OPA

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced his intention to appoint Joel Matthew Frank, Sr., a Seminole from Hollywood, Florida, to serve on the newly-created National Indian Gaming Commission.

"Joel Frank is extremely well-qualified for the demanding tasks involved in establishing the National Indian Gaming Commission," Lujan said. "His experience as Vice Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association will be an especially important asset in helping build a framework for successful operation of the Commission."

The Commission is being established in accordance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (P.L. 100-497) enacted by the 100th Congress. The three-member commission will regulate, establish standards for, and monitor gaming on Indian lands and reservations. The public will have 30 days to comment on the selection before it can be made official by Lujan. Earlier this year, President Bush nominated and the U.S Senate confirmed Tony Hope to serve as chairman of the commission. Under the Act, the Secretary of the Interior names the other two members of the Commission, but must allow for a comment period after announcing his choice. Lujan said he is close to selecting the third and final member.

Frank, an enrolled member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, has been Executive Administrator of that tribal government since 1982. Previous to that he served as Assistant Health Director and as a health planner for his tribe. From 1975-1979, Frank was the health administrator for the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida. Currently, he is President of the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc.; Vice Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association, and a member of the Florida Governor's Council on Indian Affairs. He also has served as Vice President and Secretary of the United South College and St. Thomas University in Miami, Fla. Comments on the nomination should be addressed to Morris Simms, Director of Personnel, Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20240.

Extensive investigations by the Bureau of Indian ·Affairs (BIA) have exonerated Kenneth Whitehorn, former BIA agency superintendent for education on the Tohono O'odham reservation, of allegations he had prior knowledge that an employee he hired had been involved in a child abuse case in Arizona.

Thomas Goff, hired by Whitehorn in July, 1985, as principal of the Santa Rosa Boarding School at Tohono O'odham, had previously served for nine and one-half years as superintendent of the Polacca Day School on the Hopi Indian reservation where a former teacher, John Boone, was charged in 1987 with multiple counts of child molestation.

After the arrest of Boone, allegations surfaced that Whitehorn had prior knowledge of the child abuse which had not come to light when Goff was hired at Santa Rosa. Subsequent investigations by BIA found no truth to the allegations, and that Whitehorn had no knowledge or involvement in the Boone case whatsoever.

Goff retired from the BIA earlier this year. Whitehorn declined to accept reassignment to Washington, D.C. and has been separated from the federal service. Boone pled guilty to charges against him and is serving a life sentence.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that effective December 17, William D. Bettenberg, a 26-year Department employee, has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs.

Bettenberg served for almost five years as Director of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) and as MMS associate director for Offshore Minerals Management. In March of 1990, he was named as a special assistant to Lujan.

"I welcome Bill Bettenberg to the Indian Affairs staff," said Eddie Brown, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. "His outstanding credentials, experience and knowledge of Indian issues will help us to fulfill this Administration's responsibilities and commitments to the Indian people."

Bettenberg began his career at Interior ·n 1954 as a Bureau of Mines analyst working in automation and redesign of financial management systems. In 1972, he became a program analyst with the Department's Office of Economic Analysis. Two years later in 1974, he became Deputy Director of Interior's Budget Office, and was named Director of that office in 1979. He served as deputy assistant secretary for Policy, Budget and Administration from 1981 to 1983.

Bettenberg was born in Inglewood, California, and grew up in Richland, Washington. He holds a master's degree ·n political science from the University of Washington, and did additional graduate work in economics and public policy under the auspices of the National Institute for Public Administration from 1981 to 1983.

He is a charter member of the Senior Executive Service and holds the SES Meritorious and Distinguished Executive Awards. He received the Interior Department's Distinguished Service Award in 1983.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced the appointment of six private citizens as members of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee "The committee faces a challenging set or tasks," Lujan said in making the appointments. "Among their duties, they must advise me on regulations needed to implement the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, and they will assist in the resolution of disputes caused by its requirements. This will require careful reading of the law and a willingness to listen to each side of an issue."

The appointees are:

Ms. Rachel Craig, an Inupiaq Native from Kotzebue, Alaska, who has been active throughout the state in efforts to save Native cultural traditions;

Dan Monroe, President of the Oregon Art Institute, Portland, who played a leading role for the American Association of Museums in development of the 1990 legislation;

Ms. Tessie Naranjo, a Santa Clara Pueblo from Espanola, New Mexico, active in cultural preservation at Santa Clara Pueblo and the collections manager for Pojoaque Pueblo;

Dr. Martin Sullivan, Director of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, who has been active at the national and regional levels in repatriation issues;

William Tallbull, of Lame Deer, Montana, tribal historian for the Northern Cheyenne;

Dr. Philip Walker, a physical anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology, University of California at Santa Barbara, who also serves as chair of the Task Force on Repatriation of the Society for American Archaeology.

The committee will monitor, review and assist in implementation of certain requirements of the 1990 law. The statute requires that federal agencies and museums that receive federal funds inventory Native American remains and funerary objects in their collections and offer to repatriate those items to lineal descendants or culturally affiliated tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations. The law also provides additional protection for Native American graves on federal or tribal lands, and it includes a means for repatriating human remains or funerary objects recovered from such lands since November 1990. Appointees to the committee were selected from nominations the Secretary received from tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, traditional religious leaders, and national museum and scientific organizations.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today directed implementation of short-term and long-range plans-to improve regulation of gaming on Indian reservations

"These actions are intended to assure that tribes can maintain gaming as a viable economic enterprise while implementing controls," Lujan said. "We are moving to assure adequate protection of the general public and tribal communities from undesirable elements of gaming, to develop better coordination between the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice, to alleviate law enforcement risks involved with gaming and to coordinate responsibilities with the National Indian Gaming Commission."

Eddie F. Brown, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, has appointed Hilda Manuel as interim head of the Gaming Action Team to implement the plans ordered by Lujan. Manuel, an attorney and former tribal judge, has worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the past two years and presently is director of the Office of Tribal Government Services.

Brown said that the Gaming Action Team will include individuals skilled in law, accounting, gaming management, law enforcement and other areas key to gaming.

The action plans approved by Lujan were drawn up by a Task Force on Indian Gaming Management, appointed by the Secretary in December.

As part of the short-term plan, the team will work with tribes and contractors to make whatever corrective actions may be necessary to insure compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and Interior Department guidelines.

Lujan said that actions should be taken to bring tribes currently operating Class III (casino) gaming without tribal state compacts into compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Where unauthorized games and operators are found, legal actions will be taken to halt operations. The team is to work with the Department of Justice to bring about criminal prosecution of crimes involving gaming.

An Indian Gaming Management Office within the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be established to oversee background checks, monitor gaming contractors, approve per capita plans for distribution of income from Indian gaming, handle tribal/state compact approvals, process off-reservation trust acquisitions, and coordinate transition of various functions and responsibilities as the National Indian Gaming Commission becomes fully operational. The commission, authorized by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, is in the process of establishing regulations under which it will operate.

Lujan ordered the Solicitor of the Department and the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs to strengthen coordination with the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in fulfilling the mandates of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that the Department's Fiscal Year 1993 $8.6 billion budget continues the President's commitment to enhancing our Nation's human, natural, historical and cultural resources while generating employment and economic opportunities.

"This Administration has made great progress in improving our Federal lands and protecting our resources while enhancing economic development nationwide," Lujan said. "By increasing spending for the newly combined America the Beautiful and Legacy '99 initiatives to $1. 5 billion as well as strengthening the Tribal Horizons program, the President's FY 1993 budget ensures that this progress will continue. The construction and maintenance aspects of the Legacy '99 initiative generate over 10,000 private sector jobs a year."

Tribal Horizons, initiated by Lujan in FY 1992, is slated for a $15.3 million increase. The total budget for the Tribal Horizon program, which emphasizes improved education, self-determination and economic development opportunities for American Indians, is $865 million.

Interior's budget request supports the President's Education 2000 goals by giving education-related activities strong emphasis. Activities under the President's Math, Science and Engineering Education initiative total $88.4 million for 1993, an increase of $5.2 million. This includes an increase of $3 million for the Parks as Classrooms program to teach America's school children about the Nation's natural resources. For Indian students in Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools, the budget proposes an increase of $12 million.

In a new initiative, Lujan is proposing $4 million for the first year of a three-year program to preserve historic buildings at 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The United Negro College Fund will match the Federal program.

In addition, the President's budget requests $42.8 million for the War on Drugs, which will focus on drug trafficking in the southwest border area. Funding of$ 6.5 million has been requested to support volunteer programs at National Parks and wildlife refuges, and in other Interior agencies. Last year, 109,000 volunteers donated 4.8 million hours of work with an estimated value of $52 million to Interior agencies.

The budget also assumes passage of legislation in 1992 to permit development of oil and gas resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). "Environmentally responsible development in ANWR would have enormous economic benefits, creating more than 200,000 jobs nationwide and providing an estimated $125 billion in revenues to Federal and state governments while reducing our dependence on imported oil," Lujan said.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown said today the President's fiscal year 1993 Budget of $1.88 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will continue to strengthen the foundation established last year by President Bush and Interior Secretary Lujan to reform the delivery of key social, financial, and natural resource programs to American Indians.

"In continuing to reform the delivery of services for American Indians and Alaska Natives, this budget emphasizes and aids in the shift of responsibilities and resources from the BIA to tribes in order to provide them with the authority, flexibility, and resources to set and implement their own goals and priorities and directly administer Indian programs," Brown said.

"The President's 1993 Budget request sustains and augments by $15.3 million the Tribal Horizons initiative begun in 1992. It is designed to enhance self-determination, emphasize education and improve the management and accountability of the BIA.

The 1993 budget request for BIA contains increases that enhance the efforts already underway to support the goal of Indian Self-determination through economic development, self-governance and welfare reform. Self-determination allows each tribe to establish overall goals and plans, to make decisions on funding priorities, and to operate more programs under contracts, grants, self- governance compacts, or other financial arrangements.

The budget estimate for 1993 of $1.88 billion includes miscellaneous permanent appropriations, revolving funds and trust accounts. For BIA's operating programs, the 1993 budget request is $1.21 billion which is a decrease of $12 million from the comparable 1992 enacted amount.

A key element of the Tribal Horizons initiative is an emphasis on tribal self-determination and priority setting through the Indian Priority System (IPS) whose funding priorities for programs are set locally, at the reservation and agency level. The share of the IPS as a percentage of the total BIA budget will increase from 23 percent to 35 percent -- from $356.8 million to $488.1 million. The 1993 budget proposes to shift the Welfare Grant and Johnson O'Malley (JOM) programs into the IPS.

Moving the General Assistance program to the IPS will be combined with regulatory modifications to allow tribes to establish their own welfare approaches as is currently done by state governments. Based on the concept of government-to-government relationships and self-determination, individual tribes will be provided the opportunity to tailor welfare programs to their individual situations and objectives, rather than using the single nationwide approach.

Shifting the JOM program which funds supplemental education programs for Indian children in public schools to the IPS, will allow tribes in the future to set their own priorities among this program and all other programs on the IPS. Included in the total IPS funds request is $30.7 million for the self-governance compacts whereby the 16 participating tribal governments are afforded all feasible opportunities for the direct management and funding of programs administered by the Department which benefit their tribal members.

Programmatically, the IPS includes an increase of about $1.3 million which would be used for various programs such as law enforcement, social services, forestry, and other program priorities as determined at the local level.

The Self-Determination element of Tribal Horizons also includes increases for Indian Child Welfare grants and for an advisory board on BIA reorganization. The funds for Indian Child Welfare would continue to address the problem of child abuse and neglect in Indian country. The budget proposes to increase the Indian Child Welfare program by $1.7 million to $18.5 million. Continuing the initiative begun in 1992, funds will be distributed under a formula based on tribal population of children. Grant funds can be used for day care operations, parent training, legal representation of children, developing and implementing welfare codes, temporary child custody, and other intervention and prevention activities. An increase of $0.5 million would fund the annual costs of the Joint Tribal/BIA/Interior Advisory Task Force on BIA reorganization. In the past year, the Task Force has proved to be a highly effective forum for tribal leaders and Departmental officials to discuss BIA reorganization proposals.

Economic Development is a new category within Tribal Horizons. In large measure, it is an initiative being proposed within existing funding levels, but with a change of focus and greater concentration of BIA's relevant management resources, including loan programs, technical assistance, and job training. Major components of this initiative are:

• creation of a new Office of Economic Development in BIA within existing funds and an interagency work group to identify, coordinate, and develop Federal policies and programs throughout the Government that are or can be adapted to promote economic development of reservations;
• improving the administration of the Loan Guarantee program;
• making more extensive use of the Buy. Indian Act and exploring international and other promising market opportunities;
• targeting the BIA and other infrastructure programs within the Federal Government to promote economic development;
• providing technical assistance to improve Indian business decision-making and the reservation climate for business; and
• targeting job training to serve industry and market needs

Specific program elements include:

Indian Guaranteed Loan Program: This program is new to the Tribal Horizons initiative in the 1993 budget. The requested amount of $9.8 million will fund new loan guarantee commitments of $68.8 million in 1993, an increase of $12.4 million (+22 percent) over the amount funded in 1992. The BIA is emphasizing the Guaranteed Loan program and commercial lending by private banks as a means of financing more Indian enterprises and supporting Indian economic development. The BIA will continue to guarantee commercial loans at up to 90 percent of principal and, where necessary, provide interest subsidy payments for up to five years to encourage more lending by the private sector.

Technical Assistance to Indian Enterprises: This program is also a new addition to Tribal Horizons in 1993 and, along with Community and Economic Development Grants and the Guaranteed Loan program, will provide resources to encourage and support economic development in Indian country. The budget proposes an increase of $2.0 million for this program over the 1992 enacted level of $1.0 million. Indian tribes and individually owned businesses can use these funds to hire technical expertise to expand their capacities in areas important to their economic development efforts, such as business plans, accounting systems, obtaining financing, or market evaluations.

To complement the economic development initiative, the recently enacted Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-240) more than doubles the amount of funding available to the BIA from the Federal Highway Trust Fund for road construction on Indian lands. In addition, BIA is permitted to use up to 15 percent of road construction funds for road sealing. A total of $1.114 billion is authorized between 1992 and 1997 for construction, with $159 million authorized in 1992 and $191 million authorized each year from 1993 through 1997. Road maintenance funding will continue at $29.3 million in 1993. These newly enacted authorization levels greatly expand BIA's road construction and sealing programs which were funded at $80.0 million and $11.4 million in 1992, respectively.

More than 31 percent of the President' 1993 Budget request for direct appropriations for BIA is tor it’s elementary and secondary education programs. The request increases basic school funding through the Indian School Equalization Program (ISEP) by $7.0 million for a total of $209 million; more than doubles the amount for Early Childhood Development to $6.3 million; increases the rehabilitation of BIA schools by $1.9 million for a total of 51.5 million and adds $1.7 million to initiate an Innovi1tive School Grants program.

Increases in the ISEP formula will be used to address projected increases in enrollment and school expansions. Funding for student transportation costs will increase by $1 million to a total of $20 million for the additional students and to cover increased rate-per-mile costs. One feature of the Early Childhood Development program is the training of parents to function as teachers of their preschoolers. For three-to-four-year olds, emphasis will be placed on preschool activities that enhance readiness for classroom education. Parents will attend parental skill classes or classes geared toward obtaining a GED diploma or meeting other adult education goals.

The $1.7 million for Innovative School Grants will be awarded to at least five American Indian schools in conjunction with their communities to create new partnerships among Indian communities, educators, tribal leaders, and entrepreneurs, and will emphasize innovative and proven strategies in the areas of learning and school organizations. BIA has a considerable backlog of repair work in its schools and the increase in this program to $51.l million will be used in its facilities improvement and repair program.

A requested increase of $6.7 million will assist the Bureau in continuing the significant progress improving its management and accountability. In September 1991, BIA successfully converted to a new accounting system. Special emphasis will continue to be placed on improving financial management, trust funds management, data processing, procurement, personnel, and other management problems. In the last year the BIA has reduced gross cash imbalances by $400 million, produced timely and internally consistent Treasury reports, implemented new internal control policies and procedures, and completed problem analysis studies pre1paratory to undertaking a variety of other corrective actions. $4.7 million of the increase will assist in · continuing to improve the management of the more than $2 billion in tribal and individual trust funds and to audit and reconcile the trust accounts.

The increases in the Operation of Indian Programs account are partially offset by reductions in natural resource development (-$20.9 million); trust responsibilities (-$4.5 million): and discontinuance of the Business Development Grant program (-$6.9 million). The first two reductions reflect a funding level insufficient to continue budget increases added by congress in FY 1992. The focus for economic development activities is being shifted from the grant program to the guaranteed loan program in order to make more use of private sector financing.

Funds are included in the construction account to complete the construction of the Pinon Community School Dormitory in Arizona which will house 500 students and to provide replacement classroom space for the Many Farms High School in Arizona. The construction account reflects decreases of $37 million below the FY 1992 level for irrigation project construction, $22.7 million for buildings and utilities, $6.5 million for the Housing Improvement program, and $12.4 million for road construction and maintenance. The reduction in road maintenance will be more than offset by the funds available to the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the Highway Trust Fund which allows the BIA to use 15 percent of the allocation from the Department of Transportation for road sealing projects.

A reduction of $55.9 million in the request for Miscellaneous Payments to Indians reflects the fact that full funding has been made available in prior years to complete the Federal Government's obligation in -funding several water rights settlement acts.

Included in the budget request is $31.7 million to meet the Secretary's obligations in various settlement agreements. These include: $8.0 million for the second installment of the $25.0 million Zuni Indian Resource Development Fund; $8.0 million for the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribal Settlement Fund; $8.0 million for the Pyramid lake Paiute Settlement; $5.0 million to implement various portions of the Fort Hall Indian Water Settlement Act; and $1.5 million for the final payment in the Aleutian-Pribiloff Restitution.

Forty-three Indian tribal leaders and officials of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will meet January 27-29 at Washington, D.C.'s Dulles Airport to finalize a report to the Secretary of the Interior on the reorganization of the BIA.

The tenth meeting of the Joint Tribal/BIA/DOI Advisory Task Force for the organization of the BIA will be held from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day at the Remada Renaissance Hotel at Washington Dulles Airport locate in Northern Virginia. The Task Force will hear testimony from Indian tribal leaders and Indian organizations from Eastern Area states on their ideas as to how the BIA should be reorganized to better serve Indian tribes and individuals. The meeting is open to the general public.

The report to be submitted to Secretary Manuel Lujan is expected to include recommendations on the organizational structure at both the central and field offices of the BIA as well as budgetary recommendations.

Established for a two-year period last January by Interior Secretary Lujan, the Task Force is comprised of 36 Indian tribal leaders, two D I officials and five BIA personnel. A status report on their reorganization efforts was submitted to Secretary Lujan and the U.S. Congress last April. The Dulles meeting will be the fifth since that report was submitted. The Task Force last met in Tampa, Florida in December.

Eddie F. Brown, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in Interior, is co -chair of the Task Force for the federal representatives, and Wendell Chino, President of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, is co-chair as the tribal leader’s representative.

The names of Task Force members are enclosed as well as a briefing paper that summarizes the Task Force's actions to date.

Notices to vacate the premises within 10 days will be sent on April 15, 1992, to persons without valid leases on spaces in the Havasu Landing Mobile home Park on the Chemehuevi Indian reservation in California

The Department of the Interior's Field Solicitor in Phoenix reported today that approximately 400 people have not signed valid leases. Those who do not reach agreement with the tribe before April 15 will receive the notices.

The notices will state that failure to vacate the premises within 10 days will result in a request that the U.S. Attorney for California file suit for ejectment and for trespass damages. Punitive damages also may be requested for willful and malicious refusal to deliver possession to the tribe

Havasu Landing Mobile home Park is located on land held in trust for the Chemehuevi Indian tribe by the Secretary of the Interior. Occupants of about 400 spaces have failed to apply for new leases as requested by the tribal government in August 1991. These occupants have been informed that they do not hold valid leases. To be valid, leases must be approved by the tribe and the Secretary of the Interior as required by federal law.

The Chemehuevi reservation is on the California side of the Lake Havasu area of the Colorado River, south of Needles and across from Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada Deer today announced her resignation. Deer, appointed by President Clinton in 1993, is the first American Indian woman to serve in this position.

At the request of Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Deer has agreed to remain in office until a successor is in place. Deer said she is not ready to announce her future plans publicly at this time.

"It has been an honor to serve in this office during the first term of the Clinton Administration," said Deer, "and I will leave this position knowing we have succeeded in achieving some significant milestones on behalf of American Indians. I am proud to have been in a leadership role during this Administration and to have played a part in advancing President Clinton's commitments to Indian people. I have deeply appreciated the support of tribal leaders these last four years and I extend my warmest appreciation to my staff for their dedication and hard work."

Secretary Babbitt thanked Deer for her leadership during a period of great progress on American Indian and Alaska Native issues. "Ada has been the catalyst for significant changes in the way the Department approaches Indian Affairs," said Secretary Babbitt." "Her priority has been on righting historic wrongs. She has worked to resolve longstanding disputes and to settle problems without long, expensive court battles. Ada has overseen the transfer of greater authority to tribal governments, and, as a result, tribes are better equipped and more empowered than ever before. Her accomplishments over the last three and a half years are just the most recent chapter in a lifetime of outstanding public service and leadership."

Assistant Secretary Deer is known as a champion of Indian rights. She is the former Chairman of the Menominee Restoration Committee where she led a successful campaign to restore federal recognition to the Tribe.

"Secretary Deer has been a forceful and persuasive advocate for the rights and powers of Tribes throughout the United States," said Lawrence A. Aschenbrenner, directing attorney of the Native American Rights Fund. "She is simply the most admired, most respected and most loved