OPA

A unique collection representing the traditional and contemporary aspects of American Indian art is currently drawing capacity-plus crowds at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and is slated to open September 26 for a two-weeks showing in Berlin, Germany.

In addition to examples of the traditional Indian forms of past cultural achievements, out of which the experimental developments are growing, the show includes scheduled readings of ancient Indian legends, modern poetry and prose. Fred Stevens, Navajo sand painter, and his wife, Bertha, are with the exhibition, demonstrating sandpainting and weaving.

The exhibit, sponsored by the Department of the Interior, the Department of State, the United States Information Agency, and the Center for Arts of Indian America, was designed and installed by James McGrath, assistant director of arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Enthusiastic commentary in the Edinburgh press has been underlined by the public in the form of what McGrath termed "turn-away crowds" for the limited audience poetry and prose readings and "tremendous crowds" in the open galleries.

The contemporary aspects of American Indian Arts are proving particularly exciting to Scottish audiences, according to McGrath. Among these are the weaving experiments by the Skokomish involving cedar bark, shell and horse hair; the Sioux and Crow painting experiments evolving out of the three-dimensional shield cultural pattern; the Eskimo jewelry built around a working knowledge of jade, ivory, bone and shell; the new Apache sculptural forms emerging from experiments in such media as marble and cast stone.

These new forms are being received in Scotland as important new developments in the world of art--new, deep, natural-rooted directions extending from the ancient native sources of the Americas.

All the contemporary pieces in this exhibition have been conceived by artists who, according to one Edinburgh reviewer, "seem to have discovered their Indian sources reflecting and casting shadows on the new worlds of arts elsewhere. The Indian artists in this exhibition," the review continues, "have a right to stand in dignity alongside any working artist today, creating anywhere."

The exhibit, according to McGrath, does not have the intent of showing all, the best, or the very esoteric of Indian artistic situations. It has as its objective the showing "of some of the mystery, some of the soul and much of the love of the American Indian for his communications between the spirit of man and the spirit of the cosmos."

The award of a $2,759,058 construction contract fora large school complex in the New Mexico section of the Navajo Reservation was announced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In the Navajo language, the new facility will be known as Dzilth-Na-o-dith-hle School. The name roughly translates as "Turning Mountain," a reference to an unusual nearby hill which seems to revolve, always presenting the same appearance to a traveler passing through the reservation.

To be located near Blanco Trading Post, in Rio Arriba County, the school will serve more than 500 Indian children at the elementary level in the Kimbeto-Huerfano area. A Bureau-operated trailer school at Kimbeto will be closed, but a dormitory at Huerfano will remain open for Indian children attending public school in Bloomfield, N. Mex.

The contract calls for construction of two school buildings with a total of 17 classrooms; two 128-pupil dormitories; a kitchen-dining building to serve 260; a combined instructional materials center and administration building; storage, maintenance and garage facilities; and quarters for employees.

A school enrollment of approximately 255 boarding and 255 day pupils is expected. Boarding students will be housed according to grade levels.

The new school will relieve the present overcrowded and inadequate school facilities now serving area Indian children.

Successful bidder was Lembke Construction Co., Inc., of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Four bids were received, ranging to a high of $3,126,541.

It is good to be back in Alaska where I spent three of the most memorable and worthwhile years of my life: worthwhile because the experience of working for and with the native peoples of this State gave me new and deeper insight into the nature of cultural differences among American peoples; and memorable because, as you know, this land of the frozen tundra can warm your heart while almost freezing your marrow.

Alaska is a land where physical challenges give emphasis to the needs of the mind and spirit. Alaska is, therefore, a land where teachers belong, where teachers are needed, where teachers can and do bear profound influence on the lives of the young native people.

And so I feel honored to be amongst this dedicated assemblage of teachers serving the native peoples of Alaska, and I am deeply grateful to you for the devotion, the tenderness and the toughness you muster daily for your chosen work.

I also commend you for the focus this conference places upon the special educational needs of children whose backgrounds differ from the dominant culture of our country. This is a subject of concern to the Nation as a whole, because adjustment problems of the ethnically and culturally "different" are now affecting our social structure.

To the Bureau of Indian Affairs above all, it is important that we learn how to ease cultural transitions -- for all the people we serve are people at such a crossroads.

We are all here as individuals involved personally in the education of the Indian, Eskimo and Aleut children of Alaska. Let us, then make the very most of this time together by directing our attention to fundamental matters. Let us talk policies, programs and principles. Let us determine our direction. Let us make this conference a source of continuing inspiration even after the talking is done and we have returned to our posts to resume the daily patterns of our work.

But before we can discuss programs or principles, it is necessary that we are clear in our minds about matters of basic policy.

A fundamental policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for several years has been that of cooperation with State and local public school agencies to facilitate the transfer of Indian children to public schools.

Today about two-thirds of all Indian children are in public schools. From these figures it is quite evident that the policy is being pursued. However, we are confident that, in its pursuit, we are avoiding any precipitous actions that would result in lowering educational opportunity for Indian, Eskimo and Aleut children.

­­When school districts are ready, and when the native people involved are also ready, then the Bureau is ready to put the policy into effect. But there is no intention of reducing BIA's services before equivalent or better services are available.

The situation in Alaska is no different from our policy elsewhere.

I know the subject has been a matter of some speculation and apprehension among some village communities, particularly in the more remote areas.

The mutually agreed upon policy of the State of Alaska and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is outlined in the revised Governor's report entitled AN OVERALL EDUCATION PIAN FOR RURAL AIASKA, issued in 1966. As this report indicates, the Bureau of Indian Affairs operates in partnership with the State of Alaska.

It is recognized by both governmental levels that the responsibility for the education of native students rests with the State, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to operate schools and education programs where the State cannot presently assume its full responsibility.

The State plan provides for the orderly transfer of Bureau schools to non-Federal operation under the principle of mutual readiness on the part of the community, the State and then We are currently operating about 80 schools in Alaska, including the two boarding schools, Wrangell Institute and Mt. Edgecumbe; and we have transferred educational responsibility in about 60 other places.

The Bureau’s most conspicuous and unique service is to the native villages, widely scattered throughout wilderness areas.

The Federal Government is pledged to assuring these village people that services to them will continue without interruption and without reduction of standards. Indeed, it is our goal that we raise the quality of these schools to new levels, so that they will be proud showcases, both for BIA and for the State.

This brings me to the second point I wish to discuss -- the matter of what we mean by quality education and how it can be achieved and maintained even in the two-or three-teacher school, removed from the more usual cultural influences.

A big part of quality in education requires adequate financial resources, and the Congress has been increasingly liberal with appropriations for Indian education.

This has enabled us to build schools where none existed before, and to replace schools that were relics of a dismal past.

We have developed libraries of books and libraries of visual teaching aids.

We have raised the recruiting standards for teachers.

We have introduced new programs at all grade levels, but most particularly at the upper secondary and postsecondary levels, where arts and technologies are now being offered to our young people.

We have a nationwide net of adult vocational training and job placement services -- and, in Alaska, the proof is in the high wage employment of many skilled native technicians in military and other Government installations.

But lest it seem that I am saying all is well, let me hasten to add: All we have been doing is running fast to make up for long years of neglect. We are still losing the nationwide race to provide quality education and equality of opportunity for our children.

New avenues have opened up in the last year or two, and we can now plan more systematically for the kind of quality we seek.

For preschoolers, teen agers and elder citizens, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 has made it possible to launch special education and training pro­grams that are essential to the quality package.

The U.S. Office of Education, through its administration of many new Federal education aid laws, has made possible most of the experimentation, research, curriculum development, teacher training, and "hardware" and "software" purchases that we have needed for so long and are now commencing.

One of the big new efforts will be development of special materials and programs for teaching English as a second language to Indian, Eskimo and Aleut children. Techniques have been perfected to teach English to foreigners; it is equally important that we meet the special needs of our own youthful citizens of differing cultural backgrounds.

Another big effort will be the training of teachers who speak some of the native languages. Navajo is probably to be one of the prime targets of the huge Navajo-speaking population (about one-sixth of all native populations).

Other-in-service teacher training plans call for broadening of specialized institutes such as' those financed under the National Defense Education Act of 1958; special pre-training for new teachers; and possibly a schedule of sabbaticals or similar leave periods to permit teachers to undertake further training at our expense.

Salaries, we know, are still not competitive with some public school systems, and the 12 month year is a handicap to our teachers and so we are negotiating now with the Civil Service Commission to try to make some adjustments.

Last, but not least, we have entered into the development of special curriculums to meet the unique needs of children facing the cultural transition in school. We will be relying increasingly upon the classroom teachers in our schools -- the men and women on the front lines -- to provide advice and assistance.

With regard to Alaska in particular, the same general plans apply. In some respects, there is already more evidence of new developments here than in most other parts of the country. We have built about 35 new schools in the past few years and have made improvements in many others. All schools are being equipped with the kinds of equipment and materials necessary for teachers to use their skills to best advantage.

The State of Alaska itself is already leading in training for teachers, through its program at the University in cooperation with the Ford Foundation; and is also a leader in developing teacher aide programs to provide trained local help to teachers in native communities. The BIA actively cooperates in both efforts.

All of these are signals that "quality education" is more than just a phrase. We are striving for an exemplary school system, one that can serve as a model in educating the culturally different and the economically deprived child.

But money can't buy it all the way. The single most important ingredient of quality education is teacher-student-rapport. The classroom must be a physically comfortable place, but it should be more, too -- it should be a comforting place where conflicting cultures synthesize rather than polarize.

This reads to my third point: the importance of the classroom teacher in shaping the philosophical principles for our education program.

A school system is built of teachers. We are dependent upon you to help uncover the missing clue to success in bridging the culture gap so that our children will flourish, not wilt, in the halls of learning.

We ask you to be creative and innovative -- to be cognizant in all ways of the acute needs of children facing a cultural transition.

I would like to quote a man who has been one of the country's most forceful voices in focusing attention on the culture gap that is creating social havoc today. James Farmer, director of the Center for Community Action Education, recently told a national conference of State educators:

­­ "A teacher can be effective in teaching the disadvantaged only when he believes they can be taught, and believes in them -- not in a romantic way, ascribing to all of them all of the virtues and none of the vices of man, but in the realistic sense that there is among them a reservoir of submerged intelligence, talent, and ability, the discovery of which is an exciting adventure, worthy of the best in any teacher."

And Congressman Henry Gonzalez of Texas, in an article published by the AFL-CIO FEDERATIONIST last August, comments on the educational needs of Spanish-speaking Americans, as follows:

"I do not believe that it is the place of the schools to force a choice of cultures on children or suppress their native heritage ••••• Great injury is done whenever this is attempted ••••• I believe the schools must make an effort to capitalize on the special talents and attributes of the Spanish-surnamed American. This will make his education meaningful and 'will do more than any­thing else to help him realize his full potential; His special educational problems need to be solved and his assets refined •••••”

The problems created by ethnic differences -- for Negroes, for Spanish-Americans or for Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts -- frequently converge in the classroom and in daily life. There is the common tendency of the "culturally different" to look backward into their heritage and to lean heavily upon it.

This is probably truest and deepest among Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts. They are bound by cultural restraints that are all too often interpreted as manifestations of intellectual limitations, when, in truth, they are instinctive attempts to preserve their own identities. They are too frequently forced to choose between the two cultures, and rarely assisted in melding the best of both.

The native groups in this country -- both in the lower Forty-Eight and in Alaska -- are rooted in a way of life that was fully responsive to nature. Their view of nature is a spiritual one. Their economic order, therefore, was traditionally one of subsistence, not accumulation -- and this attitude frequently carries over to the present day.

Along with these basic constraints, the concepts of time and work differ from those of the Euro-American. As a matter of fact, it is believed that no tribal language had a word which described the idea of time. Work was regarded as a necessary interruption to leisure, as contrasted with our view of leisure as a reward for work.

The puritan may recoil from such concepts, but there is no place for puritanism among those who are serving Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts.

This is not to say that the values of the dominant culture have no applicability to people of other cultures. They do have great applicability, and the better this is understood by the culturally different the sooner they will emerge into fuller participation in all aspects of American life.

Part of the task of the teacher in the small community school should therefore be to encourage parental involvement in school affairs. I myself am continually urging Indian parents to take an active interest in their school -­not in a meddlesome way, but in an inquiring and helpful way. Parental attitudes, as you know, are often reflected in the students' attitudes toward education,

The teacher can help stimulate parental interest by giving due honor to the cultural influences of the child's home life; and by aiding the child to understand that the purpose of education is to help them relate what they learn at home to what they learn at school.

And so the task of the teacher becomes one of selectively mixing new and old ideas in rich proportions to sweeten the taste of transition.

This is your challenge, as teachers of the native children of Alaska. You must often proceed intuitively because there is little if any methodology upon which to draw.

But it is at least possible to draw upon the generic meaning of the word “education” – to lead each child by own special light to the threshold of intellectual and practical understanding of himself and the world around him.

The responsibility you have willingly assumed merits our profound respect. I salute you, the teacher of BIA, who are carrying the lamp of learning to the top of the world.

Although many eastern Indian tribes are now decimated or dispersed, they left a rich legacy for the people who followed. So says an illustrated 28-page booklet, "Indians of the Eastern Seaboard,” just issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The booklet is the latest in a popular series of publications about the first inhabitants of what is now the United States. It describes relationships between the Indians and the Pilgrims, the Jamestown colonists, and the Florida missionaries, and the influence this interplay had on the Nation.

The booklet describes, state by state, Indians of the past and present. Bureau of Indian Affairs services are extended now to only three tribes in the area. They are the Cherokees of North Carolina 'and the Seminoles and Miccosukees - (a branch of the Seminoles) - in Florida.

But Indian groups and Indian individuals still live along the Eastern seaboard, or left a still obvious heritage before moving West or to Canada. This new booklet tells where they are today.

"Indians of the Eastern Seaboard" is the 14th booklet in, the series on Indians of various regions.

Other titles in the series are: "Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska"; "Indians of Arizona"; "Indians of California"; "Indians of the Central Plains"; "Indians of the Dakotas"; "Indians of the Great Lakes Area"; "Indians of the Gulf Coast States"; "Indians of Montana, Wyoming"; “Indians of New Mexico"; "Indians of North Carolina"; "Indians of the Northwest"; "Indians of Oklahoma"; and "Indians of the Lower Plateau."

Each is available at 15 cents a copy from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D C. 20402. A 25 percent discount is allowed on quantity orders of 100 or more, if mailed to one address.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today appointment of Roy Peratrovich of Juneau, Alaska, as Superintendent of the Anchorage District of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Peratrovich is widely known in Alaska. His mother was a full blood Tlingit Indian.

The new superintendent has over 30 years of service with the territorial government of Alaska and with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

He also has been active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood, having served five terms as grand president and now being a life member of the executive committee.

Peratrovich was born in Klawock. School, Salem, Oregon, for four years education in Ketchikan.

He attended the Chemawa Indian He completed his high school He became the first Alaskan to receive a United Nations Fellowship, under which he studied the fishing industry of Nova Scotia. He also was awarded a John Hay Whitney Scholarship in 1952 which enabled him to study banking and finance under the auspices of the University of Denver.

Currently, Peratrovich is in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Area office at Juneau, where he is head of the Tribal Operations program in the state. He previously had served as a special officer and then as a credit and financing officer.

As superintendent of the Anchorage District, Peratrovich will have responsibility for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the south central part of the state and the Aleutian Islands c1ain. He will assume his new duties March 3.

Peratrovich has three children, a daughter, Loretta, and two sons, Roy and Frank, and several grandchildren.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Buford Morrison, formerly superintendent of/the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Horton Agency, Horton, Kans., has been appointed superintendent of the Miccosukee Agency, Homestead, Fla.

He will fill the position left vacant by the recent transfer of Lawrence J. Kozlowski to the post of superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency, Dulce, N.M.

Morrison, a Creek Indian, is a graduate of Stidham High School, Stidham, Okla., and of Haskell Institute, a Bureau of Indian Affairs vocational school in Lawrence, Kans. He is originally from Lenna, Okla.

He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1940 as an assistant (Indian clerk) at the Jicarilla Indian Agency, Dulce, N.M. He was supervisory field representative and area field representative, Anadarko Area, Potawatomi Area Field Office, Horton, Kans., before being named superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Horton Agency.

Morrison served in the Army from November 1942 to December 1945 in the European Theater of Operations. He is married and has a step-son.

Almost a year has elapsed since I last visited Alaska and met with many of you. It has been an eventful one during which you have made some notable progress.

While I welcome the opportunity to be with you, I regret that there must be a vacant chair at the head table because of the passing of Dr. Henry S. Forbes.

We share warm memories of Dr. Forbes and deep appreciation for a man who accom­plished more in his avocation than many people accomplish in their chosen pro­fessions. Moreover, Dr. Forbes continued to pursue his work with remarkable vigor at a stage in life when men are usually content to reminisce about the past. We owe him a great debt and it is fitting that you have chosen to honor his memory on this occasion.

Since the Tundra Times was so dear to the heart of Dr. Forbes, it is altogether appropriate for me to take a few minutes at the outset to reflect on the paper's accomplishments in its brief six year life span.

During the recent Congressional Hearings on the proposed Native Claims legislation, your leaders received many plaudits for their excellent performance. I wonder, however, whether that leadership would have been so effective without the job the Tundra Times did in communicating the issues to the Native people.

It was instrumental in creating a recognition of the need for leadership, of the need for organization and, yes, even saw fit to take the leaders to task when it felt they were not effectively discharging their responsibilities to the people.

Sometimes we tend to think of the Times' role only as a channel of com­munication among the Native people, but it has also served as the vehicle for communicating the needs and aspirations of the Natives to the people "Outside," including those of us in Washington who are charged with the responsibility for doing something about them.

In its short life span the paper has effectively championed causes in which the Native people have a vital interest. Setting aside for a moment the land claims issue, which I will discuss later, I would like to cite a few of these.

Were it not for the Tundra Times' role in relentlessly calling attention to the serious deprivation of the basic rights of the long-neglected Pribilof Islanders, these Natives would not have had the opportunity to assume an expanding role in business or government.

The Times also alerted the conscience of the Nation to the potential con- sequences of reckless experimentation by stressing the dangers of atomic fall­out and the plight of the Native people involved.

Despite the deplorable conditions of Native housing to which the Times repeatedly called our attention, the benefits of the Indian housing program could not be realized by the Alaskan Native. However, finally the persistent efforts of Senator Bartlett led to the passage of a $10 million Alaska housing program for which a million dollars to construct 200 houses will be available this year. In addition, the combined efforts of several agencies led by the Economic Development Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will lead to the construction of over 200 new homes in the Bethel area within the next two years.

The Times, with a forceful assist from the Federal Field Committee, has focused the Nation's attention on the problem of native unemployment, At long last we in the Federal Government, the largest employer in the State, have stopped giving lip service to the problem and are finally mounting a concerted effort to do something about it.

Under the leadership of the Committee on Alaska Native Federal Hire, which consists of representatives of all of the agencies with sizable employment in Alaska, each agency has agreed to provide Natives with training specifically tailored to jobs available locally. The Indian Bureau will help the other agencies in screening and selecting the trainees, arranging for housing and providing for the subsistence necessary during the transition period.

At the outset we hope to fill at least 200 job opportunities this year. Our goal is to create employment for 1,600 Natives so that they fill at least ten percent of the Federal jobs in Alaska, aside from BIA and Indian Health which already far exceed that percentage. These will not be low-level, menial jobs, they will involve skills such as electronic technician, plumber, carpenter, and equipment operator, The Bureau of Indian Affairs has a key role to play in this operation and we intend to support it to the fullest extent in terms of funds and manpower.

While I am on the subject of jobs, I would be remiss if I did not mention the splendid performance of the Native fire-fighting crews for the Bureau of Land Management during the recent disastrous fire season in Alaska. I under­stand that over a million dollars was paid to nearly 2,000 Natives for their work.

Another area where I feel we are making significant progress is education, Since 1962 the State and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been working together in developing a joint plan for providing adequate educational opportunities for the Native people of rural Alaska.

A key phase of the plan has been the cooperative establishment of regional, boarding high schools where the State constructs the school and BIA builds the dormitory and provides the State with funds to operate it, the first such facility, the William E. Beltz School at Nome, is now in its third year. A similar arrangement is being developed at Kodiak where the dormitory will be completed in time for the opening of the next school year. The Bureau expects to obtain funds shortly for the construction of a dormitory at Bethel in con­junction with the expansion of the State high school. In the near future, we plan to establish additional arrangements of this sort, some of them in larger centers of population.

Our capacity to move ahead more rapidly on this front was enhanced appreciably by the decision not to rebuild Mt. Edgecumbe.

It is always difficult to admit a mistake. But, after intensive review of the Mt. Edgecumbe proposal, we concluded that it just did not make sense to put close to $20 million into the construction and rehabilitation of a school for 1,000 students at that location, when only 20 percent of the anticipated enroll­ment would be from Southeast. We plan instead to expedite the construction of facilities closer to the pupils' homes.

In addition, the BIA has been transferring t1ie ownership and operation of its schools to the State. Since 1951, 40 schools have been transferred to State jurisdiction, and the transfer is now occurring at an accelerated pace. The BIA in the past has not always been as careful as it might have been in securing the consent of Native communities before transferring its responsibilities. Today, no school is transferred without the active participation of the local community in the planning process.

In the same vein, the Bureau has during the past two years worked with the village communities in establishing advisory school boards. Now every community with a Bureau school has elected officials serving as school board members. At an early date I expect to see these boards actually making basic decisions in connection with the schools' operations, instead of playing just an advisory role.

While the struggle to provide adequate educational facilities within the State of Alaska is going forward, we cannot foreclose the opportunity for a high school education from today's youth. Consequently, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has found space for 1,000 students from Alaska at high schools in Oregon and Oklahoma. No one believes that this is a satisfactory solution to the problem. No one likes to see young people separated from their homes and communities by long distances over extended periods of time. But it is greatly to the credit of thousands of Alaska youth and their parents that they have been willing to accept the separation rather than miss out on high school education altogether.

I would like to digress for a moment on the role of the Bureau. I have had my share of frustrations with the Indian Bureau for nearly eight years. It has not always been as vigorous as we might have liked, but nonetheless, I bristle when I see sweeping charges that the Bureau is primarily interested in per­petuating its hold on the Indian people.

Last year we spent considerable time and effort developing legislation that would permit us to turn over to Indian tribes the authority to manage their own lands. Much to my surprise and chagrin this move met with widespread opposition among Indian leaders, who would rather have the Bureau to "lean on," frequently in both senses of the term. Fortunately, most of your leaders in Alaska are willing to accept the responsibility of managing your own affairs. As you are growing to assume that role, I ask you to avoid the easy course of blaming BIA for all of the failures along the road. When you believe that the Bureau should be taken to task, do so, but try to be both specific and constructive with your criticism.

Last November when we met, the Native land claims issue seemed to be in the doldrums. Today it is, in my opinion, on the verge of resolution. This is due in large part to the fact that the Native leadership, the Congressional delega­tion and the State have all been pulling in the same direction.

I hope you are not disheartened by the failure to get a bill enacted this year. Issues of this magnitude are just too formidable to speed through the legislative process. Two decades were required to obtain passage of the Central Arizona Project. Those years were devoted to much hard work on the part of the proponents and the Congress. However, hard work alone did not put that project over the top. Unless the advocates had been willing to compromise by giving up features which, although desirable, were not essential, we would not have legis­lation today.

If you are to be successful in this struggle your leaders will undoubtedly be called upon to exercise their judgment on short notice without time for consultation at the village level. Bear in mind that they are leaders, not messengers. You chose them because you felt that they possessed the quali­fications and good judgment to represent you. They may not be able to obtain everything that you and they would like. It is far easier to be doctrinaire and intransigent, than it is to make the hard decisions that will bring results.

At the time when we submitted our first Departmental proposal I was proud to be the first Secretary of the Interior to tackle this longstanding problem. In retrospect I see that our proposed solution left much to be desired. However, I need make no apologies for the principles for a just settlement that were laid down by President Johnson. Under any equitable settlement, the Natives should receive:

(1) title to the lands you occupy and need to sustain your villages;

(2) rights to use additional lands and water to maintain your traditional way of life if you so choose; and

(3) compensation commensurate with the value of lands taken from you.

I believe that it is incumbent upon the Native leaders to make a convincing case for translating these principles into concrete terms. Their presentation to the Congress last July contributed appreciably toward that end.

I hope that the time for results will be at hand in the next session of the Congress. But, while there has been widespread agreement on the principles for a just solution, and the Administration and the Native leadership are much closer to agreement than we were a year ago, the basic issues of how much land and how much money are far from being resolved.

As one who will no longer be involved in the struggle, I shall take the liberty of offering you my counsel. In short, it is for you to try to put yourselves in the shoes of the parties with whom you are dealing -- to appreci­ate their points of view and the constraints under which they are operating.

I have yet to speak to a member of Congress, or a representative of the Execu­tive Branch, who does not believe that you have a worthy cause and that settle­ment is long overdue. Yet, they view the subject from a very different perspective.

Many of the Congressional leaders who will have to approve, and perhaps even formulate, a settlement played key roles in shaping Alaska Statehood legislation. They believe, correctly in my opinion, that the Congress dis­charged its responsibilities to the 49th State in a most generous fashion, more generously than it had treated their States.

Many of these Congressmen were instrumental in establishing the Indian Claims Commission. They are distressed at the length of time it has taken the Commission to dispose of its proceedings and consequently are anxious to pro­vide a more expeditious settlement for Alaska. At the same time they are aware that the total value of all of the awards made by the Commission to date is roughly $282 million, and that the Court of Claims placed a value of only $7.S million on practically all of Southeast Alaska. Accordingly, they will not be easily convinced that the claims of the Natives of Alaska should be valued at $500 million.

In addition, they have handled scores of bills authorizing the expenditure of judgment awards by Indian tribes. They have been unwilling to give tribal leaders a completely free hand in spending this money, and have seen fit to require that the Secretary of the Interior approve their plans.

They are also well aware of the vast acreages of Indian lands that have gone out of Indian ownership, often at small fractions of market value, and are reluctant to legislate a settlement that does not provide adequate safeguards to prevent the recurrence of this experience.

You should also bear in mind that the next Secretary of the Interior, whether he be a Democrat or Republican, will not be a completely free agent. He will, hopefully, be your advocate as I have endeavored to be to the best of my ability. At the same time in this role he will be faced, as I have been, with the job of presenting your case to others within the Administration who have competing responsibilities and do not share his viewpoint. He will be faced with the task of recommending a settlement that will provide the maximum opportunity for Native initiative, management, and control, while at the same time providing a measure of protection that will guarantee that the fruits of any settlement are equitably distributed among the Native people and that they are not dissipated without lasting benefit.

Finally, the next Secretary will be faced with the very difficult decision as to whether to continue the land freeze.

I am well aware that under the terms of the State's Native claims legis­lation I must lift the freeze by next week if the Natives are to receive any benefits. My views on the land freeze are well known. Frankly, I do not be­lieve we would have made any significant progress on the Native claims issue if we had not held everybody's feet to the fire, or perhaps I should say to the ice, with the freeze. As I have said many times before, I do not intend to lift it. While I believe that one objective of the State legislation was to obtain Native support for the lifting of the freeze, I believe that it should also be construed as a good faith offer by the State of assistance to the Native people. If that view is correct, I would expect that the offer will be renewed subse­quently by the State in a form that will complement the federal legislation.

As you know, the U. S. District Court recently ruled against us on that part of the freeze involving our refusal to patent State selections. Our lawyers tell me that we have a good case and we intend to appeal. I am hopeful, however, that the appeal will become moot through the speedy enactment of claims' legislation.

There is one facet of the freeze on which I have had very little to say -­the purported revenue loss to the State of Alaska, because of our failure to issue oil and gas leases. It has been argued that the State has been deprived of its 90 percent share of the SO-cent per acre rental that is received under these leases. - However, I would like to point out that under the present law virtually all leases on public lands in Alaska, including millions of acres which are believed to have great oil and gas potential, must be issued on a non-competitive basis. We are hopeful that Congress will soon see fit to revise this anachronistic law so that the Government can obtain fair market value for its resources. In the meantime, it is just not good management for the Federal Government to lease valuable acreage non-competitively that would doubtless bring bonuses running into hundreds of millions of dollars if it could be leased competitively. While the State might obtain several millions of dollars in the short run by our leasing, it would do so at the expense of losing many times that amount in the long run.

In closing, I would like to thank Howard Rock and Emil Notti once again for their kind invitation to be with you at this impressive gathering. I am hopeful that next time we meet it will be to celebrate the enactment of legis­lation resolving the Native claims issue.

Commissioner Robert L. Bennett of the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today plans for a series of regional meetings with Indian tribal leaders to discuss proposals for legislation and other matters of general interest to the Indian people.

Commissioner Bennett said the nine meetings would "help us to prepare and present to the Congress proposals that represent the best of Indian thinking on how to attack Indian problems.

"We need to take advantage of the favorable climate in Indian affairs created by the President, the Secretary of the Interior and the Congress, which is reflected in the news media, to present a forward-looking program to the Congress," Bennett said.

The Commissioner said he would attend all of the nine meetings. He has asked the Indian delegations to come to the meetings prepared to discuss: "(1) the present conditions of your people; (2) the major problems as you see them; (3) your ideas and recommendations about meeting these problems through your own and other resources."

The date, place and area involved in each meeting are as follows:

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel, on behalf of President Richard Nixon, today announced the nomination of the following:

Hollis M. Dole, 54, of Portland, Oregon, to be Assistant Secretary for Mineral Resources;

Dr. Leslie L. Glasgow, 54, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to be Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks and Marine Resources; and

Charles H. Meacham, 43, of Juneau, Alaska, to be Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife.

Also appointed today by Secretary Hickel were:

Charles G. Carothers III, 40, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, to be Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife;

Gene P. Morrell, 36, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mineral Resources;

Alex Troffey, 48, of New York and California, as Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Information;

Donald D. Dunlop, 46, of Norman, Oklahoma, as Assistant to the Secretary and Science Adviser; and

Delbert L. Klaus, 43, of Alexandria, Virginia, as Assistant to the Secretary for Federal-State Relations.

Dole has been Director of the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources for the State of Oregon for the past 13 .years and in the mining field in the Pacific Northwest since 1933. He began with the Department in Oregon in 1946 as a field geologist and has served under five governors.

Dole was formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey in Arizona, the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Oregon, and with mining companies in Oregon and California. He has been an adjunct professor of geology at Portland State College and formerly a graduate instructor at the University of Utah. Dole earned his master’s degree in geology at Oregon State University and attended graduate schools at U.C.L.A. and the University of Utah. He is a native of Paonia, Colorado.

Dr.Glasgow teaching for the past 20 years in the fields of fisheries, wildlife and forestry. He has been Professor of Wildlife Management at Louisiana State University for 18 years. In 1966 he became Director of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.

Dr.Glasgow spent 18 years in research on wildlife wetlands management at the LSU Agricultural experiment Stations and was formerly a waterfowl biologist in the Indiana Conservation Department, He was winner of the Governor I s Award of the Louisiana Wildlife Feder1ition in 1967.

A native of Jay County, Indiana, he was graduated from Purdue University in' wildlife' and forestry, -obtained his master's degree in wildlife at the University of Maine, and his doctorate in wildlife management at Texas A&M University.

Meacham, formerly Director of International Fisheries for the Governor of Alaska, has been in fish and wildlife research and management for 20 years. He spent six years in biological work with the California Department of Fish and Game before joining the Alaska Department of Fisheries in 1956. Following Statehood, he was appointed a Regional Supervisor in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, with responsibility for commercial fisheries management and research.

Meacham has been an advisor to the Commissioners of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission, a member of the U.S. Fishing Industry Advisory Committee of the Department of State, an advisor to the Alaska Commissioners of the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission, and has been Alaska's senior member of the Alaska-Japan Fisheries Panel and Joint Research Venture. He is a native of California and a wildlife management graduate of Utah State University.

Carothers, formerly with the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, has been active in the Northeast in conservation work and is nationally recognized in the field of waterfowl conservation.

He has been an officer of Massachusetts Conservation, Inc. and its predecessor organization since 1953, a former director of the Massachusetts Wildlife Federation, Inc., and a member of the Executive Committee of Ducks Unlimited, Inc. of Chicago. Carothers is a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Wesleyan University, Connecticut.

Morrell, born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, has been in private law practice there since 1964 and previously was an attorney and geologist for the Gilmer Oil Company of Ardmore.

He is a geology graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he also received his law degree. Morrell was elected to the Ardmore City Commission in 1966 and as vice-mayor of Ardmore in 1968. A former director of the Lincoln Bank and Trust Company, he served on the 1968 campaign staff of Senator Henry Bellman of Oklahoma.

Troffey, a public relations consultant, was recently with Wolcott, Carlson & Company, Inc. of New York City. He was formerly public relations director for United Press International and public relations coordinator for Kaiser Industries Corporation.

During the 1968 and 1960 presidential campaigns, he was on the communications, staff of President Nixon. A former newspaperman on the West Coast, he is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

Dunlop was recently president of Creative Enterprises International, a management consulting firm, and president of Production Research Corporation, both of Norman. He is a former engineer with Tennessee Eastman Corp, Kingport, Tennessee; Esso Research and Engineering Co,, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Oil Recovery Corp. of Tulsa.

A graduate in chemical engineering of the University of Texas, he obtained his master's degree at Texas A&M University. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma Management School and is the holder of many U.S. patents in the chemical engineering field,

Klaus formerly was administrative assistant to Representative James A. McClure of Idaho. A native of Idaho, he served as public information director of the Idaho Department of Highways and as athletic department business manager for the University of Idaho, where he was graduated, He was formerly with Atkinson-Jones Construction Company and Kaiser Engineers.

Timber harvest and sales on Indian reservations set records in the fiscal year which ended June 30, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Annual receipts from stumpage sales totaled $14.3 million, nearly $2 million over the previous fiscal year. The volume harvested was approximately 848 million board-feet, an increase of 100 million board-feet over fiscal 1965, the Bureau said.

An additional 100 million board-feet was cut by Indians under free permits for fuel and home and farm use.

The Bureau estimated that the timber cut created 6,000 year-long jobs in the woods and in sawmills, plywood plants and other wood industries located on or near Indian reservations. Increasing numbers of these jobs are being filled by Indians, the Bureau said.

Indian tribally-owned sawmills are located on the Fort Apache, Ariz., Navajo and Jicarilla, N. Mex., and Blackfeet, Mont., Reservations. The Indian owned Red Lake Mill in Minnesota, which burned in December, after 40 years of operation, is being rebuilt with Bureau assistance and should be completed this fall.

In the last five years, the volume of timber cut has increased 375 million board-feet and stumpage receipts have increased by $6.2 million, the Bureau's report stated. This year's increase included most Indian forested areas, except in California, where the cut has remained about the same for several years.

All Indian forests are managed in, accordance with sustained-yield principles in order to maintain the productive capacity of the lands and to assure an even flow of the harvests.

Indian forest resources contribute directly to economic stability and reservation improvement by providing income from stumpage receipts, the advantage of increased employment opportunities and, on an increasing number of reservations, 1e profits and benefits of the processing industries, the Bureau said.