OPA

Interior Assistant Secretary Ross Swimmer has signed a contract that will allow the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to manage and operate an electric power system on the Flathead Indian reservation in northwestern Montana The three year contract is effective immediately, though a short personnel phase-in period is necessary. Under the Indian Self-Determination Act, Indian tribes and groups are given the authority to contract the management of federal government services that affect Indian people.

"The policy of this administration is to remove the federal government from activities that could be locally operated," said swimmer, who heads the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "It is also this Administration's policy to encourage Indian economic self-sufficiency." An October 1985 report prepared jointly by the Bureau of Reclamation and the BIA recommended that management of the Flathead Indian Irrigation's power division be transferred from the federal government to another entity.

Swimmer noted that although the project will shift from federal to local operation, the Secretary of the Interior will retain control over rates and would assure compliance with laws and regulations. He said the tribes prepared an exemplary contract and did a good job working with the community The Mission Mountain Electric Cooperative, a group of non-Indian residents, also had competed for management of the system out of fear that rates would increase and that they would be excluded from decisions pertaining to operations of the system.

Swimmer said those fears are unfounded since the Cooperative would have been forced to pay several million to purchase and maintain the power system. Those costs, according to Swimmer, could have been passed along to consumers.

In addition, the cooperative would have to arrange for use of right of ways and properties, which the tribes currently own. The tribes have included provisions in the contract to establish a utility board and consumers' council to ensure that non-tribal power users have input into the utility's policies and decisions. "We have a broad responsibility to assure that the customers' right to influence the decisions of the utility is considered as it would be with investor-owned or public utilities, which have their own regulatory bodies," Swimmer said. "The tribe has focused heavily on the rights of non-tribal members and has taken measures in its contract proposal to address the issue." Although self-determination contracts can be approved at the area level, Swimmer asked that the BIA headquarters in Washington review the request and work with Congressional representatives to ensure that all parties were being considered.

President Ronald Reagan has signed a bill authorizing the federal government to pay the Tohono O'Odham Indians (formerly Papago) in Arizona $30 million in order for the tribe to replace nearly 10,000 acres of reservation land that has been flooded repeatedly since 1979. The Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act allows the U.S. Interior Department to begin paying the tribe in $10 million allotments over three years beginning in 1988. It is one of the Reagan Administration's largest land settlements with an Indian tribe.

“This settlement goes a long way to affirm the President's message to Indian Country that he is willing to deal with tribes on a government-to-government basis and to enter into negotiations for the settlement of claims rather than litigating these issues for years in court.” said Ross Swimmer, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for Indian affairs. “It reflects a commitment of this administration to all Indian people that their issues are considered seriously and steps are being taken to address those issues through negotiations,” Swimmer added. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1960 built the Painted Rock Dam on the Gila River 10 miles downstream from the Gila Bend Reservation. In 1964, the federal government acquired by eminent domain an easement for occasional overflow onto the reservation.

While government studies throughout the 1960's and 70's stressed the infrequency of overflow, substantial rains in 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1984 produced major flooding on the reservation. A 1983 Bureau of Indian Affairs report found that it would be overly expensive to rehabilitate the flooded lands, which had no protection from future overflows. An additional study concluded that there were no public lands acceptable to the tribe in exchange for the flooded land. The Gila Bend Act allows the tribe to purchase up to 9,880 acres of private land to be taken into trust by the Interior Department.

“While this has been a longstanding issue for the Tohono O’odham people, it is good that we have brought it to a compromised settlement.” Swimmer said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) announced today that it will relocate the office of assistant director of education to the Navajo Area Office in Gallup, N.K. Dr. Kenneth Ross, who oversees BIA education operations in the Southwest, will move from his Washington headquarters to Gallup November 4 The director of the BIA's nearly $300 million education program, Dr. Henrietta Whiteman, said the move is Reared toward bringing management closer to the people it serves.

"The sheer number of students, employees and schools within the Southwest necessitates that a major portion of administrative time be focused on planning, monitoring programs, offering technical assistance and evaluating programs from a local base rather than from Washington," said Whiteman. Dr. Ross manages 94 schools and 6,000 employees in the BIA's Navajo, Phoenix and Albuquerque areas. Of the 180 Indian schools funded and operated by the BIA, 72 percent are located in the three service areas. About 53 percent of the BIA schools and education employees in Arizona and New Mexico are located in the Navajo area. "This certainly makes it easier for the BIA and tribal governments in the area to communicate and cooperate on the policies and budgets both deal with daily," Ross said. "This will save some of the time and money we spend commuting between the field and the central office."

Ross' office serves eleven pueblos as well as the White Mountain Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Papago and Pima tribes. He said his first goals are to improve relations with the tribes and assess the area education staff. The BIA, headed by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer, offers education programs from early childhood through college.

A draft review of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) off-reservation boarding schools in Phoenix. Arizona and Riverside, California recommends closure of the Phoenix school at the end of the current school year.

The report also recommends consideration of a new facility to provide specialized treatment services within a residential setting in close proximity to the Arizona Indian communities for students with special needs. The report recommends that the Sherman school in Riverside continue operation for its students and those displaced by closure of the· Phoenix facility

In a letter to Arizona and California Indian tribes, whose members attend one of the two schools, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer asked for comments on the 18-page report by December 10. "The tribe's input into this review of Phoenix and Sherman schools is extremely important and I encourage you to participate in the review process." Swimmer said in his letter of November 12. "Your comments and recommendations will assist the Bureau in arriving at a final recommendation regarding the two schools."

The major reason for the recommended closure is declining enrollment at Phoenix because of the September 1986 opening of a new Hopi high school on the Hopi reservation and the anticipated opening of a similar school on the Tohono O'odham reservation south of Phoenix next September. The majority of the student population at Phoenix has been of students from those two Indian tribes. A projected cost of some $5 million to bring the Phoenix facility into full compliance with safety codes was also a factor. In contrast, the Sherman facility in California has undergone major rebuilding programs during the last decade and the report calls it "a completely modern school plant."

At 366 students for the 1986-7 school year -- down from a 1985-6 enrollment of 515 -- Phoenix is utilizing only 58 percent of its dormitory capacity. During the same period. Sherman's enrollment dropped from 642 students to 535 and is utilizing 61 percent of its dormitory capacity. With the expected opening of the Tohono O'odham school next September. Phoenix's student population is projected to fall by another 98 students and Sherman's by 107. With the combined student population at the two schools of only 696 for the 1987-88 school year, both schools would be operating at less than 50 percent of their capacities. Costs of $1.1 million annually to operate the Phoenix facility would be saved with its closure.

In viewing the total needs of the student body, the report says that approximately one-third of the students exhibited problems associated with alcohol or substance abuse (some only one-time offenders) and that neither school was fully equipped to meet the needs of this segment of the student body. Other BIA off-reservation boarding schools have similar student problems. "It is projected that (these) students would have (problems) severe enough to require a facility which would provide specialized treatment services within a residential setting," according to the report. The report said such a specialized school and residential treatment center should be in close proximity to the Arizona Indian communities and should have specific programs for treating the alcohol and substance abuse problems being experienced by the students with extreme behavioral patterns from all Bureau off-reservation boarding schools.

Overall review of the two schools was initiated last March. Both school boards, as well as the affected tribes and parents, were notified of the review. The bureau was assisted in reviewing the needs of several Arizona Indian communities by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc.

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) announces the availability of its publication, Mineral Revenues: The 1985 Report on Receipts from Federal and Indian Leases.

The booklet reports on the 1985 activities of the MMS Royalty Management Program, including collection of $6.5 billion in bonuses, rents and royalties from Indian and federal {offshore and onshore) minerals 1eases.

The report also offers tables and statistics relating to the generation, distribution, and history of revenues obtained under th1s program.

Copies of the 1985 report are available, free of charge, from:

Office of Minerals Management Information Minerals Management Service Department of the Interior 18th and C Streets, N.W. Washington, D. C. 20240 (202) 343-3983

or

Public Affairs Office Royalty Management Program Minerals Management Service P.O. Box 25165 MS-651 Denver, Colorado 80225 (303) 231-3162.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer today announced the appointment of Joe C. Christie as actin~ director of the new Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. Christie, Superintendent of the Northern California Agency in Redding. California, since 1984, will assume the new post created in the Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs by P.L. 99-570, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 signed by President Reagan last month. He will begin his duties in Washington, December 2

"While he was reluctant to leave northern California, I am highly pleased that Christie has accepted this important new assignment," Swimmer said. "His administrative experience as a superintendent at three different Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agencies over the past five years, and his background in education where much of his work will be concentrated, make him especially qualified for this new post. In addition, his recent experience in carrying out a marijuana eradication program in northern California, in cooperation with state and federal law enforcement authorities, further qualifies him to assist us," he added. Swimmer said that Christie will coordinate with his counterpart at the Indian Health Service (IHS) in developing a program to carry out jointly the memorandum of agreement signed in September between the BIA and IHS to combat alcohol and substance abuse among Indian people. The BIA portion of the $1.7 billion Omnibus Drug Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1987 includes $22.5 million for the BIA to be used in various ways. A total of $5.4 million is appropriated for educational purposes -- $3 million for curriculum development and materials and $2.4 million for additional school counselors -- in the more than 180 BIA schools throughout the country. The school counselors are to have special techniques relevant to the treatment of youth alcohol and substance abuse. One million dollars is targeted for judicial training in the tribal government services area.

Law enforcement will receive $3. 6 million of which $3 million is to be used for training of officers in the investigation and prosecution of offenses relating to illegal narcotics and in youth alcohol and substance abuse prevention and treatment; $100,000 is for the development of a model juvenile code; and, $500,000 will go to the Tohono O'odham (formerly Papago) Indian tribe in southern Arizona for the investigation and control of illegal narcotics traffic on the reservation. The remaining $7.5 million is to be used to construct or renovate and staff new or existing emergency shelters or halfway houses for juveniles. A total of $21.7 million was appropriated to the IHS to help fight the problem of alcohol and substance abuse. Christie, 41, is a native of southeastern Oklahoma and an enrolled member of the Choctaw Tribe of that state. He earned a B.A. in education from the Southeastern State College in Durant; a M.S. degree from Kansas State College in Pittsburg; and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the University of New Mexico. He began his federal government career in 1972 as a elementary school teacher in BIA's Phoenix area. The following year he moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he served as an education specialist for four years. Until 1981, when he took his first Superintendent's position at the Fort Totten Agency in North Dakota, Christie served in BIA offices in Billings, Montana, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. He served for 18 months as Superintendent of the Winnebago Agency in Nebraska before assuming his present ·post in northern California. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army.

A negotiated agreement for reclamation of the Jackpile Mine in New Mexico between the Pueblo of Laguna and Anaconda Minerals Company, former operators of the nation's largest open-pit uranium mine, was signed today by the Denver based company and approved by the Department of the Interior. The Laguna tribal council has already approved the agreement and will formally sign it in ceremonies in Albuquerque December 18. Anaconda has agreed to pay the Laguna tribe $43.6 million to reclaim the more than 2,600 acres of land disturbed by the company during a 30-year mining operation. The first of five annual installments of $8.72 million will be paid to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) within a few days for investment for the Indian tribe until contracts to begin actual reclamation of the mine can be signed

"We believe this is a fair and equitable agreement for all parties concerned," Ross Swimmer, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and head of the BIA, said. "It is one of six reclamation proposals -- including alten1atives submitted by Anaconda and the Pueblo of Laguna -- contained in the final environmental impact statement.- We have assurances from the tribe that this plan fully meets with their approval, and it meets the safety requirements if the Environmental Protection Agency."

Swimmer said the agreement officially terminates the Anaconda lease signed with the tribe in 1953. The company has not done any mining in the area near Paguate, about 40 miles west of Albuquerque, since 1982 when it began discussions with the BIA and the tribe on a reclamation plan. BIA has utilized the expertise of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in studying the environmental impacts and development of recommendations for reclamation of the land. The agreement was reached after four years of public hearings and exhaustive technical studies.

Under the approved plan. BIA will sign a contract with the tribe for most of the work to be done. Request for proposals are expected to be issued soon for such work as technical assistance control, engineering and design work and the actual reclamation work that probably will be sub-contracted to a tribal construction firm. Reclamation work is not expected to be completed for at least 10 years, and another 10 years will be spent monitoring the land during which time the area will undergo revegetation, testing of ground water and security fencing.

Earlier this month the BIA and BLM signed a "Record of Decision” setting the level of reclamation work to be done. The decision calls for the stabilization and sealing of underground mines to prevent entry; four-feet of soil backfilling over the pits to prevent radon gas from seeping out and to eliminate water in pit bottoms; and re-sculpturing the dump piles with slanting side angles to allow easier plant rooting. The top 15 feet of the steep vertical high walls would be cut to 45-degree angles for stability and safety purposes. After complete reclamation, the site will be similar in shape, color and texture to the surrounding landscape.

A nearly $40,000 Bureau of Indian Affairs grant to the Lummi Indian Business Council in Bellingham, Washington, has translated into a $2.5 million a year fishermen's corporation that provides jobs for tribal members and revenues for tribal coffers.

The tribally-chartered corporation, formed in July, markets the catches of 12 Indian fishing operations to buyers in Japan, France, Belgium and the United States. The results are impressive:

• Profits for individual fishermen, which number over 40, have increased 10 percent since the corporation began.
• The Lummi tribe has raised more than $30,000 through tribal corporate taxes and a participating tribe has increased profits by 10 percent.
• The corporation already has marketed nearly 1.2 million pounds of sockeye, king, silver and chum fish.

Larry Kinley, the chairman of the Lummi tribe, said a little creativity has resulted in a lot of success.

"Obviously, the opportunities this one business project has made possible for the tribe are incredible," Kinley said. "There has been a merging of tribal, federal and private initiatives to create a success."

"The management of this corporation is exemplary," said Stanley Speaks, the BIA area director in Portland. "Other tribes could well benefit from the manner in which the fishermen's corporation conducts business."

Kinley said he is heeding that advice and developing a model plan for other tribes to follow. The plan, which relies on the corporation's experiences with start-up and developing overseas contracts, will be available to other tribes early next year, according to Kinley.

"Quality was established as the corporate philosophy in the initial briefing of the stockholders," said Kinley, who now points out that 95 percent of his fish receive a number one rating from buyers.

The marketing side of the corporation is only phase one of the project. Kinley said plans are to build a processing and cold storage plant for the thousands of tons of fish still to come. "The success of the Lummi fishing cooperative is just further evidence that Indian Country knows how to do business," said the Interior Department's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Ross Swimmer. "Tribal resources today are being harnessed to create needed jobs and revenues for Indian people." Swimmer, a former tribal chairman who now heads the BIA, said business development is the cornerstone of his policy in dealing with the nation's more than 300 federally-recognized tribal governments. The BIA will spend $63.5 million this year on business development grants and loans.

Ross Swimmer, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, today announced the appointment of Nancy Garrett as Director of the Office of Administration in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Garrett, a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) since 1978, currently serves as Deputy-Comptroller in BIA's Office of Indian Education Programs. Her new appointment is effective December 22.

"I am pleased that Garrett has agreed to move into this important position in BIA," Swimmer said. "Her three years of experience in Indian affairs and her long-time managerial experience in the SES will be a tremendous asset in helping us better manage personnel, budget and contracting and grants programs in the Bureau." In her new position, Garrett will report to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and be responsible for: the personnel and training activities of more than 14,000 BIA employees; an annual finance and budget program of almost $1 billion; the Bureau's property management activities; management research and evaluation programs; and management of the Agency's contracting and grants program.

Garrett joined the Federal service in 1960 as a GS-3 clerk-typist in the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in the Department of State. In 1967 she was named budget officer for Dulles Airport and 18 months later was given the additional duties as budget officer for National Airport. She became budget officer of the Office of Field Operations in the Office of the Secretary in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), later renamed Health and Human Service, in 1970. Four years later she moved to the office of director of the Executive Secretariat in HEW's Social and Rehabilitation Service, HEW, and in 1976 became the first female executive in the U.S. Treasury's U.S. Customs Service when she was named deputy assistant commissioner.

She became a charter member of the Senior Executive Service in 1978 and was appointed Associate Director of the National Park Service. In 1982 she served as Director of the Office of Technical Assistance in Territorial and International Affairs before joining BIA in 1983. Garrett resides in Arlington, Virginia and maintains a farm in Culpeper, Virginia.

The Department of the Interior announced today the opening of competitive bidding to contract for services to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.8 billion of Indian trust funds. Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said the consultation process outlined in an April 15, 1987, Federal Register notice has been completed and it is time to move on to the competitive bidding to procure collection, accounting, advisory investment services and custodial services for funds held in trust for Indian tribes, individuals and others.

Swimmer said all activities and decisions required by law of the government as trustee will continue to be performed by the government, including control of investment decisions. "Since last March when we announced the reopening of competition for financial trust fund services, we have conducted a new full-scale procurement and management analysis of the services to be performed," Swimmer said. "We have spent more than three months consulting with Indian tribes to increase their understanding and address their concerns. I believe that all of the steps we have taken over the past several months will assure the best possible contract to provide these services."

The new proposal includes the same components that were in the original proposal --cash concentration, accounting and investment services. Swimmer said the extensive consultation process resulted in the compilation of 48 pages of 162 questions and answers about the contracting proposal. The questions and answers were included in an information packet sent to all tribal chairmen on February 8. Bidding will be open to all financial institutions for the single contract for a period of one year with four one-year renewable options. The successful bidder must be designated as a depositary and fiscal agent of the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Services in the contract; will be directed at streamlining the collection process through the Treasury's lock-box network, concentrating funds more quickly into the Treasury's accounts for investment, improving accountability and reporting to Indian beneficiaries and the government as trustee, and strengthening investment management. "This contracting for services with a financial institution will not restrict or negatively affect any existing tribal or individual Indian right, relationship or accessibility to funds," Swimmer said.

The Secretary of the Interior has been designated by Congress as the Government trustee on behalf of the beneficiaries of the trust funds. The Secretary has, in turn, designated the Assistant Secretary -Indian Affairs to manage the Indian trust funds. Collections are deposited through the banking system into Treasury accounts specified for Indian trust funds. Treasury maintains the trust fund cash accounts and disburses the funds upon Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) request. BIA manages investment of the funds in securities and maintains accounts to reflect tribal and individual Indian interests in funds invested and funds held by Treasury.

A copy of the RFP is being provided to each BIA Agency Superintendent. Upon receipt, the Agency Superintendent will advise the tribes of its availability and provide a copy to each tribe requesting it.

The more than $1.8 billion in trust funds --representing more than 300,000 accounts --are held in trust by the United States for the benefit of Indian tribes or individuals. The funds represent land claims or damage awards; and income from trust lands, oil and gas revenues, timber sales and the like.

Final date for delivery of the proposals to the Department of Interior will be April 29. 1988. More information, or a copy of the RFP, can be obtained by contacting Peter Markey, Chief, Branch of Contract and Grants Operation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW, Rm. 178, M8 24-8IB, Washington, D.C. 20245 (202) 343-3807.