OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today that Donald I. Morgan, 37, a member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Crow Creek Agency, Bureau of India, at Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

The appointment will became effective on May 14. He will be become the first superintendent of the Crow Creek Agency. This agency was formed when what had been the Pierre Agency was split into the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Agencies.

Morgan was born at Browning, Montana, and was graduated from Browning High School. He has taken college courses in Business Administration and Economics at the College of Great Falls, University of New Mexico and Central Washington State College. He served in the army for two years, from 1957 to 1959.

Morgan has been serving as Employment Assistance Officer at the Yakima Agency. He entered the Bureau in 1961 at the Wind River Agency and served successively at the Fort Defiance Agency; in the Los Angeles Field Employment Office; the Blackfeet Agency; and the Northern Cheyenne and Yakima agencies.

After great deliberation and reflection, I have determined that it is in the national interest of the United States to grant a right-of-way for the Trans -Alaska Pipeline which will transport crude petroleum from State lands in northern Alaska to the south coast port of Valdez.

This is a decision that required and has received a very careful consideration of this Nation's interest in protecting the human environment and our interest in maintaining a secure and adequate supply of a. vitally needed energy resource. Development of the Prudhoe Bay oil discovery and the transportation of that oil for use in the "lower 48" states will involve some environmental costs and some environmental risk regardless of how the oil is transported and over what route. On the other hand, the United States vitally needs the Prudhoe Bay oil and we need this delivered to our West Coast as promptly and as safely as possible. In reaching my decision, I have had the benefit of the most comprehensive environment mental impact statement ever prepared, as well as numerous studies and analyses and comments of many thoughtful people both within and without government concerning the environmental, economic, national security and other issues involved. I am convinced that the decision is consistent with the policies set by the Congress in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which this Department and I, personally, are deeply committed to carry out.

Because this issue involves the balancing of complex considerations that this Nation will face again and again, I inquired deeply into many questions including the following:

1. Is it ill the national interest, including the regional interests of the people of Alaska, that the oil on the North Slope of Alaska be developed and transported to the "lower481 'states?
2. Which of several alternative routes described in our final impact statement are economically feasible and environmentally acceptable?
3. What are the relative environmental costs of the proposed combined Trans-Alaskan pipeline tanker system and a possible Trans-Alaska-Canada pipeline?
4. What route would make the most beneficial contribution to national energy requirements?
5. Can the suggested Trans-Alaska-Canada pipeline be translated into an action plan within a time frame, funding structure, and a delivery capacity for U.S. oil that would be compatible with United States National Interest?

Each of these questions requires a thoughtful analysis. My careful review of these issues has led me, with firm conviction, to the following conclusions:

National interest in Alaska North Slope

Our best estimate is that U.S. demand for oil by the year 1980 will range between20 and 25 million barrels per day and that without North Slope oil domestic production would be as low as9 to 12 million barrels per day, leaving a potential deficit of many millions of barrels per day. These figures take into account the reasonable prospects of developing other sources of energy.

In addition to the national interest served by developing domestic energy resource, delivery of the North Slope reserves to the " lower 48" through Alaska will be beneficial to the economic development of the State and is favored by a large majority of Alaskans.

Therefore, I conclude that we should now proceed with development of the Alaska North Slope resources.

Alternative Routes:

Of the several alternative routes described in the final environmental impact statement, I have given most serious consideration to two-- the Prudhoe Bay. Valdez route passing near Fairbanks, and the much longer Trans –Alaska Canada route along the Mackenzie River to Edmonton. Routes requiring tankers via the Northwest Passage, the Beaufort Sea or the Bering Sea are not technologically feasible at this time. Both land routes would require a right of-way permit over Alaska terrain.

Effect on National Energy Requirements:

Completion of the Trans-Alaska line would require at least three years from date of approval, thereby permitting the delivery of oil by about 1976. According to best estimates. The, Trans "Canada line would involve at least 3 to 5 years additional time for completion. The potential deficit in domestic supply to meet the United States oil requirements will become more critical as this decade progresses. (Under present circumstances, it is clear that imports from the eastern hemisphere would be the principal offset for that deficit. In addition to my own conclusions appropriate officials of the United States. Government have advised me that it is in the interest of national security, balance of payments, and reliability of energy supply to achieve early delivery of North Slope oil to reduce our dependence on such imports.

The Pacific Coast Region in 1975 will have a projected crude oil deficit, exclusive of Canadian and Alaskan sources of more than one million barrels per day. This deficit by 1980 is projected to increase to 2 million barrels per day and still greater in subsequent years.

Alaska North Slope Crude via Valdez will offset the need for foreign oil and will increase the U.S. tanker fleet operating on the high seas. In the first few years of operation of the proposed trans-Alaska pipeline the flow is expected to reach about one million barrels daily. Its capacity of 1.6 to 2 million barrels daily is not expected until 1980 or later. Alaska North Slope oil, therefore, will be a timely contribution to the needs of the West Coast-- a region that does not have the diversity and flexibility of supply available to the Midwest.

The Trans-Alaska-Canada Alternative:

Several factors make a bilateral arrangement for such an oil pipeline impractical at this time. These are:

1. U. S. requirement for the entire capacity of any oil pipeline;
2. Uncertainty and delay in arranging for financing of a Trans-Canada oil pipeline;
3. Delay of project pending the completion of environmental, engineering, and construction studies for a Canadian route.

I am convinced that it is our best national interest to avoid all further delays and uncertainties in planning the development of Alaska North Slope oil reserves by having a secure pipeline located under the total jurisdiction and for the exclusive use of the United States.

Conclusions:

I am proud of the way in which the Department of the Interior has responded to the letter and spirit of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Recognizing the need to protect the Alaskan environment, we have developed the strictest environmental regulations to control design and construction of the biggest non-Government project in history. These regulations will be strictly enforced. Surveillance and continual inspection will rigorously monitor design, construction, quality control testing, operation, and maintenance throughout the life of the pipeline. This will require the help of other Federal agencies such as the Department of Transportation, the Corps of Engineers, the Department of Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency - - all of whom have agreed to assist in exercising our Federal responsibility.

To those people in the. United States who for honorable reasons differ with this decision let me say that my final decision-was reached after months of deliberation and with consideration of the views that have been expressed from all sides. On balance, l am confident that my decision now in favor of a Trans-Alaska pipeline is in the best interests of the Nation and the American people.

In a major step designed to improve and expand Federal health services to Indians in the United States and Alaska, the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior will transfer its entire health program to the Public Health Service on July 1.

Involved in the transfer will be about 3,600 Indian Bureau employees and about 970 buildings. The real property inventory, estimated to be worth about $40,000,000, includes 56 hospitals, 21 health centers, 13 boarding school infirmaries, and numerous other structures used in the health program.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Clarence Davis said that it is believed that the transfer is the largest shift of Government installations and personnel made in recent years. “It is in keeping with the earnest aim of the administration to provide the best possible health services for our Indian citizens,” he said.

The transfer will take place under legislation strongly urged by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and endorsed by the Department of the Interior in recognition of the chronic difficulty facing the Bureau in recruiting and retaining qualified doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel for service in its field hospitals and other installations.

Public Law 568, which was passed by the 83rd Congress and approved by President Eisenhower, was also supported by many prominent medical groups and by Indian tribal organizations.

The first congressional appropriation specifically designated for Indian health was passed in 1911 and totaled $40,000. In fiscal 1955, the appropriation totaled $23,418,898 and accounted for about one-fourth of the Indian Bureau's budget and about the same proportion of its personnel.

In the 31 years since the Indian health program was established on a formally organized basis, many important achievements have been made in meeting the health problems of the Nation's 400,000 Indians.

These include the development of an effective treatment for the eye disease, trachoma; the widespread use of BCG vaccination for protection against tuberculosis and of isoniazid for control of the disease; and the provision of hospitalization for thousands of Indian tubercular and other patients through contracts with non-Federal hospitals.

Recently, a greatly expanded preventive medicine program was launched with the aim of bringing the benefits of modern sanitation directly into Indian homes and communities.

During the first century of relationships with the Indians, some health services were provided by the War Department and later under the Department of the Interior.

In 1924 a Health Division was established with a chief directly responsible to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Later, arrangements were made with the Public Health Service to provide health personnel for certain key positions, and these assignments have been greatly increased in recent years. The July 1 transfer is a culmination of this process.

A list of the Bureau's hospitals being transferred July 1 follows:

Transfer of Melvin L. Robertson, superintendent of the Western Washington Indian Agency, Everett, Wash., on July 14 to the comparable position at the Menominee Agency, Keshena, Wis., was announced today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Barton Greenwood.

Robertson replaces Raymond H. Bitney who moves to the position of assistant director in the Bureau's area office at Anadarko, Okla.

Mr. Robertson was born at Kalispell, Mont., in 1900 and has had 26 years of continuous service with the Bureau. From 1928 to 1948 he served in various capacities from timber scaler to forest ranger at the Colville Agency, Nespelem, Wash., and the Klamath Agency in Oregon. In 1948 he was named assistant to the superintendent of the California Agency at Sacramento, Calif., and later was made district agent at the Hoopa Subagency at Hoopa, Calif. He was appointed superintendent at Northern Idaho in 1950 and transferred to Western Washington in May 1954.

Mr. Bitney joined the Bureau in 1926 as forest assistant at the Klamath Agency, Oreg., and in 1930 was promoted to the superintendency of Neah Bay Agency, Wash. When this agency was abolished in 1933 he served for six years as superintendent at Red Lake Agency, Red Lake, Minn. In 1939 he was transferred to the Taholah Agency, Taholah, Wash. From 1942 to 1946 he was in military service and spent 15 months overseas as Battalion Commander of the 796th Engineer Forestry Battalion. After returning to the Bureau in 1946 he was superintendent for two years at Red Lake, two years at Klamath, and tour at Western Washington before going to Menominee in spring of 1954.

A successor to Mr. Robertson at Western Washington has not been named.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that he has appointed a three-man team to investigate the collapse of a footbridge on the East Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina on July 3.

Members of the team left today to confer with James H. Baley, Jr., United States District Attorney at Asheville, No Co, Richard D. Butts, Superintendent of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, and Frank Parker, General Counsel for the Cherokee Indians.

Members of the team are Theodore H. Haas, Acting Assistant Solicitor, Branch of Claims and Contract Appeals; Rodney M. Dunlap, Assistant Chief, Branch of Roads, Bureau of Indian Affairs; and Edward P. Rennie, Chief, Safety Branch, National Capital Parks, National Park Service.

The accident is reported to have been caused by children jumping on the Indian bridge which caused it to buckle and throw about 60 sightseers into the bed of the Oconaluftee River.

Agreement has been reached between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the commissioners of Klamath County, Oregon, covering future maintenance and improvement work on the 764-mile road system of the Klamath Indian Reservation, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

The agreement provides that when Federal responsibilities and services to Klamath Indians are terminated by Secretarial proclamation on or before August 13, 1958, under the so-called "Klamath Termination Act" passed last August, the County will take over full responsibility for maintaining reservation roads and integrating them into the County system.

Meanwhile the Bureau agrees to make specified improvements on 79 miles of the reservation roads at an estimated cost of $916,000.

The agreement is typical, Secretary McKay said, of arrangements which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is making not only at Klamath Agency but in other tribal areas affected by termination laws. The purpose of these arrangements is to make sure that the Indians involved are provided with the usual range of State and County services after termination of Federal responsibilities in the particular area.

Broader educational opportunities for Indian youngsters from the primary grades through the university level and more effective conservation of Indian soil and water resources are two of the prime benefits expected to result from increased Indian Bureau appropriations for the fiscal year which began July 1.

Important, though less sweeping, improvements are also in prospect in the fields of relocation, trust property management, forestry and law enforcement.

With an increase of $3,925,103 over the $32,692,827 available for education last year, the Bureau plans to step up the total enrollment of Indian children in both Federal and Bureau-aided public schools by more than 5,000 students. This will bring. Indian enrollment in all public schools and in Federal schools to an all-time high of roughly 100,000.

Most of the new enrollees Will be Navajo children entering school for the first time as a direct result of the Bureau's Navajo Emergency Education Program launched in the spring of 1954. Under the operation of this program the enrollment of Navajo youngsters in schools of all types was stepped up from a level of about 14,000 or roughly half the school-age population, in November 1953, to nearly 23,000 during the school year just ended.

With the increased education appropriations for the current fiscal year the Bureau will be in position this coming fall to round out the emergency program and open the schoolhouse doors for all Navajo children previously denied the opportunity because of lack of facilities. Continued effort will be necessary, however, to keep abreast of the tribe's school-age population which is growing at the rate of about 1,,500 a year.

Bureau assistance to Indian college and university students will be more than doubled under the new appropriation. With an increase in funds for this purpose from $22,935 to $50,000, the Bureau's scholarship program will broaden in scope from less than 200 students benefited last year to around 420 in 1955-56.

Funds for soil and moisture conservation, hiked by $990,000 to a record level of $3,661,672, will enable the Bureau to broaden and speed up the land and water saving work now under way at 45 Indian agencies and to initiate the program for the first time on the Flathead and Northern Cheyenne Reservations in Montana.

The Bureau's Voluntary relocation program, involving aid to Indian workers and their families in resettling away from the reservations and locating suitable jobs, will be almost doubled in coverage. Appropriations for this purpose, which have been around $579,600 for the past several years, have now been raised to $980,000. The number of Indians assisted by tile program is expected to increase from about 2,600 to roughly 5,000.

With an increase of $674,934 and a total appropriation of $1,987,639 for management of Indian trust property, the Bureau will be able to hire additional professional and clerical employees in this work and speed up the processing of oil and gas development leases and other realty transactions arising from requests of Indian landowners. Requests of this type have increased about 300 percent over the past four years and a tremendous backlog of cases, extending back as far as 1942, has developed both in Washington and the field offices. The Bureau now expects to eliminate this backlog and put its realty operations on a current basis in the reasonably near future.

An increase of $100,000 in forest and range management funds, from $2,085,000 to $2,185,000, will be used chiefly for carrying out sanitation salvage sales of over mature timber on Indian lands which are threatened with destruction by bark beetle and other pests.

Additional funds for law enforcement, amounting to $62,930 and bringing the appropriation for this item up to $400,000, will be used principally to expand the Bureau's policing operations on reservations in North and South Dakota. During the past year the Bureau had to take over enforcement work on the Devil’s Lake Reservation in North Dakota because of a decision by the State Supreme Court holding that a 1948 Federal Statute, conferring jurisdiction on the State, was ineffective.

The Indian Bureau's total appropriation for the new fiscal year is $71,832,498 or $5,508,116 more than the amount appropriated last year in the fields for which it still has a responsibility. Last year's appropriation, however, actually totaled $9l,112,460 since it included $24,198,578 for the Indian health program which was transferred July 1 to the United States Public Health Service, and $589,500 for Indian legal work which was taken over by the Office of the Solicitor of the Interior Department in July 1955.

Two Federal agencies today acted to restore the traditional if buffalo to the Crow Indians' sacred Big Horn Mountain and help stimulate the growth of tourism in Montana.

The Department of the Interior will provide 35 bison to the tribe, and the department of Commerce will provide a $300,000 grant for fencing a 10,000-acre buffalo range. The actions were announced jointly by Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton and Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson.

The Commerce grant is a part of President Nixon's program to create new and useful jobs in areas of high unemployment, and to assist the American Indians in the economic development of their reservations.

The grant will come from the Economic Development Administration, which is working with the Crow Tribe in the establishment of a comprehensive recreation and tourism program. The aim of the program is to create jobs and increase income for tribal members.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce Robert A. Podesta, who heads EDA, said the Federal grant will enable the Crow Tribal Recreation Commission to build fencing and management facilities for the buffalo range.

Secretary Morton said the National Park Service will assist the tribe in building the herd from the 35 head to be provided this fall to a model herd of 250 animals.

The buffalo herd is expected to be a major tourist attraction in southern Montana.

Restoration of the historic buffalo herd to Big Horn Mountain was given additional impetus following a visit to the Crow Reservation by C. Langhorne Washburn, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Tourism, and a group of foreign newsmen.

The travel writers were impressed with the tourism facilities on the reservation, but asked, "Where are the buffalo? Washburn reported on his return to Washington.

Construction of the fencing is expected to get under way during the spring with completion scheduled to permit the delivery of the buffalo this fall the fence projects is expected to provide jobs for up to 45 persons from the reservation.'

The $310,000 EDA grant will pay the total cost of developing the range.

In addition to fencing the pasture area from Hunters Canyon to Little Bull Elk Canyon near Arrowhead Springs, the project includes a corral, holding pens, an access road ·an equipment storage shed and the development of watering springs.

Tribal leaders say members of the tribe will participate in educational programs to enable them to manage the herd on a professional basis.

National Park Service officials say the buffalo for the Crow Reservation will come from the Theodore Roosevelt Nationalt1emorial Park herd at Medora, North Dakota. It is one of 11 herds managed by the Department of the Interior.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today announced approval of two Land and Water Conservation Fund grants totaling nearly one-quarter of a million dollars to the Mescalero Apache Tribe of New Mexico for public recreation and campground developments on its Reservation.

"We are delighted to help the Mescalero Apache Tribe share with all Americans the superior hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation opportunities available on its beautiful Reservation Secretary Morton said.

"I commend the Tribal leaders for their foresight -- these projects and their long-range plan for public recreation services that will provide job opportunities and enhance the economy of the Mescalero Apache people 'predates, but is consistent with, the Nixon Administration policy to promote greater self-determination and self-sufficiency for the Nation's Indian people on their Reservations, policies that now are being implemented through new programs in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "

The campgrounds are some 20 miles apart, on Eagle Lake and Silver Lake, in Otero County, N.M., about 29 miles north of Alamogordo. They are the first Mescalero Apache Tribe applications for Land and Water Conservation Fund assistance, and an integral part of the Tribe's master plan to develop a multi-activity public outdoor recreation complex on about 100,000 acres of the Reservation. Facilities for skiers, and hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation opportunities have been available to the public for some time.

The projects are in a picturesque tree-covered mountainous region of the 460,000 acre reservation which is bisected by the Sacramentos, a southern extension of the Rockies and the first major mountain range west of the Appalachians. The nearby towns of Ruidoso and Cloudcroft now serve as a major recreation center for residents of west Texas and southern New Mexico.

G. Douglas Hofe, Jr., Director of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation which administers the Land and Water Conservation Fund program for the Department, commended both the Tribe and the New Mexico State planning department for their effective cooperative efforts in developing the project proposals.

Federal funds for the projects --$116,035 for the Eagle Lake Recreation Area and $112,942 for the Spring Lake area -- are provided from the State of Mexico's Land and Water Conservation Fund apportionments. The Tribe is providing 20 percent of the matching funds required for the Federal grants, and the Economic Development Administration's Four Corners Regional Commission is providing 30 percent.

The total of $457,954, in Federal and matching funds, will be used to develop a 54-unit trailer campground at Eagle Lake and a 45 unit trailer campground at Spring Lake. Picnic areas with grills and, parking areas also will be developed. Support facilities at each area will include underground electric utility lines, water and sewer systems and a trash compactor. Part of the funds will be used to improve “existing access roads.

The campgrounds, which will be screened from view from the nearby lakes, will increase by about 80 percent the availability of trailer camp spaces in the area. The nearby, more primitive, Forest Service campgrounds, are in constant demand, and the few private trailer parks in the vicinity cannot accommodate the increasing numbers of trailer campers. "Eventually Tribal officials hope to build additional campgrounds near other Reservation lakes.

The Mescalero Apache Tribe's "Triad" recreational development program, of which these campgrounds are a part, has been underway for about 11 years. The major elements of the program are: 1) expansion of the Sierra Blanca Ski area on both Tribal and Forest Service lands where the facilities are owned and operated by the Tribe, and now receives about 400,000 visitors a year; 2) development of a 125 room resort hotel at Cienegita Canyon with an 18 hole golf course and 100-acre man-made lake, on which construction is expected to begin this Spring and completion is anticipated in 1973; and 3) a longer-range plan to set aside a large natural area on the Reservation and allow only minimal development.

Clarence W. Ringey, superintendent of the Umatilla Indian Agency, Pendleton, Oreg., will move to the comparable position at Western Washington Agency, Everett, Wash., on July 17 and will be replaced on July 31 by William E. Ensor, Jr., administrative officer of the Cherokee Agency, Cherokee, N.C., the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

At Western Washington Mr. Ringey succeeds Melvin L. Robertson who transfers July 14 to be superintendent of the Menominee Agency, Keshena, Wis.

A native of Clarissa, Minn., Ringey joined the Indian Bureau in 1931 and for 10 years served as farm agent at Red Lake Agency, Red Lake, Minn. From there he went to the now abolished Tomah Agency, Shawano, Wis., as a field aid and later became assistant to the superintendent. In 1947 he transferred back to Red Lake as farm management supervisor and two years later was promoted to district agent at the Great Lakes Consolidated Agency, Ashland, Wis. After three years in this assignment, he transferred to the Minneapolis Area Office as Realty Assistant. He was appointed to his present position of Superintendent at Umatilla in 1954.

Ensor came with the Bureau in 1928 as assistant clerk at Tuba City, Ariz., and after one year moved to the Cherokee Agency where he has been stationed ever since. He has been administrative officer at Cherokee for the past 10 years and recently served for several months as acting superintendent.