OPA

The final environmental impact statement for the Westmoreland Resources
Crow Ceded Area coal leases, pertaining to more than 30,000 acres of land in
Bighorn County, Montana, is now available to the public, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs Ben Reifel announced today.

According to the official notice published in the Federal Register, copies of the statement may be obtained from the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 316 N. 26th Street, Billings, Montana 59101. Copies of the statement will also be available for inspection at the Crow Agency, the Area Office and the BIA Central Office in Washington, D.C.

This statement will serve as a primary documentary basis upon which the
Secretary of the Interior, in accordance with a District Court Order, must reconsider his approval of two leases in favor of Westmoreland Resources executed by the Crow Tribe in November of 1974.

Westmoreland Resources has submitted plans for expansion of its present
mining operations to include 2,151 acres and approximately 190.6 million tons
of coal. Action on these plans cannot be taken, however, until the leasing
issue has been decided.

Chemawa School at Salem, Oregon is the oldest Indian school in the United States --soon to celebrate its centennial --but it is, in at least one way, like an adolescent.

Chemawa is going through a difficult time of transition.

The school was started at Forest Grove, Oregon in 1880 when not many people worried about education for Indians. (The nation's first Federal Indian school, Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania, was started just one year earlier.) In 1885, the school was moved to Salem and in 1886 reached an enrollment of 200 youngsters from the tribes of the Northwest.

Today, Chemawa, once again, has an enrollment of about 200 Indian students from the tribes of the Northwest - down from peak years of more than 1,000.

The school isn't going down hill, however. This spring Northwest Indian leaders culminated a long effort when they came to Washington and convinced Congress, to the tune of $10 million in construction funds, that Chemawa was needed and was important to the Northwest Indians.

Chemawa will be building totally new facilities to replace the 50 to 70 year old school buildings that are now condemned and empty. Temporary modular units are being used in this transition period.

The new buildings will meet academic, residential and recreational needs for 600 Indian high school students who need the special programs available to them at an Indian boarding school.

Some of the old buildings may be preserved as historic sites. The Oregon Historical Society has intervened to this end and alumni, for sentimental reasons, don't want them torn down. Mrs. Jim McKay, wife of the Chemawa Indian Advisory Board Chairman, said of the old buildings, "Our spirits are in the walls."

The McKays attended Chemawa in its heyday in the late 1920s. By that time the school had progressed from the rudimentary training institute which most of the early Indian schools were in their beginning, to a fully accredited high school, with an enrollment of 1,100 in some 70 buildings.

According to a historical brochure put out by the school, the Chemawa athletic teams of this period "had gained renown throughout the whole of the Pacific Coast." The played "such teams as Stanford University, Multnomah College, University of Oregon and Oregon State Colleges."

Jim McKay, who is a Lummi and represents the Western Washington tribes on the Chemawa school board, feels strongly about the value of the school -- past and present.

"Many of the former students feel as I do," he said. "If it hadn't been for Chemawa and the other off-reservation schools, Indian people would have achieved much less than they have."

"Those that came to Chemawa in my day appreciated the opportunity to get in. The school was crowded. We had lots of spirit. Many went on to college and to other achievements. We were given incentives here to accomplish many things."

McKay thinks that Chemawa is as needed today as ever. "The public schools don't meet the needs of all our Indian students. Chemawa can provide special programs oriented toward reservation needs and implementation of the Indian Self-Determination Act. "

Chemawa has served thousands of the Northwest Indians from Washington, Oregon and Idaho --three and four generations of some families. These tribes have given their active support to the school and lobbied forcefully to get funding for the needed facilities.

In the 1950's and 60's Chemawa provided special programs for Navajo students when that reservation did not have facilities for all its students. It also has served thousands of Alaskan students from small villages with no education programs beyond the sixth grade.

Both of these groups now have local schools to meet their needs, so the new Chemawa is expected to enter its second century as a school for the Indian students of the Northwest --Washington, Oregon, Idaho and some from Montana.

At the Appropriations hearings this spring when the Northwest Indians testified on behalf of the school, the student body president said, "We students know Chemawa is run down and old, but it is the only place we have left to go to school to get an education."

Chemawa is old, and it has become run down, but it is going to be rebuilt, and somehow the spirits in the walls - the spirits of Chemawa alumni who made the rebuilding possible - will continue to be felt on the campus.

Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe has notified the Governor of Alaska that the State will be allowed an additional 90 days --until April 1 --to exercise an exclusive preference right to select lands described in Section 11 of the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act.

Generally, these Section 11 lands are the 9 townships surrounding Alaska Native Villages. Until October 1, 1976, these lands were held by the Federal Government exclusively for Alaska Natives to make selections.

On October 1, Public Land Order 5561 expired and pursuant to the Alaska Statehood Act the State was entitled to at least 90 days from that expiration date to exclusively exercise its selection entitlement.

Secretary Kleppe's action effectively extends that 90 day period to a total of 180 days. During the 180 days no other selection filed by Alaska Natives will be considered valid if the State selects the same land.

"We have extended the dates for Native selections on two occasions, he said, "and it is only fair to treat the State likewise. After the termination of this extension both the State and the Natives will be on an equal footing in terms of land selection. No further extensions are anticipated."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has authorized a $44,000 contract with the Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, D.C., to examine the needs in English language teaching programs for American Indians.

In announcing the contract, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said:

"There was a time, not so many years ago, when the Bureau's education programs were probably the most advanced, the most imaginative, and the most responsive to student needs of any in the Nation" But in recent years we have trailed behind the great nationwide effort to broaden the scope and depth of public education" The baby boom among Indian families left us short classrooms. This problem we have temporarily resolved. Now we must concentrate on bringing into these classrooms the quality of teaching and variety of curriculum that will guarantee every Indian baby and girl an equal competitive chance in the world beyond school."

Bennett added: “The study to be made by the Center for Applied Linguistics hopefully will set us quickly on the course to major advances in the teaching of English, basic to our Indian education program."

The contract calls for an examination and assessment of English language programs in selected Bureau elementary and secondary schools, particularly where children speak an Indian tongue in their homes. Administration of BIA boarding and day schools, performance of student and teachers, quality of instructional materials, and quality of teacher recruitment and training also will be measured. Adult education programs and public school programs also will be examined in relation to the Federal school operations.

Schools in the following localities will be the subjects of the study: the Navajo Reservation; Phoenix, Ariz.; Albuquerque, N, Mex.; and Aberdeen, S. Dak. A team of three linguistics specialists will be assigned to the task, and consulting specialists in such fields as testing and the psychology of language learning will be employed.

The study will commence this month. A report and recommendations are to be submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs within six months.

A concentrated attack on chronic unemployment and hard core poverty among American Indians will begin next April in Madera, Calif., with the opening of an Employment Training Center directed by Philco-Ford Corp. under a $497,846 contract with the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Center will be a major departure from other programs to increase opportunities for the unemployed. The concept involves comprehensive family training for the world of work. Recognizing that 60 percent of American families today have more than one wage-earner, the Center will provide education, training, urban adjustment orientation, and job p1acement for all family members of employable age.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced the signing of the contract today. He said;

"This is an experiment. President Johnson has called upon us to use 'imaginative, bold approaches' to combat social and economic ills that plague many Indian families. I believe this intensive training center at Madera is an imaginative departure from our customary adult vocational training and job placement services for Indians. It focuses attention on all the elements that make a person employable -- education, specialized training, health, personal attitudes and aptitudes. For family groups, it takes into account the needs of each individual in the family, from the smallest child to the eldest dependent, providing whatever help each needs to contribute to a solid family life."

Philco-Ford's Tech-Rep Division will operate the Center, and provide personnel, services and training equipment and materials.

Family counseling, vocational counseling, pre-vocational and vocational training, as well as health services, will be part of the package for the trainees and their families, at no cost to either one. Specialized training for jobs, with job placement and follow-up, are the fundamentals of the program.

The Philco-Ford Corp. is committed to placing all trainees who complete the program. It is expected that more than one job will be generated for each family.

Scheduled to open on or about April 1, the Center will initially enroll 30 Indian families from all parts of the country. An additional 196 single trainees will be added by July 1, 1967. The first group has not yet been selected.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs entered into the contract with Philco-Ford because the Bureau does not conduct vocational training for adults. Contracts for institutional and on-the-job training have been let with several hundred accredited institutions and firms over the past 10 years.

The Madera site, a former Air Force Base, was recently declared surplus by the United States Government. It was selected by BIA as the new Employment Training Center for Indians because of its available housing and recreational facilities and other buildings easily adaptable for education and training purposes. Other deciding factors are its accessibility, making transportation easy, and its mild climate, reducing clothing and heating costs and providing opportunity for year-round out-door activity.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the reassignment of three career officials to posts in the Southwest.

Theodore B. White will move to the post of superintendent of the Bureau's San Carlos Agency (Apache) at San Carlos, Ariz. The appointment becomes effective January 1, 1967. For the past year he has been employed as a community living and housing guidance specialist in the Washington, D.C., Central Office of the BIA.

White is a Sioux Indian, born in Oneida, Wis. He has been with the Bureau since 1955, serving in various field positions with the employment assistance program at Shiprock, N. Mex., Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Ill. field offices.

He holds a B. A. degree from David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tenn. and an M. A. degree in social welfare from Loyola University, Chicago, Ill. During World War II he served four years with the U.S. Air Force.

Melvin L. Schwartz has been assigned to the Bureau's Phoenix, Ariz., area office as assistant area director for community services, effective January 15. He transfers from the post of superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency (Utes) at Ft. Duchesne, Utah.

A native of McClusky, N.Dak., Schwartz entered Government service with the Veterans' Administration in 1946, serving in progressively responsible positions with that agency until 1952. Joining BIA in 1952, he served first as administrative officer and later as assistant superintendent of the Western Washington Agency. Schwartz attended Sultan, Wash. schools. He served with the U.S. Army from November 1938 until December 1945, attaining the rank of captain.

Stanley D. Lyman will replace Schwartz as superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency, effective January 15. He transfers from the Bureau's Ft. Peck Agency at Poplar, Mont., which serves Sioux and Assiniboines. A native of Montana, Lyman began his Government service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in June 1941. In 1952, he joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was assigned as agency relocation officer at Pine Ridge, S. Dak. He later served in various posts with the Bureau's employment assistance program until 1962 when he became superintendent at Ft. Peck. Prior to his Government service, Lyman was a classroom teacher. He holds an M.A. degree from Colorado State College of Education at Greeley, Colo.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett today announced that two new Indian employment assistance centers will be opened in Oklahoma within the next two weeks.

To be located in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the centers will serve as adjuncts to the vocational training and job placement services provided through the Bureau's area offices in Muskogee and Anadarko. Referrals to the new centers for services will be made by the Muskogee and Anadarko offices.

The multiple job opportunities in Oklahoma's two largest cities, and the limited range of opportunities in some of the outlying areas, led to the establishment of the two new offices, Bennett said. Each will be staffed with a placement officer and a family counseling adviser. The short-range goal is to find employment for one Indian a day.

Heads of families as well as single job-seekers will be served through the new offices. The Bureau's training and placement services include aid in finding housing for relocated Indians, and payment of travel and other related expenses entailed in their move.

Theodore S. Hoffman, president of Hoffman Information Systems, Inc., Hoffman Electronics, Corp., of El Monte, Calif., has accepted an appointment as a consultant on economic development with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

The new consultant has extensive experience in the fields of general management, industrial relations, marketing, research and development and finance. Since 1951 he has been associated with Hoffman Electronics, becoming a director of the corporation in 1964, and president of Hoffman Information Systems in March 1966.

He will advise the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the development and use of Indian talents and resources; the promotion of locations on Indian reservations for industrial plants, commercial endeavors and tourist enterprises; the encouragement of Indian-owned and operated economic ventures; and the mobilization of credit and financing for these activities.

Hoffman, 38, is a native of California who spent a part of his boyhood on the Navajo Reservation and has a knowledge of the Navajo Indian language. He holds a B.A. in Public Administration from the University of California.

The reassignment of two Indian Agency superintendents and the appointment of a third was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

William W. Grissom will move from the Superintendent's post at the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., to Superintendent of the Anadarko Agency, Anadarko, Okla. He succeeds Robert Meshaw, who died Aug. 30, 1966.

Born in Noble, Okla., Grissom served in the Coast Guard during World War II. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 as a soil conservationist at Anadarko after being graduated from Oklahoma A & M College.

Succeeding Grissom at the Blackfeet Agency is Noralf Nesset, heretofore Superintendent of the Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. D.

Nesset, born in Maddock, N. D., began his BIA career as a teacher in the Fort Yates school in 1939, after having taught at the school before it became a Federal institution. He is a graduate of North Dakota State Teachers College, Valley City.

Named as the new Superintendent at Standing Rock is Thomas J. Ellison, who has been credit officer at the Muskogee, Okla., area office. Ellison, a member of the Choctaw Tribe, was born at Fort Towson, Okla.

He served with the infantry in the European Theater during World War II and is a graduate of Colorado State University. Ellison began his Bureau career as a soil conservationist at Apache, Okla., in 1950.

All three reassignments became effective January 15, 1967.

Five awards totaling more than $709 million were granted to seven American Indian groups in judgments by the Indian Claims Commission during 1966, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

In addition, case that was filed Indians of Utah and Commission in 1946 0 the year brought final settlement of a long-pending in the United States Court of Claims by the Ute Colorado prior to establishment of the Indian Claims The Court of Claims awarded $4.4 million to the Utes.

The Indian Claims Commission is an independent tribunal which hears and determines the claims of tribes, bands and other identifiable groups of American Indians living in the United States. As of January, 1967, the Commission had granted 88 awards totaling more than $213 million. Five of the awards are awaiting the outcome of appeals pending in the Court of Claims. Congress has appropriated $190 06 million to pay all but three of the awards which have become final.

The majority of Indian claims filed with the Commission are for fair value of Indian lands ceded to the United States or taken by the Government in the past. Most of the funds received through judgments are now being invested by the tribes for projects to improve social and economic conditions among the Indian people.

Some typical projects include: Scholarships for the education of Indian youths; social services for reservation dwellers; construction of community centers and funding of community development projects; and tribal enterprises, including recreational tourism developments, to provide employment for tribal members and bring new sources of income to tribal coffers.

The awards granted in 1966 by the Indian Claims Commission were: