done in 1842 by the treaty of Upper Sandusky dated March 17, 1842. Under this treaty, the United States granted to the Wyandotte Nation 148,000 acres west of the Mississippi, together with 1,920 acres at the junction of the Kanza (Kaw) River with the Missouri. Both of these cessions of land were made in fee simple to the Wyandottes and to their heirs.

"Under a subsequent treaty in 1855, the cemetery site was ceded to the United states as a burial place for the Wyandottes, but the site has remained in the custody of the United States subject to the recognized use of the Wyandotte Tribe.

“An item in the Indian appropriation act of June 21, 1906, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to sell the burial ground and pay the proceeds of sale to the Indians. Although a commission to sell the land was appointed, the sale was never consummated because of opposition to a sale by relatives and next-of-kin of persons interred in the cemetery. On February 13, 1913, Congress repealed the sale authority, and thereafter appropriated funds for the preservation and improvement of the site, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to pay to Kansas City, Kansas, the sum of $1,000 in consideration of the agreement by the city to maintain forever and care for the cemetery.

"Bills authorizing the sale of the cemetery or its conversion into a national historical site were introduced in several recent Congresses. When the bill in the 83d Congress was under consideration the Department recommended that action be deferred temporarily until all of the problems which tended to involve the Wyandotte people in a continued special trust relationship to the Federal Government could be considered. It was felt that t4e cemetery issue could be best settled in the context of an omnibus plan to remove all special trust supervision over the affairs of the members of the tribe and their property.

“Consultations were held with the tribe over a period of several months in the fall and winter of 1954 and 1955, and the bill that was eventually drafted was explicitly endorsed by the tribe in a resolution dated December 13, 1954. Moreover, this bill, which was enacted on August 1, 1956, specifically provided that if Congress should enact separate legislation to investigate the advisability of preserving the site either as a local or national historical site the Indians would not dispose of the site until the investigation was completed. The 84th Congress did not enact that separate legislation, but there is still adequate time for the 85th Congress to do so after the first of the year if it so wishes.

"Congressman Scrivner has also asked that before any plan of the Indians for disposing of the cemetery under the present law is approved, a hearing be held in Kansas City to permit interested historical groups to express their views. We shall be glad to comply with that request."

Stumpage rates to be paid by the Warm Springs Lumber Company, Warm Springs, Oregon, for timber cut under contract since last April 1 on the Schoolie Unit of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation are being increased by approximately 18 percent for ponderosa pine and 44 percent for Douglas fir and other species, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The increases were put into effect through an order signed October 16 by Secretary Fred A. Seaton following an extensive resurvey of stumpage rate adjustments ordered last March 31 by former Secretary Douglas McKay which were protested by both the tribe and the company. Before leaving office on April 14, Mr. McKay indicated in a memorandum to Under Secretary Clarence A. Davis that he had been compelled to issue the March 31 order without time for adequate consideration and recommended a restudy of the entire record.

At current lumber price levels Secretary Seaton's action will increase the tribal income for the year beginning April 1, 1956 by about $125,000 if the company cuts the usual volume of timber during that period.

Under terms of the contract the stumpage rates are pegged by ratio to current lumber prices. In former Secretary McKay's order of March 31 the ratio for ponderosa pine was increased from 30 to 33 percent and for the other species from 8 to 16 percent. Secretary Seaton's more recent order increases the ponderosa ratio to 39 percent and the other ratio to 23 percent.

In giving his reasons for ordering the latest increase, Secretary Seaton pointed to technological developments in the lumber industry and changes in marketing conditions which have made the earlier ratios "completely unrealistic." One of the factors which he specifically mentioned was “the tremendous growth of the plywood industry and the utilization of wood waste in various processes.”

Secretary Seaton also pointed out that the meaning of certain parts of the contract is in dispute and is involved in litigation now pending before the District Court of the District of Columbia. He added, however, that "since the Department precedent as established by Secretary McKay in 1954 takes a liberal view of the right of the Secretary to so fix these stumpage prices as to somewhat conform to current prices of timber, it is my view that such an interpretation should continue unless the litigation now pending should determine otherwise.”

President Nixon’s historic special message to Congress on Indians is a brass-tacks, straight forward statement of what the Nation and its Indian people need in working together toward a better future for all.

It is a time we listen to what the Indians have been telling us.

Like all Americans, they want social justice, education, health care and a chance to choose their own kind of life.

But their problems are special—and so is our responsibility to them.

“To strengthen the Indian’s sense of autonomy without threatening his sense of community” is one of our primary goals. We must also arrange matters so that Indians can become independent of Federal control without being cut off from Federal concern and support.

We all agree that the way to get the best results in working with people is to give them the opportunity—and the responsibility—to run their programs themselves.

That is what we are seeking to do with the First Americans. They need our help, but we must never forget that we need their help just as much. This new and balanced relationship of which the President speaks truly marks a new beginning.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today that he has asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs to send one of its forestry experts immediately into northern Idaho for an investigation of timber sale prospects on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Members of the Nez Perce Tribe recently met with Secretary Seaton in Idaho and urged the need for a public offering of tribal timber at the earliest possible late. After hearing their presentation, the Secretary assured them that he would ask the Indian Bureau to investigate the problem at once and provide him with a report on the situation.

President Nixon's special message to the Congress on Indian Affairs is a "positive and historic statement that should do much to give the Indian people lives of dignity and self-determination." Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said today.

Commissioner Bruce said the president, in his message of July 8, ensured that steps will be taken to increase Indian control of Indian affairs while reaffirming and strengthening the historic legal and moral obligations of the federal government.

"I am especially pleased by the President's support for anti-termination legislation, for creation of an Assistant Secretary for Indian and Territorial Affairs in the Department of the Interior and for the propos

"As President Nixon noted, these proposals can do much to give us a 'new national policy' and to 'strengthen the Indian's sense of autonomy without threatening his sense of community.'

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs, in support of ebb policy is evolving new plans better to "meet the needs of the Indian people.

“We are transforming the Bureau of Indian Affairs from a management to a service organization.”

“We are reaffirming the trust status of Indian Land.

“We are providing the tribes with the option of taking over any or all BIA program functions.

“Certainly, these are positive steps, long overdue, toward building a respectable life for the American Indian.

“President Nixon has pledged himself to this end.

“I am proud to join him in his efforts so that our ideas and plans of the future may become realities in the near future.”

For Alaskans--- and for the millions of Americans throughout the 50 states who have been frustrated over the years in trying to do something positive, progressive and fair for America’s first citizens, this should be considered a great victory.

The rapid action of the Senate in approving the Alaska Native Land Claims bill is, of course gratifying. The members of the Committee, the Interior Department at its highest executive levels, the state administration of Alaska and countless dedicated individuals throughout the country have worked not for months, but for years, to put together a legislative package that would do the job and be a positive answer to the needs of these citizens.

I am extremely proud that this rapid action was based not on political or personal considerations, but on solid testimony which showed conclusively that these Americans have a genuine and just claim.

This dovetails exactly with President Nixon’s recent message in which he expressed the Administration’s determination to advance the cause of America’s Indian, Eskimo and Aleut citizens.

Further, this is not merely a victory for the citizens of one state.

The administration is proud that it is a victory for all Americans who are more interested in a ‘fair shake’ that the expediencies of politics or mere rhetoric.

I am confident that the house will consider the individual features of the bill and move it along toward passage with equal fairness and speed.

A new emergency program for distributing feed grains to Indian stockmen in previously designated drought-stricken areas of the Southwest was announced today by the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed October 16 by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton and Acting Secretary of Agriculture True D. Morse, the Commodity Credit Corporation will deliver the grains in carload lots to designated rail points in accordance with orders submitted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Indian tribal organizations will be responsible for storage, handling and distribution to tribal members who require such help to maintain livestock on which they depend for subsistence.

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood indicated that the Indian Bureau is asking the tribes to survey the feed grain requirements of eligible Indian stockmen immediately and that the Bureau will be submitting orders to the Commodity Credit Corporation in the near future.

Among the major southwestern Indian groups which will be eligible under the program are the Navajo Tribe of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and the Pueblos of New Mexico.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today that he has asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs to send one of its forestry experts immediately into northern Idaho for an investigation of timber sale prospects on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Members of the Nez Perce Tribe recently met with Secretary Seaton in Idaho and urged the need for a public offering of tribal timber at the earliest possible late. After hearing their presentation, the Secretary assured them that he would ask the Indian Bureau to investigate the problem at once and provide him with a report on the situation.

Bonus bids of over $27,000,000 were received for oil and gas leases on about 103,000 acres of' Navajo Indian land near the “four corners" area of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today.

The bids, which were opened November 11 at the Indian Bureau's Window Rock (Ariz.) agency office, represented the highest offering ever made for oil and gas leases on Indian lands at a single sale, Acting Bureau Commissioner W. Barton Greenwood reported.

The total bonus offered for 101,856.73 acres of tribally owned land was $26,927,642.57. For 1,079,34 acres of "allotted" or individually owned lands the aggregate bid was $548,574.38.

All lands included in the offering are in San Juan County, Utah, and San Juan and McKinley Counties, New Mexico, and are in the general vicinity of Ute Mountain Indian lands in southwestern Colorado which brought total bonus bids of $7,600,891.20 for 53,120 acres in a sale held just a month ago.

The November 1 opening is the first of' three scheduled on Navajo lands in this general area this month. The other openings are scheduled for the 13th and the 23rd.

Under the regulations which govern oil and gas leasing of Indian lands, the annual rentals are fixed at $1.25 per acre and royalties on production at 12 1/2 percent. The competition, therefore, comes in the bonuses, which are offered for the leases.

At the two major sales, which have been held on Indian lands since July 1, on the Ute and Navajo lands, the total bonus offered was over $35,000,000. This compares with the record-breaking total of approximately $41,000,000 received in bonuses, rents and royalties on all Indian lands in the United States for the 12-month period which ended June 30, 1956.