OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be chartered as a junior college.

The school, established in 1962, has had for many years a post­secondary program in the fine arts and has many distinguished Indian artists among its alumni. It has not been, however, a degree granting institution.

The Indian Board of Regents at the school, and other Indian leaders, have requested that a junior college program be established at the Institute. The school will now expand its curriculum and seek accreditation to issue an associate of Fine Arts degree.

Operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the school will continue to provide a high school program for junior and senior Indian students interested in studying fine arts.

IAIA has long been recognized as a unique center of Indian culture and arts. An excellent museum and the Bureau's Cultural Studies and Resource Materials Development Center are located on the campus as part of the Institute. Articles about the Institute have been published in the New Yorker, Life, American Education, the London Observer and other publications.

Students for the school come from Indian tribes throughout the United States.

Lloyd Kiva New, a Cherokee artist renowned for his work in textile and fashion design, is Director of the Institute.

The need for families in Hooper Bay, Alaska, to send their children away from home to get a high school education will be ended, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today. A contract to construct a new, $3.2 million high school complex has been awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Walsh Construction Company of Anchorage, Alaska.

The new school is designed to serve 100 students in the 9th through 12th grades. The BIA now operates an elementary school with an enrollment of more than 200 in the area.

The new complex will include classrooms, science lab, home economics lab, a vocational shop area, administrative facilities, gymnasium and kitchen. There will also be an addition to the existing sewage treatment plant and an apartment building with five sets of quarters for staff personnel.

There is now no high school serving the Hooper Bay region and consequently, the students have had to participate in boarding school or other dormitory-type programs in larger cities.

Approximately 800 acres of federally-owned land, adjoining the Fort Sill Indian School at Lawton, Okla., has been added to the land held in trust for the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Indians of Oklahoma.

The land was administratively transferred to the Secretary of the Interior, as trustee, by Arthur F. Sampson, Administrator of the General Services Administration on March 17, 1975. Notice of the transfer has been published in the Federal Register.

Legislation, enacted January 2, 1975, amending the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, provided the authority for the transfer. This was the first use of the new authority.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson observed that he was pleased that, through the efforts of the BIA's Office of Trust Responsibilities and others, the tribes were able to obtain this valuable property.

The legislation establishes that excess and surplus. Federal property may benefit be transferred, under certain conditions, to the Secretary to be held for the benefit of Indian tribal groups. The land either must be within the boundaries of a reservation or, in Oklahoma, it must be former tribal trust lands, within the boundaries of former reservations or contiguous to land now held in trust for a tribe.

The transferred tract, in Comanche County, is located within the boundaries of the former reservation designated for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Indians in the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty_. The tract eventually went into private ownership vocational-agricultural but was reacquired by the United States in 1939 for a vocational education program at the Fort Sill Indian School. This program has since been discontinued and the school no longer needed the land.

Distribution plans for judgment funds awarded to three western Washington Indian tribal groups are being published in the Federal Register. The awards, made by the Indian Claims Commission, are for additional compensation for land taken as a result of the point Elliot Treaty of 1885.

The tribes involved are the Lummi, Lower Skagit, and Kikiallus.

The Lower Skagits and the Kikiallus have ceased to exist as identifiable tribal entities so their awards will be distributed on a per capita basis among lineal descendants of the tribes as they existed in 1859. The Secretary of the Interior will publish enrollment procedures for sharing in these awards. Skagit ancestors accepted as proof of Upper Skagit descent for inclusion in that judgment roll will not be accepted as proof of Lower Skagit ancestry.

The award for the Lower Skagit Tribe is about $75,000 and that for the Kikiallus approximately $6,000.

The Lummi Tribe, with headquarters at Marietta, Washington, were awarded $57,000. These funds will be held and invested by the Secretary of the Interior until a further plan for the use and distribution of the funds is approved by Congress.

All three of the plans have been approved by Congress. The effective date for the Lower Skagit and Kikiallus plans is February 18; for the Lummi plan it is March 3.

The per capita distribution to the Lower Skagit and Kikiallus descendants will be made after the completion of the rolls.

Regulations governing the preparation of the membership roll for the per capita distribution of more than $20 million awarded to Northern Paiute Indians by the Indian Claims Commission (Docket 87) are being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The proposed regulations state that all persons who meet the following requirements shall be entitled to be enrolled to share in the distribution of the fund:

1) Persons who were born on or prior to and living on October 10, 1974;

2) Who are lineal descendants of Northern Paiute Indians and;

3) Whose name or whose lineal ancestor's name appears on any available census roll or other record or evidence acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior, and who is identified as being of Northern Paiute ancestry.

Some specified persons, however, have been excluded from eligibility for enrollment. They are any person who has shared in the awards granted by the Indian Claims Commission in Dockets 88, 330, and 330-A to the Southern Pauite Indian Nation; or in Dockets 31, 37, 80, 80-D, 176, 215, 333, and 347 to "Certain Indians of California; or in Dockets 351 and 351-A to the Chemehuevis; or in Docket 17 to the Malheur Paiutes; or whose Indian ancestry is derived solely from the Walpapi Paiutes; Yahooskin Snakes, Bannocks, or Western Monos; or is a member of the Quechan Tribe or of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.

Enrollment application forms can be obtained from the Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Western Nevada Agency, Stewart, Nevada 89437. The applications must be filed with the Superintendent of that Agency and received not later than close of business on October 13, 1975.

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today the appointment of Wayne H. Chattin, Jay T. Suagee, and Joe G. Weller to top positions in a newly created Division of Self-Determination Services within the Office of Indian Services in Washington, D.C.

The division will have responsibilities related to the implementation of Public Law 93-638, the Indian, Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

The new division's first chief will be Wayne H. Chattin, who returns to the BIA following his directorship of Native American Programs for the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. Chattin, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1959. He has worked since then with the BIA. He worked in Montana, Arizona, and Colorado in jobs related to employment assistance, relocation and industrial and tourism development.

In 1970, Chattin received a certificate of special achievement from the BIA for his work, and in 1973, the Old west Trail Foundation named him "Outstanding Man of the Year."

Jay T. Suagee and Joe G. Weller will be program analysts in the new division.

Suagee' s appointment follows a diverse career which has included work as an Air Force intelligence specialist, Army systems analysis and data processing projects manager, and most recently, general manager, treasurer, and member of the Board of Directors of Wieser/Robodyne Corporation of Silver Spring, Maryland. Suagee received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Oklahoma, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He is a member of the Cherokee tribe.

Joe Weller’s promotion to this position follows a ten year affiliation with the Bureau. Formerly with the Yakima Indian Agency in Toppenish, Washington, Weller came to the Central Office in Washington, D.C. in 1975. While working at the Yakima Agency, he was awarded a special Achievement award for the Portland Area in 1975. Weller, a member of the Caddo tribe, attended both the University of New Mexico and North Texas State University.

Final regulations governing the revision of the membership roll of the Menominee Indian Tribe were published in the Federal Register, April 2, 1975, it was announced today. The regulations will become effective on May 1.

Updating of the roll is required by the Menominee Restoration Act which re-established the tribe's Federal status and eligibility for special Federal services and programs. The tribal roll was closed as of June 17, 1954, when legislation terminated the tribe's special relationship with the Federal Government.

The new roll will include members of the tribe listed on the 1954 roll and still living on the effective date of the regulations. Descendants of persons on the 1954 roll, who have at least one quarter Menominee Indian blood and are living on the effective date of the regulations, will be added to the roll. These latter must file an application for enrollment with the tribe in accordance with the procedures set forth in the regulations.

The enrollment will be directed by the Menominee Restoration Committee, the tribe's interim governing body, under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A beginning date for the enrollment period will be announced and publicized by the Committee when preparations for the process, including the hiring of an enrollment staff and the printing of needed forms, have been completed. Applications for enrollment must be filed within 90 days from that beginning date.

Application forms and information about the enrollment will be available from the Restoration Committee, the enrollment staff and Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in the Minneapolis Area.

Nominations for members of a special committee to advise the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on administration of Indian trust responsibilities are now being accepted, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The Advisory Committee on Trust Responsibilities will render advice with respect to water rights, real property rights of every kind and nature, and personal property rights wherein the United States has a trust responsibility to an Indian tribe, band, or community.

The Committee will act as a conduit of information and cooperation from federally-recognized Indian people to the Secretary, and will establish liaison between various Indian groups.

About 51 million acres of land and approximately $450 million are now held in trust by the United States for Indian tribes and individuals. These assets must be protected and prudently developed to enhance their value.

The establishment of the new committee, with its charter and functions, was announced in the Federal Register March 11.

Nominations for the 16-member group are now being accepted by the Secretary. The committee will include at least one person from each of the BIA's 12 administrative Areas and is expected to provide a balanced representation of Indian interests with respect to the performance of the trust responsibility of the Department. The members appointed by the Secretary will select their own chairman and determine the internal organizational structure of the Committee.

Proposed new regulations for HEW's programs of assistance for college students have been described as a "major breakthrough in Indian education" by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson.

In a letter to HEW Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Thompson expressed his "strong support" for the new rules published in the Federal Register in March. They set forth provisions for coordinating the HEW programs with BIA's higher education assistance program.

Thompson noted that because of "confusion and inconsistency in college and university financial aid offices.... Indian students were denied the full benefits of HEW assistance." He pointed out that while BIA funds were meant to be supplemental to other resources available, they were often used as the primary or sole source of assistance for Indian students. He said the proposed rules "clarify this situation."

The proposed rules set forth specific instructions that HEW assistance programs are to be made available to Indian students without consideration of possible BIA assistance. BIA funds can then be used to meet any still unmet need and, if sufficient, to reduce the need for student loans and work-study programs.

Thompson summarized the effect of this supplemental-only use of BIA funds. "Very simply, the implementation of these new rules will mean that more Indian people will be able to receive college educations and, consequently, be better prepared to contribute to the development of the Indian community."

James L. McCabe, a Navajo Indian, has been appointed Supervisory General Engineer for the San Carlos Irrigation Project at Coolidge, Arizona, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

McCabe, 42, has been working this past year in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Phoenix Area Office.

A graduate of Utah State University, McCabe has his degree in civil and irrigation engineering. He has also attended Iowa State University and George Washington University and has participated in the Department of the Interior Management Training Program.

McCabe worked as an engineer for private companies in Albuquerque, New Mexico before joining BIA in 1966 as General Engineer at Crownpoint, New Mexico. He worked for private firms from 1972 to 1975 when he returned to BIA as Irrigation Manager at the Pima Agency, Sacaton, Arizona.