OPA

Our American society as a whole has assumed new dimensions within the past few years. The place of minority groups has been redefined -- or, rather the inherent rights of citizens, whatever racial minority groups they may represent have been reinforced. But civil rights remain only theoretical as long as economic exclusion continues. This is frequently the situation in localities where American Indians constitute a significant and socially conspicuous minority.

Life among Indians today is often far more cruel than was the simple and primitive struggle of their ancestors for survival against the forces of nature. They are a people surrounded by a value system they must grope to comprehend because it is a value system that differs basically from their own tradition.

Indians are generally oriented to the here and-now, while the dominant culture is motivated by planning for the future. Beyond the cultural outlook is also the difference in economic outlook between Indian people accustomed to a consumption economy and a people dependent upon a production economy. Still another factor contributes to the aloofness of Indians, especially the older ones: they still remember the bitter history of the 19th Century and find it incompatible with their experience to regard America’s expansion era as glorious.

Alienated because of their cultural background Indians are further alienated by their economic circumstance, and the alienation is accentuated by the attitude of the dominant cultural group toward people who are both poor and "different.”

As President Johnson has also said: "This Nation will never be great until all the people are part of it.

Most Indians are still outsiders to much of the social, economic and political life of this Nation.

But today's generation of Indians have found their voice, and demand to be heeded. They are expecting to be recognized as a minority group of citizens with all the rights of social and economic choice enjoyed by the majority. They are looking more in the direction of political and social action than ever before and many are making their way in the once alien circle of State politics. They are looking to playing a role in the determination of their own destinies within the States and local communities in which they reside.

Inroads have been made on squalid housing, but still most Indians live in substandard dwellings, a threat to health and human decency. Typically, the young rural Indian adult has about two-thirds as much schooling as the average Americana Out of a work force of probably 100,000, about 40,000 are chronically unemployed.

Some of you are now saying to yourselves: "Yes, Indian policies of the Federal Government have failed to help the Indian people.

This may, in part, be true but I believe that part of the trouble lies in the fact that States and local communities have consistently taken the attitude that Indians are a “Federal problem,” wholly and exclusively.

With the great financial contributions that States are receiving from the Federal Government for schools, roads, health programs, water, housing -- to name only the most obvious -- it is difficult to understand how community planning can continue to exclude consideration of the needs, as well as the resources, of the Indian segment.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been engaged in a struggle that has been, at best, one of holding the line against greater Indian poverty as the Nation rides higher and higher crests of economic prosperity. The greatest single obstacle is the fact that we must often work with Indian groups in isolation from, rather than in relationship with, each other and the total community.

It is no exaggeration to say that Indian expectations for the future are inseparably interwoven with the need for total community and regional planning, with a keen eye to social as well as economic factors in all plans.

Spottily, in some places, State and local communities are now involving Indian resources in total planning. One of the conspicuous examples that comes to my mind is that of the commercial-industrial-educational-recreational develop­ment planning under way in the general vicinity of Phoenix. I think particularly of the Gila River Pima Indians, who have joined with neighboring cities to draw on all Federal, State and local resources, public and private, to take fullest advantage of the growth pattern of the region.

There are other examples, in other Western States, of this new trend.

But, generally speaking, the comments Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall made in 1966 to the Western Governors' Conference still hold true. Let me quote:

"Few States have acted to encourage the development of Indian resources"

Few States have even recognized -- much less done anything about -- the special education needs of Indian youngsters. Few States have really encouraged Indians to participate fully in their political life; and many have been indifferent much of the time toward the general welfare of their Indian citizens I am not suggesting that all of the Federal Government's responsibilities toward Indians should now be shifted to the States. I am intimating that most of the States have done too little too late to aid the cause of Indian development Some States, worse, have missed what I believe to be the main point -- that the economy of every State will be strengthened as the Indians are helped to develop their human and natural resources to the maximum."

On the credit side of State intentions is the fact that there are now 19 States which have established official bodies to study Indian affairs and keep the Governors informed.

Also on the credit side is the fact that these State commissions and advisory groups are not reticent to point up Indian needs. Let me quote from a random sampling of such reports:

From the 1966 Handbook of Indians issued by the Wisconsin Governor's Commission on Human Rights come these data In 1966, the per capita income on the 10 Wisconsin Indian reservations was less than $750., In proportion to their numbers, more Indian than white students drop out of high school before graduation and at the heart of the dropout problem is the prevalence of poverty among those who do not continue in school. And a telling further comment: "It is easy to prescribe greater industrial and resource development and additional vocational and educational training, but to see this translated into action is not easy."

From California's Governor's Advisory Commission on Indian Affairs:

''There are indications that the education of the Indian is not of the same quality as that of the non-Indian in the California public schools. Three times as many Indians as non-Indians drop out of school. Many others are graduated with inferior education because of lack of teacher concern or the failure of the school system to devise compensatory teaching techniques to cope with the students of differing cultural backgrounds."

And from Nevada's Indian Affairs Commission: "The success of programs concerning Nevada Indians requires an understanding and careful interpretation of the Indian point of view."

Even in these brief excerpts of reports from three States, representing diverse situations with respect to their Indian populations, it is not difficult to discern the common expression of need for a new ingredient in State programs for Indians. And that ingredient is attention to the special needs, the peculiar needs, of a group of people whose culture and lifeways differ from the average American pattern. Failure to take their differences into account or rather, failure to recognize the fundamental aspects of their differences -- has resulted in defeat of attempts to provide meaningful assistance.

Education policies may be considered a core cause why Indians have failed to become participating citizens in many American communities Two-thirds or more of all Indian children attend public schools. As the California report states -- and it echoes the situation in many other places -- the schools are not, in most cases, providing the necessary services to help Indians make a successful transition into our competitive American society.

I would not venture to recommend the nature of school programs, except to emphasize the language difficulties which often pyramid for Indian children as the grade level and subject matter load increases. Compensatory and remedial programs are not only desirable; they are often necessary.

Education for successful living - which includes successful employment -­is the single most important gift we can bequeath our children. It is the single most severe punishment we can inflict upon them to deny them access to the best tools of learning. They cannot fly like eagles on the wings of wrens.

We would do well to consider the generic meaning of the word "education" because sometimes I fear it has been forgotten in the jargon of the profession. Education programs should draw out the best in each child to lead each one by his own special light into the joyous experience of self-awareness, self-expression and self-confidence.

If we accomplish this end for our Indian children, then one day it will no longer be necessary for us to meet periodically to discuss Indian problems.

Yet education programs are not to be construed as something apart from bread-and-butter problems. Food, housing, jobs -- these are the everyday needs of Indians as well as other Americans. Textbooks are not substitutes for soup and meat. Education is preventive medicine against another generation of hungry people, but it is no cure for the child who enters the classroom in the morning with hunger pains in his stomach.

And so I urge that the American Indian segment of the population in your States be regarded within the context of your economic planning as well as your social planning. Make room for them in the job market. Otherwise the burden of their continuing poverty will be forever a drain on your communities.

The Federal Government should be remembered as one strong rallying point for your efforts. There are at least 20 different Federal agencies that provide financial aid to States and local communities to help in both human and resource development. Education and training, medical care and environmental health, road-building and construction of new community facilities to encourage commerce, housing aid and food for the needy -- these are only some of the most obvious areas of Federal aid. All are intended to be components of a total effort to uplift the social and economic climate of American communities across the country.

It is difficult to understand the desultory attitude of some States and communities toward the potential human and land resources which the American Indian segment could contribute, if an honest effort were made to include them in the planning.

To facilitate economic development endeavors in which Indian tribes or individuals would participate jointly with non-Indian interests, Congress is now considering a dramatic new proposal. We call it the Indian Resources Development Act. The most far-reaching proposal of its kind in many years, it loosens the regulatory shackles that have hindered maximum development of Indian-owned resources. Among other provisions, it calls for creation of a $500 million Indian development loan fund with Federal guaranties (providing up to $100 million annually for approved loans); and it paves the way for establishment of corporately structured Indian economic development bodies.

The main purpose of the bill is to provide Indians with managerial, credit and corporate tools to enable them to participate more fully in American economic, social, educational and political life; and to permit them to exercise greater initiative and self-determination.

Such legal tools are necessary for maximum Indian development -- but equally necessary is the interested response of the outer community.

This organization of Governors' Indian Councils can help tremendously to quicken acceptance of Indians into the mainstream of community life.

Through your organization you can call public attention to areas of neglect.

Through your organization you can propose realistic plans affecting Indians for the consideration of your State legislatures and your State agencies concerned with health, education, welfare and economic development.

Through your organization you can bring Indian people a new degree of understanding of the inherent opportunities for them in becoming involved in community affairs; and you can offer the guidance that will make their partici­pation constructive in its character.

Through your organization you can bring a third dimension to the Federal State partnership in the war on poverty by stimulating people-to-people action on the local scenes.

In short and in sum, let us all work in accord to raise the aspirations of Indians beyond the poverty-oriented level. By so striving, we will all come closer to realizing the hope of a secure American society.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced appointment of Eugene W. Barrett, Agricultural Extension Officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to superintendency of the Seminole Agency, Hollywood, Fla.

Barrett brings to his new post a varied background as a ranger, conservationist and agricultural extension officer. His most recent assignment has been at BIA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The new superintendent, 60, was born in Billings, Mont. He has had 27 years’ experience in Government service that began soon after his graduation with a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Montana.

From seasonal appointments as fire guard and forest guard with the Forest Service, he went on to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a junior range examiner at the Blackfeet Agency in Montana. He advanced to range supervisor, forest supervisor, conservationist, and land operations officer, a process that took him to a number of Indian reservations in Oregon, California, Montana and North Dakota.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett, who recommended the appointment, pointed out that Barrett's performance ratings have been consistently excellent, with commendatory remarks about his ability, initiative, creativity, and his cooperation with other agencies.

"Such a background will be of particular benefit to the Seminole people," Bennett said, "as they work to develop the full potential of their natural resources, to capitalize on their human resources in industrial and commercial development with resulting increases in tribal income, and to preserve the rich ecology of their reservation."

Barrett succeeds Reginald W. Quinn, who is retiring from Government service

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is learning that one of the best ways to get work done on reservations and for Indian tribes is to have the Indians do it themselves, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today.

Increasingly Indian contractors are getting a growing variety of contracts. These result in more employment for Indians, savings for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and newly developed skills for tribal members, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported to the Secretary.

"More and more, the public is hearing of these success stories, Indian style," Bennett said. "'Indian style,' because most of them mean that many Indians can continue to stay on reservations while earning a living comparable to that available in the outside world.

"And for many an Indian, that is success: To live on the land he was born to, while offering his children and his children's children the economic and social self-reliance that can preserve ancient and proud cultures. For others, employment assistance in urban areas opens the way to still another world."

Not long ago, Domingo Montoya, chairman of the All-Indian Pueblo Council at Albuquerque, N.M., signed a $6,752 contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau needed a comprehensive school census of the area. Instead of bring­ing in BIA employees to do the job, it contracted the work to the Indians themselves. The contract included transportation for the census takers, train­ing of census people, 1,520-man-hours for enumerators to go to 18 pueblos and two Navajo communities, and 625-man-hours for two clerks to assemble the results.

The Indian census enumerators turned up with discrepancies in the old census office figures, and "performed in an efficient and exemplary manner," according to BIA officials. In addition, the council had money in the bank and 39 Indians had been given needed summer employment as well as valuable experience which they could later use in other Bureau assignments.

This is a small but important example of new BIA planning -- a plan designed to more and more put Indians in charge of their own programs.

The Bureau has contracted work to Indians, and encouraged them also to initiate and expand their own programs.

This summer, the Choctaw Tribe of Mississippi contracted to furnish the labor for 25 housing units a $62,000 project. This included carpenters, electricians, metal workers, plumbers, and office help, most of them Indians. In Oregon, the Warm Springs Tribes took over the repair of flood damage under a $170,000 contract -- "a major and outstanding project," according to BIA officials.

These projects, too, became a source of income, experience and renewed confidence to the Indians, instead of letting them stand by while the white man and his know-how moved in to do the Indians' work for them.

These instances reveal the extent and depth to which the heretofore "protected" Indian is gradually taking over the management of his own affairs -- plunging, with only an assist from the Bureau, into new responsi­bilities, new jobs and new attitudes, Bennett said.

Thousands of Indian people are being put to work, the Bureau is saving money by accepting Indian bids, and thousands more Indians are being trained in skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled jobs right on their own reservations.

As a side result, tribal units find themselves forming organizational patterns of command and communication to take immediate advantage of project opportunity openings as they occur. This is important, for many government agencies have funds available to help Indians. These include the Office of Economic Opportunity; Departments of Labor; Health, Education, and Welfare; Agriculture; Housing and Urban Development; and Commerce. The tribes must be ready with the project and method of implementing it.

And there is much to be done. For example reservation roads must be improved to allow for increased tourist travel, better communication, and expanded transport services.

The Phoenix, Ariz., area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs has contracted with Indian tribes or individuals for $267,000 worth of work since last January, two-thirds of it already completed. There were no Indian tribes within the area office's jurisdiction which had the equipment, so nearby Navajos were called upon for equipment rental, material trucking, and road building.

The Bureau found the Navajos to be highly qualified for these operations.

Indian credit programs are also being expanded and entire tribal units set up to handle the paper work without involving the Bureau. And the Red Lake Chippewas of Minnesota have the added distinction of having established their own credit sources without having to fall back on government support.

Recently, the Zuni Tribe acquired valuable experience in bidding, performing under contract, financing and administering a $7,500 program for a dwarf mistletoe pest control project which was sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. The Zunis organized the Forest Improvement Enterprise and a contract was executed to do the work on 500 acres of infested reservation pine.

The enterprise employed 10 laborers and supervisor, all Zunis. In order to get working capital, the enterprise executed a 90-day loan of $4,000 and paid it back in 22 days. The Indians successfully completed the project in 31 working days, and are now preparing to bid on similar projects.

The timber harvest on Indian lands is estimated to support 8,050 jobs by 1973, yielding $19.8 million annually in stumpage and $40.4 million in wages. Obviously, many Indian tribes have a vested interest in not only good conservation practices, but the training of other Indians for the work involved.

For example, the White Mountain Apache Tribe took on a contract through the Bureau's Branch of Forestry for the personnel necessary to protect 1.5 million acres of forest and range resources. The contract was for $66,000 and provided about JO Indians with summer employment in fire protection, as well as look-out and fire warehouse experience. These Apaches, now well-experienced in firefighting, travel to battle over 250 fires in western states annually.

The Consolidated Ute Agency in Colorado assigned various jobs to Indians during Fiscal 1967, including re-roofing on buildings, storm damage repairs and floor coverings -- a total of $16,500. On North Carolina's Cherokee Reservation, the tribe handles the school bus contract and the hot lunch program. And at Rosebud, S.D., the Rosebud Sioux Tribe participated in BIA's portion of a $1.9 million housing project by providing equipment, transportation and materials

for prefabrication homes on their own reservation. The tribe's share of the contract, $137,340, provided jobs and new insights into business operations.

A new course of study for young American Indians, based on the strengths and historical significance of their heritage will be used in schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Developed by Dr. John Bryde, who has worked for 22 years in Indian schools conducted by the Jesuit Order, the new course has been tried in the Holy Rosary Mission School on the Pine Ridge, S.D, Indian reservation, as a means of developing self-esteem and capability This combined elementary and high school has a capacity of 500 students and is the largest Indian private school in this country.

Dr. Bryde is now at Fort Yates, M.D., under a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs working on instructional materials and teaching guides for the course, which he calls "Acculturation Psychology" or "How To Be A Modern Indian ...” It will be started in the first and ninth grade levels of Indian schools and is expected to be expanded to other grades.

One of the few white men to speak the Sioux language fluently, Dr. Bryde developed the new approach during his doctorate research into the psychological problems of Indian children A study of the records of both Indian children and white children in the Dakotas showed that Indian children overachieved the national norms on tests taken while they were in the fourth to sixth grades, but at .the seventh grade began to fall behind.

How to stop this reversal of performance became the subject of Dr. Bryde's research under a $10,000 grant by the National Institute of Mental Health.

He decided that many Indian youngsters at about the eighth grade level tend to feel alienated, even from themselves, and feel rejected, depressed, and lost The differences from reactions of the white students were significant".

Dr. Bryde then sought a remedial or therapeutic approach and decided that a major factor in the breakdown of scholastic achievement and general performance of Indian youth was lack of effective identification with Indian heritage o He concluded that many Indians have not been taught a clear history of their people, have not developed racial pride, and have not been taught what Indian values are and how they historically arise.

"Since the Indian youth indicates that he is socially alienated, even from his own group, he shows that he has no effective awareness of his historical racial identity," Dr. Bryde says"

"Since awareness of historical origins is necessary for orientation to any kind of future action, the first part of this acculturation course provides for teaching him a solid, clear history of his race, designed to give him pride in his racial origins"

"Since the Indian youth does not get a sense of historical racial pride from the study of the routine American history courses taught in all Indian schools now, he should be taught thoroughly and vividly the history of his Indian race as the first source and basis for personal identity.

"The next part of the course will teach the Indian youth what values are and how they historically arise -- great Indian values and how to use them in the modern world, and non-Indian values, and how to adjust to the clashes and conflicts between them"

"He will be shown clearly that acculturational psychology is not a matter of ceasing to be Indian. This is psychologically absurd. He will likewise be shown that acculturation is not a matter of completely becoming white. This is also psychologically impossible"

"He will be shown how to take the best from the two cultures, blend and integrate these values within himself, with the result that he creates within himself a unique modern Indian personality, which is his enriching contribution to society."

Two pupils in the Holy Rosary Mission School -- Patrick Kills Crow and Mary Crazy Thunder -- described the course as "something really different and exciting" in a news article o They wrote that they never had thought they would look forward to a class period "but we sure do now."

A group of 120 Papago Indian children will join spring visitors to Washington on May 15 as the result of a lot of hard work and a determination to learn a little more about life beyond the reservation.

The children, junior high students from Oasis School in Sells, Ariz., on the Papago Reservation, will spend four days sightseeing, performing Indian dances and explaining Papago history, religion and culture to school and YMCA "Indian Guide" groups in the Capital area.

The children raised much of the money to make the trip by selling lunches, sponsoring car-washes, movies, community clean-ups and other projects. Additional help came from the Pima County school system, private donations and the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"These kids need to know more about other Americans," Hercel W. Merchant, superintendent of the school, said. "They need to see for themselves how other people live and make a living, and at the same time they should see and touch the things that they have read about in books, back on the isolation of the reservation.

"They must participate in order to understand," he said, "but up until recently, many Indians never left the reservation."

The Papagos’ three-bus convoy, which will carry a doctor and a nurse as well as a chaperon for every five children, will stop to present performances in New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina enroute to Washington. On the return trip stops will be made in Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

While in Washington the youthful Papagos will meet with Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs; visit the White House and the Capitol; make radio and television appearances, meet their Congressmen, and attend a major league baseball game.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will prepare a roll of Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin who are entitled to share in the distribution of over $1 million in judgment funds awarded these Emigrant New York Indians by the Indian Claims Commission, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Emigrant New York Indians are those Indians who voluntarily left the New York area for Wisconsin in the 1800's. They include the Oneida Tribe and the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Community of Wisconsin.

The Brotherton Indians became entitled to a part of the judgment funds by virtue of buying into a treaty with the Menominee Indians in 1825, which gave them an interest in certain lands in the Green Bay area.

Later, the Government took part of this land without their consent, and it is for this land that the three tribes were awarded compensation.

The Oneida Tribe and Stockbridge-Munsee are organized modern entities, and their tribal rolls will only require updating to list those eligible for the benefits of the funds, BIA officials said.

For the Brotherton Indians, however, a modern roll will have to be prepared. Regulations being published in the Federal Register provide that all persons of at least one-fourth degree Emigrant New York Indian blood shall be eligible for listing on the roll, provided they were born on or before Sept 27, 1967, are not enrolled with either the Oneida or Stockbridge-Munsee Tribes, and postmark their applications for enrollment no later than July 1, 1968.

Applications must be filed with the Superintendent, Great Lakes Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Ashland, Wis. 54806.

Exact amount of the award to the Emigrant Indians of New York was $1,313,472.65, less attorneys' fees of 10 percent. The money is on deposit in the U.S. Treasury, drawing interest.

American Indians, who still prize eagle feathers for ceremonial status, are joining the fight to save the national bird from extinction. The Red Lake Band of the Chippewa Tribe has designated its 400,000-acre reservation in north-central Minnesota as a Bald Eagle Sanctuary.

The Chippewa lands are on an important eagle migration route and have several active nests. Rare except in Alaska, bald eagles are one of the species Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has designated for management and study under the Endangered Species Act of 1966.

The sanctuary will be dedicated May 12 in ceremonies that also signal the completion of a wildlife marsh restoration project on the reservation.

Other species of wildlife -- waterfowl, muskrats, and minks -- will also enjoy protection under the Red Lake marsh project covering 8,300 acres.

Restoration of the marshes began in 1965 with a $380,000 project of the Accelerated Public Works program. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife directed the undertaking, which diverted water from the Clearwater River to cover 5,000 acres of drained land.

More recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed restoration of another 3,300 acres of marshes bordering the Red Lake River channel, at a cost of $176,000.

Wild rice production -- both for wildlife feed and for harvesting has already begun. An estimated 150,000 pounds of wild rice will be harvested annually on the restored marshes.

Hunting and trapping, traditional occupations of the Chippewas, together with wild rice sales, are expected to bring about $100,000 income each year to the tribe.

And then, there’ll be the eagle feathers. The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife has a standing order from some Indian tribes for feathers of eagles that die in the sanctuary. Donation of the feathers is permissible as long as they are used only for ceremonial purposes.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has signed a $12,000 contract with Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity, a non-profit organization with headquarters in Norman, Okla., to finance the recruiting of Indians for Peace Corps work in South America.

In announcing the contract today, Robert L. Bennett. Indian Affairs Commissioner, said: "We are. pleased to cooperate in a joint venture by the Peace Corps and the Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity that will open the doors to many American Indians for Peace Corps service."

Bennett continued: "Our employment assistance centers, located strategically throughout the country in regions where Indians are concentrated, will work closely with OIO in finding Indian men and women whose abilities would make them of special value to the Peace Corps.

"With so many Indians in South America, the concept of peop1e-topeople will take on the added dimension of Indian-to-Indian. American Indians are products of a dual culture, and therefore possess a built-in understanding of the needs of rural peoples of other countries who are facing the encroachments of modernity upon their traditional life patterns. I also feel that the opportunity to live and work with our neighbors 'south of the border' will add breadth and depth to the role of Indians on the American scene," Bennett said.

The Peace Corps-OIO-BIA program, known as Project Peace Pipe, was launched recently with the signing of a contract between OIO and the Peace Corps. The BIA contract with OIO completes the cooperative package.

Project Peace Pipe provides for selection of about 30 Indians with agricultural, technical and related skills to receive five weeks of preliminary training at the University of Oklahoma before entering upon three months of Peace Corps training this summer. Those successfully completing both training programs will be assigned to Latin American nations.

Recruitment will be nationwide. Schools and youth centers will be among the places that the recruiting teams of Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity focus their attention.

Art objects by the famed San Ildefonso Pueblo, N. M., potter, Maria Martinez, her son, Popovi Da, and her grandson, Tony Da, have been assembled for showing in the Department of the Interior's Art Galleries in Washington, D. C., May 16-June 30, Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, president of the Center for Arts of Indian America, announced today. The artists will be present in the Galleries at various times during the first week.

Works in the showing include 10 pots by Maria, 12 by Popovi Da and 13 paintings by Tony Da. In addition there will be a number of photographs and photomurals of the Pueblo and the family at work by a Santa Fe photographer, Laura Gilpin. The photos include recent portraits of the artists and some taken by Miss Gilpin at various times in the past.

The exhibit was assembled by the staff of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, the Bureau of Indian Affairs school for young Indian artists, dancers, writers, and craftsmen. The main pieces are from the private collection of the Village of San Ildefonso and the Santa Fe Indian Arts Fund. The exhibit includes some of the finest works the artists have produced.

A number of older pieces of San Ildefonso pottery and textiles -- some made even before Maria Martinez was born more than 80 years ago -- will be included in the show to demonstrate the development of her art and the origins of some of her designs.

The continuous artistic production through three generations began many years ago when Maria and her husband, Julian, worked to recapture traditional Pueblo pottery designs and production techniques. She would shape the clay into graceful bowls, stately water jars and flat plaques. He would lay on vegetable-based glazes in patterns inspired by designs from prehistoric pottery or symbols unique to the Pueblo. After Julian's death, the family continued the tradition, believed to be, unique in America.

The galleries, on the seventh floor of the Interior Building, will be open Mondays through Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Department of the Interior has recommended to Congress enactment of legislation designed to amend the Indian Long-Term Leasing Act of 1955.

Present law is inadequate for development of Indian lands for recreational, business, residential and other non-agrarian uses, the Department said. Under its terms, provision is made for leasing Indian lands for periods of 25 years with a renewable option for an additional 25 years. Grazing leases under the same law are restricted to la-year terms, with provision for 25-year agricultural leases only in cases that involve making substantial improvements on the land.

A bill now before Congress provides for 55-year leasing authority for Indian lands, with the grazing and agricultural periods to remain the same.

As a change in the new bill, the Department proposes that leasing authority be extended to a minimum of 65 years for non-agrarian purposes and 40 years for farming leases.

The Department also has asked that 99-year leases be extended to the following reservations: The Pueblos of Pojoaque and Tesuque in New, Mexico; Hualapai, Yavapai, Havasupai, Gila River Pima, and San Carlos Apache Reservations of Arizona, and Tulalip, Swinomish and Lummi of Washington.

Since 1959, six exceptions have been made in the Long-Term Leasing Act of 1955, in order to permit 99-year leasing for maximum development. Those reservations already enjoying 99-year leasing authority under the 1955 act are: Agua Caliente (Palm Springs, Calif.); Navajo; Hollywood (Fla.) Seminole; Southern Ute; Fort Mojave; and Pyramid Lake. Congress has also authorized 99-year leases on the Colorado River, San Xavier, and Salt River Pima Maricopa Reservations by other legislation.