OPA

On November 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced proposed legislation to acquire over one-half million acres of this most unique of natural areas. The Big Cypress. But Big Cypress is more than beautiful ... it is essential. It is biologically one of the most unique ecosystems in the world and hydrologically the most important watershed in Florida.

For it is this great natural reservoir that quenches the thirst of the Everglades and provides South Florida with the universal natural resource ...water.

It is truly this abundance of water ... a crossroads of the fresh and the saline ...which makes this land the precious jewel that it is. But not only is the action of President Nixon in moving to save Big Cypress milestone in the conservation annals of Florida ... it is a lesson and a gift for the entire Nation. It is a gift because Big Cypress represents one of those areas of critical environmental importance which the President has promised to protect and has moved to set aside through his National Land Use Policy legislation. It is a lesson because we are moving to acquire it today rather than ten years from now when the cost would surely be prohibitive.

Significantly, the President has acted quickly ... and here in Big Cypress in such a way that the people who live and work in the swamp will be protected. There will-be no move by this Administration to oust or evict anyone. We will arrange for lifetime tenancy wherever possible.

Those who have hunted and fished in the Big Cypress may continue to do so for these forms of recreation are compatible with our concept of a national freshwater reserve.

The Miccosukee Indians who have long gained their livelihood from this area will be ensured the continuing right to harvest its bounty after all. They were he re first and they shall continue to live in this wonderland as long as they choose to do so.

I am today returning-_ to Washington and will immediately transmit, to the Congress the legislation which will create The Big Cypress National Freshwater Reserve. Acquisition will be financed under the Land and Water Conservation Fund over a ten-year period.

So, as you can see, the President, in what I consider to be a profound understanding of the deep ecological needs of this Nation has acted forthrightly to preserve this great component of our natural heritage.

I am proud of the President's compassion for the environment ... I am proud that he has taken positive action and I know that future generations will be eternally grateful for it to them we have bequeathed this marvelous legacy.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sixteen Crow Indians were greeted by newsmen Embassy officials at Dulles Airport here Tuesday as they changed from the airplane that brought them from Billings, Mont., to one that would take them to London, England on an European tour may rival those staged by Buffalo Bill Cody.

The tour is designed to help attract European tourists to three American tours packaged particularly for them-- two seven day tours, one a fifteen-day tour. The tours will include a visit to five Indian reservations -- the Crow, Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, and Flathead, all in Montana, and the Wind River in Wyoming.

The delegation is headed by Crow Tribal Chairman David Stewart, and includes Phillip and Martha Beaumont, Emma Tillie Bird Hat, Donald and , Agnes Deer Nose, Ernest Holds the Enemy, David and Gladys Jefferson, Hugh and William Little Owl, Dennis and Beverly Sanders, Patrick and Sharon I Stands Over Bull, and Adelia Stewart.

The Crow Tribe has spearheaded the package-tour plan, an idea that sprang to life on the Crow Reservation two years ago and is, expected to climax in 1973 by the arrival of 600 Germans to "Indian country.” They will start their trip at the Crow Indians' resort, "Sun Lodge."

In commenting on the tour Louis R. Bruce, Commissioner of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that helped finance the European trip said: “As far as I know this is the first successful effort to attract Europeans to the United States on the basis of its unique culture -- the American Indians."

"These tours will bring dollars to the Indian reservations. They will bring money to the United States from abroad. They will help build goodwill abroad. We are proud to be a part of an effort that involves so many ‘pluses.'"

The Crow Indians at Dulles Airport were in street clothes but they had in their baggage regalia that will help them put on a performance of an hour or more twice a day throughout Germany and periodic performances elsewhere in Europe.

The performance they plan include the pipe ceremony, in which the pipe ceremony, in which the smoke of the Indian pipe establishes contact with ‘the Great spirit,’ the bustle dance, in which the exploits of battle are dramatized, an ancient tribal history by war chiefs, a grass dance, buffalo dance, rabbit dance, and a victory or circle dance.

The tours that originate in Germany are already being marketed by a large German department store chain whose headquarters are in Frankfurt. The Crow Indians will attempt to interest private audiences in London, England, Copenhagen, Sweden, Venice and Milan, Italy, and in Paris, France, in sponsoring similar tours originating from those cities.

One special facet of the trip so far as the Indians are concerned is a proposed visit to the crypt of Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch in Paris. David Stewart told the story of why the group had a special interest in Marshall Foch.

"Marshall Foch came to Arlington, Va. to help dedicate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the close of World War I. Crow chief plenty coups, our outstanding chief, represented Indian warriors in the military at the same event. Foch liked Chief Plenty Coups. He told the Chief he would like an Indian name. Chief Plenty Coups told the Marshall 'You step foot on my land and then you will be given an Indian name.’

"Chief Plenty Coups had almost forgotten the incident when the next year, he got a letter from Marshall Foch reminding him of his remark and saying that he would make a special trip to the Crow Indian Reservation. Chief Plenty Coups said that in honor of his visit he would give the Marshall the best of his Indian names -- Chief of all Chiefs. Foch was adopted into the Crow Tribe by that name. It is my understanding that 'Chief of all Chiefs' is inscribed on Marshall Foch's crypt."

Stewart concluded his s tory by pointing out that his title was "tribal chairman" instead of "Chief" because the title "Chief" was abolished with the death of Chief Plenty Coups. "He was so outstanding that no one could follow in his footsteps," explained Stewart "So the title was buried with him.”

Greeting the Crow Indians at the airport were representatives of several embassies representing countries the Crows will visit. These included representatives from the German, Swiss, and Austrian embassies.

The German representatives indicated that some of the interest in Indians in Germany has been generated by a series of books by the German author Karl May, who vividly portrayed the Plains Indians although he never visited the United States.

When the Europeans tour, they will fly to Billings, Mont., then board buses for the remainder of their stay. In a typical tour they will be given, an outdoor barbeque by Crow Indians, take part in a campfire program and listen to an Indian lore lecture by a Crow. They will tour Custer National Battlefield. They will be presented with a medicine bag by the Northern Cheyenne Indians and listen to a brief history of the tribe when they visit that reservation. The tour includes a visit to Big Horn National Recreation Area, a guest ranch, and various western museums.

On the Wind River Indian Reservation they will see the graves of Chief Washakie and Sacajawea, guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They will visit the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks a, Wyoming "ghost town." Also included will be a trip to Hungary Horse Dam and Glacier National Park, as well as the nearby Flathead and Blackfeet Indian Reservations.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced several major personnel shifts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of the administrative reorganization of the Bureau recently recommended by a survey team and now actively under way.

Allan G. Harper, area director at Window Hock, Arizona, is being transferred to Washington as a member of the Commissioner's coordinating staff, where his broad background of experience in Indian Affairs and intimate knowledge of Navajo administration will be directly available to Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

W. Wade Head, now area director at Anadarko, Oklahoma, will be the Bureau's area director at Gallup, Now Mexico, where he will supervise the Navajo Reservation and Indian agencies in New Mexico and Colorado.

G. Warren Spaulding, who has been director of the Program Division in the Washington Office of the Bureau since 1951, will become superintendent of the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Arizona.

John M. Cooper, who has been area director at Aberdeen, S. Dak., for the past two and a half' years, will succeed Head at Anadarko.

Replacing Mr. Cooper at Aberdeen will be William O. Roberts, now area director at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

At Muskogee, Clinton Talley, now assistant area director, will serve as acting area director pending further decision on Bureau reorganization.

Don C. Foster, area director at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and E. Morgan Pryse, area director at Portland, Oregon, will exchange positions.

Mr. Harper, a native of Paterson, N.J., and a graduate of Harvard University, joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1935 as a field representative. From 1937 to 1939 he served as director of a technical cooperation program involving the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture at Denver. After four years as Bureau senior field representatives, he transferred to the Office of Inter-American Affairs with assignments in agricultural work in Costa Rica and Washington. He also served two years as chief of the program planning and review section of the Foreign Economics Administration. In 1946 he returned to the Bureau as assistant district director at Billings, Montana and in 1949 was transferred to the Navajo Agency as general superintendent and later that year was designated area director.

Mr. Head is a native of El Dorado, Ark., and entered the Indian Service in 1937. He had several years of experience as superintendent of schools, in Oklahoma and the Philippine Islands, and ono year as assistant general manager of a lumber company in the Philippines. His first job with the Indian Bureau was as reservation principal on the Papago Reservation at Sells, Ariz. After four years in this assignment he was designated as superintendent of the Papago Agency and served for one year, transferring to the War Relocation Authority in 1942. Following two years of service with WRA, he returned to the Indian Bureau in 1944 as superintendent of the Colville Agency, Nespelem, Washington, where he remained for three years. Transferring to Oklahoma in 1947, he served for one year as district director at Oklahoma City, and was appointed in 1948 to his present position as area director at Anadarko. He is a graduate of Northeastern State College at Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Mr. Spaulding has been with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 30 years. He first joined the Bureau as a trade teacher at an Indian school in Flandreau, South Dakota, in 1924, and has steadily advanced to positions of increasing importance. Prior to his appointment as director of the Program Division in 1951, he served for two years as area director at Aberdeen and before that for five years as superintendent of the Cheyenne River Agency in South Dakota. His previous career with the Bureau was mainly in the field of Indian education. He was born in 1895 at Heron Lake, Minnesota, and was educated at South Dakota State College at Brookings, South Dakota, and Colorado State Teachers College, Greeley, Colorado.

Mr. Cooper also has a long background with the Indian Service. He came with the Bureau in 1935 as director of the Southwest Range and Sheep Breeding laboratory in Fort Wingate, New Mexico, and subsequently served as director of Resources and as assistant superintendent at the Navajo Agency in Window Rock, Arizona. In 1946 he became superintendent of the Wind River Agency in Wyoming and in 1950 was appointed director in charge of Bureau participation in Missouri River Basin Investigations. He has been area director at Aberdeen since 1951.

Before joining the Indian Bureau, Mr. Cooper worked with the United States Department of Agriculture for 14 years in the field of sheep breeding and allied research. He was born in 1899 at Canyon, Texas, and is a graduate in animal husbandry from the University of California at Berkeley.

Mr. Roberts was born in Schuyler County, Missouri, in 1890, and has been with the Bureau of Indian Affairs continuously since 1917. During his first 10 years with the Bureau he served as a teacher at Pima, Arizona, a land lease clerk at Ponca, Oklahoma, financial clerk at Pawnee Agency, Oklahoma, chief clerk at Omaha, Nebraska and Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota and superintendent of the Indian school at Leupp, Arizona. In 1927 he rose to the rank of agency superintendent and served in that capacity at Cheyenne River Agency, Rosebud Agency, and Pine Ridge Agency, all in South Dakota. In 1946 he moved to Muskogee as superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes Agency and was designated as area director in 1949.

Mr. Foster is a native of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, where he owned and operated a livestock ranch from 1922 to 1927. In 1928 he moved to Portales, New Mexico, where he was a high school superintendent and instructor of vocational agriculture for five years. After two years with the New Mexico State Extension Division, he joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1935 as head community worker at Warm Springs Agency, Oregon. In 1937 he became extension agent at the Carson Indian Agency, Stewart, Nevada, and in 1940 was named as superintendent at that agency. After four years in this position he became general superintendent f or the Indian Bureau at Juneau, Alaska, and was subsequently named area director. In 1950 he was transferred to his present position as area director at Minneapolis. He attended the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanics College and graduated from New Mexico State College in 1928.

Mr. Pryse, a native of Kentucky had military service in both World Wars and was promoted to the rank of Colonel during his most recent service. He first came with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1920 as a forest examiner and remained in that line of work until 1932. For the following eight years he was director of highways for the Bureau and organized the program of road construction and maintenance. After six years of military service, he rejoined the Bureau in 1946 as general superintendent at Portland, Oregon, and. was subsequently designated area director. He is a graduate of Oregon State College, has a M.A. degree from American University, and a law degree from National University.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay has instructed three Department of the Interior officials to meet in Portland, March 10, to ascertain the facts in a complaint raised by Indians of the Warm Springs Reservation they are not getting fair prices for the timber sold from their lands.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn Emmons, J. R. Armstrong, Assistant to the Solicitor of the Department, and William G. Guernsey, administrator of the Bureau of Land Management in Portland, will conduct the meeting with representatives of the Warm Springs Tribal Council and the officials of the lumber companies buying timber on the reservation.

Representations have been made to Secretary McKay that under the terms of the sales contract the Indians have with the lumber companies the prices are to be adjusted in keeping with economic conditions in the lumber industry. The Indians were represented as believing their timber justified a higher price.

Secretary McKay said the way to learn the facts in the case is to hold a hearing in Oregon and get the views and evidence of both sides of the question. The three officials will report to Secretary McKay, who has promised an early decision.

Louis C. Peters, former manager of the Alaska Native Industries Cooperative Association, against whom removal action was initiated by the Department of Justice, has offered to settle his dispute with the Government for $2,500, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay disclosed today.

Under the terms of the settlement, Peters would surrender his office and deliver all properties of ANICA and its premises to an authorized representative of the Department of the Interior. Peters would also relinquish all claims against either the United States or ANICA.

The proposed agreement would not release Peters from any claims which the United States or ANICA may lodge against him under his bond in the future.

The action by the Department of Justice against Peters in the Federal District Court in Seattle was begun at- the request of the Department of the Interior when Peters refused after prolonged negotiations to surrender the assets and premises of the Association. His former contract with ANICA expired December 31, 1952.

Secretary McKay said he has recommended that Peters’ offer be accepted. He noted that an early end to the dispute will enable the Association to resume its normal business activities in the near future.

"The amount of the proposed settlement is far less than was originally demanded,” the Secretary said. “It is less than the cost of a long, drawn-out litigation. Settlement on this basis would prevent the continued disruption of ANICA’s affairs."

Acceptance of the terms of the agreement by the Secretary culminates efforts initiated early in January by the Department of the Interior to take over the management of ANICA temporarily, with the approval of a majority of its board of directors.

The action was necessary to protect loans totaling approximately $500,000 made by the United States to native villages in Alaska, and the interests of the native village corporations making up the membership in ANICA, The former manager, whose services the Department terminated, refused to surrender the premises and assets of ANICA to an authorized Department representative. Consequently, the matter was referred to the Department of Justice for appropriate action.

The agreement provides that Peters "... shall cease and desist from making any statements to the effect that the United States has liquidated or is in the process of liquidating ANICA, it being the intention of the United States to continue its financial and other assistance in the maintenance and strengthening of ANICA as an independently owned Alaskan native cooperative association."

As soon as audits of the former management can be completed, and a new management can be completed, and a new management satisfactory to the member villages and to the Government are selected and installed in the office, the operations of ANICA will be returned to its board of directors. The Secretary added that he hoped ways could be found to make the operations of ANICA of more service to the native people than they have been in the past.

The Secretary also announced that subject to the approval by the board of directors he is authorizing payments of salaries to former employees of ANICA through February 15. Such employees have not been paid since the half-month period ending January 15. Termination notices were sent to them to be effective January 21 but were not received until February 5.

Under the authorization two weeks severance pay also will be made to those entitled to such payments in accordance with past custom and practices of ANICA and will settle any claims employees may have against ANICA for sick and annual leave.

ANICA is a purchasing organization owned by 33 native village stores of Alaska in partnership and financed in part by Federal loans. It was organized in 1947 to purchase commodities for stores operated by some of the more remote Eskimo and Indian villages of Alaska and to market products such as furs for them. Prior to that time purchases for the village stores were handled by the Federal Government. Organization of ANICA was part of the Government's program to improve the economic conditions of the Alaska natives and to give them increased authority and responsibility for the management of their own affairs.

MACON. GA. -- Ben Chekotah, 21, a Creek Indian, had never left Oklahoma before last May when he came to Ocmulgee National Monument, at Macon, Georgia, to work for the National Park Service as a park technician.

It was from Georgia in the 1830's that the Creeks were expelled to Oklahoma Territory in the tragic march known to history as the "Trail of Tears." Lately the Department of the Interior and the City of Macon have cooperated in welcoming Creeks back to their traditional home to help visitors understand their early culture in tours of mounds and prehistoric towns of the Indian Mound Builder civilization.

In mid-September a group of 80 Macon, Georgia, citizens organized a trans-Atlantic flight to visit their sister city of Macon in Southern France, Just north of the Swiss border. As a wedding present, they included Ben Chekotah and his Creek bride, Peggy. Peggy works as a sales clerk in the Indian Craftshop established at the monument by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Both are former residents of the other Okmulgee, the one spelled with a "k," in Oklahoma.

Mr. and Mrs. Chekotah brought with them gifts of Creek Indian craftwork for the French city. Ben was undecided whether to wear his National Park Service uniform or the stately robes of the Creek culture. The service said that he would be "in uniform “either way.

Reduced Federal participation in Indian affairs was established as the goal of national policy and progress toward this objective was achieved along many lines during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1953, according to annual report of Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay released today.

Consultations looking toward eventual termination of Federal responsibilities were held during the year with tribal groups in western Oregon and California, the Klamaths of Oregon, the Alabama-Coushattas of Texas, the Chitamachas of Louisiana, and the Prairie Island Band of Minnesota. Programming of a more preliminary nature was carried forward with the Osages of Oklahoma, the Menominees of Wisconsin, the Colvilles and Spokanes of Washington, and the Flatheads of Montana.

Three Bureau hospitals were closed and another transferred to a local organization bringing the total number of Bureau hospitals on June 30 down to 59. Local public school authorities took over responsibilities for operating 16 of the Bureau’s day schools and for the academic work at three of the boarding schools. Total enrollment in the transferred schools was approximately 1,100. Seventy-five miles of reservation roads wore transferred to county highway departments for maintenance and another 400 miles were undergoing improvements aimed at facilitating similar transfer in the near future. Indian borrowing from non-Bureau sources amounted to an estimated $22,000,000 in comparison with only $2,463,835 of additional loans made by the Bureau.

Bureau responsibilities for management of Indian trust lands were reduced somewhat as a result of mounting Indian requests for fee patents or for disposition of their lands through advertised sales. More that 2,500 tracts of Indian allotted land were removed in these and other ways from trust or restricted status. Income to the Indians from mineral leases, principally oil and gas, on their lands increased from $18,600,000 in fiscal 1952 to more than $23,000,000 in 1953.

Greatest progress toward complete termination of Bureau responsibilities for Indian affairs was achieved in California where all Indian children are now attending the public schools and full welfare services are provided to eligible Indians by State and local agencies. During the year the Bureau's California staff completed inventory of Federal buildings used in the administration of California Indian affairs, closed out 550 individual Indian money accounts, sold 102 public domain Indian allotments and 27 reservation allotments for a total return of approximately $1,000,000 to the Indian owners, reached agreement with county highway departments for the eventual transfer of 190 miles of road, and transferred to local agencies additional responsibilities for Indian health work.

Under the long-range Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Program, authorized by Congress in 1950, educational facilities for Navajo children were expanded in fiscal 195.3 through the completion of three school construction projects and the establishment or five new trailer schools. Combined enrollment of Navajo children in public schools, Indian Bureau schools, and mission schools reached an all-time high of 14,106, an increase of almost 1,000 over the previous fiscal year. Road construction work advanced materially with the completion of 53.5 miles of grade construction, 37 miles of base or gravel surfacing, 15.6 miles of bituminous surfacing, and 433 linear feet of bridges. Work was finished on 48 deep-pit charcos for the conservation of soil and water on Navajo rangelands and nine additional wells were drilled with long-range program funds. In the field of tribal business enterprises the chief accomplishment of the year was the completion of a basic agreement between the Navajo Tribe and the Bureau under which the Tribe assumes the major share of operating responsibilities. Two tribal motels and a number of smaller business enterprises were established in 1953.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced the appointment of Guy C. Williams as Superintendent of the United Pueblos Indian Agency, Albuquerque, N. Mex., effective April 1.

The appointment results from the recently announced reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mr. Williams since 1950 has been assistant director of the Albuquerque Area Office which is being discontinued. He will head the agency headquarters at Albuquerque which serves the 19 Indian Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley.

Mr. Williams entered the Indian Service in 1927 as a teacher at Tesuque, N. Mex. He later was chief clerk at agencies in Nevada and Idaho until 1936, and for four years was a special agent in the Division of Investigations of Interior at Albuquerque and Billings, Mont.

In 1940 he returned to the Indian Bureau as an accountant at Albuquerque and Minneapolis, From 1945 to 1949 he served at national headquarters of the Bureau first as chief of the budget and operations division and later as acting chief administrative officer. In July 1949 he became chief of the Branch of Management Planning and remained in that post until he transferred to the Albuquerque Area Office in late 1950.

Born in Lebanon, Indiana, in 1895, Mr. Williams was educated in the public schools of that co1mnunity and later attended Central Normal College and Anthony Wayne Institute. He is a veteran of World War I and had several years of experience in farming, public school teaching and cost accounting before joining the Government service.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Hopi Indian Agency, located on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, will report administratively to the Phoenix Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This change has been vigorously sought by Senator Barry Goldwater for some time because of his feeling that the interests and orientation of the Hopi Indians are toward Arizona. Hopi trading activity since the days of the early settlers has centered in communities south of their reservation, and they find employment, attend schools and hospitals in these communities. The effective date of the transfer of administrative jurisdiction will be worked out with the Area Directors concerned.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Crow Creek Indian Agency, now located at Fort Thompson, S. Dak., will be moved to Chamberlain, S. Dak., in the near future. While the exact date of the move has not yet been determined, it will have to be made before summer when water backed up by the Fort Randall Dam will create serious problems at the present agency site.

The decision to locate the agency, serving both the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations, at Chamberlain was recommended by the Bureau of Indian Affairs after careful consideration of several alternative sites.