OPA

A roll to determine the members of the Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians eligible to share in awards totaling $237,127.82 in land claims funds is being prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Office in Aberdeen, S. D., according to Louis R. Bruce, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The money comes from awards in settlement of Indian Claims Commission Dockets Nos. 18-A, 113 and 191 for the Pembina Band's one third interest in 7,488,280 acres of land in northwest Minnesota and northeast North Dakota, ceded under the treaty of October 2, 1863 (13 Stat. 667).

Funds to cover the awards were appropriated June 9, 1964 (78 Stat. 213). An Act of Congress July 29, 1971 (85 Stat. 158) authorized the use of the money and directed that the roll be prepared.

Persons who believe they are eligible to share in the awards may obtain application forms and instructions from the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Aberdeen Area Office, 820 Main Street, Aberdeen, South Dakota .57401. Applications must be filed with the Area Director and must be postmarked no later than midnight, March l2, 1972.

Those who may be eligible to share in the awards are Pembina Chippewa Indians:

1. Who file an application for enrollment within the time specified.
2. Who were born on or prior to and were living on July 29, 1971.
3. Who are lineal descendants of members of the Pembina Band as it was constituted in 1863, except for persons in the following categories, who shall not be enrolled:

• Those who are not United States Citizens.
• Those who are members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians.
• Those who participated in the Mississippi, Pillager, and Lake Winnibigoshish Chippewa Band awards under the provisions of the Act of September 27, 1967 (81 Stat. 230).

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a report recommending against enactment of S. 401, a bill that would require forced sale of all Indian tribal lands and complete liquidation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in three years, Secretary Douglas McKay said today. ''

Commenting on the departmental report, which was prepared under his supervision, Indian Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons expressed particular opposition to the requirement for mass liquidation of tribal land holdings in Federal trusteeship.

"In some cases such as among the Pueblos of New Mexico,” he stated, "this proposed legislation would sweep away tribal ownership of lands which the Indian people have occupied and used productively for countless centuries. Many other similar examples could be cited but this one should be enough to indicate the drastic character of the bill. I firmly believe that its enactment would be not only a tragic error but a flat repudiation of the most basic principles of fair and honorable dealing with the Indian people. I am opposed to it completely and utterly.”

In place of the wholesale liquidation embodied in S. 4.01, the Department recommends a continuation of the Administration‘s policy of full consultation with the Indians, constructive action to alleviate their outstanding health, education and economic problems, and a gradual readjustment of their special relations with the Federal Government.

In essence, the readjustment approach which the Department is now following is a selective one based on careful evaluation of each tribe's potentialities and limitations, its preparedness and readiness to assume full responsibilities for management of its own affairs.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton, acting on requests by the Pauma and Pala Bands of California Mission Indians, has instructed the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to issue trust patents to those Bands for certain public lands in California.

The directive was issued as a memorandum dated November 4, 1971. The BLM Director was also instructed to notify the Department of Agriculture prior to issuance of the trust patents, inasmuch as some of the lands lie within the boundaries of the Cleveland National Forest. The lands also include several sections in San Bernardino Meridian, San Diego County.

Secretary Morton's move gives recognition to the longstanding continual use that the two groups of Mission Indians have made of the land sections in question. Under a 1907 statute, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to select public lands to patent to Mission Indian groups whose occupancy and possessory claims to such lands had not been protected by patenting authorities residing with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The original Mission Reserve includes the lands now to be patented to the Pauma and Pala Bands that had been "temporarily" withdrawn in 1903 and remained withdrawn until this time.

In July 1970 both Bands, at general meetings of their respective memberships, voted unanimously to request the Secretary of the Interior to issue them patents in trust. Previously, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had recommended the action.

The new Secretarial directive states: "I hereby make the required finding that the lands identified in the Pala and Pauma tribal resolution were in the occupation and possession of' the respective bands of Mission Indians prior to, and on, March 1, 1907, and that the lands were at that time required and needed by them. I also find that each Indian band has a present use for the lands it seeks pursuant to its respective resolution."

Hans Walker, a Mandan Indian, was named today by Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton to head the new Indian Water Rights Office.

Secretary Morton had previously announced, in a press conference, October 4, that he intended to create the Indian Water Rights Office to direct all aspects of Interior's trusteeship responsibility for protecting-the water rights of American Indians.

He also stated: "The Indian Water Rights Office will report directly to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the Commissioner will in turn report directly to me in Indian water matters."

Walker, a graduate of the University of North Dakota's Law School, has had broad experience in the highly specialized area of Federal Indian law as well as in tribal government operations. Since 1967, he has been an attorney adviser in Interior's Office of the Solicitor, where he has been in charge of the Jurisdiction and Indian Taxation Unit. Prior to joining the Solicitor's Office, he served as Tribal Operations officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Aberdeen (S.D.) and Minneapolis area offices.

Previously, Walker had practiced law as a private attorney, and had several public service assignments in juvenile work and civil rights. He was born on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

"Mr. Walker is not only my first choice to head this key new Indian Water Rights Office, but is the first choice of Indian Commissioner Louis Bruce and Assistant Secretary Harrison Loesch," Secretary Morton said.

"Moreover," the Secretary added, "Walker was recommended as top choice by the Indian leaders of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association, the National Congress of American Indians, and the National Council on Indian Opportunity."

For the present the Water Rights Office will be composed of five members. Walker, as new Director, is in the process of selecting his Deputy and the three additional staff. Announcement of these appointments will be made in the near future.

Walker stated: "I will select members of my staff to provide representation from engineering and scientific, as well as legal and administrative fields, so that we will be able to develop a comprehensive program toward the protection of Indian water rights."

Functions and responsibilities of the Indian Water Rights Office are as follows:

•••• To direct appropriate action administratively and through the courts to assert and protect those water rights

• ••••To establish and maintain priorities and plans of action

• •••• To supervise development of necessary technical data

• •••• To identify the Indian water rights problems throughout the Nation

• •••• To act as control center, status center, management center for water rights activities

• •••• To assign responsibilities to and monitor performance of all elements of the Interior organization for their part in Indian water rights efforts.

The Indian Water Rights Office will be located in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20242.

This joint meeting of officials of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Public Health Service of the Department of Health, Educations and Welfare will begin at 9:30 A.M., May 16, at the Shirley-Savoy Hotel. The conference was called for the purpose of advancing the orderly transfer of the Indian Health Program from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Public Health Service in accordance with Public Law 568, 83rd Congress. This transfer of responsibility becomes effective July 1, 1955.

Due to the fact that the conference will be concerned solely with administrative and technical problems and procedures relating to the transfer, attendance at all sessions will be limited to personnel of the agencies concerned and consultants.

From the Bureau of Indian Affairs: Miss Selene Gifford, Assistant Commissioner for Community Services, and John P. Kelly, Special Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Administration (both from Washington); representatives of the Branch of Health, Headquarters Office; Area Directors; Assistant Area Directors; Assistant , Area Directors of Community Services; Area Medical Directors; and selected Agency Superintendents from each area.

Dr. James R. Shaw, Chief Branch of Health, Bureau of Indian Affairs, will orient the conferees with respect to problems involved in the transfer and will coordinate the planning. A Medical Director of the Public Health Service on detail to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Dr. Shaw has headed the Indian Health Program for the past two years. He will continue as head of this program as Chief of the Division of Indian Health Services, which will be activated as a division of the Bureau of Medical Services in the Public Health Service on July 1. Dr. Shaw is stationed in Washington.

From the Public Health Service (Washington): Dr. David E. Price, Assistant Surgeon General; Paul A, Caulk, Executive Officer; Dr. Vane M. Hoge, Associate Chief of the Bureau of Medical Services; and Dr. Mayhew Derryberry, Chief, Public Health Education Services. Dr. Derryberry will serve as conference chairman.

Fordyce Luikart, Deputy Director of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare‘s Office of Administration, is expected to attend. Kenneth R. Miller, Budget Examiner in this Office, will participate in the conference.

The conferees number approximately 700

The Indian Health Program is responsible for the provision of medical and public health services to approximately 350,000 Indians. Fifty-nine hospitals are operated for the Indians, and there are about 3,600 employees of the program in the United States and Alaska. Assurances have been given to the employees of this program that its transfer to the Public Health Service will not adversely affect their employment.

“The machinery we now have for carrying out our trusteeship responsibilities to Indians is inadequate," Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton told a Senate subcommittee today. He urged prompt action on a bill that would establish an Indian Trust Counsel Authority.

Secretary Morton's remarks were presented in a hearing before the subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. The bill under review is one of several urged by President Nixon in a 1970 legislative package designed to strengthen Indian rights and opportunities within the framework of a continuing Federal trusteeship of Indian resources.

The Indian Trust Counsel Authority proposal would establish an independent entity to function as advocate of the trust resource rights and interests of Indians "untrammeled by other consideration of public policy," the Secretary said. It would also provide legal services to Indians comparable to those a private individual could expect to obtain from his private attorney. It would not preclude Indian hiring of private legal aid.

"Both in appearance and in fact, and both for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice, there is frequently an inherent conflict of interest between the requirements of the (Indian) trusteeship and the broader responsibility to the people of the United States," Secretary Morton advised the subcommittee.

In the same testimony, he also called attention to additional proposals recommended by the Administration, which, as a package, he said would enable Indians to "protect and preserve their resources, raise their standard of living, and commence the cure of other ills they suffer."

These measures include a plan for additional financing aid to Indian tribes and groups, and authority to transfer control of Bureau of Indian Affairs operations to Indian governing bodies or Indian groups.

Headquarters for the Menominee Indian Agency in Wisconsin will be transferred as soon as possible from Neopit to Keshena, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Primary reason for the move, which has been discussed with Menominee tribal representatives over the past several months, is to separate the Indian Bureau's governmental functions at the agency from the operations of the Menominee tribal lumber mill located at Neopit.

The agency, which has been situated at Neopit since 1942, was transferred at that time from Keshena in order to facilitate Bureau supervision of the mill operations. Under legislation enacted by Congress last June, however, Bureau supervision over Menominee tribal affairs is boing gradually withdrawn and will be fully terminated by the end of 1958.

As part of this process, the Governmental operations of the agency were organizationally separated from the business activities of the mill last January and several important service functions of the Bureau were simultaneously transferred to tribal management. While the physical separation of mill and agency was scheduled to take place at the same time, it was held up because tribal officials handling the service functions were making use of the old headquarters building at Keshena.

The agency move was authorized only recently after alternative government quarters at Keshena became available.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced the appointment of Orville N. Hicks, 44, a graduate of Colorado State University in range management and a veteran of 20 years of Bureau of Indian Affairs service as Superintendent of the new Lower Brule Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, with headquarters at Lower Brule, S. Dak.

He will assume the duties of his post January 9.

Two new agencies, the Lower Brule and Crow Creek, replace the Pierre Agency, which formerly had responsibilities toward the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and the Crow Creek Tribe. Hicks was awarded a quality increase in 1965 after a Bureau career that included range conservation and land operations functions including administration - in Shiprock, New Mexico, Widow Rock, Arizona, Eagle Butte, South Dakota, and with the Aberdeen Area Office, Aberdeen, South Dakota.

He entered federal service in 1950 as a range aid with the U. S. Forest Service, Denver, Colorado. His university minor was forestry. He has attended a variety of management and executive training programs as a Bureau of Indian Affair’s employee.

Full independence from Federal supervision is being extended to an Indian Tribal group in the United States for the first time since 1909 under terms of a proclamation signed by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, it, was announced today.

The affiliated Alabama and Coushatta Tribes of Polk County, Texas, under terms of the proclamation, will be removed effective July 1, from the scope of all Federal laws specially applicable to Indians.

Acting- Secretary Clarence A. Davis explained that the proclamation was made possible by legislation signed by President Eisenhower last August. Under this legislation trusteeship responsibilities for approximately 3,100 acres of timbered tribal land is transferred to the State of' Texas with the full concurrence of Governor Allan Shivers and the State legislature.

Transfer of the trust responsibility will take place almost exactly 100 years after the State’s first official action on behalf of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribes.

The ancestors of the present tribe broke away from the forced migration of the Creeks from their hunting grounds in Alabama and Georgia to Government reservations in what is now Oklahoma 1 and crossed over the border into Mexico to settle on lands that later became part of Texas.

In 1854 and 1855, the newly admitted State bought 1,100 acres in Polk County and had it deeded to the Indians in fee simple in perpetuity. The tribes still own this land. Special relations between the Indians and the Federal Government developed in the late 1920’s when the United States bought approximately 3,100 acres adjacent to the Indian-owned land and took title in trust for the Indian group. A quitclaim deed to this Federal trust land accompanied the proclamation.

The significance of the proclamation is highlighted by a recent comment of Secretary McKay on Indian affairs emphasizing his belief that "wardship" or dependence on the Federal Government for protection and special services is fundamentally bad for any group of people.

"I believe deeply," he said, "that we must work toward the time when Indians will be able to manage their own affairs and receive services from the usual State and local sources the same as all other American citizens. I am, however, completely opposed to any wholesale termination of Federal responsibilities in Indian affairs or any mass liquidation of the Indian tribal lands. All of us in this Department who are concerned with Indian affairs are dedicated to the principle of full consultation established by President Eisenhower and to a selective approach based on real consideration for the problems faced by the Indian people.”

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons also commented on the Alabama-Coushatta action"

"In this particular case," he said, "the Federal Government is moving out of the picture in less than a year after enactment of the legislation because the State Government is fully willing and prepared to take over the trust responsibilities. Under the other five readjustment laws enacted last year, where the trusteeship is being dissolved and the Indians exe taking on unrestricted membership of their property, considerably more time is being allowed to work out the manifold problems. The mixed blood people of the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah were given 7 years for completion of the readjustment process; the Menominees of Wisconsin and the Klamaths of Oregon approximately four; the western Oregon Indians and the Paiute Bands of Utah two.

"As I have stated on numerous occasions, you cannot apply the same administrative or legislative yardstick to the nearly 300 Indian tribes throughout the country. That is one of the major reasons why I am opposed to legislative proposals which would attempt to treat these extremely varied tribal groups as if they were all alike. In our program work in the Bureau of Indian Affairs we make a careful evaluation of the progress which each tribe has made along the road to self- sufficiency, the special problems which it still faces, and other similar factors. In some cases, where progress has been good and problems are comparatively unimportant, we may be prepared to recommend that readjustment of relations with the Federal Government take place in the early future. In other situations it may take many years of additional Federal protection and assistance before the tribal membership will be adequately prepared to move forward on its own.”

The first steps leading to the proclamation were taken in early 1953 when Indian Bureau representatives conferred with Texas officials and tribal members concerning the tribe's future status. In February of that year the tribe unanimously adopted a resolution “to authorize the great State of Texas to assume full responsibility for the management, protection and conservation of our forest resources by applying to our reservation the policies and practices followed by the State in the management of State forests."

On July 1, the Texas Indians will become the first group to be completely divorced from Federal trusteeship since 1909 when the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribes of Wisconsin received fee patents for all of their land holdings and were classified as full citizens of the United States. The Stockbridge-Munsee group, however, later resumed special relations with the Federal Government by their acceptance of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

The two areas which the tribes have occupied in Texas have been treated as one reservation and supervised by a superintendent provided by the State. Indian Bureau responsibilities in the State of Texas have been confined to this particular area and have consisted chiefly of the land trusteeship and the contract payments to assist in the education of Indian children.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton announced today his approval of organizational changes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs that have 'been developed since Secretary Morton himself took the first step last July 23rd in naming John O. Crow to the re-activated position of Deputy Commissioner.

"The organization plan is one designed to tighten administrative management of the Bureau's operations in order to get the most mileage from the Federal dollars being spent for Indian programs," the Secretary said.

The plan, which eliminates the two Associate Commissioner positions created two years ago, places a series of major program offices under direct responsibility of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. It also calls for a direct line from the newly created Office of Indian Water Rights to the Commissioner, who in turn reports directly to the Secretary on Indian water issues.

Nominations of individuals to the key posts, some of which were previously named as top choices by Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Louis R. Bruce, are as follows.

Office of Education Programs: JAMES HAWKINS, as Director. He has been serving for several months as head of this, the largest BIA program in terms of staffing and budget. Office of

Economic Development: ERNEST STEVENS, an Oneida Indian, as Director. He moves laterally from the post of Director of Community Services. The Economic Development Office is responsible for resources development and management, including industrial and tourism development.

Office of Community Services: FLORE LEKANOV, an Aleut who has been serving as Deputy Director will take over in an acting capacity until a new director can be named.

Office of Management Systems: HAROLD COX, a Creek Indian, as Director, moving laterally from the abolished post of Associate Commissioner for Support Services.

Office of Engineering Construction: ALEXANDER MCNABB, as Director. He moves laterally from the position of Director of Operating Services, a post that has been eliminated in the new organization plan.

Office of Administrative Services: CARL CORNELIUS, an Oneida Indian, as Director, promoted from a previous post as Director of Management Services, a sub-office under the general administrative arm of the bureau.

Office of Fiscal Plans and Management: JOHN SYKES to be Director of this operation, which. Incorporates various fiscal and planning operations formerly fragmented.

Office of Audit: operation. MILTON BOYD, who remains as Director of this Office of Inspections: MAURICE JOYCE, who remains as director of this operation.

Office of Planning Research: ROBERT GAJDYS, who moves laterally to Director of this post from the abolished position of Deputy Director of Operating Services.

Office of Legislative Development: HERSCHEL SAHMAUNT, a Kiowa Indian, will serve as acting Director of this function until a director has been selected.

Office of Communications: This function will combine public information, Congressional relations and intergovernmental relations until a director can be named, the present Acting Public Information Officer, THOMAS OXENDINE, will also serve as acting Director of the Office of Communications.

Indian Water Rights Office: HANS WALKER, a Mandan-Sioux, was previously named by Commissioner Bruce and Secretary Morton as the man to head this office, the mission of which is to serve as advocate for Indians on water rights issues.

In addition to making these selections, Secretary Horton also named HARRY RAINBOLT, a Pima Indian, to be Director of Southeast Agencies, a post similar to that of an area directorship in that it oversees BIA operations on several reservations--the Mississippi Choctaw, the North Carolina Cherokee, and the Florida Seminole and Miccosukkee Reservations.

He also concurred in Commissioner Bruce's selection of WILLIAM FREEMAN to be a Special Assistant to the Commissioner, and JAMES HENA, a Tesuque-Pima, to be Executive Assistant.

Further announcements regarding posts filled at present on an acting capacity will be made in the near future.