OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has distributed draft regulations to Indian tribal leaders for two proposed grant programs scheduled to begin in Fiscal Year 1983 (October 1, 1982 - September 30, 1983).

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith asked for an early reaction to the proposed regulations because he intends "to implement these grant initiatives as soon as possible contingent upon appropriations from the Congress.

The two programs are designed 1) to provide seed money for tribal economic development projects and 2) to assist small tribes to establish or maintain: a basic or core managerial staff. In the 1983 budget request, the Bureau asked for $10 million for the economic development program and $5 million for the small tribes program.

Smith noted, in his letter to tribal leaders, that the proposed regulations for the economic development grant program "are more tightly drawn and restrictive than similar Bureau or other Federal programs of the past. This is by design and is intended to take into account the limited success of many former efforts, the relatively small amount of funds expected to be available, and the strong desire for this to be a sound and successful approach to Indian economic development." The regulations require that at least 75 percent of the total financing come from non-Federal sources. No grant is to be less than $25,000 or more than $500,000.

The purposes of the economic development grants are to:

Provide equity capital for the establishment or expansion of locally determined economic enterprises which generate income and employment opportunities for participating tribes; Serve as an inducement when combined with a tribe's financial and other resources to attract private sector investment capital for the development of the tribe's resources, and;

Reduce tribal dependence on the Federal government over the long term through economic development projects which contribute to a stable private sector reservation economy.

Selection criteria include:

The potential for profitability and long range benefits to the tribe;

Anticipated return on investment;

Degree of independence of economic enterprise management from the political structure of the applicant;

Managerial capability including fiscal accountability of proposed tribal enterprise;

Relative proportion of tribal and private sector investment to requested grant funds, and;

Creation of the highest ratio of Indian jobs to the total amount of dollars to be invested, including market value of materials and equipment contributed to the project.

The purposes of the grants for the small tribes are to help them meet basic tribal management need; to enable them to overcome problems in the administration of tribal and Federal programs -- especially those related to fiscal accountability, and to contribute to the stability of tribal governments, reduce tribal dependency and promote the exercise of self-determination. The grants might be used to employ a tribal planner, an administrator, accountant, bookkeeper or other needed staff for which the tribe has no resources.

To be eligible for a grant as an individual tribe, the population of tribal members living on or near the reservation must be a least 400 and not more than 1,500. Tribes with less than 400 members living on the reservation could receive assistance as part of a multi-tribal organization or, under certain circumstances, as an individual tribe.

Assistant Secretary Smith asked that comments on the proposed regulations be submitted before Labor Day. He said that as soon as Congress acted on the 1983 appropriations request and funds were available, he would issue interim regulations so that the programs could be initiated without delay.

Continuing a program he initiated in July to speed the settlement of Indian water claims through negotiation rather than litigation, Interior Secretary James Watt will meet today with a delegation of Indian leaders, western industry spokesmen and Governors.

"This is part of our cooperative, Good Neighbor Policy of discussing and negotiating problems facing the Indian tribes, the State and the Federal Governments," Watt said.

"This meeting was requested by the Western Regional Council in an effort to help achieve the goals I announced five months ago when I established the machinery to negotiate Indian water rights claims as expeditiously as possible both for the benefit of the Indian and non-Indian communities," Watt said. "Although the program is only five months old it already has made substantial progress, negotiating a settlement to the Papago water claim in Arizona and identifying other claims where negotiations may be fruitful.

"The concept was endorsed in a letter to me signed by spokesmen for the Western Regional Council, the Western Governors' Policy Office, the Council of Energy Resources Tribes, the Native American Rights Fund, and the National Congress of American Indians. In that letter they asked for this opportunity to discuss additional steps they believe would speed the process we had already begun.

"There are more than 50 claims," Watt noted, "and each one is unique. We are approaching this on a case-by-case basis, and we are not forcing negotiation on any of the parties. We are giving the highest priority to providing the support of this Department where it is requested and where there is a fair chance that our efforts will help bring about settlement."

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(Attached is a background paper outlining the meeting and the July 14, 1982, press release which announced the program.)

Western Indian Water Rights Negotiations

BACKGROUND

On July 14, 1982, Secretary Watt established an Interior Pol icy Advisory Group and set up the machinery to help resolve outstanding Indian water claims through negotiation. The first major action under this process was the successful negotiation of an agreement to settle the Papago claims in Arizona. The Department is identifying other claims where this program could help speed settlement and is involved in other negotiations. There presently are pending over 50 court cases involving Indian claims to Western water. Additionally, many tribes have formally asserted other water claims as a prelude to bringing suit, and other tribes have claims still in a nascent stage. Many of the cases have been pending for over 10 years, and the oldest was filed in 1915. Thus, litigation clearly does not afford a prompt resolution of tribal claims to water.

REAGAN ADMINISTRATION POLICY

On June 1, 1982, President Reagan strongly endorsed negotiated settlement as "The most appropriate means of resolving Indian water rights disputes". The President set two basic rules for this process. First, the United States must be a major party in the negotiations if its interests will be affected and second, local water users and other defendants in pending litigation must make a fair contribution to any settlement.

INTERIOR PROGRAM TO IMPLEMENT THE POLICY A. Institutional Mechanism

Earlier this year, Secretary Watt responded to the President's direction by creating the Interior Policy Advisory Group on Indian water claims. He designated Solicitor William H. Coldiron to chair the Group, which includes all assistant secretaries and bureau directors whose programs might be affected by Indian water rights litigation. Deputy Under Secretary William P. Horn was named coordinator-of negotiations, and works with a team which includes Lawrence J. Jensen, Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs and David G. Houston, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Water Resources. Subsequent to the successful Papago negotiations, former Deputy Solicitor David E. Lindgren was brought back to the Department to act as deputy coordinator and special counsel for negotiations.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Kenneth L. Smith; Assistant Secretary for Land and Water Resources, Garrey E. Carruthers; Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wild life and Parks G. Ray Arnett Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner, Robert N Broadbent, Fish and Wildlife Service Director, Robert Jansen; and National Park Service Director, Russell Dickenson.

Department staff has begun a systematic review of all pending litigation and known claims which have not yet been filed in court to assess their susceptibility to a negotiated settlement. In this process, the Department has sought and will continue to seek the advice of the governor of each affected state, the chair of each affected tribe, and leaders of Indian and water user organizations.

B. Departmental Program for Negotiations

Each Indian water rights case is unique. Each case varies from the others as to the development potential of the reservation involved, the abundance or scarcity of water, the type and extent of non-Indian development which uses water, the equities attendant to the non-Indian development, and the willingness of the affected parties to enter negotiations.

The elements of the Department's settlement program take all these factors into account. First, future negotiations will occur only when the Tribe whose claim is involved and the affected non-Indians (State, municipalities, and private water users, as the case may be) evidence some interest in beginning the settlement process. Second, because each negotiating situation is unique, the Department recognizes that the appropriate accommodation among the parties will be unique. Thus, an approach followed in one situation cannot serve as a precedent for the settlement of another. Third, in a given case, where the tribe and State or other non-Indian parties agree on a particular resolution to the dispute, the Department will acquiesce-in that agreement (and not seek to impose on those parties its idea of a better settlement) if such restraint will not prejudice the legitimate interests of the United States or of the tribe. Fourth, the basic guidelines set by President Reagan will be followed: non-Indians whose water uses are protected by any settlement must make a substantial contribution to it, and the Federal government must be a major participant when Federal interests are affected.

In sum, the Department's program is a process which allows all the parties to a particular. Indian water rights controversy, including the United States, to devise substantive terms for settlement which accommodate the unique facts of that case.

C. Specific Cases In Process

Since the Interior Policy Advisory Group was created five months ago, the Department has successfully concluded formal negotiations in one case and discussions are proceeding in four others.

1. Papago Indian Reservation/City of Tucson (groundwater) Negotiations for agreement in principle successfully concluded, implementing legislation enacted, detailed follow-on contract being negotiated.
2. Fort Peck Indian Reservation/Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission (Missouri River). - Agreement in principle between tribal and State officials is close, draft compact being negotiated.
3. Mission Bands of Indians/City of Escondido and Vista Irrigation District, California (San Luis Rey River) - Formal negotiations in process, economic analysis being prepared by Interior funded consultants.
4. Yakima Indian Nation/State of Washington (Yakima River) - Preliminary informational meetings held with tribal council members, State officials and representatives of local irrigation districts. ·The first phase of a Department and State sponsored study has been concluded, and the second phase has begun.
5. Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe/Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (Pyramid Lake) - Negotiations in process.

D. Specific Cases under Consideration

Parties to the following disputes have indicated an interest in concerning negotiations:

Nisqually Tribe/Cities of Centralia and Tacoma, Washington.

Fort Berthold Tribe/State of North Dakota.

Department of the Interior Solicitor Thomas L. Sansonetti today issued a long-awaited legal opinion that explores the extent of Alaska Native village jurisdiction over land and non-village members.

The opinion concludes that Native village jurisdiction was significantly limited by Congress in 1971. The opinion, however, also reaffirms longstanding Departmental and Congressional actions which include Native villages as tribes for purposes of many programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies.

Issuance of the opinion culminates two years of historical and legal review by the Interior Solicitor's office. The opinion was requested in 1990 by Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan to aid the Department in reviewing jurisdictional claims raised by the Native villages. It is intended to provide guidance in resolving difficult state-federal-village disputes over who has police and regulatory authority over lands.

In his opinion, Sansonetti concluded that Congress, with passage of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) decisively eliminated village jurisdiction over village and Native corporation lands and non-village members.

"In our view, the purposes of ANCSA to develop state chartered business entities and to avoid the establishment of any reservation system, trusteeship or other racially based institution, would be frustrated by a determination that enclaves of federal and tribal jurisdiction continue to exist," Sansonetti stated.

The Solicitor also noted, however, that this conclusion did not mean a change in the relationship between the Federal Government and Native villages. Sansonetti spent considerable time in the opinion on the tribal status of villages.

"In our view, Congress and the Executive Branch have been clear and consistent in the inclusion of Alaska Natives as eligible for benefits and programs under a number of statutes designed to benefit Indian tribes and members," Sansonetti wrote. His opinion recognizes the fact that Native villages have been considered tribes for many purposes. Sansonetti expressed his hope that the exhaustive review of the history, law and government policy would be beneficial to all who deal with Native village jurisdictional issues. The opinion was forwarded to the United States Department of Justice for use in determining the position of the United States in future litigation.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has asked Congress to appropriate $928.7 million for its 1985 fiscal year programs and projects. This is an increase of $21 million over the 1984 appropriations.

The BIA will receive an additional $100 million for reservation road construction, through the Department of Transportation, under provisions of the Highway Improvement Act of 1982.

The budget also proposes FY 1984 supplemental including $17.0 million for the Ak-Chin Irrigation Project in Arizona and $7.4 million for welfare grants (as a transfer from the construction account).

Kenneth L. Smith, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said that the budget request reflects a continued effort on the part of the Reagan Administration to support Indian self-determination and tribal self-government. Smith noted that the Administration's Indian policy statement issued in January, 1983 called for the strengthening of tribal governments and special efforts to develop reservation economies.

The 1985 budget requests increases for two tribal development initiatives started in 1983. A program to help small tribes acquire basic management skills needed to administer tribal and federal programs has been increased from $3.5 million in 1984 to $5 million in 1985.

A "seed-money" program to encourage new reservation enterprises, requiring 75 percent of the total funding to come from non-federal sources, will increase from $5 million in 1984 to $10 million in 1985.

The budget request also includes $16.8 million for. Self-determination grants to tribes to help them expand their abilities to govern their own affairs on the reservations.

The importance of Indian education continues to be stressed with $273.4 million requested for the operation of Indian schools, assistance to Indian students in public schools, and adult and college-level programs. This total includes $29.5 million for assistance to Indian college students; $11.1 million for tribally controlled community colleges, and $9.1 million for three federally-operated post-secondary schools.

The 1985 request also includes $212.6 million requested for Indian services; $67 million for economic development and employment programs; $96.9 million for natural resources development; $47.7 million for trust responsibilities; $90.2 million for facilities management; $67.4 million for general administration and $73.3 million for construction projects.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today signed an agreement implementing legislation to resolve a long-standing dispute over the water rights of the Fort McDowell Indian Community in Arizona.

"This settlement averts lengthy, costly litigation and uncertainty for the tribe and the Federal Government," Lujan noted. "Even more important is the fact that this settlement provides the opportunity for increased economic self-sufficiency and meaningful self-determination for the Community."

Chairman Clinton Pattea signed the agreement for the Community, which is located in central Arizona near Phoenix.

Among others attending the signing ceremony in Lujan's office were Eddie Brown, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, and Dennis Underwood, Commissioner of Reclamation.

"This is an especially happy occasion for me because this settlement benefits a tribe in my home State of Arizona," Brown observed. Underwood said, "The Bureau of Reclamation is very proud of the role we played in achieving this agreement and others involving Indian tribes over the past four years."

In accordance with the Fort McDowell Indian Community Water Rights settlement Act of 1990, the tribe will receive a maximum annual diversion right of 36,350 acre-feet of water from the Verde River. The Community may lease a portion of its water, and has agreed to lease 4,300 acre-feet to the City of Phoenix. In addition, the Federal Government will provide the Community a development fund of $31 million and a Small Reclamation Project Act loan of $13 million for irrigation development on the reservation.

Interior Assistant Secretary Kenneth L. Smith has announced the appointment of new area directors for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) at Sacramento, California and Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Maurice W. Babby, area director at Anadarko, has been transferred to the Sacramento office and William P. Ragsdale, assistant area director for economic development in the Phoenix, Arizona area, has been assigned to Anadarko. The BIA has a total of 12 area offices, or regional offices, throughout the United States.

Babby, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, was the area director in Sacramento before coming to Anadarko in 1982. In his 28 years with the BIA, he has served in a variety of top administrative and managerial positions. He was director of administration, acting director of legislation and a special project development manager in the BIA central office in Washington, D.C. He has also worked in the Aberdeen, South Dakota; Billings, Montana ·and Window Rock, Arizona (Navajo) area offices.

A business administration graduate of Sacramento State University, he subsequently earned a Master’s in public administration from the University of Oklahoma.

Ragsdale, a member of the Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma, is a former Marine Corps Captain who has been the assistant area director at Phoenix since 1979. Ragsdale, 38, completed the government's Senior Executive Service (SES) candidate development program in 1983 and is moving into his first SES position.

A native of Muskogee, Oklahoma and graduate of Central State University, Edmond, Oklahoma, Ragsdale served for more than a year as the Deputy Director of the BIA's Office of Trust Responsibilities in Washington, D.C. He was superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray agency at Fort Duchesne, Utah from 1976 to 1979. Both appointments are effective February 19.

The Lifetime Learning and Rebuild America economic stimulus package proposed by President Clinton will provide economic development opportunities, rebuild and maintain roads, repair schools, jails and juvenile detention centers, and provide funds to operate elementary and secondary schools on many of America's Indian reservations.

The total stimulus package calls for $102.4 million, with most of the funds to be spent by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for the benefit of Indians by the end of Fiscal Year 1993.

The range of projects in the Bureau of Indian Affairs will cover additional funds for all of the Bureau-funded schools, provide $15 million for forest development on Indian reservations, and provide funds to guarantee $48 million in loan projects. The new monies boost the Bureau's $1.5 billion FY 1993 budget which has already experienced shortfalls in the Indian School Equalization Program formula because of increased school enrollment for the current school year.

Of the $48.8 million for school operations, $22.6 million will be spent for the 1992-93 school year to meet a shortfall in funds because of an unexpected five-percent increase in school enrollment and to meet administrative cost grants. An additional $2 6. 2 million will be used in the 1993-94 school year to supplement the funds available for the school year beginning July 1, 1993.

In addition, $9.4 million will be spent to repair, improve, and rehabilitate school, law enforcement, and other facilities. BIA funds 181 schools, 70 of which are contracted directly to tribes which operate them.

A total of $15 million is targeted for forest development on Indian reservations. The funds will be used for tree planting and pre-commercial thinning to increase future harvesting and sale of wood products on Indian reservations.

The Bureau will have available an additional $5.6 million to guarantee loans to start or expand Indian businesses on reservations. The funds available are expected to support loans of $48 million to tribes for business ventures which include hotels, convention centers, logging mills, an office complex, and gaming enterprises. Many of the projects are expected to be under construction within 30 days of funding.

$23.5 million will be spent for road maintenance on Indian reservations for projects to improve access for schools, medical facilities, businesses and tourists.

The course of American Indian history was drastically changed, fifty years ago, by the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith told Indian leaders in a letter marking the act's fiftieth anniversary. Smith, a Wasco Indian from Oregon, is the Reagan Administration's top Indian official.

Smith noted that the act "marked a turning point in Federal-Indian relations. It halted or reversed prior policies which had cumulatively proved disastrous for Indians."

The act ended a period of almost fifty years in which federal policy was to break up tribal land holdings through allotments to Indian individuals. Under this policy, implemented by the General Allotment Act of 1887, Indian land holdings were reduced from more than 136 million acres in 1887 to less than 50 million acres in 1934.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ended the allotment period and its attempt to dismantle traditional tribal groups. The act initiated substantive efforts by the federal government to develop functional governments and to work with tribes for the improvement of living conditions on reservations.

Smith wrote: "The importance of the Indian Reorganization Act cannot be overemphasized, as previous federal Indian policies up to that time had increasingly diminished Indian land holdings and the freedom of Indian people to practice their own culture and customs, and had resulted in a steady decline of the ability of tribes to function in their sovereign capacity."

Smith said the act represented a major national commitment to improve the administration of Indian affairs and it reaffirmed the right of tribes to exist as self-governing entities.

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) today announced that it will pay $541,951 to four Indian tribes as reimbursement of auditing costs for participating in the MMS's Cooperative and Delegated Audit Program during Fiscal Year 1993.

The Navajo Nation will receive $308,866; the Ute Indian Tribe, $87,600; the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, $93,000; and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, $52,485.

The program enables a tribe to join with MMS in providing additional audit coverage of revenues derived from oil, gas and other mineral leases located on its land.

"More than $150 million in mineral revenues were collected from Indian leases last year," Acting MMS Director Carolita Kallaur said. "Working together in this program, we can ensure the tribes continue to receive an accurate accounting of the money to which they're entitled."

Under provisions of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982, MMS reimburses participating Indian tribes for the costs of delegated audits, such as salaries and travel expenses.

Nine states-- California, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming--participate under similar provisions.

MMS is responsible for collecting, accounting for, auditing and disbursing revenues associated with mineral leases on federal and Indian lands. The agency handles nearly $4 billion in revenues each year, Kallaur said.

Resumption of livestock impoundment by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Hopi partitioned lands in northern Arizona should not deter leaders of the Navajo and Hopi Indian tribes from continuing to work toward a negotiated settlement of their differences, Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs John W. Fritz said today.

The Bureau resumed impoundment activities June 12.

"The chairmen of both tribes contacted me and were concerned that the Bureau activities would hamper their on-going attempts to reach agreement," Fritz said.

"I told them the federal government fully supported their talks," he continued. "But in upholding the law and obeying orders of the courts we have no alternative but to continue our range management program, which includes impoundment."

Seven animals were picked up by the BIA's Hopi agency staff June 12-13.

Fritz said both Navajo Chairman Peterson Zah and Hopi Chairman Ivan Sidney had been informed that impoundment activities would resume.

"The two chairmen were concerned that impoundment at this particular time might have been designed to embarrass them politically," Fritz said. "I assured them 10 the strongest possible words that this was not the case."

Several months ago Zah and Sidney announced they had initiated discussions to resolve the Navajo-Hopi situation, including consideration of a possible land exchange.

"The Navajo-Hopi dispute has been around for about a century," Fritz said. "We are happy that, finally, chairmen from the two tribes are sitting down to talk. We are hopeful the discussions will be productive."

Fritz added, "The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the federal government have an obligation to uphold the law and carry out the dictates of the courts. We will continue to meet those obligations."