OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce 'announced today J ' the creation of a new BIA agency in New Mexico for the Ramah-Navajo Indians. It will be called the Ramah-Navajo Agency. Located in the west central part of the State, the new Agency will be under the jurisdiction of the BIA area office in Albuquerque.

Donald Smouse, Program Officer for the Ramah office will be the Acting Superintendent of the Agency until a permanent Superintendent is appointed.

The Ramah-Navajo band of Navajos was previously under the Zuni agency but was excluded when the Zunis assumed control of their own Agency ini1970. The new Agency will be located in Ramah, New Mexico 87321.

Commenting on the creation of the new Agency, Commissioner Bruce said, "This Agency represents a major step forward for the Ramah-Navajo people. It will permit them to better plan and program for the development of their community with the full cooperation of a Bureau line officer on site rather than in Albuquerque."

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today announced approval of revised regulations governing mining exploratory and development operations conducted on Federal and Indian lands under permits and leases issued by the Department of the Interior.

The regulations are not new, Secretary Morton pointed out, but rather are the existing reorganized and clarified regulations. (The revised regulations will be published June 1, 1972 in the Federal Register and will become effective 30 days thereafter.)

These regulations are designed to give permittees and 1essfiaes a better understanding of their responsibility to protect and other natural resources during operations and to reclaim land no longer needed for mining purposes.

The regulations also clarify the authority of mining supervisors of the U. S. Geological Survey - - who are charged with, enforcing the regulations -- for directing environmental protection and reclamation. The practical result of the revision, Secretary Morton said, is that ' the regulations will provide greater protection for the environment.

The regulations were published in the Federal Register as a proposed rulemaking March 24, 1971, with the public invited to submit comments and suggestions. As a result of comments received, a number of changes that were not substantial were made in the regulations published today.

Articles of incorporation for the first three Regional Corporations authorized by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, have been approved by the Department of the Interior.

The three regional corporations represent over one-third of the natives in Alaska. They are NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. - - Northwest Alaska Native Association (Kotzebue); Calista Corporation - - Association of Village Council Presidents (southwest coast, all villages in the Bethel area, including all villages on the Lower Yukon River and the Lower Kuskokwim River); and Cook Inlet Region, Inc. - - Cook Inlet Association (Kenai, Tyonek, Eklutna, llliamma).

In approving incorporation of the three associations, Harrison Loesch, Assistant Secretary for Public Land Management, urged nine remaining associations enumerated in the Native Claims Act to speed the filing of incorporation papers to establish eligibility to receive financial assistance in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1972.

Loesch formally approved the three regional corporations at a ceremony yesterday in the Department of the Interior. He pointed out that legislation approved by Congress and signed by President Nixon May 30, 1972, authorizes advances of up to $500,000 to each regional corporation requesting such assistance in fiscal year 1972. The Secretary of the Interior must determine that the regional corporations need financial advances for organization purposes, to identify land authorized by the Act, and to repay loans and other obligations previously incurred for such purposes.

In telegrams to the associations that have not filed incorporation papers, Loesch said that "no advance can be made unless approved by June 30, 1972, and none can be made except to corporations which are actually organized before that date.”

Loesch also said “establishment of regional boundaries will be a factor in considering release of any funds obligated for advancement, II and urged that boundaries be given immediate attention.

The nine remaining associations covered by the Native Claim’s Act are:

Arctic Slope Native Association (Barrow Point Hope); Bering Straits Association (Seward Peninsula, Unalakleet, Saint Lawrence Island); Tanana Chiefs' Conference (Koyukuk, Middle and Upper Yukon Rivers, Upper Kuskokwim, Tanana :River); Bristol Bay Native Association (Dillingham, Upper Alaska Peninsula); Aleut League (Aleutian Islands, Probolof islands and that part of the Alaska Peninsula which is in the Aleut League); Chugach Native Association (Cordova, Tatitlek, Port Graham." English Bay, Valdez, and, Seward); Tlingit-Haida Central Council (Southeastern Alaska, including Metlakatla); Kodiak Area Native Association (all villages on and around Kodiak island); and Copper River Native Association (Cooper Center, Glennallen, Chitina, Mentasta).

Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Public Land Management Harrison Loesch today called for accelerated road construction on Indian reservations; stepped-up assistance to improve public land development roads and trails, improvement of national park roads, roadways, and trails; and highway development in the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. He testified before the Senate Public Works Subcommittee on Roads.

Pointing out that the Federal Government was obligated by treaties and agreements to construct and maintain roads on Indian lands, Loesch said it failed to do so between 1900 to 1935. Since that time, he failed, construction of roads 0n Indian lands has fallen far short of construction of roads in the rest of the United States.

He asked for contract authority for Indian road construction of $75 million the United States in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1974 and $100 million ending June 30, 1975.

"Public use and demands each year continue to outstrip the installation of vitally needed resource management facilities on public lands,” Loesch said. He asked for authorization of $10 million in fiscal years 1973l and 1974 for construction and improvement of public land development roads and trails.

These authorizations, he said, will allow completion of approximately 950 miles of road work and about 180 miles of trail work, plus some survey and design of roads and acquisition of easements for existing roads.

The National Park Service currently has a backlog of developments estimated at $2 billion, of which approximately $1 billion represents roads and trails funding, Loesch said. He asked for authorizations of $40 million for park roads and trails in fiscal years ending June 30, 1974 and 1975 and $20 million for parkways in the same periods.

To provide for the territorial highway development program, Loesch asked for $2 million each for the Virgin Islands and Guam and $500,000 for American Samoa in fiscal years ending June 30, 1974 and 1975.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is launching today a greatly expanded disease prevention program designed to bring the benefits of modern sanitation and personal hygiene directly into Indian homes and communities in the Western States and in the native villages of Alaska.

First step in the new program is a six-week orientation course for 20 young Indian sanitarian aide candidates 1tlhich begins today" at the Phoenix (Ariz.) Medical Center. Upon completion of the course; which is being given with the cooperation of the United States Public Health Service and State and local health agencies of Arizona, the new sanitarian aides will be assigned to duty serving reservation areas in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Simultaneously the Bureau is enlarging its field staff of qualified sanitary engineers stationed in area offices and agency headquarters. In addition to the engineers who have been serving at Phoenix and Window Rock, Arizona, others will take up their duties at Aberdeen, Se Dak., Albuquerque, New Mex., Billings, Mont., Minneapolis, Minn., Portland, Oreg., and Juneau, Alaska.

Although the Bureau has done sanitation work in connection with its schools, hospitals and other installations for many years, the program to improve sanitation in Indian homes and communities was initiated only two years ago on a comparatively small scale. In line with plans developed by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons, it is now being broadened into an intensive drive against insanitary environmental conditions which are chiefly responsible for diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery and infectious hepatitis among the Indian population.

In 1952 the Bureau reported 9.5 cases of Typhoid fever per 100,000 of Indian population, 1,100 cases of dysentery, and 93 of infectious hepatitis These compare with national averages for the same diseases of 1.5, 17.6 and 11.2.

Field work under the program will consist primarily of meetings and demonstrations in reservation areas to instruct Indian families in practical sanitation measures and personal hygiene precautions. Special emphasis will be given to the development and protection of family or community water supplies, the construction and maintenance of low-cost, fly-tight privies and garbage pits of simple design, the fly-screening of homes, and the control of insect breeding places.

The work will be carried out in cooperation with Indian tribal councils and tribal funds will be used, wherever possible, in making the improvements.

"Poor health", Commissioner Emmons said in commenting on the new program, "is one of the most important factors now holding back many thousands of Indian people from a full realization of their potentialities as American citizens and as human beings. Effective health protection of the kind which most Americans typically take for-granted in their homes and communities must be made more widely available to our Indian people so that they can overcome their handicaps and take their rightful place alongside other citizens of the Nation. The expanded program we are launching today at the Phoenix Medical Center is an important further step in that direction."

Up to now the Bureau's field sanitation staff has consisted of four sanitary engineers, three sanitarians, and 13 young Indian sanitarian aides. Sanitarian aides are now stationed in South Dakota at Sisseton and Cheyenne River Agencies; in New Mexico at United Pueblos Agency, in Montana at Northern Cheyenne Agency, in Minnesota at Red Lake Agency, and in Arizona at Colorado River, Fort Apache, San Carlos, Pima, Papago, Navajo and Hopi Agencies.

Under the expanded program the staff at Navajo and United Pueblos Agencies will be increased and sanitarian aides will be stationed in North Dakota at Standing Rock and Turtle Mountain Agencies, in South Dakota at Pine Ridge, Rosebud and Crow Creek Agencies, in Montana at Blackfeet, Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Agencies, in Wyoming at Wind River Agency, in Minnesota at Consolidated Chippewa Agency, in Wisconsin at Great Lakes Agency, in Idaho at Fort Hall and Northern Idaho Agencies, in Washington at Yakima Agency, and in Oregon at Umatilla and Warm Springs Agencies. Service will also be provided from the Albuquerque headquarters to the Jicarilla and Mescalero Agencies in New Mexico and to the Consolidated Ute Agency in Colorado.

Extension of the program to Alaska is in line with the preliminary report of the Alaska Health Survey under Dr. Thomas Parran which called attention to the almost total absence of environmental sanitation in the emergency problem area north and west of the Seward-Fairbanks Railbelt. The plans call for initiation of a pilot project in this region involving the training of six native sanitarian aides and their assignment to villages where their services are most urgently needed.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will make a further study of the hospitalization of Indians of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming next September if the Bureau is then still responsible for the Indian health program. Under the provisions of H.R. 303, now under active consideration by Congress, responsibilities for Indian health protection would be transferred from the Bureau to the United States Public Health Service.

The decision to restudy the Wind River hospital situation was made by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons in response to requests made over the past several months by the late Senator Lester C. Hunt, Senator Frank A., Barrett, and Representative William Henry Harrison.

The Bureau's 38-bed hospital at Fort Washakie, serving the reservation, was closed in July 1953 because of a physician shortage and the availability of service and beds in local community facilities. Since that time hospitalization has been provided for the medically indigent Indians of the reservation at hospitals in Lander and Riverton under contracts with the Bureau. Reports from the area indicate that these hospitals and the local doctors have been providing the Indians with good service.

Promotion of Perry E. Skarra from the superintendency of the Yakima Indian Agency., Toppenish, Wash., to the position of assistant area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Portland, Oreg., and appointment of Dannie E. L. Crone, soil conservationist with the Bureau at Window Rock, Ariz., as the new Yakima superintendent were announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. The changes will be effective July 25.

Skarra, a veteran of 15 years' service with the Indian Bureau, has been superintendent at Yakima since 1950. He joined the Bureau in 1939 as a junior forester at Wind River Agency and was promoted to senior forester transferring to the former Tongue River Agency, Lame Deer, Mont., in 1941.

After two years in this position Skarra served for three months in 1943 with the Army Engineers at Fort Belvoir, Va., and returned to the Bureau as forest supervisor at the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont. In 1947 he transferred to the Taholah Agency as forest manager and remained there until his appointment to the Yakima superintendency. Before joining the Bureau, he was with the u. s. Forest Service for nine years in national forests in Wyoming. He was born at Hancock, Mich., in 1909 and was graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. degree in forestry.

A native of Kennard, Nebraska, Mr. LeCrone received his early education in Helena, Okla., and was graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.S. degree in vocational agriculture in 1939. He joined the Indian Bureau in 1941 as a farm agent at the Kiowa Agency, Anadarko, Okla., and three years later was appointed district conservationist at the Cheyenne-Arapaho Agency, Concho, Okla. After two years in this post and one year in a similar position at the Osage Agency, Pawhuska, Okla., he was transferred to the office at Muskogee, Okla., where he was put in charge of soil and moisture conservation work in eastern Oklahoma. He was transferred to the Navajo Agency in 1952. Prior to joining the Bureau he worked one year for the c. and M. Produce Co. in south Texas, and for two years was assistant county supervisor with the Farm Security Administration at Oklahoma City.

Arthur N. Arntson, finance officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, S. Dak,., has been appointed superintendent of the Wind River Agency, Fort Washakie, Wyo., Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today. The transfer is effective July 18. He replaces W. Wendell Palmer who was transferred on June 13 to the superintendency at Klamath Agency, Oreg. Glenn R. Landbloom, previously announced as the new Wind River superintendent, will remain in the Aberdeen area office as assistant area director in charge of resources.

Mr. Arntson has been with the Indian Bureau for 25 years and served from 1929 to 1945 in various financial and clerical positions at Red Lake Agency, Red Lake, Minn. Transferring to Wind River as chief clerk in 1945, he remained there for five years and was then appointed to his present position at Aberdeen. He was born in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1902 and educated in the public schools of that city.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced that American Airlines will purchase 20,000 blankets manufactured from the wool of Navajo Indian sheep.

The blankets, made similar to the famed trade cloth imported from England, will bear three-inch square label showing their origin and will be attested to by both Commissioner Bruce, a Mohawk-Sioux Indian, and Peter MacDonald, Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council.

That American Airlines passengers can huddle in the same material as Indians is the culmination of considerable effort on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner Bruce pointed out.

"The story really began in 1971, when the general wool market throughout the United States was the worst since the 1930's," the Commissioner explained. "Navajo wool, in particular, found no market. This hit the Navajo Indian Reservation hard, since 75 percent of all Navajos, whose reservation is the size of West Virginia, raise sheep.”

A Bureau of Indian Affairs industrial development specialist, Irving Schwartz, was told to find a foreign or domestic outlet for the wool. Schwartz searched diligently, but nothing- appeared to happen until he consulted a wool expert from New Mexico State University and found that Indian wool -- despite an undeserved faulty reputation -- really was high grade wool. Its rating- had come about because poor grades of wool were dumped with good grades and strong winds had permeated it with dirt and weeds.

Schwartz then called for help from the Wool Manufacturers Association of America. When asked whose wool did sell and why, that organization indicated that New Zealand wool found the best market because it was well-graded and packaged.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs then signed a contract Growers Warehouse, Inc., Casper, Wyoming, to bring equipment onto the Navajo Reservation to grade and bale Navajo wool and to teach Navajos to do their own grading and baling. A Denver laboratory was asked to certify the grading.

The result was that the Navajos began to get three to four times more money for their wool than they had previously been offered.

The Bureau is industrial development specialist then negotiated with Faribault Woolen Mill Co., Faribault, Minnesota, to make trade cloth. Trade cloth traditionally has a bright hard finish and rainbow stripes along the selvage (each edge of piece goods). Used by Indians as clothing and blankets, it has always been imported from England, never produced in this country. Purchased by Indians since the earliest days of Indian-white relationships, the earliest versions are in museums.

It was again Irving Schwartz who showed samples of the Faribault Indian wool cloth to the airlines and made the sale, Commissioner Bruce said.

Delivery of the blankets to American Airlines began June 1.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today that he has offered the services and facilities of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs to South Dakota officials who are battling the ravages of last wEH9kend's disastrous flood at Rapid City. Approximately 2100 Indian people live in Rapid City.

In telegrams to South Dakota Governor Richard F. Kneip and Donald G. Eddy, Director or the area's Office of emergency preparedness, Commissioner Bruce stated, "The Bureau of Indian Affairs wishes to offer its services in any way to help the people and the city of Rapid City in the unfortunate destruction on Friday and Saturday."

Twenty three Indians are believed to be among the dead and an estimated 200 Indian families are homeless or destitute as a result of the disaster.

In addition to the Bureau staff members from BIA's Aberdeen Area Office, the Indian people who live the area surrounding Rapid City have banded together to aid Indian families caught in the catastrophe.

Both Bureau employees and Indians are working in full cooperation with Federal, State and local Officials in Rapid City to clean up the damage and give aid to the sick and injured. BIA welcomes the presence in Rapid City of the Title VI Compliance Officer from the Office of Emergency Planning in Washington who is there to insure that all disaster relief is carried out on a non-discriminatory basis.