OPA

Ray F. Maldonado, a member of the Yakima Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Olympic Peninsula Agency at Hoquiam, Washington, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett announced today.

Maldonado, 36, has been a Management Analyst in the office of the Interior Department's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in Washington, D. C. From 1976 to 1979, he worked as an analyst in the BIA’s Central Office for the implementation of the Indian Self-Determination Act A graduate of Western Carolina University at Cullowhee, North Carolina, Maldonado was for five years the administrative officer of the BIA Agency on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, A United States Army veteran, Maldonado was an industrial .development intern for the North Carolina Division of Commerce and Industry in 1970-71.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett today announced the appointment of Susan Drake to his Public Information Staff in the Washington Office. Ms. Drake, who will head the publications function for the BIA, will be responsible for the annual report, fact sheets, newsletters, brochures and the many BIA publications distributed to the general public.

Hallett said Ms. Drake comes highly qualified for this assignment, being an honors graduate of' the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism and holder of a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University Ms. Drake has won several writing awards including the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship at Columbia in 1977 and the New York City Women’s Press Club Scholarship in 1976

She was a reporter with The Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, New York, in 1975 and interned with Newsday in Long Island, New York, in 1976 before joining Newsweek as Assistant Editor in 1977, Ms. Drake was Associate Editor for Newsweek from 1978-1980. Ms. Drake was born on a farm near Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up in a suburb of St. Louis.

Regulations governing the acquisitions of trust land for Indians published today (September 18) in the Federal Register. Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E, Hallett said today. The regulations are to be effective on October 18, 1980.

These regulations followed a four-year study by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "Over the years, large acreages of land have been acquired in trust under various statutory authorities," a Bureau spokesman said. "The policy governing such acquisitions has varied from time to time and has been extremely vague. Moreover, there are no standard procedures for processing and approving trust land acquisitions," Recognizing these inadequacies, the new regulations were written to clarify the procedures for processing and approving trust land acquisitions.

They apply to 25 CFR l20a (Land Acquisitions). In 1976 the BIA created a task force to review and update real property regulations. Proposed land acquisition regulations were published in the Federal Register on July 26, 1978. Seven public hearings on the proposed regulations were held at various locations around the country between March 28 and April 11, 1979.

For further information contact Raymond W. Jackson, Area Realty Officer, Phoenix Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P. O. Box 7007, Phoenix, Arizona 85011, telephone 602/241-2275.

The Hopi Tribe will receive $191,699 to plan for an abandoned mine reclamation program under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today.

The Tribe became eligible for the funding on signing a cooperative agreement with Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM).

Under the agreement, the Tribe's Office of Natural Resources will compile information needed to develop a priority listing for its abandoned mine reclamation projects. The information will include identification of the areas on the reservation that were adversely affected by past mining practices without proper reclamation. The Hopi Reservation is in Arizona.

The reclamation plan will also provide description of the problem areas, determine how the lands should be reclaimed and the effect of reclamation on prevailing economic, social and environmental conditions.

Funds will be made available on a priority basis to reclaim lands where no legal reclamation responsibility can be established.

From Oct. 1, 1977 through Dec. 30, 1979, OSM has collected more than $1 million from mining operators on the Hopi Reservation. Half of these funds will be available to the Hopi for reclamation purposes when they have approved regulatory and reclamation programs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett today announced the appointment of Alex Tallchief Skibine as Commissioner’s personal representative for the southern region, which includes the Muskogee and Anadarko Area Offices.

Hallett said that "filling these key regional representative positions with very able, knowledgeable people like Skibine will improve tribal access to my office and promote effective and efficient delivery of resources and services to Indian people."

Skibine, an enrolled member of the Osage Tribe, received a B.A. from Tufts University in 1973 and was graduated from Northwestern University Law School in 1976. Since then he has worked at the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, in Washington, D. C., where he was most recently the Director of the Legal Research Division.

Hallett recently established four regional representative staff positions, serving the South, the Southwest, the Midwest, and the Northwest, to improve BIA follow-up to tribal requests.

Each representative has two primary responsibilities, Hallett said.

First, when a tribe voices concern, the representative determines the central issues and presents several options for meeting the tribe's need.

Second, the representative prepares an action plan to implement the option chosen.

The regional representative is a primary point of contact between the Commissioner and the tribes of the region. Representatives are also responsible for maintaining communication and relations with the tribe.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett today announced the appointment of Marilyn Youngbird as his personal representative for the Southwest Region, which includes the Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Navajo Area Offices.

Hallett said that "filling these key regional representative positions with very able, knowledgeable people like Youngbird will improve tribal access to my office and promote effective and efficient delivery of resources and services to the Indian people."

Youngbird, an enrolled member of the ·Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, attended the State School of Science in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She worked in a number of Bureau of Indian Affairs offices from 1962 until 1975, including the office of Water Rights Protection, the office of Forestry, and the office of Indian Services, where she trained tribes and Indian organizations to use the Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

During the past four years, Youngbird was the Executive Director of the Commission on Indian Affairs for the State of Colorado, where she served as a personal representative to Governor Richard Lamm on Indian affairs. She also served on five Colorado State Advisory Boards.

Hallett recently established four regional representative staff positions, serving the South, the Southwest, the Midwest, and the Northwest, to improve BIA follow-up to tribal requests.

Each representative has two primary responsibilities, Hallett said.

First, when a tribe voices concern, the representative determines the central issues and presents several options for meeting the tribe's need.

Second, the representative prepares an action plan to implement the option chosen.

The regional representative is a primary point of contact between the Commissioner and the tribes of th4 Region. Representatives are also responsible for maintaining communication and relations with the tribe.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett today announced the appointment of Nathan Stoltzfus to his public information staff.

Stoltzfus will head the internal communications function for the BIA He has responsibility for soliciting and disseminating information about significant Interior Department and BIA issues, policies, and programs among Department and BIA officials. His duties include editing the biweekly newsletter, preparing briefing materials, writing speeches for the Commissioner, and writing press releases

Hallett said Stoltzfus comes highly qualified for this appointment as the former Editor of the American Indian .Journal in 1978-79. Early in 1980 he drafted the National Advisory Council on Indian Education's Seventh Annual Report to Congress. He was an editor with the Mennonite Central Committee and interned with the American Civil Liberties Union

Stoltzfus graduated from Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana in 1978.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Thomas W. Fredericks today said he was pleased to accept the Overall Plan of Operation for the Osage Tribal Education Committee of Oklahoma

To date, the committee has approved 209 applications for grants totaling $61,900. Fredericks said scholarships for the 1980-81 school year are expected to exceed the 1980 total and will help more than 300 Osage students to meet the cost of higher education.

The Osage Tribal Education Committee was established by regulations issued in the Federal Register on August 22, 1978 and is charged with the responsibility for managing the use of interest accumulated from the investment of $1 million authorized for education and other socio-economic programs for the benefit of the Osage Tribe by the Act of October 27, 1972.

The Education Committee is comprised of five Osage Tribal members and two BIA representatives. The Committee has the authority to provide funding for scholarships and economic development grants to Osage tribal members. The approved plan spells out details of membership, duties, officers, powers, authorities and responsibilities of the seven-member committee.

Eligibility for the scholarship program is limited to Osage students enrolled in an accredited post-secondary education program including college/ university programs and vocational/technical programs. The deadline for applying for a scholarship is July 1 of each academic year. Information concerning the scholarships can be obtained by writing to:

Osage Tribal Education Committee

C/o Muskogee Area Education Program Administrator

Old Federal Building, Room 301

Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401

For more information on the education committee, contact Leroy Falling, Chief of the Division of Post-Secondary Education, Office of Indian Education Programs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20240, (202) 343-7387.

Proposed regulations governing the operation of special education programs for handicapped children enrolled or eligible for enrollment in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools were published September 29 in the Federal Register, Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Thomas Fredericks said today.

The proposed regulations are meant to combine in a single document all of the Federal requirements directly addressed to the identification and provision of educational services to handicapped children.

The purpose of the regulations is to establish a single comprehensive set of standards for ensuring that all handicapped children enrolled in BIA operated and/or funded schools are provided a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive educational environment appropriate to their nerds, consistent with their rights and related procedural safeguards.

Comments on the regulations should be sent within sixty days of publication to Earl Barlow, Director of Indian Education Programs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 18th and C Streets, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20240. For further information contact Charles Cordova at the above address on 202/343-4071.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D, Andrus said the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, scheduled to be signed into law late today by President Carter will be the basis for 1 growth and progress for all citizens of the Pine Tree State

"This Act is the result of a cooperative endeavor over almost a decade involving the members of the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Maliseets tribes, other State citizens, the courts, State officials .and legislators, the Congress and the Carter Administration," Andrus said.

"It is obvious that everyone involved worked with a real concern to restore equity to the three tribes in a way that promotes the common good and provides a base for economic growth and development," he said.

Interior Department officials will begin at once planning for the purchase of the more than 300,000 acres of Maine woodlands for the tribes as provided for in the Act, Andrus said. At the same time, work will begin on the establishment of a $27 million trust fund which Interior will administer for the benefit of the tribes.

The Act followed a Federal Court ruling in 1975 which held that more than 12 million acres had been taken from Maine Indians in violation of the Non-Intercourse Act of 1790. It provides $54 million for land purchases for tribal use and for the tribal trust fund in exchange for the tribal relinquishment of aboriginal title to the rest of the lands in question.

Andrus noted that the Act removes a cloud over land titles for about 350,000 persons living in Maliseets" which will not only help them plan for the future but should help them sleep better at night too."

A total of 300,000 acres to be purchased will be divided between the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes whose 4,000 members live on three small reservations in northern Maine. An additional 5,000 acres will be purchased for the 600 members of the Houlton Band of Maliseets, Maine members of a largely Canadian tribe.