OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson said today that key staff people from Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Offices have participated in intensive training this month in preparation for the implementation of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

Final regulations for the Act, published in the Federal Register November 4, will become effective December 4.

A training seminar, November 17-21, focused on options and opportunities which the Act offers to Indian tribes and the use of the program tools provided by the Act. Participants in the seminar will be responsi­ble for conducting local orientation and training sessions in their areas.

Commissioner Thompson said the Act "marked the beginning of a new era in Federal-Indian relations." It is designed to strengthen the role of tribal governments and to facilitate Indian control of reservation programs.

The Act gives tribes the right to contract with the Bureau for the administration of programs serving them. It also provides for grants to increase tribal capabilities for such contracting and makes special pro­visions concerning tribal employment of Federal personnel.

Regulations for the Act were developed through an extensive process of consultation with Indian leaders.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that Indian tribal groups would be receiving this fiscal year almost $10 million for projects to provide additional job opportunities on reservations.

Commissioner Thompson said that 39 tribal projects submitted through the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Department of Commerce have been approved for funding under Title X of the Public Works and Economic Development Act. The purpose of this Title of the Act is to create job opportunities in areas of high unemployment.

Most of the approved funding -- about $8.5 million -- will go to Indian Action Team projects. These projects combine employment with on-the-job training and the construction of needed tribal facilities.

Under the Indian Action Team concept, tribal groups develop the capability to build their own housing, erect community centers or construct roads so that they are not dependent on outside contractors for this kind of work. Individual Indians learn skills needed on the reservation -- mostly in construction work -- without leaving their homes and families and while earning a wage.

It is estimated that the 39 funded projects will create more than 1,100 jobs.

Some of the criteria involved in the selection of projects for funding were the severity of unemployment, ability of the project to generate long term employment, cost of creating- a man-year of employment and the ratio of Title X funds to total funds.

In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1975, about $2 million was awarded for tribal projects.

Projects to be funded are as follows: ;Alaska, Annette Island Reserve, $78,360 and Hoonah Village, $67, 096; Arizona, Colorado River Reservation, $300 , 000; Hualapai, $300,000; Navajo, $1,200,000 and San Carlos Apache, $63,000. California, Hoops, $300,000 and Tule River, $300,000; Minnesota, Minnesota Chippewa, $166,740.

The Department of the Interior today announced the election of five incorporators of the thirteenth region established for the benefit of Alaska Natives who are not permanent residents of Alaska and who elected to be enrolled in such a region under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The incorporators were elected in a mail ballot of adult thirteenth region enrollees. The enrollees voted on a list of 24 nominees submitted to the Department by organizations representing non-resident Alaska Natives.

Under an order issued by U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch October 6, 1975, the five nominees receiving the highest number of votes are recognized as incorporators of the thirteenth region for the purpose of preparing and submitting the proposed articles of incorporation and bylaws for the region. They will also constitute the initial board of directors of the corporation to serve until the first meeting of shareholders or until their successors are elected and qualify. They are not eligible to succeed themselves.

Under Judge Gasch's order, the proposed articles of incorporation and bylaws are to be approved by January 1, 1976; the first meeting of the shareholders and election of the board of directors of the corporation is to be held by February 1, 1976; and by February 15, 1976, the corporation is to be paid its share of the monies in the Alaska Native Fund.

At or about the time the regional corporation makes its first distribution to its shareholders, all adult non-resident Native enrollees, whether or not presently enrolled in the thirteenth region, will be given a final opportunity to elect their preference for enrollment in that region or in another region in Alaska.

The election of the incorporators was certified by the Department on the basis of a tabulation of the 1,251 valid ballots cast by the 3,100 adult thirteenth region enrollees. The election was conducted by the Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, New Jersey, under a Department contract. The incorporators certified as elected are: Sheila Aga, P.O. Box 1378, Myrtle Creek, Oregon 97457; Axel Anaruk, 30153 - 12th Ave., S.E., Federal Way, Washington 98002; William Jackson, 20328 Marine Dr., Stanwood, Washington 98212; Sam Walkoff, 8545 Delaware St., Highland, Indiana 46332; James S. Williams, 7120 Greenly Dr., Oakland, California 94605.

Washington, D.C. --The National Endowment for the Humanities announces 14 grant awards for Native American projects in 11 states. These awards will provide for developing exhibitions, planning radio and television programs, establishing course curriculum, preparing oral histories, and presenting scholarly works.

Dr. Ronald S. Berman, Chairman of the Humanities Endowment, in making the announcement said, "These awards are representative of the support the Humanities Endowment continues to give in the field of Native American studies. Grants such as these foster an understanding of the Humanities among the American public, and at the same time, preserve increasingly perishable information through scholarly research."

Of particular interest is an award to prepare an exhibition which will show the relationship between the trade bead and the Native American culture from 1615 to the present time grant of up to $29,983 will be used to demonstrate the role of trade beads in the early contact between European and native cultures and show ways in which trade beads are reflective of adaptations and changes which resulted from the sudden contact of such dissimilar cultures.

Two Michigan museums will initiate the exhibition during 1977 (the Grand Rapids Public Museum and the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum). The choice of Michigan seems particularly appropriate, since Bruce Catton, in his Humanities Endowment's sponsored book, "Michigan: A Bicentennial History", has already piqued our curiosity. In his book, Mr. Catton vividly describes the early French "coureurs de bois" luring the shy Indian from shadowy, Great Lakes forest with brightly-colored trade beads.

A Humanities Endowment museum grant will go to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to install an exhibit which will depict the fur trade in the Astor Fur Warehouse. This will be accomplished with an award of up to $26,096 and should be ready for viewing by June, 1977. The American Indian will figure prominently in this exhibit since its purpose is to teach the history of fur trade from the early 1600's to 1848 when the last of the Indians' lands were ceded to the Americans.

The culture of the Western American Indian will be shown in the Cultural-Heritage Center of the Yakima Indian Nation through an exhibition of original and imaginative designs.

This will be supported by a Humanities Endowment grant of up to $18,250 which will go to the Kamiakin Research Institute in Toppenish, Washington. The Yakima Indian Nation Center is the focal point of a far-reaching and ambitious program which will, bring the 10,000 Yakimas and other Indians who live on or near the reservation in close contact with the surrounding non-Indian population (estimated at 260,000 in the trading area)and with visiting tourists (estimated at about 238,710 persons per year). Thus, the Center will be used both as an exhibit hall and as a place where Yakimas may absorb and understand their own heritage, study and develop skills, and gather together for social activities.

It is projected that this center will be a way for the Yakima Indian Nation to express its hopes for the future and find inspiration for the tribal members.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has also awarded television and radio planning grant for programs concerning the Native American.

A Humanities Endowment's television planning grant of up to $14,679 will go to the University of Nebraska. This will be used by Native American Studies scholars and tribal representatives to develop a television series about the Northern Great Plains Indians of the 19th Century. During the planning stage of the grant, both Indian and non-Indian perceptions of historical events will be studied.

Television planning is also featured in a National Endowment for the Humanities grant used to produce a series of programs called "The Cave, the Bridge, and the Basin." grant award of up to $20,000 will go to the Oregon Education and Public Broadcasting Service. An impressive group of archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, tribal representatives, geologists, folklorists, and station staff has been assembled to collaborate in the production of the series. Programs will follow the prehistoric in-migrations of Indians from the dim past who used the northern land bridge to migrate and disperse across the Northern Great Basin.

Now in the planning stage is a series of radio programs which will examine the cultural dimensions of the preservation of tribal customs of the Native Americans of the Northern Great This will be done through a Humanities Endowment grant Plains of up to $10,000 which will go to KUFM-Radio at the University of Montana in Missoula. In addition to the incorporation of Indian literature, religion, education, law and tribal jurisdiction, planning will also consider the possibility of bilingual production. The whole series will be directed toward stimulating interest among the various tribes in the area as well as among non-Indian listeners.

The University of Alaska's radio station, KUAC-FM has also received a planning grant in support of a series of programs which will examine the effects of urbanization, economic development, and modernization on Alaskan natives. This media planning grant of up to $10,000 will be used to identify the resources necessary for the development of specific progress; and to determine the most effective format for the series.

The National Endowment for the Humanities also provides grants which make use of taped interviews for the compiling of oral histories.

One of these is a Native American oral history grant of up to $20,000 which the Humanities Endowment has awarded to the St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, Missouri. The grant will be used to disseminate, in written form, the 166 taped interviews with American Indian people. This is an effort to correlate existing materials concerned with the
historical past, present, and future of the American Indian. These first-person accounts graphically describe what it means to be an American Indian in the contemporary United States.

There are also 6 grants announced by the National Endowment for the Humanities which are awarded for the purpose of supporting Native American studies and scholarly pursuits. El Paso Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will receive a Humanities Endowment grant of $49,728 to develop three interdisciplinary courses. This curriculum will examine three minority groups in America, among them, the American Indian. The new curriculum is expected to affect the departments of language, social sciences and history: and will specifically cover: "The Art History of the North American Indian, 1500 to the Present" and "The Arts of the Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Americas.

The Atlanta Historical Society in Georgia has been awarded a Humanities Endowment grant in Native American .studies. This award of $21,105 will be used to research the culture of the Native American who inhabited the vicinity of Standing Peachtree, Georgia from 1760 to 1830.

The Haskell Indian Junior College, in Lawrence, Kansas been awarded a grant of up to $6,000 from the Humanities This will be used to support the development of an Endowment exhibit on "Cultural Diversity of the American Indian." A grant of $20,373 has been awarded in American Indian Studies to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. This is of the National Endowment for the Humanities Centers of Research program. The grant will be used to prepare a catalog of the reference library collection of the American Native Language Center.

A Humanities Endowment Education Pilot grant for $25,754 has been awarded to Emporia Kansas State College. American Indian studies figure prominently in a multi-disciplinary program centered on the theme of "People, Land, and Spirit: A Bridge to the Great Plains." Specific courses include: North American Indians; History of Great Plains Art; the Indian in
Western Literature: Race and Ethnic Relations: The Indian in American History: and The Indian in Western American Literature.

Directly related to American Indian Studies is an award, of up to $5,000 which the National Endowment for the Humanities has made to the National Indian Education Association of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This award will be used to bring to its eighth annual conference selected project directors who have been involved in American Indian studies through prior
Humanities Endowment grants.

These 14 recently announced grants bring the total number of Native American Studies grants awarded in 1976 to 43 Native American projects receiving endowment for the Humanities grant, Fall 1976.

ALASKA
The University of Alaska, KUAC-FM Radio: a planning grant of up to $10,000 will support a series of programs which will examine the effects of urbanization, economic development, and modernization on Alaskan natives.

University of Alaska, Fairbanks: a grant of $20,373 will support the preparation of a catalog of the reference library collection of the American Native Language Center.

COLORADO
El Paso Community College, Colorado Springs, Colorado: a grant of $49,728 will support the development of courses in arts and cultures of the American Indian and the Spanish American.

GEORGIA
The Atlanta Historical Society: a grant of $21,105 to research the culture of the Native American who inhabited the vicinity of Standing Peachtree, Georgia.

KANSAS
Emporia Kansas State College: a grant of up to $25,754 will support the development of an undergraduate curriculum in Great Plains Studies.
The Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence: a grant of up to $6,000 will be used to support the development of an exhibit on "Cultural Diversity of the American Indian."

MICHIGAN
The Grand Rapids Museum Association: a grant of up to $29,983 will support an exhibit demonstrating the role of trade beads in the early contact between European and native cultures.

MISSOURI
St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley: a grant of up to $20,000 will support the processing of taped interviews with American Indians.

MONTANA
University of Montana, Missoula: a grant of up to $10,000 will support the development of programs examining the cultural dimensions of the preservation of tribal customs of the Native Americans of the Northern Great Plains.

NEBRASKA
KUON-TV, Lincoln: a grant of $14,679 will support a series presenting the history of the Northern Great Plains Indians of the 19th Century.

OREGON
KOAP-TV, Portland: a grant of $20,000 will support the development of a series on prehistoric in migration over the northern land bridge and the dispersion of migrants over the Northern Great Basin.

WASHINGTON
Kamiakin Research Institute, Toppenish: a grant of up to $18,250 will support an exhibition depicting the culture of the Western American Indian.

WISCONSIN
The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison: a grant of up to $26,096 will support an exhibition entitled "Fur Trade in the Upper Mississippi River Valley."

Proposed regulations to better protect the per capita shares of minors, legal incompetents and deceased beneficiaries of Indian judgment funds were published in the Federal Register on November 1975, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The judgment funds are monies awarded to Indian tribal groups by the Indian Claims Commission or the U.S. Court of Claims, - generally for lands ceded under treaty or otherwise taken from the tribes without adequate compensation and also for an accounting of funds. Plans for the use and distribution of the judgment funds frequently include a per capita distribution to tribal members.

Any minor's share in excess of $100, according to the proposed regulations, cannot be disbursed until the minor reaches the age of 18. This applies to both the principal and accrued interest.

The regulations also set forth detailed, stringent requirements the establishment of a private trust for minors' shares.

Commissioner Thompson said that the new regulations had been developed because tribal groups had demonstrated or expressed a need for more specific guidelines.

Comments on the proposed regulations should be sent within 60 days of publication to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Attention: Division of Tribal Government Services, Washington, D.C. 20245.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has urged members of the Kickapoo Tribal Council to take action to resolve factional issues which have paralyzed the tribal government and interfered with the funding of needed tribal programs.

Headquarters for the 900-member tribe are at Horton, Kansas.

In a letter sent to each of the tribal council members, Commissioner Thompson expressed concern "about the unfortunate situation of the Kickapoo Tribe."

Noting that the Council had allowed the contract for the Indian Action Team to expire and that other programs were suffering, the Commissioner said: "I find it very difficult to believe the members of the tribal council are willing to allow their personal animosities to destroy these beneficial programs, the attendant employment of the Kickapoo people and the good name of the Kickapoo tribe."

The Indian Action Team program provided jobs for more than 30 tribal members.

Opposing factions on the tribal council have refused to meet together and have thus prevented, by lack of quorum, essential council actions.

Thompson emphasized in his letter that, the tribal council had the authority and capability to resolve its problems without intervention from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "We feel that it would be a serious breach of our commitment to Indian self-determination and an erosion of tribal sovereignty if we interceded in a situation which is totally within the tribal council's ability and authority to handle."

Thompson said that the council has a moral responsibility, as well as a constitutional duty, "To put aside personal differences and to act as a body on these critical tribal business matters."

Thompson's letter outlined certain steps to be taken by the Kickapoo Tribal Council and the Kickapoo people to restore viable tribal government to the Kickapoos. He offered the assistance of BIA staff to help achieve this goal.

Forrest J. Gerard was ceremonially installed as the Department of the Interior's first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs October 13.

Before an audience of Indian leaders, Congressional representatives and Interior Department officials, Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus formally administered the oath of office to Gerard.

Gerard was nominated by President Carter for the position on July 12. Confirmation hearings were held September 9 and 12 before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate voted to confirm his appointment on September 15. A private swearing-in on September 19 enabled Gerard to begin functioning as the Assistant Secretary.

At the Washington, D.C. ceremony, Andrus said that Gerard would have a new policy-making role at Interior. He pointed out that in the past Commissioners of Indian Affairs worked under an Assistant Secretary and did not have the influential position of the new Assistant Secretary. He said the elevation of the Indian Affairs post reflected the Administration's commitment to the Indian community.

Gerard said he considered the new status given to the Indian affairs post significant -- and not just a symbolic gesture or ego message. "The Indian community today is at a critical juncture of history. Decisions made in the next few years -- relating to Indian sovereignty, self-determination, and other major issues -- can set the course of Indian affairs for the next century. Consequently, I see my position as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs as both a great opportunity and a very serious responsibility. I will do my best, working with the Indian leaders, to make this an area of progress and achievement for Indian people."

Gerard, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, was staff assistant for the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs from 1971 through 1976. He was involved in the development of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Indian Financing Act, Menominee Restoration Act, Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and other major pieces of legislation.

A former official of the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Gerard received the 1976 Heller Award from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) for outstanding service to Indian people and in 1966 he received the Indian achievement award presented by the Indian Council Fire.

A native of Browning, Montana, Gerard is a graduate of Montana State University and a World War II Air Force veteran.

Interior Department officials have recommended that the United States oppose the June 1977 ruling of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which has the effect of banning the subsistence hunting of bowhead whales by Alaskan Eskimos.

Interior under Secretary James A. Joseph proposed this position to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance in an October 10 letter in which he said, "Our trust responsibility to this Native American population cannot be ignored or subjugated to other concerns."

In a position paper on the subject, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard said that the United States is now apparently faced with a choice "between resource protection and the cultural integrity of our own indigenous people, the Eskimos."

Gerard pointed out that yankee whalers, not Eskimos, caused the critical decline in the Bowhead whale stocks. He urged objection to the IWC ban together with "the steps necessary to ensure that there will be effective Eskimo self-regulation of the 1978 hunts, responding to the concerns raised by the IWC and by U.S. scientists."

United States citizens would not be bound by the IWC ruling if the United States officially objected to the ruling.

Gerard, in his paper, argued that protection of the whales and main­tenance of the Eskimo's cultural/nutritional practices were mutually consistent goals.

Gerard said: "Eskimos have already initiated efforts to establish an effective self-regulatory regime, and they will be receptive to our concerns if we act in a manner consistent with our trust. Since the U.S. scientists agree that the bowhead population can withstand some hunting, our most responsible action would have to include working cooperatively with the whaling villages to reduce the number of whales killed in a manner which least infringes upon Eskimo cultural values and subsistence activities."

A proposed revision of the program description for vocational training and the establishment of a program for employment assistance for adult Indians are being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The proposed revision fully describes eligibility requirements for participation in the Bureau's program of Vocational Training and explains procedures for filing application for this program. In addition, certain changes in eligibility criteria are proposed, removing all practices of sex discrimination, defining the term "near reservation" as it shall apply to eligibility, replacing a blood quantum requirement with membership in a tribe and regarding repeat services.

The employment assistance program contains support service options which may include vocational and employment counseling, housing and community adjustment assistance, job referrals and assistance in moving to an urban or non-urban labor market or job site.

Another purpose is the elimination of grant expenditures for home purchase in off--reservation locations as this feature was more in harmony with the previous program emphasis on off-reservation relocation than with present: trends to emphasize services on and near reservation areas.

Written comments, suggestions or objections should be directed to: Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Attention: Division of Job Placement and Training, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C 20245.

Richard C. Whitesell, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Flathead Agency at Ronan, Montana, Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard announced today. Whitesell's appointment will be effective November 6.

Whitesell has been Assistant Area Director for Community Services in the BIA's Phoenix, Arizona office for the past year. He was the Education Program Administrator at the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota from 1971 to 1976 and at the Riverside: School in Oklahoma 1969-71.

A member of the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, Whitesell graduated from the State College at Dickinson, North Dakota and earned a Masters in Education from the South Dakota State University in 1969.

Whitesell, 41, was a teacher-coach in the Brockton, Montana public schools and at the BIA schools at Pierre and Cheyenne River in South Dakota.