OPA

In response to recent inquiries from the press and from individuals, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett today issued the following statement concerning the distribution to Creeks of the award from their case based on an 1814 treaty:

"It is apparent, from recent inquiries, that erroneous information has been circulated concerning the distribution of an award by the Indian Claims Commission in Docket No. 21 to the Creek Indians. In 1962 the Indian Claims Commission stated that descendants of the Creek Nation as it existed in 1814 are eligible to share in the award. The Creek Nation of Oklahoma filed the original claim in 1948 and in 1952 the Creek Nation East of the Mississippi was permitted to enter the case as petitioners by intervention.

"Nearly $4 million is due the Creeks as the result of the case they entered against the United States to obtain additional payment for about nine million acres of land which they ceded in Alabama and Georgia under an 1814 treaty. The Bureau will present to the 90th Congress its proposal on the disposition of the judgment funds.

"Congress has not yet authorized the preparation of a roll of persons eligible to share in the distribution of the award. However, certain persons and groups have apparently been holding meetings to prepare a roll of the Creeks East of the Mississippi. Until such time as Congress enacts legislation setting forth requirements of eligibility for enrollment, no roll can be considered valid or legal for purposes of sharing in the award and no roll is now being prepared by the Bureau.

"It has also come to our attention that certain individuals and groups have been soliciting fees for application forms for the purpose of obtaining membership in the unofficial organization of the Creeks East. Payment of such fees or joining of any organization which purports to be establishing a roll of the Creeks East, is no assurance that the individual will be qualified to have his or her name placed on the official roll which will be prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"After Congress passes the necessary legislation, wide publicity will be given through newspapers and other news media that the Bureau has prepared a special application form and stating where the form may be obtained. There will be no charge for the forms or for filing them. The Bureau's Muskogee Area Office, Muskogee, Okla. 74401, will be the office handling the details of the Creek roll-making and the distribution of the funds to persons whose names appear on the roll as finally approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

"Accompanying the application form will be an information sheet. This sheet will give instructions helpful in filling out the form. It will also set out the requirements which an individual must meet to be eligible for enrollment, the names of individuals and offices where the completed applications may be filed, and the time period in which the forms must be filed.

"I wish to make it clear that no person, group, or office has been authorized by the Bureau to prepare any list or roll of persons to be used for distribution of the Creek Award. In order that interested persons will not be inconvenienced, it is suggested that they not write to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for application forms until the announcement is made by the Bureau that the preparation of the Creek payment roll is to begin. Special application forms for enrollment will be made available by the Bureau without charge to the individual.

Under a $177,849 contract awarded December 2 to RCA Service Co. of Camden, N.J., the Bureau of Indian Affairs will commence at once a program of occupational training, basic literacy education, counseling and job placement for the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said today in announcing major features of the contract:

"The objective is to break the cycle of poverty that has made family heads helpless to help themselves and has deprived Choctaw children of educational and social opportunities that would enable them to grow beyond their present circumstances. The program will provide to a pilot group of 30 Choctaw families the services of specialists in occupational training, job counseling, family counseling, basic literacy education, job placement and follow-up. We hope that as these families become equipped to work in surrounding communities, other families will take part in the training program."

Bennett continued: "The Choctaw experiment has been in the category of wishful thinking for a long time. It is deeply gratifying to me to be able to put it into operation."

There are about 350 members of the Choctaw tribe living in the vicinity of Philadelphia, Miss. Thirty-four out of every 100 adults in the labor market are chronically unemployed and many others depend entirely upon seasonal work. Illiteracy has contributed largely to the joblessness and has kept the economic and social status of the Choctaw community lagging 30 years behind the Nation as a whole.

RCA Service Co., a technical services subsidiary of RCA, under an earlier BIA contract successfully trained Alaskan Indians and Eskimos for work on the Defense Early Warning System.

Federal supervision over the Indians of Greenville Rancheria in Plumas County, Calif., has been terminated with their consent, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today. Notice is being published in the Federal Register.

Greenville is the 31st rancheria in California to be removed from Federal trust supervision in accordance with the 1958 Rancheria Act (72 Stat. 619, as amended). More than 100 Indian rancherias -- small tracts of land under Federal trust -- are affected by the law.

Greenville Rancheria consists of approximately 275 acres, located three miles east of Greenville, in northeastern California. The termination action precludes further services from the United States Government to the 20 resident Indians because of their status as Indians. The Indians, mostly Maidus, are now subject to the same laws, including tax laws, which apply to other citizens.

The 1958 Rancheria Act provides that a plan for disposition of assets be completed before termination. The Greenville plan provides for completion of road construction by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and conveyance of the road to Plumas County; a survey of the land, recorded in Plumas County; distribution of funds held in trust to the members of the Greenville Rancheria group; and conveyance to the members of unrestricted title to the land.

The Northern Cheyenne Indians of Lame Deer, Mont., recently launched a small industry on their reservation that is beginning to bring dividends with the Yule season. The firm, called Northern Cheyenne Originals, manufactures Christmas trees, wreaths, costume jewelry and other novelty items for decorations from pine cones collected on the reservation.

Samples of the trees and wreaths, complete with miniature lights peeking from between the cones, have been sent to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Robert L. Bennett, who in turn has arranged for their display in the lobby of the Department of the Interior Building in Washington.

The handcrafted trees vary in height from 12 inches to 5 feet, and the wreaths are from 21 to 36 inches in diameter; both are spray painted for extra beauty. The units may be packed away for use from season to season.

Northern Cheyenne Originals is a joint venture by an individual businessman and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. President of the firm is tribal president John Woodenlegs. This is the second industry on the reservation; over 150 Northern Cheyennes are employed by the Guild Arts and Crafts plastic novelties factory located at Ashland, Mont.

Negotiations to establish the new factory were handled by the Industrial Development Branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. An on-the-job training contract is currently being negotiated with the Bureau.

Approval of a reorganization under which the United Pueblos Agency with headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., has been divided into two smaller agencies was announced by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett.

The new Northern Pueblos Agency, with headquarters, in Santa Fe, N.M., will serve the eight northern pueblos -- Nambe, Picurt, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, Taos and Tesuque.

The new Southern Pueblos Agency, with headquarters in Albuquerque, will serve the southern and central pueblos -- Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Sandia, San Felipe, Santa Ana,.Santa Domingo and Zia.

Commissioner Bennett said the reorganization will open the way for increased participation by the Indian people in the management of their affairs by making Bureau specialists and officials more geographically accessible for consultation and cooperation with Indian leadership.

He said the reorganization will provide more effective services to Indian people through the increased contact by Agency personnel with the individual pueblos and more efficient use of Bureau manpower through reduction of time lost in travel.

The eight northern pueblos some time ago requested the establishment of an agency at Santa Fe. The reorganization was also supported by the All-Indian Pueblos Council by a 17 to 0 vote on December 14, with two Pueblos absent.

Of the 333 positions involved the Northern Pueblos Agency will have 87 positions and the Southern Pueblos Agency 246. Of the 87 positions being assigned to the Northern Pueblos Agency, only about 25 will be physically moved from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, as the others are already in the Northern area. These transfers will be accomplished over a period of time to avoid severe impacts on individuals and to conform to budget stringencies, Bennett said.

The establishment of the two new agencies is being programmed so that there will be no overall increase in costs from those already estimated for the existing United Pueblos Agency, plus five positions which are being transferred from the area office.

A new superintendent will be appointed for the Northern Pueblos Agency. Kenneth L. Payton, superintendent of the United Pueblo Agency will remain as superintendent of the new Southern Pueblos Agency.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel today announced his opposition to a proposed California-Nevada interstate water compact because it would adversely affect the rights of the Pyramid Lake Indians and threaten destruction of the Lake itself.

In a letter to Robert Mayo, Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Secretary Hickel urged that the Administration oppose the compact as drafted.

He recommended that the Federal Government enter negotiations with the two States as span as possible and work out a new formula.

The interstate compact seeks to allocate the use of water in the Lake Tahoe, Truckee River,Carson River, and Walker River Basins, proposing to divert additional water away from Pyramid Lake and use it for irrigation and other purposes. Pyramid Lake, located about 30 miles north of Reno, is fed by the Truckee River.

Secretary Hickel pointed out that the effect of the compact would be to take away from the Indians their legal right to the waters, except those already decreed for agricultural purposes.

Secretary Hickel said that "utmost consideration be given the future of Pyramid Lake as being the rightful home and fishing grounds of the impoverished Indian tribe and as a highly valuable economic asset to them resulting from recreational development of the area." The tribe is the sale owner of Pyramid Lake and most of its environments.

The Secretary said that the compact would hinder Federal efforts to preserve high, quality, unpolluted water in and near the lake. He called it "a natural resource of unique value to the nation."

"Pyramid Lake is a recreation resource of national significance because of its large area and the recreation, sport fishing, aesthetic, geologic, ecologic, archeologic and historic values it provides," the Secretary said.

"The lake offers greater potential high quality water recreation for large numbers of users than any other lake in Northern Nevada or California."

Secretary Hickel also noted that the compact seeks to limit the Federal Government, both as a sovereign entity and as trustee for the Indians.

He suggested a "less ambitious but worthwhile and attainable" formula which would serve as a framework for recognition of existing uses but would be "flexible enough to accommodate future resolution of remaining conflicting claims."

Bids are due to be opened January 7, 1965, on camp facilities required for accommodation of Job Corps enrollees at centers to be operated by the Department of the Interior in California, Colorado, Illinois, and New Mexico.

Invitations to bid were issued by Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation on December 18 for the four projects, comprising the first group among 44 rural centers to be set up for Job Corps camps operated by Interior. The Department is carrying out this work under authority delegated by the Office of Economic Opportunity, which has overall charge of the Administration I s war on poverty.

The buildings now up for bid will help accommodate 500 Job Corps enrollees working on improvement of lands managed by the Interior Department and its bureaus. Facilities will be erected at:

--Mexican Springs, New Mexico, 35 miles north of Gallup, a 200-man camp under supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs;

--Crab Orchard, Illinois, near Carterville, a 100-man camp operated by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife;

--Toyon Rural Conservation Center, California, about six miles north of Redding, a 100-man camp under direction of the Bureau of Reclamation;

--Collbran Project Camp, Colorado, east of Grand Junction, managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. The bids cover only the education and recreation comp1exer: for this 100-man camp; existing facilities will be used for housing there.

The invitations call for units to be erected which can be transported over highways and readily assembled into groups of units to constitute housing, educational, recreational and other related facilities.

Specifications have been drawn so that the home manufacturing industry--as well as the trailer manufacturing industry--can bid, Departmental officials said. In all, the Department expects it will need a great quantity of such housing and facilities fabricated and erected by mid-1966, averaging 25,000 square feet per 100-man camp.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior John A. Carver, Jr., today instructed the heads of two Bureaus to take every action possible to reduce economic losses to the people of flood-damaged West Coast areas.

In a special memorandum to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. Carver said:

"I hope that you will promptly instruct your field people to cooperate with other government agencies and with communities and private industry in planning the rehabilitation effort, and that you will take necessary action by way of adjustment of (timber) cutting schedules, authorization of temporary repairs, and all other steps to reduce to a minimum the economic impact of the damage in the affected communities, subject, of course, to sound conservation practices."

Carver's memorandum said recent flooding, particularly in the timbered regions of Oregon and California, "is probably more damaging than the Columbus Day windstorm of October, 1962." It is noted that industry-government cooperation had been remarkably successful in the rehabilitation effort then.

A wind and rain storm on October 12, 1962, struck the West Coast with hurricane force and toppled or damaged about 1.25 billion board-feet of Douglas fir and other timber on Interior-managed lands in western Oregon. Damage was scattered and much of it was in inaccessible areas, but the downed timber had to be disposed of before it could become a fire hazard and haven for beetles.

Plans to sell the allowable cut of green timber were abandoned in favor of the cleanup campaign, which involved round-the-clock work by many BLM foresters and special efforts to cooperate with industry and local governments. By the summer of 1964, the downed timber had been cleared out through sale to private loggers.

Preliminary estimates of flood damage by the Department's Bureaus this week have run high--not counting expected damage to valuable timber stands. BLM estimated its damage in Oregon at more than $22 million, mostly in washed-out roads and bridges. Since most of these structures are in timbered country, the losses will complicate the problem of removing downed and damaged timber, officials said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimated damage at nearly $1 million, mostly on the Warm Springs Reservation, with damage also reported on the Umatilla Reservation. About three-fourths of the total damage was to Government property, and the remainder to tribal and individual Indian property, according to estimates.

As Assistant Secretary for Public Land Management, Carver has direct supervision over the two affected Bureaus. President Johnson last week designated Carver Under Secretary of the Interior, subject to Senate approval.

The award of a $659,850 contract for the construction of new vocational training facilities at Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas, was announced today by Philleo Nash, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The project marks the first major step toward conversion of the 80-year-old high school for Indians into a post-secondary technical institute.

In announcing the construction contract award Nash said:

"The new look we plan for Haskell Institute reflects the nationwide trend toward free schooling beyond the high school level to prepare young people for jobs in the world of science and technology. Haskell will be the equivalent of the community and junior colleges that are emerging in many of the better public school systems throughout the country. Haskell, traditionally serving Indian youth, will continue to offer academic as well as vocational programs, with stress upon the special counseling and guidance services that ease the transition of Indian boys and girls into the world beyond the reservations."

The construction plans call for two new vocational education buildings to supplant limited facilities currently devoted to building trades training. Emphasis will be upon high skill training in such occupations as air conditioning and refrigeration technology, sheet metal work, drafting, carpentry and masonry, and painting.

The new facilities will help provide not only the construction skills but classroom curricular in mathematics as applied to construction and design; physics and chemistry as applied to metal composition and use of new alloys; and electronics as related to air conditioning, heating, lighting and motor generating systems commonly used in modern construction.

The new facilities are expected to be completed by the beginning of the September 1965 school term. The contractor is L. R. Foy Construction Co., Inc., of Hutchinson, Kansas, the lowest of three bidders.

The Department of the Interior has proposed regulations to simplify and standardize procedures for compiling Indian tribal rolls and disposing of enrollment appeals.

The new enrollment regulations would eliminate the need to issue and publish in the Federal Register procedures governing preparation of rolls each time the Secretary of the Interior is directed by Congress to prepare an Indian tribal roll. However, qualifications for enrollment would not be standardized under the proposed regulations.

The proposed new regulations on appeals establish uniform procedures by which persons may appeal exclusions from tribal rolls.

The changes are considered necessary because of the increasing roll-making activity in recent years, particularly in connection with determining eligibility of persons to share in distribution of Indian judgment funds. The proposed appeal procedures, setting forth clearly defined conditions and methods of appeal, should expedite the handling of appeals by the Secretary of the Interior, who is often, by law, designated final arbiter in enrollment disputes.

The proposed new regulations are being published in the Federal Register.

Interested persons may submit written comments, suggestions or objections concerning the proposed regulations to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. 20240, within thirty days of the dates of publication of the notices in the Federal Register.