OPA

Proposed regulations establishing uniform procedures for federal land managers to protect and conserve archeological resources on public and Indian lands have been published in the Federal Register of January 19, 1981.

The proposed regulations would implement the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (P. L. 96-95) which was signed by President Carter on October 31, 1979.

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act has two major purposes:

1. To protect irreplaceable archeological resources on public and Indian lands which are subject to loss or destruction by persons who excavate, remove, damage, alter or deface them for commercial or personal reasons; and
2. To increase communication and exchange of information among government authorities, the professional archeological community, Native Americans, collectors, and the general public toward the goal of protecting and conserving archeological resources nationwide.

Three major issues are covered in the regulations:

- Archeological resources are defined as material remains of human life or activities at least 100 years old of archeological interest. As authorized by Congress, the regulations expand the Act's definition of "archaeological resource" to clarify it.

- Permits will be issued by federal land managers for the excavation or removal of archeological resources. Excavation and removal must be done in the public interest by qualified persons. Archeological resources located on public, non-Indian lands are the corporate property of the nation, held in trust by the federal government. Archeological resources located on Indian lands remain the property of the Indian tribe or Indian individual having rights of ownership over those lands.

- Persons who receive permits to excavate archeological resources must guarantee that the resource and associated scientific data removed from public or Indian lands receive adequate care and are maintained for the benefit of public and scientific study. A permit for the excavation or removal of logical resources on Indian lands may be issued only after consent from appropriate tribal authority or Indian landowner with direct legal jurisdiction over the lands proposed to be excavated.

Prior to issuing a permit for the excavation or removal of archeological resources located on public, non-Indian lands, the federal land manager is responsible for advising and considering comments from Indian tribal authorities r Indian groups which may have an interest in the resources for cultural or religious purposes. Federal land managers may suspend, revoke, or terminate any permit.

Criminal penalties for violations of the Act can range from a fine of not more than $10,000 and/or imprisonment of not more than one year to a fine of $100.000 and five years in jail.

Public hearings will be held to permit public comment on the regulations.

The schedule of hearings and agency hosts are:

Wyman J. McDonald, a member of the Flathead Tribe, has been appointed superintendent of the BIA's Northern Idaho Agency at Lapwai, Idaho. He succeeds Jerry Jaeger who is now the BIA area director at Aberdeen, South Dakota.

McDonald was superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency, Idaho since 1976 and had earlier been superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico.

A former Marine, McDonald, 42, is a graduate of the University of Montana.

John A. Jollie, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe of North Dakota, has been selected as the new coordinator of the Tribal Managers Corps (TMC), a program in the BIA's Division of Self-Determination Services.

The 40-year-old graduate of Eastern Montana College began service with the BIA in 1965 as a social studies teacher on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Jollie has since worked intermittently with the BIA for 10 years, including tours as chief of the Bureau's Manpower Program, and chief of the Division of Legislative Review in the Indian Education office.

From 1970 until 1972, he was an Assistant Director of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, a Nixon Administration council in the office of the Vice President that monitored and responded to a range of Indian issues.

TMC is a program designed to improve tribal self-determination by improving tribal management capabilities. The program makes available to tribes the services of government and private industry managers for periods up to two years.

Jollie's job will be to provide day-to-day direction for TMC. This includes developing work plans and budget justifications, and working with the TMC Inter­agency Task Force, an advisory group of high-level representatives from Federal agencies and tribal associations.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt said today the Department will initiate deep cuts and funding shifts and realign responsibilities among bureaus as part of President Reagan's program for economic recovery. Several major initiatives are being announced today as steps in that program, with other announcements to follow March 10.

Secretary Watt said the Department will focus on protecting the Nation's resource base, making lands and resources accessible to people under a "good neighbor" management policy, shifting recreation funding responsibility to the States, restoring existing national park units, using land transfers as alter­natives to costly Federal purchases, and upgrading the Department's general stewardship of lands and programs.

Secretary Watt also said that the President is determined that the Interior Department be a good steward of the natural and historic treasures protected by the National Park Service. The Nation's parks are not now being properly protected for the peoples' use, Watt said, and the Government must learn to manage what it owns before it seeks to acquire more land.

To bring the budget under control and make additional funds available for restoration and improvement of the National Park System, the President proposes to substantially refocus the Department's conservation and preservation programs This will be accomplished through moratoriums on Federal land purchases and elimination of funding for three major State grant programs and by significantly increasing the resources available for existing National Park Service areas.

Legislation to amend the Land and Water Conservation Fund will be sought to allow monies in the fund to be used for restoration and improvement of the National Park System. In addition, aggressive exchange programs will be initiated to round out the Federal conservation estate.

Secretary Watt pointed out that specifics of the new budget will have to await the setting of internal priorities within established dollar guidelines. Details for the Interior Department will be spelled out in connection with President Reagan's formal budget announcement March 10. Watt said program decisions had been made with respect to:

Federal payments to states, counties and municipalities

The program of "payments in lieu of taxes" abandoned by the previous Administration, will be redesigned and proposed for refunding in the Reagan budget. This program reimburses governments that lose tax revenues because of Federal ownership of land.

The National Park Service, Heritage Conservation Land and Water Conservation Fund

A major infusion of funds--$105 million--to the NPS is being proposed to help restore and improve existing parks. Park Service programs will focus on effective management of existing facilities and the use of private sector services to make facilities more readily usable by people. The budget will, however, delete funding for States and municipalities for the purchase of State and urban parks and for historic preservation activities. (Funding will be maintained for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.)

Programs being transferred to the National Park Service include adminis­tration of the State portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Nationwide Outdoor Recreation Plan and State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation planning, the Urban Park and Recreation Program, Park and Recreation Technical Services, Federal Land Planning, planning for the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the National Trails System, Natural Area Programs, the National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmarks, Historic Preservation, Technical Preservation Services, National Architectural and Engineering Record, and Interagency Archeological Services. The HCRS will be terminated as a separate Departmental entity. The Reagan budget will seek no monies for the "State side" of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and only limited funds for "emergency" Federal land acquisition.

The Water and Power Resources Service (Bureau of Reclamation)

The Service will continue to seek out well planned new investments in the Nation's water resource base. All current construction projects will be continued but acceleration of construction schedules and initiation of new projects will await an improved national economic situation. As an economy measure a $35 million reduction in 1982 construction funding is being proposed which will require some delays in project completion.

An effort will be made, in concert with Western Governors, to find suitable candidates for new reclamation starts, perhaps as early as Fiscal Year 1983.

Bureau of Land Management

Proposed BLM budget cuts for FY 1982 stress management efficiency of existing programs, with emphasis on multiple use of the resource base.

Office of Surface

The Office of Surface Mining will substantially shift its regulatory activ1t1es to the States in implementing the congressional intent of State primacy in surface mining control and reclamation activities.

Saline Water research

Desalinization research and development which long ago passed the point of basic research will be terminated.

Fish and Wildlife Service

There will be a new emphasis on coordinating the many agency activities related to habitat preservation and biological services. High priority endangered species programs will be continued. Some operations and maintenance activities on newly acquired and expanded refuges will be deferred so that wildlife-oriented, public-use activities on refuges and fish hatcheries can continue to receive high priority. The FWS program will concentrate on improving management and efficiency at existing facilities.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt today announced reduced Interior budget requests totaling $5.94 billion in Fiscal Year 1981 and $5.75 billion in Fiscal 1982. The new budget figures, part of President Reagan's economic recovery program, represent reductions of $383 million in Fiscal 1981 and $877 million in Fiscal 1982 from the Carter Administration budgets for the two fiscal years.

"During the past month, I have participated extensively in discussions with President Reagan and the rest of the Cabinet on the state of the economy and Federal budget," Watt said.

"The economy is in disarray - whether we look at it from the standpoint of inflation, unemployment, productivity, or interest rates. The budget is out of control. President Reagan and I are committed to a fundamental change of course. We have concluded that massive reductions in the budget, together with streamlining of programs and elimination of excessive regulations, are necessary actions to improve the state of the economy."

Major changes in the revised 1981 and 1982 budgets announced today include:

A proposal to redesign and refund at $45 million the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, proposed to be eliminated by the Carter Administration;

A proposal to establish a new Office of Water Policy;

Proposals to eliminate funding for the Office of Water Research and Technology and the Water Resources Council;

Belt-tightening proposals in the Office of the Secretary, Office of Surface Mining, the Geological Survey, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other Bureaus, through elimination of lower priority programs and programs that can be conducted by private industry or State and local governments, program streamlining, and reductions or postponement of funding for other programs;

Consolidation of a number of Indian programs into a single block grant program with greater flexibility for tribes, but at a reduced funding level;

Withdrawal of funding for a deficit elimination program for Guam and the Virgin Islands and postponement of requests for most of the funding proposed for relocating capitals in the Trust Territory.

Last month, Watt noted, President Reagan announced major revisions in the Federal budget. Actions proposed at that time for Interior included:

Establishing a funding moratorium on grant programs for recreation and historic preservation;

Placing a moratorium on Federal land acquisition from the Land and Water Conservation Fund;

Increasing funding for restoration and improvement of national parks;

Postponing spending on several water development projects;

Terminating the Youth Conservation Corps; and

Accelerating Federal energy leasing.

Interior Secretary James Watt said today President Reagan's budget amendments sent to Congress this week include a reduction of seven percent -- $75.9 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the fiscal year 1982 budget presently pending in Congress.

"Although the budget amendments propose a reduction in Bureau of Indian Affairs programs from $1.083 billion to $1.007 billion, this constitutes a seven percent cut, well below the Department's overall budget cut of 18 percent in annual appropriations," Watt pointed out. “I am confident that with the new initiatives to be taken to increase flexibility in working with available resources, we will be able to meet reservation needs,” he added.

By merging and consolidating several programs into a single appropriation activity, the Bureau plans to give tribes a simpler and more flexible method for setting priorities, as well as tribal goals and objectives.

James F. Canan, Interior's Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said the budget amendments propose a consolidation off budget activities now in use for Agricultural Extension, supplemental Johnson O'Malley Educational Assistance, Adult Education, Community Fire Protection, Direct Employment, Adult Vocational Training, Self-Determination Grants, supplemental Higher Education Grants, Indian Action Teams, and Housing. These programs presently total $162.1 million including $6.2 million for the Contract Support Program.

"By combining these programs and providing flexibility in their use, we believe savings can be realized while still meeting tribal needs. We are proposing a Consolidated Tribal Government Program activity of $120 million - - plus $1.5 million for program management -- to be used as block grants to be apportioned to the tribes for those programs," he added.

Canan said the single line item budget activity of $120 million will have approximately$40 million less than the total of all the previous individual programs, but the single budget activity offers greater tribal choice in allocating available resources to meet real needs of the tribes. As part of the budget consultation process, each tribe will be given the option of selecting, within an overall dollar level, the amounts and types of the consolidated programs the tribe or the Bureau will operate on the reservations during any budget year. If the tribe chooses to operate the program, they will do so with funds received under a new grant mechanism with the attributes of a block grant.

“This combination of a single budget activity and the new Bureau grant would give the tribes a more effective means of setting priorities and dealing with the operations of the programs consistent with Federal laws and regulations, as well as tribal goals and objectives,” Canan added.

Additional reductions will be made in Personnel and Travel, $10.9 million; Road Construction, $3 million; Facility Improvement and Repair, $12.7 million; Forestry Initiatives, $.7 million; Business Enterprise Development efforts, $1.4 million; Welfare Grants to Alaska, $5.7 million; and Tribal Managers Corps, $1 million, for an overall total of $75.9 million.

Canan pointed out that legal authority already exists to treat financial assistance under the programs to be consolidated as grants if operated by the tribes.

“We plan to start work immediately on distribution formulas, new guidelines and more detailed program design to implement the block grants. We will be guided in all these matters by the views of tribal leaders,” he added.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced that a partial per capita payment of judgment funds awarded to the Mississippi Sioux Indians by the Indian Claims Commission will be made before the end of April. The award was for land taken in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota in the early 1800's.

The partial payment will be made to the present-day successor groups of the Mdewakanton-Wahpakoota Tribes of Mississippi Sioux Indians. These are the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska; the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota; the Lower Sioux, Prairie Island and Shakopee Sioux Communities of Minnesota; and an enrolled group of lineal descendants who are not members of the above tribal groups.

Members of these groups who have moved since being notified of their eligibility should provide new addresses to either the BIA Aberdeen Area Office, 115 Fourth Avenue, S. E., Aberdeen, South Dakota 57401 or the BIA Minneapolis Area Office, 15 South Fifth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402.

The total amount available for distribution to these groups is approximately $15 million, but a portion of the fund will be retained in a special account to provide for possible payments to rejected applicants who have not completed the appeal process.

Payment from the Mississippi Sioux judgment funds has already been made to the tribal successors of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux entities. Payment is yet to be made, however, to the lineal descendants group of Sisseton-Wahpeton awardees. No date for this payment has been scheduled.

Interior Secretary James Watt said today that President Reagan had announced his intention to nominate Kenneth L. Smith, a member of the Wasco Tribe of Oregon, to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, subject to Senate confirmation.

"Ken Smith is a vigorous and highly qualified tribal leader who has worked effectively at the local and national level to improve the economic and social position of Indians in our society," Watt said. "Smith was selected only after extensive consultation with elected tribal leaders from all across the Nation."

Smith, 46, has been general manager of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, a federally enrolled Indian organization composed of the three tribes living on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon.

He has spent his entire adult career with the Confederated Tribes, joining the organization in 1959 and serving in various capacities including accountant and comptroller. He has been general manager since 1972.

After graduation from Madras High School, Madras, Oregon, Smith attended Oregon State University, Eastern Oregon College and was graduated from the University of Oregon in 1959 with a B.S. degree in business.

While a student in high school and in college he worked as an engineering aide and forestry aide during the summer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Smith has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Indian Lawyer Training Program; Oregon State Board of Education; and the Portland Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

He is a member of the Elks Lodge in Madras and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Indian Travel Commission, Lakewood, Colorado; the Oregon Heart Assn.; the Oregon Historical Society and the Intertribal Timber Council at Warm Springs.

Smith, born in The Dalles, Oregon, is married to the former Jeanie M. Thompson of Portland. The couple has four children.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the appointment of Ernest T. Moran as superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency at Lame Deer, Montana and Roland E. Johnson as the first superintendent of the recently established Laguna Agency, Laguna, New Mexico.

The Laguna Pueblo to be served by Johnson has a land area of about 400,000 acres and a membership of about 6,000. It was formerly part of the Southern Pueblos Agency, which included nine other smaller pueblos. The BIA announced in April, 1980 that a new agency was being established to serve Laguna.

Johnson, director of Indian children's programs for the Indian Health Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a former governor of the Laguna Pueblo. He was formerly a deputy area director and area tribal operations officer for the BIA's Albuquerque Area Office.

An alumnus of the New Mexico State University, Johnson, 42, came to work for BIA as a personnel management specialist in 1965. He later became personnel officer and chief of staffing in the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C. He has completed the Department of Interior's Administrative Training Program. In 1975 he was given the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award.

Moran, who is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, officially assumed responsibilities at the Northern Cheyenne Agency on April 5. He had been functioning as the acting superintendent since last September. He was the administrative manager at the agency.

A former Marine, Moran, 41, worked at BIA agencies in Montana, California, Nevada and New Mexico. He was also the executive director of the Indian American Foundation, Billings, Montana 1972-73; director/consultant for Tri-State Tribe, Inc., Missoula, Montana, 1970-71 and credit manager for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe at Dixon Montana, 1697-70.

Kenneth Payton, Bureau of Indian Affairs deputy area director in Albuquerque, New Mexico has been detailed to Washington, D.C. for not more than 120 days to serve as the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Payton will begin his assignment as operational head of the BIA on April 20, Interior Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, James Canan said today.

An Oklahoma Cherokee, Payton was superintendent of the Southern Pueblos Agency for 13 years before coming into his present area office position in 1979. A thirty-year career veteran with the BIA, Payton was superintendent for five years at the Mescalero Apache Agency at Mescalero, New Mexico. He was first hired by the Bureau as a soil scientist for the Hopi Agency in Arizona and subsequently worked in land operations on the Navajo Reservation and for the Consolidated Ute Agency.

Payton has served as the acting deputy commissioner during previous vacancies of the Commissioner's office.