OPA

Albert L. Lerner, 38, Field Employment Assistance Officer, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Chicago, has been reassigned to the same post in Los Angeles, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today. He will replace Daryl L. Mahoney, who has been reassigned to the position of Area Employment Assistance Officer in the Anadarko Area Office.

Lerner, a native of New York, received his B.S. degree in 1956 from State University, Oswego, New York, and his M. Ed. in industrial education from Oregon State University in 1960 He began his career in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1956 as a teacher of vocational subjects at Stewart, Nev. In 1961 he transferred to the Flandreau Indian School as department head for vocational subjects. Four years later he accepted reassignment as an employment guidance specialist in the Cleveland Field Employment Assistance Office.

Secretary of Agriculture Clifford M. Hardin and Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton announced plans today to operate 56,Youth Conservation Corps camps this summer for eight weeks, starting late in June.

Camp sites have been selected in 36 States, the District of Columbia and American Samoa on lands administered by agencies in the two Departments.

Under provisions of a law signed by the President last August, about 2,200 young men and women, ages 15 through 18, will be employed. Comparing the YCC with other federal youth programs, the Secretaries said that the Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers and the Neighborhood Youth Corps are also conservation oriented, but are primarily aimed at serving disadvantaged youth. The Youth Conservation Corps program is unusual, the Secretaries said, because it serves young men and women--within specified age limits--of all social and economic backgrounds.

The Secretaries said that the pilot nature of the program generally limits the selection of participants for each YCC camp to those who live within the boundaries of a school district--or the area served by a community youth organization --selected to recruit and process applicants for that camp. This is in accord with provisions of the legislation that Corps members shall be employed on conservation projects as near their places of residence as feasible. The Secretaries emphasized that no applications can be accepted from prospective YCC candidates until agreements have been reached with participating school systems or other youth-serving organizations. More information on this aspect of the program will be available about April 1.

Half the YCC participants will be employed in National Forests operated by the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. The other half will be under the direction of the Department of the Interior on lands of the National Park Service, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Territories and Bureau of Land Management.

The Secretaries of the two Departments stressed that the YCC won't be a "make-work" program. It is being designed, they said, to assure: (1) Buildup of environmental training for young people; (2) gainful summer employment for the Nation's youth; and (3) performance of needed conservation work to improve quality of public lands and water.

Secretaries Hardin and Morton explained that selections of sites for camps were directed by a very tight budget. They were made on the basis of (1) availability of existing facilities that could be readied with a minimum of time, work and money and (2) potential of the area for developing worthwhile conservation work-educational projects at or near the campsites.

The new law authorizes up to $3.5 million annually for a three-year period, of which $2.5 million has actually been appropriated. This money must cover the cost of operation of the eight-week session this year, as well as salaries for the young participants. Each member of YCC will be paid a fixed sum for the tour of duty. After deductions, take-home pay for each of the participants will amount to about $300 for the season.

In addition to the traditional separate camps for young men and women, there will also be co-educational camps. Most residential camps will have capacities for 50 Corps members each, although some may be as small as 11. Facilities will range from tents and rough bunkhouses to large barracks-type buildings. In some instances, small groups may occupy remote ranger stations.

Nonresidential camps will permit local youths to work and learn in the day and be transported home at night.

Aside from geographic criteria, eligibility requirements include such things as having reached 15 but not yet 19 years of age, being interested in conservation of the Nation's natural environment, having no history of criminal or anti-social behavior and having work permits in States where they are required. In general, the young people must be in good physical condition, although opportunities for the handicapped may be provided in some camps, if possible.

Attached is the list of camp sites.

National Park Service

Mount Ranier National Park headquartered at Longmire, Wash. Residential and co-educational. 32 male and 18 female participants. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area at Digman's Ferry, Pa. Residential. 50 males. Catoctin Mountain Park at Thurmont, Md. Residential. 50 females Great Smokey Mountains National Park at Townsend, Tenn. Residential. 50 males Rocky Mountain National Park at Estes Park, Colo. Residential: 25 males. Everglades National Park at Homestead, Fla. Residential. 50 males Grand Canyon National Park at Grand Canyon, Ariz. Residential. 25 males Harpers Ferry National Historic Park at Harpers Ferry, W. Va. Non-residential and co-educational. 20 participants. National Capital Parks at Washington, D. C. Non-residential and co-educational 25 males and 25 females.

Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife

Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge headquartered at Carterville, Ill. Residential and co-educational. 25 participants Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge at Decatur, Ala. Residential and coeducational. 25 participants. Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge at Calais, Maine. Residential and co-educational. 75 participants. Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge at Round Oak, Ga. Residential and co-educational. 25 participants. Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge at Brooksville, Miss. Residential and co-educational. 25 participants. Lamar National Fish Hatchery at Lamar, Pa. Residential and co-educational. 25 participants. Desert National Wildlife Range at Las Vegas, Nev. Non-residential and co-educational. 20 participants.

Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge at Seneca Falls, N.Y. Non-residential and co-educational. 20 participants. Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge at San Benito, Tex. Non-residential and co-educational. 25 participants.

Office of Territories

American Samoa. Non-residential and co-educational. 40 participants.

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Cherokee Indian Reservation at Cherokee, N.C. Residential and co-educational. 50 participants. Jones Academy of Bureau of Indian Affairs at Hartshorne, Okla. Residential and co-educational. 50 participants. Standing Rock at Wakpala, S.D. participants.

Bureau of Land Management

Lubrecht Forest at Greenough, Mont. Residential and co-educational. 50 participants. Reno, Nev. Offices of BLM. Participants. Non-residential and co-educational. 25 participants.

Bureau of Reclamation (Youth Conservation Corps Contractors)

Children and Youth Services Inc. at Salt Lake City, Utah. Residential and co-educational. 50 participants. Weber State College Division of Continuing Education in Ogden, Utah. Residential. 50 males. Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash. Residential and co-educational. 50 participants. Opportunities for Youth Corp. at Whittier, Calif. Residential and co-educational. 50 participants.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

Flathead National Forest headquartered at Kalispell, Mont. Residential. 30 male participants.

Lolo National Forest headquartered at Missoula, Mont. Residential. 20 female participants.

Lolo National Forest headquartered at Missoula, Mont. Residential. 25 males.

Black Hills National Forest, headquartered at Custer, S.D. Residential 30 females.

Cibola National Forest headquartered at Albuquerque, N.M. Residential 50 males

Santa Fe National Forest headquartered at Santa Fe, N.M. Residential. 30 females.

Wasatch National Forest headquartered at Salt lake City, Utah. Residential and co-educational. 25 males and 25 females.

Boise National Forest headquartered at Boise, Idaho. Residential. 40 males.

Sierra National Forest headquartered at Fresno, Calif. Residential. 50 males.

Cleveland National Forest headquartered in San Diego, Calif. Residential 30 females.

Shasta-Trinity National Forest headquartered at Redding, Calif. Residential 15 male and 15 female.

Angeles National Forest headquartered at Pasadena, Calif. Residential. 30 females.

Snoqualmie National Forest headquartered at Seattle, Wash. Residential and co-educational. 25 males and 25 females.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest headquartered at Vancouver, Wash. Residential. 30 males.

Ochoco National Forest headquartered at Prineville, are. Residential. 40 males.

Ochoco National Forest headquartered at Prineville, Ore. Residential 30 females.

Texas National Forest headquartered at Lufkin, Tex. Residential 32 males.

Ocala National Forest headquartered at Tallahassee, Fla. Residential 50 females.

Ouachita National Forest headquartered at Hot Springs National Park, Ark. Residential. 25 males.

Monongahela National Forest headquartered at Elkins, W. Va. Residential and co-educational. 25 males and 25 females.

Wayne-Hoosier National Forest headquartered at Bedford, Ind. Residential. 40 males.

Wayne-Hoosier National Forest headquartered at Bedford, Ind. Residential 11 females.

Ottawa National Forest headquartered at Ironwood, Mich. Residential 30 males.

Chequamegon National Forest headquartered at Park Falls, Wise. Residential and co-educational. 25 males and 25 females.

Chippewa National Forest headquartered at Cass Lake, Minn. Residential and co-educational. 25 males and 25 females.

Nicolet National Forest headquartered at Rhinelander, Wise. Residential. 35males.

Mark Twain National Forest headquartered at Springfield, Mo. Residential. 35 females.

Hiawatha National Forest headquartered at Escanaba, Mich. Residential. 36 males.

Pike National Forest headquartered at Colorado Springs, Colo. Non Residential and co-educational. 25 participants.

Coconino National Forest headquartered at Flagstaff, Ariz. Non-Residential and co-educational. 25 participants.

Daniel Boone National Forest headquartered at Winchester, Ky. Non-Residential and co-educational. 25 participants.

Kisatchie National Forest headquartered at Pineville, La. Non-Residential and co-educational. 25 participants.

White Mountain National Forest headquartered at Laconia, N.H. Non-Residential and Co-Educational. 25 participants.

James E. Hawkins, a former teacher and administrator in Indian and Eskimo schools, was named today to fill the long vacant key post of Director of Education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The appointment was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce ", who said: "Our long talent search 'for the right person in this position has paid off. We have a man who is not only an educator but an experienced administrator, not only a man who knows what it takes to make quality education but also one who understands the particular educational needs and views of the Indian people.”

Since 1964, when Hawkins resigned from his last previous BIA post as director of the Minneapolis area office, he has served as director of community services and as education commission for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands as a special assistant to the secretary of Commerce to coordinate regional development programs; and as director of program development and evaluation for the Peace Corps, the post he left to return to the BIA. He is completing doctoral studies at Stanford University in the combined fields of education and economics.

Bruce also announced 12 other job changes in the BIA, all in the nature of reassignments and rotations of personnel to make the best use of the BIA's resources and talents. “These changes are the direct result of our policy to consult with tribes concerning their wishes," he said.

The other changes are as follows:

Sidney B. Carney, former area director at Anadarko, Okla., to be area director at Albuquerque, N.M. Carney is a Choctaw-Creek Indian.

Morris Thompson, former assistant to the Commissioner and special Indian affairs assistant to the Secretary to be area director at Juneau, Alaska. He is Athabascan Indian and a native of Alaska.

Walter O. Olson, former area director at Albuquerque, to be area director at Minneapolis, Minn.

Brice L. Lay, former superintendent of the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, to be area director at Anadarko, Okla.

Norman Tippeconnic, formerly with the BIA data center in Albuquerque, to be field representative at the Hoopa reservation in northern California. He is a Comanche.

Reginald Miller, former employment assistance officer in Minneapolis, to be superintendent of the Great Lakes Agency, Ashland, Wisc. He is a Stockbridge Indian.

Thomas Hardin, to take over the vacant superintendency at Rocky Boy’s Agency in Montana, moving up from the post of development officer on the same reservation.

James L. Claymore, formerly an employment assistance specialist at the Turtle Mountain Reservation, to be superintendent of the Cheyenne River Agency, Eagle Butte, Mont., his native reservation.

Celestine Maus, to move up from loan specialist to superintendent of the Red Lake Chippewa Agency in Minnesota.

Charles Richmond, to move from the area office directorship in Juneau to the assistant director for education in the eastern Oklahoma (Muskogee) office.

Howard E. Euneau, reassigned from superintendent of the Rosebud Sioux Agency to Tribal relations officer at Aberdeen, S.D. He is a Turtle Mountain Chippewa.

Robert E. Robinson, reassigned from superintendent at the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona to industrial development officer for the Sacramento, Calif. Area office.

The reassignments or rotation of personnel are part of the talent search and result from consultation with tribal groups, Bruce stated. He said: "Hany of our employees have worked so effectively on special assignments or have demonstrated particular specialized skills that they are being considered to serve where they can best help the Bureau meet new responsibilities. Personnel changes are designed to meet the career development of the individual as well as to use our limited resources most effectively for the greatest benefit to the Indians.”

Intensive study is being given to various recommendations for making changes in the delegation of authority in order that Indian people will have more voice in a decision-making process at all levels, especially in their local communities. Special consideration is being given to delegation of authority to superintendents and their staffs in order that the new policy of contracting various functions to tribes can be properly carried out.

Hawkins, under whose supervision some of the contracting responsibility falls added this comment: “In education programs the Bureau’s contracting procedures will be responsive to Indian initiative. The Bureau is ready and willing to contract all or part of a local school program to the local Indian Community, or tribe, if this is the prevailing local wish. This is a part of the overall effort to put Indians in the driver’s seat and take them out of the back seat of community development.”

A new environmental awareness award program for Indian schools and communities was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. The program is an outgrowth of new emphases upon environment and conservation in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. It is designed to encourage environmental awareness throughout a11a'spects of daily life in the community.

Local Indian school board members will take part in selecting projects for awards, and will present them in ceremonies concluding the school year, Bruce said. Not only students but any other individuals in the community, as well as classroom groups, community groups, or schools or communities as a whole may qualify for the commendations.

"We hope the awards program will encourage students, teachers, parents and others to learn together," Bruce said. "Indians are often regarded as the Nation's 'first environmentalists,' and we expect the program to help carry this concept forward to meet the complex environmental challenges of today."

He pointed out that the 219 schools operated by the BIA are stressing environmental awareness through language arts, social studies, science and art curricula "in keeping with the National Environmental Policy Act which aims for harmony between man and his environment and an understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation."

Bruce also said: "We believe this approach to environmental awareness encourages a sense of responsibility to tribe, community and country, and will enable more people to have a constructive influence in a.l1 these spheres. Studies of Indian myths, religion, philosophy, ethics indicate a reverence for the natural environment which may be a lesson for the non-Indian."

Cooperating in the environmental education program is Interior's National Park Service.

National parks have set aside outdoor areas for the study of ecology and have provided materials for classroom and outdoor study projects, and is helping to provide materials that demonstrate the interdependence of man and his environment and show how Indian cultural values reinforce the balance between man and nature.

Further information on the awards program will be available through BIA schools, school boards, and tribal organizations.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today launched his Earth Week activities with an address to Indian educators attending a workshop on environmental education sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce and National Park Service Director George B. Hartzog also spoke at the opening session this morning in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Auditorium. Teachers of Indians from 14 states are participating in the Earth Week workshop which will continue Tuesday through Friday at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland.

The Secretary praised the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service for encouraging environmental education and congratulated the "first environmentalists" -- the American Indians -- for their leadership in the effort.

"It is appropriate and gratifying that Indians are among the first to relate ecological concerns to their education objectives," he stated. "Their history, religion, and philosophy all reflect a oneness with nature. In this sense one might call Indians the 'first environmentalists'."

The teachers, he added, are "pioneers on a new frontier of learning."

About 53,000 descendants of the "first environmentalists" are currently involved in environment-related studies in their classrooms and outdoor study areas.

The environmental approach to teaching being developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs relies upon study materials developed in cooperation with the Park Service NEED (National Environmental Education Development) program and the companion NESA (National Environmental Study Areas) program. The Catoctin Mountain Park provides such a study area, a setting for classes out-of-doors.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs schools are among the first in the country to make use of the park study areas with the conclusion of the school year, a series of environmental awards for noteworthy projects in Indian schools and communities will be presented in cooperation with Indian tribal school board officials.

Secretary Morton's remarks were focused on the cultural tradition of American Indians who, he said, "viewed all living things as possessing the right to life." He called on teachers of Indian children to help their pupils assume the role of "action people in our national effort to improve the environment." He also said:

"I can think of no approach to modern education that will have more lasting meaning for school children than one which relates an examination of their environment to other spheres of human knowledge.”

The Secretary was introduced by Miss Wilma Victor, a Choctaw Indian and former BIA educator, whom the Secretary recently appointed as his Special Assistant for Indian Affairs.

Education administrators and environmental socialists from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service are also participating in Earth Week workshop.

Administration of all the far-flung hydroelectric power and water resource activities in the Department of the Interior hereafter will be centered under James R. Smith with the new title of Assistant Secretary for Water and Power Resources, Acting Secretary of the Interior Fred J. Russell announced today.

Russell said the change will assure more effective management since all seven agencies now reporting to Smith “are deeply concerned with optimum use and conservation of one of our most vital basic resources - water."

“We now can move ahead more rapidly in comprehensive planning, river basin management, and establishing research priorities,” Secretary Russell added. “The Department’s leadership roles on the Water Resources Council, the Committee on Water Resources Research of the Federal Council on Science and Technology, and the various River Basin Commissions and other regional water resources institutions will be strengthened. Further, our relations with State and local water resources authorities and universities will be enhanced.”

The agencies reporting to Assistant Secretary Smith are:

• The Bureau of Reclamation, which provides water for 10 million acres of land in the west, municipal and industrial water for a population of 15 million, and which generate 43 billion kilowatts of hydroelectric power annually.
• The Bonneville Power Administration, Chief power marketing agency in the Pacific Northwest.
• The Southeastern Power Administration, a major power marketing agency head-quartered at Elberton, Ga.
• The Southwestern Power Administration, Tulsa, Okla., another key power distributor.
• The Alaska Power Administration, Juneau, Interior’s hydroelectric power distributor for that State;
• The office of Saline Water, which manages a multimillion dollar long-range research and demonstration program for converting seawater and brackish water to fresh; and
• The Office of Water Resources Research, which invests millions of dollars annually in scientific studies by colleges and others.

Under Smith's direction, the Department’s power agencies participate in the generation and marketing of energy from plants with a combined capability of 18 million kilowatts. They manage nearly 30,000 miles of transmission lines and realize a gross income of $300 million annually.

Smith, a native of Sioux FaIls, S.D., was named an Assistant: Secretary in Interior in March 1969 following 2.5 years of activity in water and land resource development much of it in the Missouri Basin.

Thomas R. Hardin, 35, was named Superintendent of the Rooky Boy's Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Box Elder, Mont. today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. Hardin replaces Albert W Trimble, recently elected to become Field Employment Assistance Officer for the Bureau at Alameda, Calif.

Hardin began his Bureau career in 1963 as an elementary teacher at the Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Mont. He entered Federal service upon his graduation tram Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Mont. He became an Education Specialist with the Rocky Boy's Agency in 1965 and a Community Development Officer at that same-agency 1n 1970.

A veteran of the U. S. Army, he was born in Nanty-Glo Penna. Married, he is the father of three children.

Celestine P. Mau., 49, loan specialist, Branch of Credit, Red Lake Agency, Bureau of Indian Affair, Redlake, Minn., was named, Superintendent of the Red Lake Agency today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. Maus, who replaces P. Miller in the post, has been Acting Superintendent since October.

Maus started a 16-year career with the Bureau as a Minnesota Area Office Finance Specialist in 1955. He had been farm manager for St. Mary’s Catholic Mission, Red Lake, prior to entering Federal service. From his post 8.8 Finance Specialist he was promoted to Loan Examiner in 1961 and loan Specialist in 1964.

He received awards tor Sustained Superior Performance in both 1964 and 1970.

Born at St. Cloud, Minn., Maus is married and the father of a son and a daughter.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today the appointment of Curtis Geiogamah, 44, a Kiowa Indian from Mountain View, Okla., as Assistant Area Director (Administration) of the Phoenix Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs. He replaces Albert Lassiter who is retiring.

Geiogamah has served as the Administrative Officer of the Navajo Area Office for the past six years and prior to that time he was Budget Officer in another Area Office that also served the Navajo Tribe.

Geiogamah entered Federal service in 1949 following graduation from Haskell Institute. His first duty was at Pine Ridge Agency. He has also held assignments at Anadarko and Muskogee Oklahoma Area Offices.

Geiogamah and his wife, Julia, have three children, two boys and a girl.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced the appointment of William F. Streitz, 44" to be Superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah. Now Superintendent of the Sisseton Agency; S. Dak., Streitz will assume the Utah post January 2.

Streitz, a native of Belle Plaine, Minn., has a B.S. degree in history and social science from St. Cloud state College, Minn. He I began his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 on the Cheyenne River Reservation, S. Dak., as a school teacher. He then held teaching and administrative posts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, S. Dak., Standing Rock Indian Reservation, N. Dak., Field Employment Assistance Office, Cleveland. He became Superintendent of the Sisseton Agency in 1967.

Streitz served in the U. S. Navy from 1944 to 1952 with the U. S. Pacific Fleet: in personnel accounting. Married, he is the father of three children.