OPA

Sixty tribal groups recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U. S. Department of the Interior have qualified to participate in a $881,160 Tribal Government Development Program, Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced today.

Participating tribes are in the States of Alaska, Arizona California, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada) New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington a Wisconsin.

Some of the projects to be funded by the program are: Training in parliamentary procedure for tribal council members at the school decided upon by the tribe; development of ordinances for the Indian reservation governed by the tribal council; development of a constitution for a tribe; development of budgetary processes by the tribal government; and studies started of factors in tribal government with an eye to highlighting trouble spots.

Franklin said the goal of the national policy toward the Indian people as outlined by President Nixon in his Message to the Congress on Indians delivered shortly after he began his first term in office, is to strengthen the Indian's sense of autonomy without threatening his sense of community. The President said: "We must make it clear that Indians can become independent of Federal control without being cut off from Federal concern and Federal support."

The foundation for this kind of self-determination is a strong tribal government, Franklin added.

Through contracting procedures, the tribes will be given funds to accomplish goals they themselves set. These goals will improve effectiveness of the tribe's governmental function. In some cases, this money will also be "seed money" through which tribal governments will find other sources of funding for their projects, the Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs indicated.

The 60 tribal groups that will benefit from this program qualified from among 144 applicants on the basis of need. Qualifying factors were the economic level of the tribe and the number of enrolled members of the tribe.

The participants are:

New regulations for a program affecting 100,000 Indian children in 435 public school districts and 23 states were published in the Federal Register August 21, 1974. "These regulations reflect the vast changes and development in the Indian community of the past several years," said Commissioner Morris Thompson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The new regulations govern the Bureau's program of financial assistance to meet special educational needs of Indian children not in Federal schools. It is commonly referred to as the Johnson-O'Malley program, after the Congressmen who introduced the authorizing legislation in 1934.

The revised regulations give the local Indian community the major role in determining how the funds should be used. In the past this was primarily the responsibility of school officials. This change accords with the Administration's policy of Indian self-determination.

Funding for the program in fiscal year 1975 is expected to be almost $28 million. These funds may be used for needed supplemental programs, not part of the ordinary school program, or in exceptional circumstances for operational expenditures of the school district. Some school districts need this operational assistance because the tax base, including state and other Federal aid, is not adequate for meeting minimum state educational standards. School costs are also frequently greater in isolated rural areas.

It is expected that at least 80 percent of the funds will be used in 1975 to supplement the regular school program to meet the special needs of Indian students. Hiring Indian teacher aides for the primary grades to help young

Indian students adjust to the school situation would be an example of such use. Provision of a tutorial program, a course in Indian culture Of a program of teaching English as a second language are other examples. Local Indian education committees determine the needs and the programs.

"There was maximum involvement of Indian, people in the development of these regulations," Commissioner Thompson said. "They are responsive to the Indian people we serve and we are confident that the end result will be better programs for Indian children."

Other changes from the old regulations, last revised in 1957, include:

Eligibility for assistance is broadened somewhat, but is still limited to Indians living on or near reservations; Funds may be used for pre-school children and other educational programs conducted outside the normal school setting; Eligibility requirements for school districts seeking funds for operational expenditures have been tightened; Provision is made for more equitable funding between states and within states, and Program and fiscal accountability requirements have been greatly strengthened.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Frankie E. Paul, 40, full blood Navajo, to be superintendent Tuba City Agency, Arizona. He has been acting in that capacity since April of this year.

Paul, born and raised in Ramah, New Mexico, is a graduate of Los Angeles State College with a B.A. degree in Education Administration.

He began his Federal service in 1962 as a teacher at the Delcon Elementary School in Winslow, Arizona. In 1964 he transferred to the Fort Defiance Agency as Director of the Head Start Program later becoming an Education Specialist at that same agency. In 1967 he was Assistant Executive Director in the Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity in Window Rock, Arizona and in 1968 became an Education Specialist (Adult Education) at the BIA Navajo Area Office, until the time he became acting Superintendent at Tuba City. In 1970 he completed the Departmental Management Training Program.

In announcing the appointment, the Commissioner said: "I am pleased we have a man of Paul's ability and past experience to undertake the duties as Superintendent at Tuba City."

Paul served in the U.S. Army from 1959 to 1961. He is married to the former Barbara Morris, also a Navajo, they have one son and two daughters.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of James J. Thomas, 29, a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, to head the Field Employment Assistance Office, at Cleveland, Ohio. He has been acting in that capacity since July of this year.

Thomas, born and reared on the Winnebago Indian Reservation, in Nebraska, recently completed the Indian Administrator Development Program of the Bureau.

Thomas joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1967. He headed the Bureau’s Youth Committee and served in an intern capacity at the Billings Area Office, Flathead Agency, and Cleveland Employment Assistance Office, all are BIA field offices. In November 1972 he was appointed Special Assistant to the former Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce.

Part of his internship included a special eight-month assignment to the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C., as an analyst for selected community action programs.

Thomas attended St. Augustine’s Indian Mission on the Winnebago Reservation, and was graduated from Heelan High School, Sioux City, Iowa, in 1963. He served three years in the National Guard and was on active duty at Fort Jackson, S.C., and Fort Polk, La. He has attended George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; Eastern Montana State University, Billings, Mont.; Griswold College, Cleveland, Ohio, and Northern Virginia Community College, Arlington, Va.

In announcing the appointment, the Commissioner said: “I am pleased we have a man of Thomas’ proven ability to undertake the duties of the Cleveland Employment Assistance Office.”

Thomas is married to the former Kathryn King.

A meeting of the general council of the Cherokee Delaware Tribe, scheduled to be held September 11 in Dewey, Okla., has been cancelled, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The purpose of the meeting was to have been to consider charges presented by the tribal grievance committee against the chairman, vice-chairman and secretary of the tribal business committee. The grievance committee, in a telegram to Commissioner Thompson received September 7, rescinded its previous resolution and indicated it had no charges of misconduct against any of the tribal officers.

The Commissioner had called the general council meeting at the request of the grievance committee in accordance with tribal by-laws mandating this action. The revocation of the grievance committee's request removed the basis for the Commissioner's calling of the meeting.

The Commissioner said that he is recommending that the Office of Indian Rights in the Department of Justice take appropriate action "in view of the numerous allegations that have been made" and to determine whether any Federal law, including the 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act, may have been violated.

Richard T. Christman has been appointed superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Papago Agency at Sells, Ariz., Commissioner
of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Christman, 39, replaces Joe Lucero, who retired as agency superintendent earlier this year.

For the past six years Christman served as Education Program Administrator at the Papago Agency. He has been employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 1963.

Christman is a graduate of California State Teachers College at California, Pa., and earned a Masters Degree in Indian Education at
Arizona State University at Tempe, Ariz.

Following his undergraduate schooling, he taught school in Pennsylvania for three years and joined the Bureau as an elementary school teacher and coach at the Cheyenne River Agency at Eagle Butte, S.D. He also served as an instructor and Title I Director at the Phoenix Indian School and completed a Bureau field management training program in the Phoenix Area Office before going to Papago.

Dennis L. Petersen, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Tribal Government Services Officer for the Bureau
of Indian Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Petersen has been Superintendent of the BIA Sisseton Agency in South Dakota since January, 1972.

An Army veteran of both World War II and the Korean conflict, Petersen has worked with Indian communities since 1952 in resource and economic development.

He was with the South Dakota State University Extension Service for many years and then was a project officer, planning officer and assistant
to the area director for the Economic Development Administration at Duluth,Minn. He was an Indian Community Action Program economic development specialist at the University of South Dakota before his 1971 appointment as Superintendent of the BIA Agency at Pierre, South Dakota.

A graduate of South Dakota State University, Petersen has done graduate work in resource development at Colorado State University and the University of Arizona.

Petersen, 50, was Vice President of the Pheasant Council of the South Dakota Boy Scouts of America. He has also been an active member of the
Lions and the American Legion.

David C. Harrison, a member of the Osage Tribe, has been appointed Judicial Services Officer in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Indian Services, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The position is a new one created to enable the Bureau to work more effectively for the strengthening of tribal judicial systems. Harrison, in the new post, will work with national organizations of Indian judges, tribal chairmen and Indian lawyers.

Harrison is a Harvard Law School graduate who has been a member of the Rights Protection Staff in the BlA's Office of Trust Responsibilities.

A former Marine Corps Captain, Harrison was a Senior Investigator in the New York State Special Commission on Attica in 1971-72. He wrote several chapters on the Commission's final report published by Bantam and Praeger.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson pointed yesterday to this Administration's "solid record of achievement" in achieving restorations of land to Indian tribes in an address to the National Tribal Chairmen's Association in Phoenix, Ariz., December 6.

The National Tribal Chairmen's Association, which includes the heads of each American Indian tribe recognized by the United States government and entitled to services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is holding its annual meeting in Phoenix December 5 - 8.

''Native Americans have received increasingly large restorations of land," he said, He cited return of 48,000 acres of land to the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, 21,000 acres of land including part of Mount Adams to the Yakima Tribe in the State of Washington, and 40,000,000 acres of land that will go to Alaska Natives in the State of Alaska under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

"Still pending in the Congress, in varying stages of progress but not yet enacted into law are seven pieces of Indian legislation," he continued. "One of my jobs will be to push hard for the passage of these bills. If they were all passed next week, we would be further ahead in self-determination than we have been in 150 years.

"As a matter of fact, we propose to enlist the help of Congressional leaders in getting this legislation through the mill -- as a Bicentennial present to our Nation's first Americans," he told the leaders of the American Indian tribes of this country.

He told the group that assembled to hear his talk: "In a nutshell, here is the Federal Government's policy today: it offers self-determina­tion and self-government to Indian people as rapidly as Indians want it and can assume responsibility for it. In other words, tribes have the option of assuming control of their own Federal programs whenever they wish to do so. Furthermore, they will not be cut off from Federal support; they need only demonstrate strong and responsible tribal government and the ability to handle programs on their own."

Appointment of a four member Ad Hoc Hearings and Appeals Board to decide appeals as to qualifications of Village Corporations and other matters under appeals as to qualifications of Village Corporations and other matters under Interior Rogers C. B. Morton.

Chairman of the Board, which will be headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, will be Judith M. Brady, 32, of Anchorage; Alaska. Mrs. Brady has been editor of the Alaska Native Management Report published by the Alaska Native Foundation.

Other members of the Board are: Albert P. Adams, 32, of Anchorage, director of rural development assistance for the State of Alaska; District Judge John Waller of Kodiak, Alaska; and Abigail Dunning an attorney with the Army Corps of Engineers at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska.

"The ad hoc Board which I am appointing has the vital function of review­ing and settling disputes concerning village eligibility for making land selec­tions under the Alaska Native Claims Act," Secretary Morton said. "I am pleased that most of its members have direct familiarity with Native village life and all are well qualified to handle the Board's functions fairly and to make key decisions equitably for all concerned."

The Alaska Native Claims Act provides for the selection of lands under the Act by eligible village corporations. The Director of the Juneau Area Office of the Bureau of Indians Affairs is empowered under the Act to make final decisions on the eligibility of villages unless appeals of its decisions are made to the ad hoc Board established by the Secretary.

Creation of the Board was requested by representatives of the Native villages in meetings held with Assistant Secretary Laurence E. Lynn Jr. and members of his staff in May 1973. The Board was authorized by regulations governing Alaska Native land selections published in the Federal Register by the Bureau of Land Management of the Department May 30, 1973, which became effective July 2, 1973.