OPA

Nearly $200 million in new school construction and school improvement projects were approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal years 1962-1967, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

The projects funded represent intensive efforts by the Department, during the six years beginning July 1, 1961, and continuing through next June 30, to expand and upgrade Federal school facilities serving young Indians who do not have access to public schools. Bureau schools and dormitories serve about 55,000 youngsters in 18 States.

Most of the schools built and operated by the Bureau for Indians are elementary schools located on reservations, serving isolated communities far from public schools. In addition, there are a number of BIA dormitories established near public schools for children who live beyond school bus routes.

Many Bureau facilities, both on or off reservations, must include such services as kitchens, dining halls and dormitories, in addition to classroom buildings. The larger high schools, such as the new Fort Wingate school near the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, consist of a campus-style complex of buildings and serve enrollments numbering over a thousand students.

During the six-year period, construction projects in 14 States will have built classroom spaces for a total of nearly 30,000 Indian youngsters. Some of this total represents replacement of inadequate old structures; some represents additional spaces.

The largest number of projects, adding 10,655 new classroom spaces and replacing an additional 3,000, have been carried on in Arizona, the State with the largest Indian population. For fiscal years 1962-1967, a total of more than $84.3 million was approved for projects within Arizona. Of this total, more than $57 million was earmarked for projects on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations.

Next in line was New Mexico, for which projects totaling more than $34.5 million were approved to improve or construct classrooms for 5,600 youngsters. Again, most of the money -- $32.6 million -- went for projects on the vast Navajo Reservation.

In Alaska, where the Bureau recognizes responsibility for the education of Eskimos, Aleuts, and Athapaskan Indians, over $33 million was budgeted for construction of new schools and replacement of dilapidated or outmoded buildings.

The following amounts were approved for specific projects in all States for each fiscal year since 1962:

• 1962 - $29.4 million
• 1963 - 37.9 million
• 1964 - 44.9 million
• 1965 - 29.9 million
• 1966 - 14.5 million
• 1967 - 39.1 million

The following figures indicate total funding for school construction and improvement and numbers of classroom spaces added or replaced in each State during the entire six-year period:.

* General improvements to Sherman Institute which serves an enrollment of over 1,000

** General improvements to Haskell Institute, a post-secondary vocational and technical institute with an enrollment of over 1,185

*** Completion during 1962 of an earlier project at Cherokee School

**** Aneth School project in Fiscal Year 1963

Wilma Louise Victor, a Choctaw Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs' top-ranking woman educator, has been selected as one of the six women in Government to receive the coveted 1967 Federal Woman's Award.

A native of Idabel, Oklahoma, Miss Victor is Superintendent of Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah, which is a home away from home for 2,100 Navajo youngsters from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

She was selected for her “exceptional creative and executive ability in the administration of a unique and complex school program for disadvantaged Indian youth".

Miss Victor is the second Bureau of Indian Affairs careerist and the third Interior Department woman to receive the Federal Woman's Award, which was instituted seven years ago. In 1964 the honor went to Selene Gifford, now retired from her post as BIA's Assistant Commissioner for Community Services. Mrs. Ruth G. Van Cleve, Director of Interior's Office of Territories, was one of the recipients in 1966.

The panel of judges for the 1967 awards were: Robert Manning, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, Betsy Talbot Blackwell, editor of Mademoiselle, Kenneth Crawford, Newsweek columnist, Margaret Mary Kearney, WCAU-TV educational director, and C. Easton Rothwell, president of Mills College.

Miss Victor is a member of the Governor's Commission on Indian Affairs for the State of Utah, the Utah State Conference on Social Welfare, and the Council for Exceptional Children.

Her service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs began in 1941 at the Shiprock, N.M. Federal school on the Navajo Reservation. She enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in 1943 and was discharged in 1946 as First Lieutenant. She has been affiliated with the Intermountain School during most of the past l5 years, since it was opened in 1950 on the site of the old Bushnell General Hospital. As supervisor of academic programs, she developed a special program for Navajo youngsters who came to Intermountain in their sub-teens with little or no formal schooling.

When the Bureau launched another innovative education program five years ago -- the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N. M. -- Miss Victor was appointed principal. She was recalled to Intermountain in 1964 when the need developed there for an expanded four-year high school program of academics and vocational training.

The Federal Woman’s Award winners were announced today by Mrs. Katie Louchheim, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Woman's Award and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

Other recipients of the Award are Miss Elizabeth Ann Brown, Director of the Office of United Nations Political Affairs, Department of State; Dr. Barbara Moulton, a medical officer, Bureau of Deceptive Practices, Federal Trade Commission; Mrs. Ann Mason Roberts, Deputy Regional Administrator (New York), Department of Housing and Urban Development; Dr. Kathryn Grove Shipp, Organize Research Chemist, U. S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Department of the Navy and Dr. Marjorie J. Williams, Director of Pathology and Allied Sciences Service, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Veterans Administration.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has ordered rolls prepared for use in distributing judgment funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commission to six tribes.

To share in the awards~ which were ordered in five separate cases, are the Miami Indians of Oklahoma and Indiana; the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska; the Quileute Tribe and the Hoh Indians of Western Washington; and two other Western Washington Tribes -- Nooksack and Duwamish.

Legislation authorizing the distribution of the judgment funds was enacted during the closing days of the 89th Congress. Laws governing disposition of the judgment funds prescribe that payment rolls be established. Requirements for enrollment differ in each case.

Attached are rules governing enrollment applications for each of the six tribes. Application forms and detailed information may be obtained from the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices indicated in the filing requirements for each tribe.

Requirements for Tribal Enrollment and Deadlines for Filing Enrollment Applications

MIAMI INDIANS OF OKLAHOMA AND INDIANA For Docket 124-A

All persons of Miami Indian ancestry born on or prior to October 14, 1966, and still living on that date shall be entitled to share if their names, or the names of an ancestor through whom they claim eligibility, appears on one of the following rolls:

• roll of Miami Indians of Indiana (June 12, 1895);
• roll of "Miami Indians of Indiana now living in Kansas, Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma Territory";
• roll of Eel River Miami Tribe (May 27, 1889) prepared and completed pursuant to 25 Stat. 223 of June 29, 1888.

For Dockets 67 and 124

All persons of Miami Indian ancestry born on or prior to October 14, 1966, and living on that date, whose names or the name of an ancestor appears on any of the rolls listed above under Docket l24-A or on the roll of the Western Miami Tribe (June 12, 1891) prepared pursuant to 26 Stat o 1,000 of March 3, 1891.

Filing Requirements: Applications must be postmarked no later than July 34 1967. They may be filed at either of these addresses: (1) Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Building, Muskogee, Okla. 74401; (2) Mr. David McKillup, 222 Spencer Hotel, Marion, Ind. 46952.

NOOKSACK TRIBE

All persons born on or prior to October 14, 1966, and still living on that date, who established that they are descendants of members of the Nooksack Tribe as it existed in 1855, shall be entitled to be enrolled to share in the Nooksack judgment.

Filing Requirements: Applications for enrollment must be filed with the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Box 3785, Portland, Ore. 97208; and must be postmarked no later than September 1, 1967.

DUWAMISH TRIBE

All persons born on or prior to October 14, 1966 and still living on that date, who establish that they are descendants of members of the Duwamish Tribe as it existed in 1855, shall be entitled to be enrolled to share in the distribution of judgment fund.

Filing Requirements: Applications for enrollment must be filed with the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Box 3785, Portland, Ore o 97208; and must be postmarked no later than September 1, 1967.

OMAHA TRIBE OF NEBRASKA

The membership roll of the Omaha Tribe prepared pursuant to 75 Stat. 508 of Sept, 14, 1961 shall be brought up to date by adding the names of children born after lepta 14, 1961 and still living on Nov. 2, 1966, who possess at least one-fourth degree aboriginal Omaha Indian blood o Children who are enrolled with any other tribe shall not be entitled to have their names added to the Omaha roll.

Filing Requirements: Applications for enrollment must be filed with the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 820 South Main St., Aberdeen, S. Dak. 57401; and must be postmarked no later than April I, 1967.

QUILEUTE TRIBE

Prior to establishment of a current roll, a base roll is to be established for the Quileute Tribe. This shall be done by the Secretary of the Interior with the assistance of the tribal governing body. Applicants for base enrollment must establish that they were born on or prior to Dec. 31, 19400 No persons deceased as of that date would be eligible for base enrollment. The base roll so established shall henceforth be considered the base roll for all purposes.

Applicants for enrollment on the current tribal roll must first establish membership or derivation from the base roll. They must have been born on or prior to October 14, 1966, and be still living on that date. They must further meet the following specifications of the tribal constitution:

(1) that they were born to any member of the tribe who resided on the reservation at the time of the applicant's birth; or

(2) that they possess 1/2 or more degree Indian blood and were born to a nonresident member of the tribe; or

(3) that they possess any degree of Indian blood and were born to parents who were both members of the tribe.

No person enrolled with any other tribe shall be eligible for the Quileute roll unless such person files a formal statement relinquishing membership in another tribe including all right, title and interest in undistributed assets of the other tribe

Filing Requirements: Applications for enrollment must be filed with the Superintendent, Western Washington Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 3006 Colby Ave., Everett, Wash. 98201; and must be postmarked no later than April 1, 1967.

HOH TRIBE

To be included on the base roll of the Hoh Tribe an applicant must establish that (1) he was born on or prior to October 14, 1966, and was still living on that date; (2) his name or the name of a lineal ancestor is listed on the, Census of the Hoh Indians of Neah Bay Agency, Wash. (June 30, 1894); and (3) he is not enrolled with any other tribe.

No person who is enrolled with any other tribe shall be eligible to have his name placed on the Hoh base roll unless such person files a formal statement relinquishing his membership in the other tribe, including all right, title, and interest he may have in the undistributed assets of the other tribe.

Filing Requirements: Applications for enrollment must be filed with the Superintendent, Western Washington Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 3006 Colby Ave., Everett, Wash. 98201; and must be postmarked no later than April 1, 1967.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the recent reassignment of three officials to posts in its field installations.

Fred H. Massey, Assistant Commissioner in the Bureau's Washington, D.C., central office, has been temporarily assigned as acting area director for the Bureau's Anadarko, Okla., area office. He will fill the post left vacant by the assignment of Leslie P. Towle, former area director, to the Portland, Ore., area office. The assignment, which is for an indefinite period, became effective January 29.

Massey, a native of Oklahoma and a member of the Choctaw Tribe, has been with the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 1936, except for two years of military service. He attended Oklahoma schools and Haskell Institute, at Lawrence, Kan., where he graduated in 1935.

He has served in various administrative capacities. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Commissioner he was chief of the budget and finance branch in the Washington central office.

Towle, who became a Special Field Representative of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Portland office, effective January 15, had been Area Director at Anadarko since August 1963.

Towle joined the Bureau as an auditor accountant at Billings, Mont., in 1933 and has held progressively responsible assignments in Montana, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington, D.C. Prior to his recent service in Oklahoma, he was superintendent of the Pine Ridge, S. Dak., (Sioux) agency for six years. He was born at Littleport, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1922.

The Bureau announced the transfer of Stephen W. Smith from the Juneau, Alaska, office to fill the post of assistant area director at Anadarko, vacant since the' retirement of Harry L. Gardner last December.

Smith is a native of Casper, Wyo., and began his Bureau career in 1937 at the Ft. Washakie, Wyo. (Shoshone) agency. He has since served in administrative positions in Arizona and Alaska. In December, 1962 he was promoted to the post of Assistant Area Director for Administration in the Juneau office, a position he held until his present reassignment, effective January 29.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the assignment of new supervising engineers for two major Indian irrigation projects w_ the Navajo project on the New Mexico side of the reservation, and the nearly completed Wapato project on the Yakima Reservation at Wapato, Wash.

J. Y. Christiansen, 44, a native of Monroe, Utah, has been named Supervising General Engineer for the Navajo project. He will serve as liaison between the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and its Bureau of Reclamation which is performing the construction work. The project as authorized would supply up to 508,000 acre-feet of water annually from Reclamation is Navajo Reservoir to irrigate 110,000 acres of Navajo Reservation lands south of the San Juan River.

Christiansen began his BIA service in 1952 at the Yakima Agency in Washington. He has since held engineering posts at Albuquerque, N.M.; Parker, Ariz.; and most recently at the Wapato Irrigation Project. His appointment became effective Feb. 5, 1967.

He holds a degree in civil engineering from Utah State University at Logan, Utah, is married and has four children.

Lew Judd Allsop, 42, succeeds Christiansen at Wapato, Wash., effective Feb. 5, 1967. Allsop began his BIA career in 1953 at the United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, N.M. where he supervised the installation of domestic water systems for Pueblo communities. He has since served at the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona and the Missouri River Basin Investigations Project, Billings, Mont.

Last year he was selected by the Bureau to attend a middle management training course in the Washington, D.C. central office. The course began on Sept. 1, 1966 and ended January 27, 1967, just prior to his reassignment.

A native of Smithfield, Utah, Allsop received a BS degree in civil engineering from Utah State University in 1952. He is married and has eight children.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of a bill which would amend the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, extending its life for five years beyond the present expiration date of April 10, 1967.

The Commission was established as an independent tribunal to hear and decide all tribal claims against the United States that existed before 1946. Over half the claims cases are still undecided.

In its recommendations regarding legislation to extend the Commission's life, the Department raised a question as to whether all stages of remaining Indian claims could be prepared, tried, and decided during the five-year time limit.

Department of the Interior recommendations regarding the amendment, which adds a new Section 27 to the Indian Claims Commission Act, included:

• Elimination of a provision in the proposed amendment requiring all claims to be set for trial by 1970, substituting a requirement that the Commission prepare a trial calendar to include all cases;
• Elimination of a provision granting only one six-month continuance for claims cases, substituting a provision for further continuances when justified by factors beyond the control of the claimant;
• Addition of a provision that claims of tribes not represented by attorneys be examined by the Investigation Division of the Indian Claims Commission and, if the situation warrants, continued for trial until the tribe has sufficient time to obtain legal counsel and prepare its case;
• Elimination of a provision that a Commission order dismissing a claim shall be final and not subject to review by a Court; normal judicial processes provide for at least one appellate review.

Yeffe Kimball, an Osage Indian artist, will have an exhibition of her work beginning March 1 through April 7 in the Art Gallery of the Department of Interior.

Sponsored by the Center for Arts of Indian America of which Mrs. Stewart L. Udall is president, the show is entitled, “A 30 Year Retrospective of an American Woman Painter.” It is the first one man showing of Indian art to be sponsored by the Center.

Thirty-five Kimball paintings are included in the show, progressing through several periods from her student works to present day, famous “Space Concepts." It covers the years from 1935 to 1965 and includes drawings, collages, paintings and sculpture-paintings that show the tremendous versatility of this Oklahoma artist, born in the small town of Mountain Park.

The exhibition has been shown in museums from coast to coast and will be retired after its run at Interior. Other Kimball works have been exhibited in Athens, London, Paris, Brussels and Edinburgh.

Miss Kimball has a reputation as an innovator in the use of acrylic resins and sculpture-painting. The sculptured forms and surfaces reflect a deep appreciation of the phenomena of nature, here, an abyss of a moon crater; over there the image of a red-hot star burning in space; elsewhere, the mystery of the cold outer planets.

Titles relating to astronomical phenomena dot the showing. “Solar Aurorae,” “Cepheid Cluster” "Eridames Spiral” and “Pluto" are some of the paintings executed with resin, the pigment being applied pure with various tools including the brush and sponge. The purity of the resultant color is a major distinction of this part of the exhibition, particularly the cool blues, the blazing oranges, reds and occasional sunny yellows.

Some of her paintings of animals, for example, represent a sophisticated development of primitive Indian paintings. In some, she uses early Indian art in a manner not unlike that in which European artists have drawn from primitive African sculpture.

She is currently commissioned to do one of her space paintings for NASA at the Apollo Launch Center at Cape Kennedy which will be placed in the permanent collection of the Space Gallery Smithsonian.

Yeffe Kimball’s painting is grounded by years of training at the Art Students’ League, New York, and additional work and study in Paris and throughout France and Italy. She has not associated herself with any particular art movement. Since her first one-man show in New York in 1946, her paintings have been acquired by museums, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Dayton Art Institute, Portland Art Museum, Chrysler Art Museum, Baltimore Art Museum, the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Mattatuck Museum, Conn., Washington Lee University, Va., the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Art and Crafts Department of Interior, in addition to numerous private collections.

Hours for the Interior Department showing will be from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

From Alaska to Florida, resource managers for the Department of the Interior are watchfully scanning snow and rainfall figures as the first signs of spring appear- - -hoping that last year's disastrous fire record will not recur in 1967.

Over most of the 550 million acres managed by Interior agencies, 1966 was called the worst fire year since 1957, year of the great Alaska fires. Paradoxically, 1965 had been one of the lightest years on record for fire damage. And the prime factor, as usual appeared to be the weather.

A wet winter last year in the Pacific Northwest and other regions brought forth a thick, lush carpet of annual grasses and forest undergrowth, already luxuriant after a damp 1965. Then the rains stopped. Late spring and summer were unusually warm and dry. The dense grass and brush "cured" into tinder, ready for trouble, and it came.

Estimates of damage to Interior-managed lands alone during 1966 ran close to $15 million, not including the more than $7.5 million spent on suppression of fires. Nearly 1 million acres were swept by wildfire. In many instances, notably within the national parks and in other areas heavily used by wildlife, no meaningful dollar figure could be fixed for the losses that occurred--but the impact will continue to be felt.

Of the 2,914 fires recorded on Interior's lands during the year, 1,678 were attributed to lightning and 1,236 to human activity. Firefighters for the Bureau of Land Management, which administers most of the territory and experienced most of the damage, credited "intensive fire prevention programs and apparent public cooperation" for holding down the incidence of man-caused fires.

Many of the worst fires were man-caused, however. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife blamed people for most of the damage sustained by their areas during the year. Causes ranged from careless handling of machinery to letting trash fires get out of control, and in at least one notable case, to arson.

The year's costliest fire on Interior-managed lands occurred in August, when a man-caused blaze spread through heavy timber along both sides of Oxbow Ridge, about 25 miles southwest of Eugene, Ore. Eventually it reached across 41,600 acres of public and private timberlands, with heavy losses of prime Douglas fir. BLM lands comprised about 24, 000 acres of this total, and the Bureau estimated its timber loss at $7 million.

In grazing country south of Twin Falls, Idaho, a midsummer grass fire ignited by lightning raced across 45, 000 acres in less than six hours. When it finally was brought under control, this blaze had burned 52, 200 acres, some 30 percent Federally owned. Damage totaled close to $1. 25 million, including the loss of more than 1, 000 head of sheep and cattle and 100 miles of range fence. "The loss of wildlife habitat and recreation values will be felt for years," BLM officials said of this fire.

But the farthest-reaching and longest-burning of all the year's fires-- in fact, the worst since 1957 on Interior-managed lands--occurred in east central Alaska, near the Canadian border. Started by lightning, it burned across 203, 000 acres of caribou range and timber for nearly three months, despite the best efforts of smokejumpers, ground crewmen and aircraft armed with chemical fire retardants. Damages were estimated at about $2 million. It destroyed large areas of grazing land which had supported the caribou herds on which many of the natives of Alaska and the neighboring Yukon Territory depend for food, plus some prime recreation and hunting grounds for both Alaskans and tourists.

Some of the firefighters employed in battling this blaze were flown in from as far away as Boise, Idaho, where BLM maintains an Interagency Fire Center. This installation, in its first full year of operation, had its hands full during 1966 trying to control blazes that covered more than the total acreage burned on BLM lands during all four years from 1962 through 1965.

Two of the largest fires on national park lands were man-caused, occurring in Everglades National Park, Fla., during April and May. They scorched more than 2,700 acres of grassland important to the survival of native wildlife, already decimated by the effects of a several-year drought.

Yellowstone National Park, the Nation's oldest and perhaps its best loved, was damaged by two lightning fires which burned for three days late in July across 245 acres in Montana and Wyoming.

Like BLM, the National Park Service said most fires were kept small by fast and aggressive action on the part of fire control crews, and by use of helicopters and other aircraft for detection and suppression.

Indian lands also suffered a higher incidence of fires, and a higher damage figure, than in the two previous years. The chief blame was as signed to people who had started out to burn piles of debris and let the blazes get out of control. Alert fire crews held all but 17 of the 1,251 fires on Indian lands to less than 300 acres. Considering problems caused by the weather, BIA authorities felt they got off about as well as could be expected--somewhere near the long term average.

On wildlife refuges and game ranges managed by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, 1966 was rated the fourth best in 24 years of reporting. Still, more than 12,700 acres were burned in 25 States.

“The general public is by far the greatest cause of fires on Bureau lands," said a summary report prepared by BSFW. "Over 75 percent of the fires were man-caused, mostly by neighbors, through land occupancy and equipment." The two largest fire s on these lands were a 7,250-acre blaze started accidentally by a welder in Idaho, and a 1,273 -acre forest fire in South Carolina touched off by an arsonist. Together, these accounted for 68 percent of the total area burned on Bureau lands during 1966, and more than 50 percent of the values lost.

The Department of the Interior announced today several proposed amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations governing the election of Osage Tribal officers.

Under the proposed rule changes, the requirement for a nominating convention in Osage County, Okla., would be eliminated and nominations would be accepted from any group of at least 25 qualified Osage voters. Write-in candidates would be barred.

Other amendments would limit the polling places to one, in conformity with the long accepted practice of the tribe, and would simplify the counting procedure by using identical treatment for absentee ballots and those collected at the poll.

Candidates' nicknames could appear on the ballot, under one of the new regulations, but titles or professional designations would be forbidden. Another change provides for two witnesses to an absentee voter's signature in lieu of notarization.

The amendments make mandatory the destruction of ballots 180 days after an election, require at least one judge and two clerks on a tallying team, provide for delivery of the ballot box and keys to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Osage Agency Superintendent, and set forth procedures for handling invalidated ballots.

Finally, the amendments provide that only unsuccessful candidates for an elective office may challenge the election with respect to that office. A $500 deposit is required to cover the cost of a recount.

A notice of intention to adopt the amended regulations is being published in the Federal Register. Suggested changes and comments should be forwarded to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20242, within thirty days of the date of such publication.

The Department of the Interior is proposing amendments in the Federal regulations that govern elections to adopt or amend tribal constitutions for tribes organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Proposals also are being made to standardize procedures under which some 97 Indian tribes may petition the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to authorize elections to amend their tribal constitutions.

The proposed new rules would revise Part 52, Title 25, Code of Federal Regulations and add a new Part 53. They have been published in the Federal Register as proposed rule making and interested parties are urged to comment.

The change affecting Part 52 concerns a provision of the Indian Reorganization Act, under which many Indian tribes have organized their constitutional governments. The Act provides that at least 30 percent of the persons entitled to vote must participate in constitutional elections called by the Secretary or the Commissioner if such elections are to be considered valid.

In the past, the 30 percent was based on voting lists comprised of all tribal members 21 years of age or over. As tribal members continue to move away from reservations for employment or education, it has become more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to achieve 30 percent participation. This has worked a hardship on tribal members, both on and off the reservation, who take an active interest in tribal government, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The proposed revision would require eligible voters to register before they become entitled to vote and would base the 30 percent determination upon the total number of those registered, rather than a list of adult tribal members. Also, procedures for filing absentee ballots would become simpler, substituting a certification form subscribed before two witnesses for the previous requirement of an oath taken in the presence of a notary public or other official qualified to administer oaths.

The amendment is intended to make voting in constitutional elections simpler and more equitable, BIA officials said, and may also increase Indian participation in local, State and national elections by familiarizing Indians with voter registration procedure.

The addition of a new Part 53, Title 25 CFR is designed to clarify and. standardize procedures to be followed by tribal members who have the right to petition the Secretary or the Commissioner to call a special election to amend a tribal constitution. In the past there has been no all-encompassing procedure for preparing and processing the petitions and inconsistencies and misunderstandings have resulted. The proposed new regulations would establish such rules as the format for petitions; procedures for their filing; and the manner of determining their validity.