OPA

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer has informed Indian tribal leaders that almost $3 million could be saved over a five year period by using a private contractor for services to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.8 billion in Indian trust funds. The $3 million figure was arrived at in cost comparisons between the proposal of a selected bidder and an in-house Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) proposal. The study by an Interior Department interagency committee and three tribal consultants estimates that the cost over a five-year period would be $21.2 million if conducted by a selected bidder and estimated expenditures of $25.2 million by the BIA.A difference, or savings to the government, in the two proposals is $2,996,376 after a conversion differential of $980,000 is added to the contractor's cost.

Results of the comparison studies were announced in a July 25 letter from Swimmer to all Indian tribal governments. "This is an effort to continue our consultation process with tribal governments in every step that we are taking to improve the management of Indian trust funds," he said. BIA opened competitive bidding on proposals last February to procure collection, accounting, advisory investment services and custodial services for funds held in trust for Indian tribes, individuals and others. The more than 300,000 accounts represent land claims or damage awards, income from trust lands, oil and gas revenues, timber sales and the like. Bidding for the contract was open to all financial institutions for the single contract to run for one year with four one-year renewable options.

Final determination for the contract award will be made after completion of a 3D-day review of the cost comparison and the selected contractor's successful completion of the Operational Capabilities Demonstration site test. Swimmer told the tribal leaders that when this process has been completed, he would advise them of the selected contractor and provide them an opportunity to review the proposed terms of the contract which will include an implementation schedule for the trust services program.

Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, has reassigned Wilson Barber, Jr., currently Navajo area director in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) office at Window Rock, Arizona, and James H. Stevens, currently BIA area office director in Phoenix. Barber will be moving to Phoenix and Stevens will take over the area director's job in Window Rock.

"This is a move that will utilize and broaden the management experience of these two professional managers," Swimmer said. "It also will benefit the Bureau and the Indian tribes in the two respective BIA service areas because of the different challenges and problems these individuals will face in their new assignments. Both men have served the Indian tribes well in their current locations, and I am confident that kind of service will continue in their new positions."

Barber joined the Bureau in 1967 as a realty specialist in the Navajo area after having worked seven years for the Navajo Tribe. He received his first assignment as a superintendent at the Cheyenne River Agency in Eagle Butte, S.D., in 1975. He served subsequently as superintendent at Mesca1ero Apache Agency; Northern California Agency, and in Rosebud, S.D., before being assigned as assistant area director for Indian programs in the Aberdeen, S.D., area office in 1984. He has served as the Navajo area director since March 1985.

Barber, 47, a native of Rehoboth, N.M., and an enrolled member of the Navajo Tribe, attended the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University. His new assignment is effective Sept. 11, 1988.

Stevens, area director in Phoenix since 1982, is a member of the San Carlos Band of Apache Indians and holds a B.S. in mining engineering from the University Of Arizona School Of Mines. He worked in that field in California before joining the Bureau in 1963 as a supervisory roads engineer at the Fort Apache Agency. He later held that same position at the Nevada Agency before becoming assistant to the superintendent in 1968. In 1972, Stevens received his first assignment as superintendent at the Spokane (Washington) Agency where he served for nine years before becoming director of the Office of Trust Responsibility in the BlA’s headquarters office in Washington, D.C., in 1981. Stevens, 58, is a native of Holbrook, Ariz. He will take over his new position Oct. 26, 1988.

On October 11, 1995, the Labor Health and Human Services Committee will consider an amendment introduced by Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) in Section 30 of the Labor, Health, and Human Services Bill (S. 1221) that will prohibit the Legal Services Corporation from providing legal assistance to Indians, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiians, or Native Hawaiian organizations with respect to litigation that "may effect or infringe on the property rights of another person."

The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer said, "If this language is enacted, it will impede the ability of America's tribal and indigenous peoples from litigating their rights in United States courts of law." Deer questioned the Constitutionality of the provision because it singles out certain identifiable groups and members of such groups and deprives them of services available to all Americans." She suggested that the provision also offends the express language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides that, "No person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

Deer pointed out that the United States Senate ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1994, which makes it a violation of International law if a country deprives its citizens of the rights contained in the Covenant. The Senate report, noted that the overwhelming majority of the Covenant's provisions are compatible with existing U.S. law. Deer was among several U.S. representatives who presented the United States' report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee presented on March 29-31, 1995. During the hearing, the U.S. delegation emphasized that U.S. citizens, including American Indians, Native Hawaiians, and other indigenous Americans, already possess the rights contained in the Covenant by operation of Constitutional and statutory law. Among these rights are the right to life, liberty, and security of person, to a fair trial, to participation in public affairs, and to equal protection of the law. The delegates further emphasized that all individuals within the territory of the United States possess these fundamental rights without distinction of any kind, based on race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, or other status.

Deer added, "Our nation, and the protections our Constitution accords the people of the United States, has long served as a model to the rest of the world of a just, free, and democratic society. Legislation restricting the Constitutional rights of American citizens is at best an embarrassment, and at worst, a disgrace." She dosed by quoting the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all..."

Ada Deer, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, will travel to Alaska on October 19 to speak to Native Alaskans and visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

On Friday, October 20, at 9:00 a.m. she will address the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage at the William Egan Civic & Convention Center on issues including drastic cuts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) FY 1996 budget, self-governance and self-determination. Following the speech she will be available for other media questions.

Early on the morning of Saturday, October 21, Deer will fly to Fairbanks and then to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. After touring the Refuge, she will travel to Arctic Village to meet with Gwich'in chiefs. She will remain in the village overnight to participate in special ceremonies as a guest of the Gwich'in people.

On Sunday, Deer will travel by plane to view the caribou migration toward its winter feeding grounds. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has estimated that over 90 percent of the porcupine caribou calves are born on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the early summer months.

Assistant Secretary Deer will conclude her activities with a discussion with students at the University of Alaska at Anchorage on Monday, and will return to Washington on Tuesday, October 24.

Any members of the media who would like to accompany her on this unique opportunity to tour the Arctic Refuge, speak with Native Alaskans and discuss the importance of the porcupine caribou herd with Gwich'in people in their ancestral village should contact either Thomas Sweeney (202/219-4150) or Stephanie Hanna (202/208-6416) in the lower 48 states to reserve space on charter aircraft. In Alaska, members of the media interested in traveling with Deer should contact Fairbanks BIA Superintendent Samuel Demientieff at 800/822-3596 or 907/456-0229.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer said today he supports the repair of existing Navajo homes on Hopi Partitioned Lands (HPL) in northern Arizona, but pledged legal recourse if evidence is found new home construction is underway in the area.

"We have always maintained that existing law and court orders allow for repair and it has never been our position that such repairs are prohibited," Swimmer said. "But if new home construction is started on the HPL, we will have no choice but to seek appropriate legal action to stop the Navajo Tribe from breaking federal law.

Swimmer’s comments came in response to published reports that Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald and other Navajo tribal officials were repairing Navajo homes in the Teesto area of the HPL last weekend. "I applaud the action of Chairman MacDonald in his efforts to help his people on the HPL," Swimmer said.

Swimmer said it would continue to be the policy of the federal government to encourage the remaining Navajo families on the HPL to move into new residences on lands in northeastern Arizona provided to the Navajo Tribe for resettlement purposes.

"There remains as much urgency as ever to get the remaining Navajo families signed up and moved to the new lands," Swimmer said. "We look forward to Chairman MacDonald's cooperation with us in getting the remaining families resettled.

"We are sensitive to the problems of Navajos remaining on Hopi lands," he added, "but we must guarantee that laws established by Congress be upheld."

The Department of the Interior today signed a contract with Security Pacific National Bank of Los Angeles to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.8 billion in Indian trust funds.

"This contract will provide better management of resources belonging to individual Indians and tribes," Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel said at a contract signing ceremony in his office. "And the federal government will save almost $3 million over a five-year period in costs of administering trust funds

"This does not relieve the federal government of any trust responsibilities," Hodel said. "As trustee, what we are doing is assuring that the Indians will get the best possible administration and accounting of the assets involved." Hodel praised Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, for three years of intensive effort to bring about this improvement in the handling of Indian trust funds.

"There were times when a person less committed to improving the administration of federal Indian programs would have given up, but Assistant Secretary Swimmer went the extra mile to see this through," Hodel said. "Time will demonstrate that this is a landmark improvement in U.S. Indian affairs." Today's action followed extensive consultations with Indian leaders.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) opened competitive bidding last February on a proposal to procure collection, accounting, advisory investment services and custodial services for funds held in trust for Indian tribes, individuals and others. The more than 300,000 accounts represent land claims or damage awards, income from trust lands, oil and gas revenues, timber sales and the like. Bidding for the contract was open to all financial institutions for the single contract to run for one year with four one-year renewable options.

An Interior Department interagency committee and three tribal consultants reported in July that the Security Pacific National Bank proposal would cost $21.2 million over a five-year period. Added to that cost would be a conversion differential of $9809000 to change from government management of the funds; the committee estimated that an in-house BIA proposal would cost $25.2 million, almost $3 million more than the contract signed today

Swimmer, designated by Hodel as trustee of Indian trust funds, signed the contract for the government with Michael J. Barrett, vice president of Security Pacific's Government Services Division. Security Pacific, the Nation's sixth largest banking company with over $70 billion in assets and more than $147 billion in assets under management, has teamed with Computer Data Systems, Inc., of Rockvi1le, Md., to support the trust fund accounting and data processing services.

The Department of the Interior has scored notable successes this summer in its war on drugs. Interior Secretary Don Hodel emphasized that drug enforcement is a top priority in his Department.

The summer-long effort to eliminate illegal drug activity on the Nation's public lands has led to the destruction of more than 166,000 marijuana plants on Interior lands. Almost 400,000 additional plants were eradicated in immediately adjacent areas in cooperative enforcement actions with state, local and other federal agencies.

"The President and Mrs. Reagan have ed the Nation's war on drugs," Hodel said. "Like most Americans, I wholeheartedly support this cause and am delighted by the Interior Department's contribution to the anti-drug campaign."

The number of sites and arrests for marijuana cultivation exceeds all previous yearly counts since statistics began being kept in 1982. Plants on more than 430 sites were eradicated in national parks, wildlife refuges, Indian reservations, and other tribal and public lands. A total of 93 individuals associated with marijuana growing were arrested, and another 650 were arrested for illegal drug trafficking, use or possession.

Enforcement officials are not certain whether Interior1s statistics, which are up significantly from last year's figures when 110,000 marijuana plants were seized, mean that drug activity actually is increasing on federal lands or whether it merely reflects the Department's intensified enforcement efforts uncovering existing illegal activities.

"This summer’s results indicate that marijuana growers have modified their tactics for the current growing season, possibly as a reaction to increased enforcement activities in recent years," Hodel said. "Interior agents are finding fewer large open fields, but many smaller, well concealed plots consisting of a few dozen to several hundred plants."

"Visitors to parks deserve credit for increased detection of marijuana growing since they were directly responsible for several of these cases, including the largest one," Hodel said. In June, Hodel called on the 500 million visitors who visit Interior lands each year to report suspicious activity. In August, a visitor to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park reported suspected marijuana fields in an area he thought was in the park. The area, actually just outside park boundaries, was searched and 20,000 marijuana plants were destroyed.

"Many of the sites are equipped with sophisticated irrigation systems, some with portable pumps and hundreds of yards of hose where a constant supply of water can be fed to parched soil," Hode1 said. Earlier this year, 1500 feet of PVC tubing was seized from a marijuana site in Yosemite National Park. The pipe was diverting water from a makeshift dam constructed on a stream with hoses running to five separate plots.

To avoid detection from the air (marijuana plants have a characteristic green color) growers often hide plants under tree canopy, in heavy brush and in corn rows with every second or third stalk replaced by a marijuana plant. Some "gardens" are equipped with camouflage netting attached to wires which can be immediately raised should helicopters approach. Military ground sensors, the type used in Vietnam to warn of troop movement, have been discovered at some sites. Interior law enforcement officers also report an increase in the number of booby traps they have encountered this year.

"We may be seeing the return of satellite marijuana gardens because we have found so many small time operations," said Jim Donovan, Chief of Law Enforcement for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "There also seems to be a change from drying and processing at the growing site to cooperative processing areas in large barns away from the growing area."

Both Bureau of Land Management and BIA enforcement agents report that marijuana growers are planting later this year than in the past and that the drought seems to be stunting their crop.

Interior has employed modern, sophisticated technology to combat the marijuana growers' tactics. This summer a satellite orbiting 320 miles above the earth was used for drug enforcement activities on Interior lands for the first time". BLM geologists and law enforcement agents developed a technique using the satellite, LANDSAT IV that enables them to concentrate enforcement resources in high potential areas.

This year the Bureau of Indian Affairs expanded its Marijuana Eradication and Reconnaissance Center in Eugene, Oregon. The center specializes in providing basic and advanced courses in marijuana eradication. More than 150 officers from BIA, tribal governments and state, county and other federal agencies were trained in the spring, double the number last year.

U.S. Park Police also have increased their drug enforcement activity in urban parks and monuments in San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C. with 524 people arrested since mid-June for trafficking, use or possession of illegal drugs. Park police have noticed an increase in use and trafficking in PCP and LSD, both hallucinogens, and in crack-cocaine, and increasing contacts with armed drug dealers. "Since public lands comprise a significant portion of our coastlines and borders use of these areas as transshipment points for drug smuggling continues to be a problem" Hodel said. "Interior enforcement agents in cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Customs Service have uncovered a number of huge shipments of cocaine heroin and marijuana

'"We will not tolerate any level of illegal drug activity on our public lands. These areas are for the enjoyment of the American people and we are determined to keep them drug free." Below is a list of States where marijuana eradication activities have occurred on Interior lands this summer:

Note: In most instances, several marijuana cultivation sites were eradicated on each of the Federal land areas identified above. The term "public lands" refers to areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

-DOI-

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown said today the President's fiscal year 1991 budget request of $1.7 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will reverse a decade-long trend of reducing resources available to carry out the Bureau's responsibilities to the Indian people of this country.

While the total FY 1991 budget request for direct federal appropriations and permanent appropriations and trust funds is $186 million less than the current 1990 estimate, the main operating account for BIA -- Operation of Indian Programs -- shows an increase of over $30 million on direct program impact.

"Over the past 20 years, the service population of the BIA has doubled, while funding for the main operating account has remained essentially the same. This budget increase in the Operation of Indian Programs is reflected in the areas of education, drug abuse prevention and law enforcement programs, and self-determination services. The budget request also recognizes long-standing issues of internal control problems, and increases funding for programs carried out at the agency level either directly by the Bureau or through contracts with tribes and tribal organizations," Brown said.

He pointed out that the $186 million difference in the FY 1991 request and 1990 estimate reflects one-time costs in FY 1990, particularly the $54 million conversion of tribal contracts to calendar year funding, and Indian water and land settlements of $140 million.

The increases in the Operation of Indian Programs is reflected in:

--Education - increase of more than $16 million for school operations;

--Tribal Services - a net increase of $12 million;

--Trust Responsibilities and Natural Resources Development - a net increase of more than $10 million to improve trust property and financial assets held in trust for Indian tribes and individuals; and

--General Administration - An increase of $3 million to address internal controls issues and education program management.

Brown said the requested increases in education will fund the second increment of a phased increase in salaries for teachers and counselors in Bureau schools to better enable the Bureau to effectively compete for the recruitment and retention of skilled professions. The budget retains the FY 1990 Congressional increase for the Gifted and Talented program for a total resource level of $3.6 million. $1 million is requested to provide training in areas such as effective school management, leadership skills, methods for fostering parental involvement in the education of their children, and teaching techniques which have proven successful in raising the achievement of Indian children. The Bureau will also initiate a demonstration program at 10 schools using the nationally recognized 'Parents as Teachers' program emphasizing early childhood education and enhance parental and community involvement in the educational process. A $20 million request to cover the administrative costs of tribal contractors and grantees who operate bureau-funded schools represents a $6 million increase.

In Tribal Services, a program of technical assistance grants to tribes as authorized by the self-determination amendments is proposed to be funded at a level of $4.4 million. This amount includes continuation of the small tribe core management grant program. A $3.5 million increased request will staff and operate emergency shelters constructed under the authority of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act; a $2 million increased request will expand child protection efforts on Indian reservations; and $4 million will support enhanced law enforcement efforts bureau-wide.

In the area of Trust Responsibilities, an increase of $2.5 million is requested to clean up hazardous waste sites, particularly at three reservation sites -- Spokane in Washington state, Cherokee in Oklahoma, and Hoopa Valley in California; an increase of $2.3 million to improve operations of the land title and records offices; an increase of $1 million to address the large backlog of Indian estates awaiting probate action; and $2.8 million for financial trust services. The latter will support additional audits by third parties of funds held in trust by BIA, and will support needed organizational improvements.

In Natural Resources Development, $2 million is requested to eradicate noxious weeds on agricultural and range lands and $1 million is proposed to continue prairie dog control programs. The forest development program will be expanded as the budget request rises to a total level of $10.2 million with the increase of $2 million. These funds will continue the reforestation backlog reduction effort and provide silviculture treatment for those lands previously reforested, and speed forest management inventories and plans allowing BIA to address the needs of additional forested lands which have been acquired by tribes.

Increases requested in the General Administration area includes $1 million to establish an office of audit and evaluation charged with conducting programmatic and financial reviews, working with the Office of the Inspector General and the General Accounting Office in audits conducted by these organizations; and ensuring necessary corrective actions institutionalized within the Bureau. $2.3 million is requested for the Office of Data Systems to replace outdated automatic data 3 processing equipment and to improve services to the field. An increased request of $1 million will expand the participation of volunteers in the Bureau-funded education system, develop research instruments for the conduct of longitudinal studies on student progress, and support monitoring and evaluation teams who will conduct on-site, in-depth reviews of 45 Bureau-funded schools annually. An increase of $200,000 will fund a consolidated training program to improve the presence of women and minorities in the management levels of BIA.

The major decreases in the FY 1991 request includes a $3.1 million reduction in the Johnson-O'Malley Education Assistance programs which provides funds for supplementary programs for students enrolled in public schools. "Our first priority for improving educational attainment of Indian children is to strengthen those schools funded by the Bureau," Assistant secretary Brown said.

A net reduction of $4.8 million is proposed for Wildlife and Parks -- $2.3 million in rights protection implementation in Western Washington: $300,000 in the Columbia River fisheries programs: and $837,000 in funding for the Voight case fisheries.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown today announced the appointment of Edward F. Parisian as Deputy to the Assistant Secretary and Director of Indian Education Programs in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Parisian, an enrolled member of the Chippewa-Cree tribe of Montana, has served as Superintendent of Schools of the Rocky Boy Indian reservation in Box Elder, Montana, since July 1983. His new appointment is effective Feb. 1.

"I am pleased that Ed Parisian has agreed to come aboard to direct our education program in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is an exciting time in education: President Bush has committed his Administration to improving education at all levels and we have the active support of Secretary Lujan as we work with the tribes to finalize our education goals for Indian children for this decade," Brown said. "Ed Parisian has the educational background and experience to lead our efforts."

"It is an honor to be asked to head up the education program in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I look forward to working closely with Assistant Secretary Brown to make the necessary changes in Indian education programs to better serve our young people. I know that we have the support and commitment of President Bush and Secretary Lujan; together, we can make a difference," Parisian said.

Parisian, 40, has more than 19 years experience in the field of education. As superintendent of Schools at Rocky Boy, he directed all phases of administration and supervision of a 472-student school system from Headstart through 12th grade. Prior to his appointment as superintendent in 1983, he served for two years as director of the Rocky Boy tribal education program. From 1980 to 1981, Parisian was tribal health director and planner for the Rocky Boy Health Board while pursuing his doctoral degree in educational administration at Montana State University. His teaching experience includes courses in human growth and development at Stone Child College, and social studies .at Browning (Mont.) Junior High School. He has evaluated more than 30 Indian education programs under Title IV and Title VII for school systems in North and South Dakota, Washington, D.C., Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi and Utah.

The Fort Belknap, Montana, native holds an M.A. in educational administration from the University of South Dakota (1977), and a B.A. in physical education (1974) and a A.A. in liberal arts (1973) from Eastern Montana College. He has been a member of the National Indian Education Association since 1973, a member of its board of directors since 1982, and served as its president for the 1988-89 term. He is a member of Phi Delta Kappa, American Association of School Administrators, National Indian Impact Schools, and Montana Indian Education Association.

Parisian was named to Who's Who in the West in 1985; Outstanding Indian Administrator by the Montana Indian Education Association, 1982, and one of the Outstanding Young Men of America the same year.

He is married to the former Barbara Racine. They have two children.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that he will hold a series of mini-summit meetings around the country with tribal chairmen and educators aimed at improving the quality of Indian education in America. The first of these meetings is scheduled for February 12 - 13, 1990, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and will include representatives from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The Secretary, who recently announced the appointment Edward Parisian to be Director of Indian Education in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), said he expects the Santa Fe meeting will develop new ideas to enhance the education of the 40,000 Native American students attending schools funded by the Bureau. "Eleven percent of all Indian children attend those schools, and it is my goal to bring the quality of education at these institutions up to, or above, national standards by the year 2000," Lujan said.

The Indian Education mini-summit will focus primarily on four areas identified by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie Brown as needing major improvements. These are: parental and community involvement, early childhood development, the elevation of expectations in Indian schools and effective evaluation of schools, students, and teachers.

The Santa Fe meeting, which will consist of a series of panel discussions, addresses and workshops, will take place at the Santa Fe Indian School, 1300 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe. Secretary Lujan will give the opening address at 10:00 am on February 12. The next conference is tentatively scheduled for March 12, in Rapid City, South Dakota.