OPA

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs announces the dedication of a new Jr/Sr High School at Fort Hall, Idaho for the Shoshone-Bannock. Federal, state and tribal agencies worked cooperatively to provide funding for the construction of this new school. The school is designed in traditional motif and is considered one of the most beautiful educational facilities in the State of Idaho. The facility will offer state-of-the-art equipment, resources, and instruction for the Fort Hall Indian Community.

"It is with deep regret that I will not be able to attend the dedication of the Shoshone-Bannock Jr/Sr High School on the 6th, but a prior commitment to attend a meeting with the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council prevents me from being there," Ms. Deer said. "I congratulate the Fort Hall Indian Community on their efforts to make a dream come true for their Indian children. The school's design sounds as if it will establish a comfortable, conducive learning environment for them. As a social worker I have always placed a priority on the health, welfare, and education of our Indian children. The dedication and commitment in constructing this school which will provide state-of-the-art educational opportunities must be commended. The present investment of time, energy, and money will reap many future returns for your community in terms of the students that leave your school, that become well-adjusted productive adults - Indian adults that will in tum contribute to the continued success of your Indian community. I will be in Alaska during the dedication of your new school, but my spirit and thoughts will be with you throughout the day. May your new school be successful, forever."

The dedication of the Fort Hall, Shoshone-Bannock Jr/Sr High School will be held on December 6, 1996 at 2:00 pm., at Fort Hall, Idaho. However, day long activities will be featured, including a traditional feast, and pow-wow/dance. Contact Mr. Marvin Osborne, Chairperson, School Dedication Committee at (208) 238-3980 for more information.

The Department of the Interior has presented to Congress an initial report that outlines proposed legislative settlement options for resolving disputed balances in Tribal trust accounts. The report and recommendations are in response to a five-year study by a national accounting firm which examined billions of dollars in Tribal trust fund transactions handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a 20-year period beginning in 1972.

"We are committed to resolving these issues in a manner that is fair to the Tribes and fair to the public, and that does justice," said Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. "Where the government has been found to owe money, we will pay it, with interest."

The study, which was undertaken for the BIA by the national accounting firm Arthur Andersen, LLP, determined that 86 percent - or $15.3 billion - of the $17.7 billion the BIA handled in Tribal trust fund non-investment transactions from July 1972 to September 1992 could be reconciled, i.e., supporting documents could be located. Of the reconciled transactions, Arthur Andersen detected an error rate of only .01%. Other components of the project assessed the accuracy of other transactions, the reasonableness of investments, and the propriety of income collected. Overall, slightly less than half of the errors detected were to the detriment of the Tribes and the balance were to the benefit of the Tribes.

Where the BIA was found to have made errors to the detriment of a Tribe, the Department proposes that funds be restored to the Tribe, with interest. Where a Tribe may owe the government money after netting all errors relating to that Tribe's account, the amount would be forgiven. For claims where a Tribe disputes a transaction based on the Tribe's own documentation, or for claims where a Tribe disputes the BIA's documentation used to reconcile a transaction, those claims would be addressed through mediation.

There were also transactions in the amount of $2.4 billion that could not be reconciled, meaning that during the course of the study, the BIA was not able to locate documentation to support the accuracy of the transaction as reflected in the BIA's books (known as the general ledger). The report indicates that with respect to three quarters of this amount, there is relatively little risk that a Tribe did not have use of its own money (although the funds conceivably could have been credited to the wrong account of that Tribe). As a result, settlement options with regard to the unreconciled transactions will focus on the remaining $575 million in transactions. Options to address these transactions, as well as any other claims that Tribes may have involving transactions outside the scope of the 20-year study, will be the focus of consultation efforts by the Department with the Tribes.

"The overriding objective of this settlement is to achieve fairness and justice with respect to Tribal trust account balances," states the Interior Department report. "We are committed to doing the best job we can, recognizing the limitations of what has occurred in the past and the available information, to restore funds to Tribal trust accounts that have suffered losses as a result of inadequacies in the Department's management and accounting systems. The effort must be principled and undertaken in good faith, while, at the same time, protecting the public fiscally where little or no reasonable likelihood of loss exists."

The Interior Department was guided by the following objectives in formulating its legislative proposals:

• achieve a settlement that is fair
• achieve the most resource-efficient settlement of claims (in terms of conserving federal government and Tribal time, money, and staff, including attorneys' and expert witness fees)
• encourage settlement by providing incentives to settle and by providing disincentives to litigation
• use the most informal settlement processes available rather than litigation to encourage Tribal participation
• obtain funding for the settlement without reducing appropriations for the BIA budget and Tribal programs
• achieve final agreement on account balances through September 30, 1995, as required in the Act, as an agreed upon starting point for the future

The Interior Department report was submitted by Secretary Babbitt to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Committee on Natural Resources. The Department will be consulting with Tribes on the options contained in the report, including meetings in January in Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; and Washington, D.C. It will submit further proposals to Congress for settling Tribal trust fund account balances in April 1997. In addition, early next spring, the Special Trustee, appointed by the President to reform the Department's trust management systems, will submit his strategic plan to the Secretary and Congress for bringing the trust accounting and management functions up to industry standards.

The Quileute Tribe of LaPush, Washington, today became the first federally recognized tribal nation to contract with the Federal Telecommunications Service to receive low rates and reliable service for voice, data, and video transmission service.

"As we approach the 21st Century, it is imperative that tribes and tribal members--especially our young people--have economical access to the Information Age," said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer during a signing ceremony today in the office of the U.S. General Services Administration Acting Administrator David J. Barram. Through a new service agreement that is available, the nation's 554 federally recognized tribes can now realize considerable savings and expand the use of new technology such as the Internet for schools, economic development, and other tribal needs.

Quileute tribal representative Sherman Black signed the FTS 2000 service agreement that he said will allow the tribe to economically use long-distance services for videoconferencing, data transmission, and phone calls. "I am honored to be the first to sign this agreement. This agreement will provide new long-distance service to our community and school in LaPush - and with substantial savings over our current commercial long-distance service rates," Black said. The Quileute Tribe can now use the FTS 2000 for such tribal programs as law enforcement, a fishery, and a school.

"This agreement supports the' Clinton Administration's objectives of strengthening intergovernmental partnerships, providing access to the information superhighway, and increasing the use of technology to streamline financial services," said GSA Acting Administrator Barram.

Tribes interested in learning more about the FTS 2000 services can contact Alvin Woods at (703) 7ffJ7568 or Julie Belindo at (703) 904-2803.

Ada E. Deer announced today that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma (the Nation) by the federal government. "This settlement will bring to a conclusion almost five (5) decades of dispute over the issue of pollution, caused by oil and gas drilling, of groundwater used by the Nation," Ms. Deer said.

The Department of Justice at the request of the Bureau of Indian Affairs instituted a lawsuit against Tenneco Oil Company, this year, for contaminating the water supply and lands used by the Nation. Tenneco implemented a process which involved the injection of saltwater into the ground in large volumes under high pressure in order to force oil and gas into adjacent wells to be pumped to the surface. The federal government contended that the Nation's sole source of drinking water was ruined by Tenneco's failure to properly construct and maintain the water flooding and oil production systems.

The settlement will provide the Nation with a new water system and $1.16 million in compensation for contamination to the water supply and tribal lands. Additionally, Tenneco will reforest a pecan grove, restore an area of tribal land damaged by oil and gas related activities and install a water recovery system on the Deep Fork River, which crosses tribal lands, enabling the Nation to irrigate the land and develop a farming economy.

The federal government filed the lawsuit under the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act. This lawsuit demonstrates the cooperation which exists among various federal agencies (in this case, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Justice) in protecting the interests of federally recognized tribes. "The BIA will continue to support tribal governmental sovereignty by ensuring that the federal government properly exercises its trust responsibility," Ms. Deer said.

A $9.1-million contract has been awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe for a much-needed adult and juvenile detention center that will be constructed by the tribe's Weeminuche Construction Authority.

"We are gratified and thankful that the tribe's critical need for this facility is finally being met," said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover. "I thank Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) for his longstanding support for this project and also thank the chairmen of the Interior Appropriations Committees, Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) and Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH), for their assistance."

The new Ute Mountain Ute Adult and Juvenile Detention Center will consist of a 12-bed juvenile detention center and a 38-bed adult detention center on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in Montezuma County, CO. Construction funds for the center are being transferred by the BIA to the tribe's construction authority through a Public Law 638 contract. Construction will be completed in approximately 18 months.

The new facility is, in part, the result of a recent Federal Court Consent Decree requiring the BIA to immediately address the operations and facility conditions of the existing detention center.

The day-to-day responsibility for providing police and detention services to the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation was transferred on January 1 from the BIA agency superintendent to the BIA's Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES). The OLES is working closely with the U.S. Attorney, District of Colorado; the Indian Health Service; the Department of the Interior Regional Solicitor; and the Federal Court to address the current detention center's deficiencies and to provide quality detention services.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' Housing Improvement Program (HIP), which provides a safety net for needy American Indian families who do not qualify for assistance from other housing programs, is streamlining its procedures to ensure that those with greatest need will receive safe, sound, and sanitary housing more quickly.

"We look forward to enacting these new procedures because they will speed the delivery of decent housing to the neediest tribal members," said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover.

The new rules will be published in the Federal Register on March 2 and will become effective 30 days after publication. The BIA has revised the procedures governing the Housing Improvement Program to clarify and simplify the conditions and terms for providing housing assistance and to allow additional flexibility in administering the program. The HIP focuses on the repair and renovation of existing substandard housing. Other Federally sponsored programs, such as those sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are responsible for most new housing construction in Indian Country. Approximately 85 percent of the tribes with active Housing Improvement Programs operate them through Self-Determination agreements or Self-Governance compacts.

Significant changes to the procedures include:

• Reducing the annual income levels for eligible program applicants to focus program services on the most needy families who cannot qualify for other housing resources.
• Eliminating one program service, the down-payment assistance category, to refocus the program on repairs and renovations that result in safe, sound, and sanitary homes.
• Increasing from $20,000 to $35,000 the amount of funds that can be expended to renovate an existing home.
• Allowing for regional differences in construction and labor costs.

Interior Department representatives today strongly defended the rights of American Indian tribes to tribal self-determination. "Centuries of tribal rights of self-government and self-determination should under no circumstance be abridged based on mere anecdotal evidence," said Interior Department Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs Derril Jordan today during a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on Tribal Sovereign Immunity.

Jordan cautioned that hasty action should not be taken to limit long-held Tribal Sovereign Immunity based on anecdotal evidence provided by a few people. "Arguments alleging bias against non-tribal litigants in tribal courts are based on anecdotal evidence that is often inconclusive or not probative." He explained that the Office of the Solicitor, Division of Indian Affairs, is not aware of any problems surrounding the longstanding doctrine of Sovereign Immunity, but has consistently been informed of serious problems in Indian Country as have members of the Committee. "This Committee is keenly aware of the conditions that exist on most reservations. Tribal infrastructure for roads, community water and sewer services, and other amenities that most non-Indian communities take for granted are either absent or woefully inadequate." Jordan advised Committee members that abridgement of Sovereign Immunity can only make matters worse on reservations. He added that it will certainly lead to frivolous lawsuits resulting in bankruptcy and the end of tribal self-government as well as prolific overburdening of the Federal District Courts.

Tribes are faced with enormous problems, and not enough resources, Jordan said. "Health conditions are generally poor, and suicide, alcoholism, and unemployment rates on most reservations are far above those of the rest of the country. Whatever the source of tribal revenues, the needs of the overwhelming number of tribal communities far exceed the available financial resources." Jordan cautioned that the receipt and use of Federal funds could be diverted from providing for the needs of tribal peoples to supporting litigation costs run up by frivolous lawsuits. "There is no documented need for Congress to waive unilaterally Tribal Sovereign Immunity. Such a sweeping curtailment of tribal sovereignty would be reminiscent of the Termination Era."

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover said today that any problems between States and Tribes can be resolved through the government-to-government negotiation process. "The best way to resolve conflicts between governments is to sit down together and find a solution. Government-to-government negotiations are the proven and just way to resolve conflicts." More than 200 agreements between Tribes and States have been negotiated and are in effect concerning taxation and other issues.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover spoke Thursday, March 19, about critical American Indian issues and his vision for Tribal America during a University of South Dakota School of Law symposium on "Indian Nations on the Eve of 21st Century: Sovereignty, Self-Government, Water Rights, Land Rights." The speech was taped by C-SPAN for later broadcast.

Gover was nominated by President Clinton for the Assistant Secretary's position and was sworn in on November 12, 1997. He leads the 10,700-employee Bureau of Indian Affairs and serves as the Clinton Administration's senior Indian Affairs official.

"I am urging the Tribes to recapture their warrior traditions and define the meaning of the warrior tradition in today's complex world," Gover said. "A warrior is not defined by violence and hostility, but by the commitment and sacrifice that transcends all personal interest." Gover also explored the theme of "Indian Warriors Then and Now" as it relates to the challenging work of tribal leaders, Indian lawyers, and others who work on behalf of 554 federally recognized tribal nations. His speech included a discussion of the devastating Indian Country problems that include alcohol and drug abuse, youth suicides, and joblessness. Gover emphasized that today's "warriors" must use their considerable skills and experience in creating tribal solutions to these troubling problems, while also strengthening responsible and responsive tribal governments.

"Over the past 30 years we have seen a dramatic rise in the acknowledgment of the Tribal power of self-government. That power is under attack, and some of those attacks are given credence when a tribe exercises its power irresponsibly," he said. "The great leaders and great warriors of the past thought less about the power of leadership and more about the responsibility of leadership. This is a tradition we have to learn to follow."

Gover also discussed the changing direction and improvement of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the many challenges that face it and tribal nations as the new century approaches.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover, a Lawton native and a Pawnee tribal member, is returning to his home state to speak about critical American Indian issues and his vision for Tribal America during a University of Oklahoma American Indian Law and Policy Symposium on Saturday, March 21. The symposium, sponsored by the American Indian Law Review editors and the University of Oklahoma College of Law, commemorates the 25th anniversary of the American Indian Law Review.

Gover was nominated by President Clinton for the Assistant Secretary's position and was sworn in on November 12, 1997. He leads the 10,700-employee Bureau of Indian Affairs and serves as the Clinton Administration's senior Indian Affairs official. His speech will be his first major address in Oklahoma since assuming office. Gover was born and raised in Comanche County, Oklahoma, which formerly was the reservation of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes. He is the great grandson of Seal Chief of the Skidi Pawnees and the great grandson of Hovarithka of the Yapawicka Comanches.

Gover will attend an Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity reception Friday evening in Norman. His parents, Maggie and Butch Gover, were both active members of the organization.

During his Indian Law Review symposium speech, Gover will discuss the changing direction and improvement of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the many challenges that face it and tribal nations as the new century approaches. Gover also will explore the theme of "Indian Warriors Then and Now" as it relates to the challenging work of tribal leaders, Indian lawyers, and others who work on behalf of 554 federally recognized tribal nations. His speech will include a discussion of the devastating Indian Country problems that include alcohol and drug abuse, youth suicides, and joblessness. Gover will emphasize that today's "warriors" must use their considerable skills and experience in creating tribal solutions to these troubling problems, while also strengthening responsible and responsive tribal governments.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today thanked Oklahoma Indian organizations and tribal leaders for their receptivity and attention to the message he delivered on Indian youth issues during his visit to the state last week. "I an exceedingly grateful that my message on attacking the causes of alcohol and drug abuse among Indian youth was warmly received everywhere I traveled in Oklahoma," Gover said.

During his March 21 University of Oklahoma Indian Law and Policy Symposium speech, Gover stressed to tribal leaders and others that combating the devastating youth problems of alcohol and drug abuse and teen suicide must come first and foremost in Indian Country. "Nothing else matters until we can find tribal solutions to end these terrible problems. We must provide the leadership and vision to guide Indian youth back to constructive and fulfilling lives." Gover thanked the University of Oklahoma School of Law and the American Indian Law Review for the opportunity to deliver this message.

Indian youth and education was the theme of Gover's March 20 visit to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Riverside Indian School in Anadarko. Gover met with students, aged eight to 17, and toured the Riverside campus with them. "It's obvious they are fond of their school and its administration," he said. "It speaks volumes for the work that is being done there." Gover also attended a March 20 Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity (OIO) reception in Norman. His parents, Maggie and Bill Gover, were active members of OIO. Thirty-one tribes were represented at the event. "I was especially impressed with the emphasis OIO placed on our youth themes," said Gover. "We particularly enjoyed the performances given by Indian youth groups that use traditional tribal practices and values in carrying out their pledge to lead drug- and alcohol-free lifestyles." Indian dances and songs were performed by the Comanche Youth Dance Group, the Comanche Nation Pre-School Language Program, and the United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY).

Gover also thanked the Pawnee Nation for hosting a March 22 event that brought together the region's tribal leadership.