OPA

Further reduction of Federal responsibilities in Indian affairs and a sharper focusing of attention on major Indian problems were the two basic developments for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1954. According to the annual report of Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay released today.

One of the first major developments contributing to a reduction of Federal responsibilities was the passage of Public Law 280 bringing Indian lands in California, Minnesota (except the Red Lake Reservation), Nebraska, Oregon (except the Warm Springs Reservation), and Wisconsin (except the Menominee Reservation) under the criminal and civil jurisdiction of the five States mentioned, thus largely relieving the Bureau of further law enforcement duties in the affected areas.

Under a congressional mandate, recommendations were transmitted to Congress for termination of Federal supervision over ten groups, bands or tribes of Indians. Although hearings were held on all but one of these bills the only one enacted during the fiscal year was the Menominee legislation, under the provisions of which the tribe was given until December 31, 1958 to prepare for termination of trusteeship and special services and to develop tribal plans and programs.

Other termination bills which were well advanced in the legislative process at the close of the fiscal year were those covering the Klamaths and the Coastal Indians of Oregon, small bands of Utah Indians, the Uintah-Ouray group, and the Alabama Coushatta tribes of Texas. All of these bills were subsequently enacted.

Two other important bills which would transfer all of the Bureau’s health activities and responsibilities to the United States Public Health Service and its entire agricultural extension program to the Department of Agriculture were introduced. Although neither was enacted during the fiscal year, the bill transferring health services was passed by the House and both bills were under active congressional consideration as the period ended. The health transfer legislation was subsequently enacted but the extension bill failed to pass.

Following a tour of major Indian areas by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons primary attention was given to three outstanding problems: (1) accommodation of all Indian children of school age at the earliest possible date, (2) provision of better health protection or preventive medicine service in Indian homes and communities, and (3) creation of greater opportunities for Indian economic advancement.

To reduce the number of children out of school on the Navajo Reservation the Navajo Emergency Education Program was formulated with a goal of providing accommodations in 1954 for 7,000 more children than the 14,000 previously enrolled. The plans involved enlarging existing schools on and off the reservation, the building of new schools, the placing of children in public schools in large towns on the fringe of the reservation, the building of dormitories to house children, plus the institution of trailer schools in the more isolated communities. By the end of June all phases of the program were moving forward at an encouraging pace, with good prospects of achievement of the goals during fiscal 1955.

In the direction of better health protection impetus was given to the initiation and enlargement of more intensive preventive medicine activities~ Sanitary engineers were added to the staff at six of the ten area offices and 18 young Indians were trained as sanitarian aides. During the year the new 400-bed medical center at Anchorage, Alaska was opened, operations were suspended, however, at Wind River, Wyoming, and Warm Springs, Oregon. By the end of the year 58 hospitals were in operation with a total authorized bed capacity of 2,840.

On the economic front three prominent citizens interested in Indian affairs-- Lawrence F. Lee, former president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, David T. Beals, president of the Interstate National Bank of Kansas City, Mo., and Dr. Clyde Kluckhohn of Harvard University--were persuaded to take the lead in organizing a nonprofit corporation to be concerned with economic surveys. These surveys, to be privately financed and conducted by research engineering organizations under contract, will provide tl1e basis for increased economic development and greater Indian employment opportunities in and around several of the major reservation areas.

During the year 2,165 Indians were directly assisted to relocate under the Bureau's relocation program. This included 1,649 persons in over 400 family groups, and 514 unattached men and women. In addition over 300 left without assistance to join family and friends.

Bureau responsibilities for management of Indian trust lands were reduced as a result of the issuance of 1,682 patents in fee, certificates of competency and removal of restrictions, more than twice as many as in the previous year. More than 3,200 tracts of Indian allotted land were removed from trust or restricted status, comprising a total of 54,000 acres. Income to the Indians from mineral leases, principally oil and gas, reached an all time high of over $34,000,000, about 36 percent more than the previous year's figure. Of the 667 miles of reservation roads graded or surfaced during the year, 487 miles were transferred to county highway departments for maintenance.

Forty miles northwest of Fairbanks, in the interior of Alaska, the town of New Minto is under construction, to be occupied by 160 Minto Indians. New Minto is a replacement for old Minto Village, 25 miles away, which has suffered severe damage from spring thaws.

The new community is being built at a cost of $673,000 in a co-operative effort of the Alaska State Housing Authority, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Army and the U.S. Public Health Service, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today. This represents $225,000 for 38 new houses, $378,000 for water and sewer systems, and $70,000 for drilling the village well.

The original village of Minto often suffered from spring floods. Villagers began to plan for the new site on higher ground after floods resulting from a 1967 thaw. Construction began this year.

Although villagers expect to move to the new location this year, not all of the houses will be finished in time for winter. A road had to be laid during the building season before construction of the village could start.

The Army's 559th Engineers of the 171st Infantry Brigade are at New Minto to speed construction. They engineered the road and are assembling prefabricated sidings for the homes. Villagers are helping in construction, which includes sewage and plumbing systems.

Twenty of the new houses are being financed by the Alaska State Housing Authority and 18 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The U.S. Public Health Service is paying the cost of the water and sewage systems and drilling a well.

Appointment of Knute H. Lee as Superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Consolidated Indian Agency, Belcourt, N. Dak., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Lee has been principal of schools at the Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak., for eight years. He first came with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1939 as a teacher of' agriculture at Fort Totten, N, Dak. He also served as stockman-farmer at the Crow Creek Agency, Fort Thompson, S. Dak., and as reservation principal at Cheyenne River Agency, Cheyenne River, S. Dak. Before joining the Indian Bureau in 1939 he was a school superintendent and principal in several North Dakota communities.

Mr. Leo was born in Delisle, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1910. He attended the University of North Dakota for one year and graduated from Minot State Teacher's College in 1932.

At Turtle Mountain Agency he will supervise the Bureau's operations on both the Turtle Mountain and the Fort Totten Reservations. He succeeds Peru Farver, who left Turtle Mountain last August to assume the superintendence at Fort Hall Agency, Fort Hall, Idaho.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay has extended through June 30, 1954, the terms of office of three principal chiefs of Oklahoma Indian tribes - William W. Keeler, Cherokee, Harry J. W. Belvin, Choctaw and Marcy Cully, Seminole. Mr. Keeler’s present term expired on November 30, while the terms of the other two would expire December 31.

The extensions are made to give Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons J an opportunity to study questions involved in the office of principal chief. The study will include relationships of the tribes with the Department of the Interior. The need for the services of a principal chief in each case will also be studied with the question of salary and expense allowance and the financing of such items. The manner in which the chiefs are chosen, and possible need for new legislation will be considered. The Bureau of Indian Affairs will seek the views of members of the tribes.

Under Federal law the authority to appoint a principal chief for each of the three tribes is vested in the President of the United States. This authority, however, has been delegated to the Secretary of the Interior.

Perry D. Parton, a member of the Pawnee Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Jicarilla agency at Dulce, New Mexico, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett announced today.

Parton has been field Representative for the Zuni agency since January of 1978. He had previously been Administrative Manager of the Colorado River and Hopi agencies.

A United States Air Force veteran, Parton worked for Lockheed Aircraft and other private employers as an accountant, industrial relations representative and in other administrative roles.

Parton, 43, is a graduate of Central State College in Oklahoma, with a B.S. in General Education and Business Administration.

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Dakota has selected Cyrin F. Maus for a two-year tribal management assignment under the Tribal Managers Corps (TMC), Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today. Maus, who will begin his general management assignment at Lower Brule in January, 1981, will be the first manager assigned under TMC.

"We are very please that Mr. Maus has decided to come to Lower Brule because he has a lot of valuable experience in tribal government," said Lower Brule spokesman D. L. Fallis.

For the last eight years, Maus has been an administrator for the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida. He came to the tribe in 1972 as director of their Bilingual Education Project, and four years later became the Educa­tion Principal for Miccosukee. Maus was later the Grants and Contracts Director for the tribe before becoming the manager of Tribal Government Programs in 1978.

While at Miccosukee, Maus served on the BIA' s national task force to develop standards for Indian schools pursuant to Public Law 95-561.

For 13 years before working with Miccosukee, Maus was an educator at both high school and college levels as a Catholic priest. He served as principal of St. Leonard College, Centerville, Ohio, from 1966 to 1970.

Maus graduated from Duns Scotus College, Detroit, Michigan, with a B.A. in 1950 and from Florida International University, Miami, Florida, with an M.P.A. in 1978.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Thomas W. Fredericks announced today that proposed regulations governing business practices on Indian reservations were published January 6 in the Federal Register.

The new proposals modernize the trading regulations by adopting as its regulations the consumer statutes of the states where the business is located, as well as applicable tribal regulations. Minimal licensing requirements are imposed in most areas to comply with federal statutes requiring the licensing of all businesses trading with Indians on an Indian reservation. On a few reservations and parts of other reservations, because of isolation or other social and economic conditions, some additional requirements have been included in order to protect Indian consumers.

"This is not a case of more federal regulations for privately owned businesses," Fredericks pointed out. "In fact, by exempting most reservations or parts of other reservations from many requirements of the regulations, we are -- in a sense -- deregulating these businesses by bringing up to date those regulations on the books since 1957 which experience has determined were unenforceable from a practical standpoint. All the reservations will have a less cumbersome set of rules to follow -- while still protecting the Indian consumer -- than the old outdated regulations," he added.

The new proposals will not apply to the Navajo, Hopi, or Zuni Reservations which are regulated under other provisions of the Code of Federal Regulations.

A notice of proposed rulemaking amending the 1957 regulations was originally published in April 1980. Comments received from those proposals formed the basis for these new regulations.

Comments must be received by no later than 30 days after publication of these regulations in the Federal Register. Written comments should be addressed to Eugene F. Suarez, Sr., Chief, Division of Law Enforcement Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, 18th and C Streets, NW, Room 1342, Washington, D.C. 20245.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett announced today a policy, pursuant to the Anti-Deficiency Act, to assure that the Bureau of Indian Affairs does not spend more than Congress entitles it to spend.

The policy prohibits all area directors and program directors from obligating funds in excess of Congressional appropriations, on penalty of “appropriate administrative discipline, including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay, or removal from office.”

To guard against deficiency spending, the Commissioner is requesting each program director to institute nine internal fund control procedures before the end of fiscal year 1981. These include: procedures for a fund availability check prior to executing the actual obligating documents; procedures for the prompt billing of all reimbursements; procedures for prompt recording of obligations in the accounting system; and procedures to ensure that no obligation will go unrecorded at year's end.

Furthermore, Area Directors are requested to provide administrative support for implementing this policy to Office of Indian Education Programs officials at the area and agency levels.

The policy also announces that the Bureau's accounting system will be modified in order to compare daily obligation against available funds, for each fund management level. This will enable immediate detection of any deficiency spending.

Hallett told program managers that implementing this policy “should strengthen your position in executing your financial/program management responsibilities.”

Regulations establishing procedures for Indian tribes seeking to form tribal constitutions or charters, or make changes in existing ones, were published in the Federal Register January 7, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett said today.

The purpose of the new regulations is to provide uniformity and order in holding elections, authorized by the Secretary of the Interior, to vote on constitutions and bylaws or charters. The new regulations will be applicable to tribes, including those in Oklahoma and Alaska, previously governed by three different sets of regulations, published and unpublished.

A significant change, introduced by new regulations, is that the signatures of at least 60 percent of the adult members of a tribe are required for any effective petition requesting reorganization. Previously, a petition signed by one-third of the adult members was considered valid.

A proposal to eliminate petitioning by tribal members as a way to initiate a tribal reorganization was rejected, following comments on the proposed regulations published in July 1979.

Related regulations to establish procedures for the formulation and submission of petitions, when this process is valid according to the tribal constitution or certain Federal statutes, are being published simultaneously in the Federal Register.

The new regulations become effective 30 days after publication.

For additional information contact Robert Farring, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 19th and C Streets, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20240, (202/343-2511).

The American Indian Task Force of the Small Community and Rural Development Policy (SCRD) has focused its activity on four high priority concerns of American Indians, according to an updated report from Deputy Assistant Secretary Thomas Fredericks. As task force co-chairman, he identified the four concerns as 1) tribal consultation, 2) information systems, 3) Federal assistance management systems (FAMS), and 4) housing.

The Administration established the Indian Task Force last August to improve coordination and delivery of Federal services to American Indians.

In the area of tribal consultation, the task force is developing two plans. One will outline consultation practices for actions of the task force itself; the other will be an ongoing guideline for all Federal agencies that provide resources to American Indians.

Second, the task force is planning to develop an information system to improve tribal access to data that will help tribes plan, budget, and operate programs more effectively.

The third priority of the task force is implementing FAMS, a system for simplifying disbursing and accounting procedures of Federal funds delivered from a variety of Federal programs to one organization. The Bureau has been a partner of the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of the Treasury, and the General Accounting Office in developing FAMS. The Bureau will be the management agency for the four tribes and one inter-tribal organization participating in the pilot FAMS program, which is being tested during fiscal year 1981.

Fourth, the task force is initiating actions in the area of Indian housing. It is reviewing the 1976 intergovernmental agreement among Housing and Urban Development, Indian Health Service, and the BIA, as well as exploring the feasibility of interagency effort to survey housing conditions with regard to energy consumption on reservations.