OPA

Ken Smith, a Wasco Indian from Oregon nominated by President Reagan to be the Department of Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, told members of the Senate Select Indian Affairs Committee his ''beliefs and philosophy" on Indian matters at a confirmation hearing April 28.

With tribal council members from Smith's Warm Springs Reservation in full regalia in the hearing room, Smith expressed his belief "in the strengths of Indian people which have enabled them to endure and survive as a people through adversities and oppressions unparalleled in history."

Smith said that Indian people have the will and the ability to govern themselves 1.nd that tribal governments, not the Federal Government, have the "prime responsibility for improvement of their social and economic growth and development." He added that U.S. /Indian relationships will be "stronger and more meaningful when Indian tribal governments are strong and stable and less dependent on Federal funds for operation of their governmental programs."

Smith's role in helping the Confederated Warm Springs Tribes to achieve strength and stability and to reduce dependence on Federal aid was noted by the other witnesses at the hearing.

Senator Mark Hatfield said: "As general manager (of the Confederated Tribes) for the past 10 years, Mr. Smith has utilized his managerial and organizational skills to make the reservation a model of economic success with more than 1,000 persons employed and an annual payroll of more than $10 million."

Silas Whitman, a tribal council member from the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, said that Warm Springs has been a model for the Northwest tribes "as we prepare to go on a path of independence and self-determination." He said that Smith has provided invaluable aid to neighboring tribes, especially helping the Nez Perce in the area of timber development.

Frank Lawrence, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, North Dakota, spoke for the National Congress of American Indians and the 16 tribes of the Aberdeen, South Dakota Area. He said, 'We like his background. He is especially strong in economic development. This is greatly needed."

Interior Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs James Canan announced today that 150,000 acres of timberland was purchased April 23 for the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Indian tribes of Maine under the terms of the Maine Indian Settlement Act passed last October.

The purchase involved 38 separate tracts of land in East-Central Maine, ranging in size from 30,000 acres to 40 acres. The total cost was $29.6 million. The land was bought from the Dead River Land Company of Maine.

The settlement act extinguished the Indians' claim to some 12 million acres of land and gave them a $27 million trust fund plus $54.5 million for the purchase of land. The April 23 purchases were the first acquisition by the two tribes which are to share equally in the award.

The Penobscot Tribe selected and purchased 120,205 acres, of which 41,486 acres were immediately put into trust with the United States. The remaining 78,719 acres were bought in fee, with the United States not having a trust responsibility.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe selected and purchased 30,082 acres, all held in trust by the United States for the tribe.

BIA Eastern Area Director Harry Rainbolt represented the Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in carrying out the functions of the trustee.

Federal, State and Tribal leaders met in Washington on May 6 and 7 to seek solutions to problems concerning the fishery in the northern Great Lakes off Michigan's coastlines.

The group, composed of representatives of the Secretary of the Interior, Michigan Governor's Office and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and leaders of the Bay Mills, Grand Traverse and Sault Ste. Marie Tribes, issued the following statement:

"These two days of meetings represent a good faith effort to solve the problems relating to the Great Lakes fishery. The discussions proceeded fully and frankly and the parties now have a greater understanding of each other's concerns. Substantial progress has been made in establishing a process which will permit the achievement of an agreement protecting both the fishery resource and the interests of the State and the Tribes. The participants recognized that continued progress will require patience, understanding, and a cooperative attitude among the citizens of Michigan.

"The group agreed upon the following course of action:

To continue initial progress with another meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. on June 4 and 5.

"2. A working group of biologists from the State, Tribal, and Federal governments was created to produce a report on the status of the affected fishery resource. All parties will share information with the working group.

The report developed by the task force will provide the common base of facts and projections necessary to derive and support future group decisions.

Another tripartite working group was created, headed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to examine factors related to some degree of conversion from large mesh gill nets to more selective fishing gear.

A tripartite working group, headed by a Tribal designee, will examine the problem of access to fishing grounds.

"'5. The State of Michigan will work with the Tribes and other affected groups to make necessary adjustments to the recently issued State emergency fishing regulations assuming these regulations are put in place by the Federal Court."

The meeting was attended by 22 persons. It was chaired by Interior Deputy Under Secretary William P. Horn.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith has appointed Jacob Lestenkof, an Aleut from St. George Island, Alaska, as the Bureau of Indian Affairs' area director for Alaska. The BIA's Alaska area office is in Juneau.

Lestenkof's appointment is Smith's first official action as Assistant Secretary, since being sworn into office May 15.

Smith said Lestenkof's "extensive experience with both Alaska Native organizations and the government demonstrated his qualifications for this position of critical importance to the Alaska Natives."

Lestenkof has been the executive director of the Cook Inlet Native Association in Anchorage since 1977. In this post he managed and administered one of the largest Alaska Native human services corporations in the state. He has also been the executive vice president and the director of manpower development programs for the Alaska Federation of Natives.

From 1959-1974 Lestenkof was in the United States Army National Guard, reaching the rank of colonel. During part of this time he functioned as a staff assistant for the Alaska Department of Military Affairs and for two and-a-half years he was the Alaska Representative for the Alaskan Command/Joint Chiefs of Staff worldwide exercises.

A graduate of the Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Lestenkof received further education and training as the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. Before entering the military, he worked for the U.S. Public Health Service at Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska.

Lestenkof has received the Army Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Alaska State Commendation Medal and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation. He has been on the board of directors of the Alaska Children's Services; United Way of Alaska; Hope Cottage and was on the advisory board for Northern TV.

Kenneth L. Smith, a Wasco Indian from Oregon, became the nation's top Indian official May 15 when he was sworn in by Interior Secretary James Watt as the Department's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Smith is the third American Indian to hold that position, which was established in 1977.

At the swearing in ceremony Smith said that it was his intention and that of Secretary Watt to further self determination for Indian tribal groups.

Interior Under Secretary Don Hodel told Interior employees at the ceremony that Smith was chosen for the job, after consultation with tribal leaders, because of his outstanding record of economic development on his own Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. Smith has been the general manager of the Confederated Warm Springs Tribes for the past 10 years.

Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield testified at Smith's confirmation hearings that he "has utilized his managerial and organizational skills to make the (Warm Springs) reservation a model of economic success with more than 1,000 persons employed and an annual payroll of more than $10 million."

In addition to directing the operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Smith will be involved in the shaping of United States policy on Indian matters.

Smith grew up on the Warm Springs Reservation and received his degree in business administration from the University of Oregon in 1959 before returning to the reservation as an accountant for the Confederated Tribes. He later became controller and assistant general manager before his appointment as general manager in 1971.

He was a member of a task force on reservation development for the Congressionally mandated American Indian Policy Review Commission. He has been a director of the American Indian Travel Commission and the Intertribal Timber Council. He has also served on the Oregon State Board of Education and the Board of Directors of the Portland Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

At his confirmation hearings Smith stressed the need for strong, stable tribal governments. He said that U.S./Indian relationships will be "stronger and more meaningful when Indian tribal governments are strong and stable and less dependent on Federal funds for operation of their government programs."

A newly developed automatic data processing system for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' social services programs will be implemented October 1 in all areas except Alaska, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith announced today.

With the new system in place, the processing of a request for general assistance, which in the present manual system takes 3-6 weeks before delivery of the first check, will be completed in 2-3 days.

Smith said the new system will eliminate some emergencies now created by the time lag in delivery of services; will give social workers more time for clients by cutting down paperwork time; will give management immediate data needed for analysis and planning; and will provide accurate, timely audit and program reports required for budgeting and reports to Congress. The system will also work in conjunction with other existing and planned local operating level systems.

Smith said that he was especially pleased with the development of the Bureau's social services automation program because it "came from the users ... It didn’t' start with the planners."

Ray Butler, director of the Bureau's Social Services programs, said the laborious manual system has not been able to keep up with the growth of the programs. He noted that the social services budget grew from $1.5 million in the 1950s to $20 million at the end of the 1960s to approximately $90 million in 1981. The number of people receiving general assistance grew in this time from 12,000 to 58,000.

Butler said that the Bureau's Phoenix area office played a leading role in the development of the new ADP system through pioneering a conversion to the system in October 1979. The system has been thoroughly tested in the Phoenix office, which serves 46 reservations in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Operation of the system will be delayed in Alaska past October 1 because of some special telecommunications problems, but will be operational in all other areas by October 1.

The Bureau's general assistance and child welfare programs are for eligible people living on or near a reservation who are not able to receive such assistance through state or local public welfare agencies. The Bureau's social services program also includes providing assistance to Indian communities through tribal work projects child in helping with the (similar to so-called "workfare" projects); child welfare services in helping with the placement of Indian children in adoptive or foster homes; family services; assistance to Indians to enable them to get needed services and assistance from state and local agencies; and helping community agencies away from the reservations to understand the needs of Indians.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt announced today that Roy H. Sampsel, a Choctaw Indian from Portland, Oregon, has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Sampsel has worked in Indian Affairs as a consultant, as executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, as a reservation program officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior.

"We are fortunate to have a person with the wide range of experience, especially in Indian affairs, that Sampsel has to his credit," Watt said. "He will be looked to for policy advice in all areas of Indian affairs in the days ahead."

Ken Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs said that he plans to operate, "for the time being at least," with a two-deputy system -- one to handle day-to-day operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the other to work on policy matters. Sampsel will be the deputy for policy matters, Smith said.

Sampsel has had his own consulting firm since 1978 and has been involved 1n working with various Indian tribes and tribal business enterprises in natural resource development, community planning, communications/information development, education/training and other management programs to further tribal self-sufficiency.

A graduate of Portland State University, Sampsel was executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission 1977-78. He was reservations program officer in the Portland Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs 1976-77 and a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior 1973-76.

Sampsel, an army veteran, also served as a public information officer in the Interior Department, an administrative assistant for the majority leader of the Oregon House of Representatives and as field representative for Oregon's U.S. Senator Robert W. Packwood. Sampsel was born in 1941 in Joplin, Missouri, but has lived most of his life in the Portland area.

Smith said that he planned to fill the other deputy position (for operations) within 60 days. On May 15 he appointed Ken Payton, a career BIA official, to fill this position on an acting basis.

Interior Secretary James Watt announced today that the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) at Santa Fe, New Mexico will be moved for the 1981-82 school year to the nearby campus of the College of Santa Fe.

Watt said he approved a one-year Bureau of Indian Affairs contract with the College of Santa Fe to allow IAIA to use facilities on the campus of the 1,200-student liberal arts college.

IAIA will retain its own staff, programs and academic identity. Under the contract, it will have its own dormitory, classroom and administrative facilities and will share other College of Santa Fe facilities, such as the gym, cafeteria and library. There will also be a special section of the library building provided for the IAIA library collection.

Ken Smith, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said he was pleased with the agreement worked out with the College of Santa Fe. He said that the move from "sharing a campus with high school students at its present location to a college campus should provide a more suitable academic atmosphere for the IAIA students." Smith added that he planned to seek the advice of knowledgeable artists, education administrators, tribal leaders and others to determine the long-term future of the school.

IAIA was founded in 1962 as a high school with a special emphasis on the fine arts, including a post-secondary art program. The high school program, however, was phased out in the mid-1970s and efforts made to gain college accreditation. In 1979, when the IAIA enrollment was less than half of capacity, the senior high programs (10th, 11th and 12th grades) of the Albuquerque Indian School were transferred to the IAIA campus in Santa Fe.

The College of Santa Fe is an independent, four-year college founded in 1947 by the Christian Brothers, a Catholic Church religious-educational community. The Board of Trustees of the college announced its approval of the IAIA agreement last week.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Ken Smith announced today an early opening of the Sockeye and Pink Salmon Fishery of the Fraser River System in the State of Washington in two areas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The Makah and Klallam Indian tribes began fishing in their treaty fishing sites within the Strait on June 27. This opening date precedes by approximately six days the opening by other treaty tribes and non-Indians on July 3-5.

"By taking this action we are assuring that the United States fulfills its obligation under a 1979 Supreme Court decision which said that we have the responsibility to regulate the fishery to provide the tribes the full opportunity to harvest their treaty share of the salmon," Smith said.

"The run timing and narrow geography of the Strait necessitates extra time for the affected tribes to catch their portion of the treaty share," he added.

Federal biologists predict a heavy run of salmon for the 1981 fishing season. The runs of the prized fish in these waters are equally shared between the U.S. and Canada under the terms of a 1980 Convention. The U.S. has treaty obligations to certain Northwest Indian tribes to provide the full opportunity to harvest one-half of each year's run passing through tribal treaty fishing areas.

Interior regulations sent to the Federal Register, implement the system which the U.S. has used since 1977 to meet its obligations both to Canada and to U.S. treaty Indians. This year, as in previous years, the affected treaty tribes will regulate their fisheries concurrently and in a manner consistent with Interior regulations.

The Commerce Department regulates the non-Indian fishery in accordance with recommendations from the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission The State Department pursuant to Article VI of the Convention has exempted from the Commerce regulations treaty Indian fishing under Interior regulations.

The treaty catch will be closely monitored. Should it be necessary to fulfill U.S. obligations under the Convention to assure proper spawning escapement and equal division of the catch between U.S. and Canada, the Commerce Department pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding with Interior will direct in-season adjustments of the fishing schedules.

Interior Secretary James Watt today announced the establishment of a 11Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the Nation’s Energy Resources11 to develop solutions to minerals management problems, focusing on royalty accounting and oil theft.

"The serious allegations of waste and revenue loss resulting from inadequate fiscal accounting of America’s energy resources have been of concern for many years to the Interior Department. the Congress, the General Accounting Office, the Indian community, the State governments which share in oil and gas revenues, and the Nation's taxpayers, but little has been done to correct the deficiencies of the past, .. Secretary Watt said.

"This Commission will review all current and proposed Departmental efforts to assure that they prove effective solutions to the problem,” he added.

Secretary Watt said that the chairman of the five-member Commission will be David F. Linowes of Scarsdale, New York, and Champaign, Illinois, an international authority in accounting and auditing and a recognized expert in privacy protection. He was the founding partner of Leopold and Linowes, Certified Public Accountants, and was national partner of Laventhol and Horwath, worldwide auditors and consultants. He chaired the U.S. Privacy Protection Commission from 1975 through 1977, which resulted in several privacy protection bills now before Congress.

Serving with Linowes on the Commission will be:

-- Elmer B. Staats of Washington, D.C., Comptroller General of the United States from 1966 until his retirement March 3; and an official of the Bureau of the Budget during most of the period between 1939 and 1966, including service as Deputy Director from 1950 to 1953 and· from 1959 to 1966.

-- Michel T. Halbouty of Houston, internationally renowned earth scientist and engineer whose career and accomplishments in the fields of geology and petroleum engineering have earned him recognition as one of the world’s outstanding geo-scientists.

-- Charles J. Mankin of Norman, Oklahoma, Director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, Executive Director of the Energy Resources Center and Professor of Geology at the University of Oklahoma, and past President of the Association of American State Geologists.

A fifth member of comparable stature will be named by the Secretary soon.

Watt said that the magnitude of the problem to be addressed by the Commission is seen in the fact that the royalty management program must collect and account for about $4 billion in royalties from federal and Indian mineral leases this year, with projections of up to $20 billion by 1990.

The Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the Nation's Energy Resources will report directly to Secretary Watt. It is to complete its assignments within six months. Its charge is to evaluate the Department's royalty accounting system, recommend improvements in internal controls relating to the generation of revenues and to review Departmental actions to guard against oil theft. The Commission will produce an advisory report for the Secretary.

The Commission will have assistance from a special investigations team being set up by the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General. The team will identify the nature and extent of known or suspected oil thefts and losses of petroleum which affect royalty payments to the government and track the audits of royalty paying oil companies being performed by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit teams and CPA firms contracted by the OIG.

Joining Inspector General Richard Mulberry on the special investigations team will be representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Energy, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The team's efforts will be coordinated with those of the Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the Nation's Energy Resources.

Watt met on February 25 with the Western Governors' Conference and briefed them on the high priority he attaches to the problems of royalty losses which affect state revenues. An outgrowth of that meeting was creation of a special joint working group to address the problems. Staffed by the Intergovernmental Operating Committee, the Group will report to the Governors and the Secretary by September.

Watt noted that the Commission will maintain close coordination with the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency and will have the full support of the Office of Management and Budget.

As Commission Chairman, Linowes will draw on a broad background of experience in many fields. He headed economic development missions for the State Department to Turkey in 1967, India in 1970, Greece in 1971, and for the United Nations to Pakistan and Iran in 1968. He has been Chairman of the Trial Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as Treasurer and Vice President of that organization. He currently holds the Harold Boeschenstein chair in Political Economy and Public Policy at the University of Illinois.

Each of the Commission members brings an exceptional background to his new assignment, Secretary Watt pointed out.

Staats held high posts under nine Presidents before his retirement in March. Besides his services as Comptroller General and in the Bureau of the Budget, he was executive director of the Operations Coordinating Board of the National Security Council from 1954 to 1958. He's well known in academic circles, having been a lecturer in government and public administration at American University and George Washington University; on the honorary faculty and a member of the Board of Advisers of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces; on the Visiting Committees of Harvard University, the University of California, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh, and a trustee of the National Institute of Public Affairs at American University, and McPherson College. He also has been on the Board of Governors of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. Staats holds numerous national awards and honors for his public service, including the Presidential Citizens Medal, given him by President Reagan in a ceremony March 23 in the Oval Office.

Halbouty, a graduate of Texas A and M University, holds bachelors and masters degrees in both geology and petroleum engineering, a professional geological engineering degree and a doctor of engineering degree from Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. He has contributed several books and over 230 scientific articles to the literature of petroleum geology and petroleum engineering. As Chairman of President Reagan's Energy Policy Advisory Task Force and later as leader of the transition team on energy, Halbouty has given much of his time and expertise to help insure the Nation's economic stability. He is a member of numerous scientific and technical societies and has served as an officer of many of these organizations. In particular, he was president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Besides holding his other posts, Mankin is past president of the American Geological Institute. He has served on several committees of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, is a member of the Research Committee of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission, and is on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Gulf Universities Research Consortium. He also is on the U.S. National Committee on Geology and is Chairman of the Board on Mineral and Energy Resources of the National Academy of Sciences.