OPA

Twelve Indian high school students selected from schools all over the west will participate in "A Better Chance" program originating on the campus of Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., this summer, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today.

Bureau of Indian Affairs schools participating in the plan include the Albuquerque Indian School, Albuquerque, N.M.; Chemawa Indian School, Chemawa, Ore.; Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah, Okla.; Sherman Institute, Riverside, Calif.; Stewart Indian School, Stewart, Nev.; and Turtle Mountain Community School, Turtle Mountain, N.D.

A public school, Okmulgee High at Okmulgee, Okla., is also represented.

Most of the students are at ninth and tenth grade levels, except two seniors, George Douglas, Okmulgee, and Albert Dreadful water, Sequoyah. The seniors were especially selected because of their outstanding leadership abilities and college-level potential.

Purpose of the program, which began in 1963 at Dartmouth, is to prepare youngsters with potential to go on to preparatory schools or high schools in areas that offer outstanding educational systems. Upon graduation, they are then ready to enter one of the better Eastern colleges.

The selection of the students was left to their school principals, who chose them on the basis of potential, rather than on their present academic records.

The students will arrive in Washington June 27 for a few days of orientation and field trips in the Nation's capital, reporting to Dartmouth June 30.

They will then go through a rigorous six-week program, flexible to meet the needs of the individual boys, but concentrating on mastery of the essentials of good writing, reading and mathematical thinking. Classes are small, permitting private tutors and counselors to give attention to the individual needs of the students.

The boys will also be involved in sports, hikes, art, music, dramatics, and field trips in the New England area.

Students selected, their schools, home towns and tribes are: From Chemawa, Willie Kasayulie, Akiachak, Alaska, Eskimo; Elmer Jackson, Kiana, Alaska, Eskimo; Pavila Pavila, Tuntutuliak, Alaska, Eskimo; Enoch Tooyak, Point Hope, Alaska, Eskimo; Johnny Hunter, Angoon, Alaska, Eskimo.

From Albuquerque: Ben Sam, Ganado, Ariz., Navajo. From Okmulgee: George Douglas, Okmulgee, Okla., Cherokee. From Sherman Institute: Walter Hogan, Parker, Ariz., Mohave. From Turtle Mountain: Dwight Trottier, Belcourt, N. D., Chippewa. From Sequoyah: Bruce Doyle, Tahlequah, Okla, Cherokee, and Albert Dreadfulwater, Tahlequah, Okla., Cherokee. From Stewart: Stanley Darrell Kisto, Bapchule, Ariz., Pima.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today the release of a new, updated booklet, "Answers to Your Questions about American Indians."

Earlier editions have been popular with persons interested in the American Indian. The questions answered are chosen from the many thousands directed to the Bureau during the past years.

According to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett, the answers to some of the questions will startle those with preconceived ideas about Indians and their status in this country.

"For example," said Bennett, "many people don't realize that Indians are citizens of the United States, have the same rights, and pay the same applicable taxes that everyone else does. They vote, serve their military obligation, and may drink liquor except, perhaps, in their own communities where the tribe has control of such things."

Other items: Indians do not have to live on reservations, although more than 300,000 out of a 552,000 total (1960 Census figures) do so. In fact, the Bureau has a continuing program of technical education and assimilation that includes voluntary movement of Indians to the big cities to work as qualified mechanics, secretaries, service men, laborers, and white collar workers.

There was never a written Indian language before the corning of the white man, and today there are possibly 100 different Indian tongues.

Since 1854, Bureau policy has given employment preference to persons of one-fourth or more Indian blood; more than half of the 16,000 Bureau of Indian Affairs employees are of Indian ancestry.

Another frequently asked question about Indians concerns the country's 290 Indian land areas under Federal jurisdiction. Only 25 states have federally related Indian reservations, most of them in the West. The booklet identifies reservations as land set aside for specific Indian use through treaties, Congressional acts, executive orders, and agreements.

Indian land has become big business, according to the publication. The tribes lease mineral rights, farming and ranching acres, conduct their own logging operations, and have set out to bring industrial firms to their areas, thereby getting employment for Indians and profiting from the lease arrangements involved.

There are over 50 million acres held in trust by the Department of the Interior for Indian use; 39 million of this is for the tribes and 11 million for individual Indians. An additional 5 million acres of Government-owned land is administered by the Bureau for Indian use.

Reservations range in size from California mini-acre rancherias to the vast Navajo Reservation of 14 million acres sprawling across northern Arizona into New Mexico and Utah.

To the question, "Can Indians live off the fruits of their lands?" the booklet gives a qualified answer. A few Indian areas have enough resources to support their Indian residents, but most reservations are facing a rapidly growing population explosion, expanding at a rate equivalent to 2 to lover the non-Indian areas of the country.

Where there is income, the funds generally go into the tribal treasury for improvements that may include better housing, roads, education and law and order.

Bennett noted that another common misconception cleared up by the new publication is that Indians are not getting the same help that the urban poor receive.

"Actually," he said, "the War on Poverty is welcomed by most Indians and has been markedly successful. The Office of Economic Opportunity, for example, funded $32 million for Indian programs in fiscal 1967, with the greater amount going toward easing the problems of poor health, inadequate education, unemployment and substandard housing."

Head Start prepares the Indian child with important pre-school learning experiences (for many Indians, English is a second language and lack of knowledge of it prevents their moving ahead in English-speaking schools), as well as medical and dental attention and proper nutritional care.

Indian job programs, including a unique family program that involves the entire family as a unit, are becoming models for similar work with the urban poor. Under the plan, the father is taught a trade or skill, the youngsters go to school and receive specialized instruction if necessary, while the mother is prepared to take care of a modern home, evaluate prices, do the shopping.

"Answers to Your Questions" also deals with Indian schools and health services, Indian charity and interest groups; contains a bibliography on Indians, lists of publications dealing with Indians, and locations of famous Indian museums.

The booklet is available at 25¢ a copy from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, by sending a check or money order. A 25 percent discount is allowed on quantity orders of 100 or more if mailed to one address.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that he has asked for tribal ratification of a proposal to establish an "American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame," on the campus of Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kans.

"The Hall of Fame," Bennett said, "will not only memorialize the achievements of great Indian athletes but will be a source of inspiration for young Indians seeking to develop rewarding and productive lives in modern America."

A copy of the proposed constitution of the new organization and a list of a 13-member board of trustees has been sent to heads of tribal organizations throughout the Nation, Bennett said.

"We hope to secure ratification of this proposal and be ready to formally organize and select the initial inductees to the Hall of Fame in the fall," Bennett said. "Indians in many areas have already enthusiastically endorsed the Hall of Fame idea," Bennett said, "and I am confident it will receive the wholehearted endorsement of most American Indian and Alaska Native peoples."

Bennett noted that while the Bureau of Indian Affairs served as coordinator the plans to create the Hall of Fame, the organization will not be an official federal activity. "This will be an Indian organization operated by Indians for the benefit of Indians and all America," he said.

Miss Grace Thorpe, daughter of All-America football star Jim Thorpe, was among those Bennett appointed to the special committee which drew up the Hall of Fame constitution and selected its first board of trustees. Other members of the committee were: Tom Wilson, Office of Public Information, BIA, Chairman; Mitchell Bush, president, American Indian Society, Washington, D.C., executive secretary, George p. LaVatta, retired BIA employee, Portland, Ore., member; John O. Crow, associate director of the Bureau of Land Management, member; and Gus Welch, former Carlisle athlete, now of Bedford, Va., honorary chairman.

The members of the first board of trustees are: Harold Schunk, Yankton Sioux, Aberdeen Area; Clarence Tallbull, Cheyenne Arapaho, Anadarko Area; Clarence Acoya, Laguna Pueblo, Albuquerque Area; Walter McDonald, Flathead, Billings Area; Dr. Walter Soboleff, Tlingit, Juneau Area; Roger Jourdain, Red Lake Chippewa, Minneapolis Area; Overton James, Chickasaw, Muskogee Area; Joe Watson, Navajo, Navajo Area; Albert Hawley, Fort Belknap, Phoenix Area; George LaVatta, Shoshone-Bannock, Portland Area; Elijah Smith, Oneida, Sacramento Area; Louis R. Bruce, Jr., Mohawk-Sioux, Northeastern U.S. and Frell Owle, Eastern Cherokee, Southeastern U.S.

The constitution provides that after their initial terms expire board members will be elected by the Indian or Alaska Native peoples in the area they represent.

The Education Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of four special conferences this summer to orient field personnel to recent developments in teaching American Indian children in BIA schools, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today.

"The Bureau is striving to keep its education personnel updated on the latest information available on teaching and working with Indian children," Bennett said. "Through these conferences, teachers, administrators, even dormitory representatives will be exposed to the newest education principles and current philosophies and practices in the teaching of the Indian student."

Conference sites include Jamestown College, Jamestown, N.D., July 8-10; University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., July 24-26; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., August 5-7, and Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., August 21-23.

The BIA educators will be assigned in groups of 35 to the conference schools.

The program will include reports and studies of the Bureau's new kindergarten program; ways in which to strengthen the current Head Start program, and explanation of the functions of the Pupil Personnel Services of the Bureau, a program which includes providing more teachers with specialized training for Indian schools.

Bureau education directors in various areas plan to invite representatives from the Division of Indian Health, Tribal Council members, Head Start and Community Action Program workers and other community resources specialists, in addition to regular Bureau education personnel.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett will be in New York Friday, March 8, for an Indian Industrial Forum.

They will be among the guests of honor at a luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel sponsored by 14 industrial firms which have plants operating on or near Indian lands and by two banks interested in industrial development in Indian areas.

William W. Keeler, president of the Phillips Petroleum Company and Principal Chief of the Cherokee nation of Indians, will be master of ceremonies.

Other guests of honor will include 20 Indian tribal leaders and Miss Indian America XIV, who is Miss Sarah Ann Johnson, a Navajo.

Following the luncheon, a news conference will be held at the Waldorf Astoria, at 2:30 p.m. by Secretary Udall, Commissioner Bennett and Mr. Keeler, the Indian leaders and Miss Indian America.

Prior to the luncheon, at 10 a.m., Commissioner Bennett, Miss Indian America and the Indian leaders will be guests at a coffee at Girl Scouts of America headquarters at 830 Third Avenue.

One purpose of the sessions centering on the luncheon, according to Keeler, is to acknowledge the help that the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have given industries which have located plants on or near Indian lands. Another purpose is to tell their success story to firms which have shown an interest in making the same move.

Keeler invited 16 nationally known organizations to act as co-hosts for the occasion. These are: Phillips Petroleum; Amphenol Corp.; Bulova Watch Co.; Western Superior Corp. (BVD); Eisen Brothers, Inc.; Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp.; General Dynamics Corp.; Navajo Forest Products Industries; Peabody Coal Co.; Rayonier, Inc.; Sequoyah Carpet Mills, Inc.; Burnell Nytronics, Inc.; Harry Winston, Inc.; Vassar Corp.; Marine Midland Trust Co. of Western New York; and Crocker-Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles.

Tribal leaders and the Branch of Industrial Development of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have helped to establish more than 100 manufacturing plants in Indian country.

Eventually these plants are expected to employ nearly 10,500 persons, more than half of whom will be Indians. Based on the annually computed minimum rate of pay, these plants will yield a payroll-income of more than $34 million annually, with earnings for Indian workers expected to reach about $19 million yearly. The 4,000 Indian workers employed at the end of 1967 stand to earn $13 million in wages during 1968.

During the past four years, 94 manufacturing plants were established in Indian areas, and the Indian wage earners were paid about $28 million.

Other industrial operations, based on the development of Indian resources such as fish, forests and minerals, bring the total number of industrial firms operating on or near Indian lands to over 450.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Owen D. Morken, Area Director based in Juneau, Alaska, will be reassigned to Washington, D.C., as Special Assistant to the Commissioner" for Alaskan Activities.

Charles A. Richmond, Superintendent of the Bethel, Alaska, Agency, will be promoted to be Juneau Area Director, Bennett said. The changes become effective on April 7.

Morken, 57 has been Area Director since 1965. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps program in 1939 and served in progressively more responsible positions in Minnesota, the Southwest and the Plains States. He was Assistant Area Director at Aberdeen, S.D., before going to Alaska.

A native of Brainerd, Minn., Morken was graduated from Bemidji, Minn., State College.

Richmond, 42, was born in Huntington, N. Y., and received a bachelor's degree from West Texas State University. He joined the Bureau as a teacher at the Unalakleet, Alaska, and school in 1954 and assumed progressively more responsible teaching positions. He became Superintendent of the Bethel Agency in 1966.

A veteran of Navy service in World War II and the Korean conflict, Richmond has received two Interior Department Outstanding Performance awards.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that a new outdoor furniture plant to employee up to 300 workers will be established on the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona by Prest Wheel, Inc., of South Grafton, Mass.

Bennett said the firm will be located in an existing industrial building which the firm will purchase from the Economic Development Administration. Area Indians will be given on-the-job training to qualify for jobs in the new plant, he said.

"I note with real pride," Bennett said, "that these plans have been completed in less than four months from Prest Wheel's initial contact by our Industrial Development office. This new facility and its welcome employment potential is an indication of real cooperation between company officials, tribal leaders, EDA, 'and the Bureau of Indian Affairs."

The plant is expected to begin operations in September, Bennett said, with an initial employment of 125, which should grow to 300. Most employees will be Indians from the area, which includes members of the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Navajo, and Hopi tribes.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, today announced that Leonard M. Hill, Area Director for the Sacramento ' Area, has been reassigned as Special Field Representatives for the Southwestern United States.

Hill will be succeeded in the California assignment by William E. Finale, now serving as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Community Services. The reassignments are to become effective April 7. As Special Field Representative Hill will assist Indian groups in making plans and surveys for community development projects.

A native of Ashton, Idaho, Hill, 59, is a veteran of more than 30 years of Government service, including 16 years as Sacramento Area Director. He joined the Department of Agriculture as a clerk in 1935, transferring to the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation in 1946 and to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an economist in 1950.

Hill has a Bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Idaho and a Master's degree in economics from State College of Washington now Washington State University. He served as a, naval officer in World War II.

Finale, 43, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Political Science from Western Reserve University. He joined the Department of the Interior in 1951 as an education and training specialist with the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a program officer in 1961.

Finale also served as a naval officer in World War II.

Although credit is more and more essential for the Indian individual or tribe as emerging economic units, the Bureau of Indian Affairs revolving fund for Indian loans was $18.5 million short of demands upon it during fiscal 1967, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reported today.

The revolving fund for Indian loans was first authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, to total $10 million. The authorization was increased by several legislative acts between 1936 and 1967 until nearly $25 million was appropriated, and all this was loaned. The revolving fund is now being operated entirely with repayments on loans previously made and interest payments.

Although loan commitments are made and applications are authorized on a fiscal year basis, all commitments are made subject to the availability of funds. During fiscal 1967, Indians given expectations of loans to the extent of $18.5 million were disappointed when the funds failed to materialize under the authorization and appropriation limitations.

Requests for financing pending last June 30 totaled $743.5 million. These must be investigated to determine whether the proposals are economically sound and whether other sources of financing are available. In addition, various tribes made requests for loans totaling $84 million for tribal land purchases during fiscal 1967.

A survey conducted by the Civil Works Administration about the time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed -- nearly 35 years ago -- showed an Indian credit need of $65 million.

The Commissioner's announcement came with release of the "Annual Credit Report -- 1967" of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Economic Development, which contains credit data for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1967.

"The revolving fund is woefully short of the amount needed to enable the Indians to participate more fully in American social, economic, educational, and political life and permit them to exercise greater initiative and self-determination," said Commissioner Bennett.

The Commissioner pointed out that an Indian Development Loan Authority would be authorized by the proposed Indian Resources Development Act now before the Congress. Said he:

"The main feature of the Indian Resources Development Act is that it authorizes the appropriation of $500 million, not more than $100 million in the first five years after enactment, for an Indian loan guaranty and insurance fund and for a direct loan revolving fund.

"The loan Guaranty and insurance fund will be used to guarantee not more than 90 percent of anyone loan or to insure repayment of 15 percent of aggregate loans made by one lender. Direct loans will be made from the revolving fund to Indians who cannot obtain commercial loans either with or without a guaranty."

Tribes and other Indian organizations that have available funds on deposit in the United States Treasury or elsewhere are required to use their own money before applying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a loan. Some tribes operate credit and financing programs entirely with tribal funds. Others use their own money to the extent available, and supplement their funds with those borrowed from the United States.

At the close of 1967, tribes were using a total of $81.74 million of their own money for credit and financing. Customary lenders, both private and governmental, supplied $183.44 million. These lenders include banks, the Farmers Home Administration, savings and loan associations, and so forth.

Five Bureau of Indian Affairs offices have been presented awards for rescue and supply operations following the December snow and rain storms in the Southwest, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Receiving the unit awards for excellence of service were staffs of the Navajo and Phoenix Area Offices and of the Hopi, Fort Apache and Papago Agencies, all headquartered in Arizona.

"These employees worked long and hard hours, sometimes at risk of their lives, to seek out and rescue those trapped by the storms and to bring food to isolated people and animals," Udall said.

"It would be as impossible to exaggerate the dedication and energies of these people as it would be to estimate the scope of the disaster their timely actions averted," he said.

The Navajo and Hopi areas were covered by snowfalls which ranged from 18 to 40 inches. During emergency rescue and supply operations more than One million pounds of food and hundreds of tons of hay and fuel were distributed by air and surface operations.

Bureau personnel worked to obtain and direct snow removal equipment and rescue planes and vehicles coordinated and guided rescue efforts and provided assistance to more than 22,000 students and school staffs sheltered in Bureau boarding schools.

Bureau personnel at the Fort Apache Agency coordinated several successful rescue missions for persons trapped by heavy snows in the rugged mountain areas of the reservation. One was a daring helicopter flight at treetop level to rescue the watchman at a logging camp 45 miles from the nearest town. Icing conditions forced the helicopter to the treetop level as it flew through narrow canyons.

In the Papago area more than seven inches of rain caused considerable flooding and the collapse of many adobe homes. Papago Agency employees organized many rescue operations and provided six emergency shelters for the 500 Indians made homeless by the storm.

The staff of the Phoenix Area office worked a round-the-clock logistical operation to maintain food and hay supplies for emergency flights, to brief military flight crews, to coordinate incoming supplies of clothing and other materials, and to receive and relay radio, telephone and telegraph messages from all over the distressed area.

“All of these activities reflect a devotion to duty that represents the highest standards in those whose careers are in service to their Nation," Udall said.