OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today that Barney Old Coyote, Interior Department Job Corps Conservation Center Coordinator since December 1964, has returned to the Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs as Assistant Director of its Sacramento, Calif., Area Office.

"Mr. Old Coyote has demonstrated his ability to work effectively and harmoniously with the Indian people," Bennett said, "and I know he will continue this record in California."

Old Coyote, 45, is a Crow Indian from St. Xavier, Mont. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1948 as a clerk-typist at Crow Agency, Mont., and held positions of increasing responsibility at several western reservations. He was Sub-agency Superintendent at Box Elder, Mont., when he was named to his present position in the Department.

Last year Old Coyote received the Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor the department bestows, for outstanding performance as Job Corps Coordinator.

Old Coyote attended elementary and high schools in Hardin, Mont.; Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kan.; and Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa. He served in the Army Air Force during World War II as an aerial engineer-gunner, flying 50 missions in the European and Mediterranean Theaters.

He will succeed Marvin Ripke, who retired January 11.

Awards totaling about $36 million were granted 13 American Indian groups by judgments of the Indian Claims Commission during 1968, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

Congress has appropriated funds for $30.6 million of the total granted. The appropriated funds earn interest for the tribes involved while the funds are on deposit to their credit.

The, Indian Claims Commission was established iii 1946 as an independent agency by Act of Congress. It hears and determines the claims of tribes and other identi­fiable groups of American Indians living in the United States. In 1967 its membership was expanded from three to five.

The present commissioners are John T. Vance, Richard W. Yarborough, Jerome K. Kuykendall, Margaret H. Pierce and Theodore R. McKeldin.

Most of the Indian Claims filed with the commission are for fair value of 1ndian lands ceded to the United States or taken by the Government in the past. Increasingly, the funds received through judgments are now being invested by the tribes for projects to improve the social and economic conditions of their people.

Typical projects include scholarships for the education of Indian youth, social services for reservation dwellers, construction of community centers and funding of community development projects, and tribal enterprises including recreational tourism development, industrial parks and other projects designed to bring new sources of income and employment to the Indians.

Awards granted to the tribes in 1968 by the Indian Claims Commission included:

A total of $38.5 million was awarded eight Indian tribes in judgments handed down by the Indian Claims Commission during calendar year 1964, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today. Appropriations to meet the judgments were made during the year in six of the eight cases.

Judgment funds from land claims settlements are held in trust for the tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Programs for use of the funds are developed by tribal governing bodies and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

During the past four years, the Bureau, with considerable success, has encouraged tribal governments to use their judgment money for college and university scholarships, investment in business and industrial enterprises to stimulate Indian employment, development of natural resources, and improvement of community facilities on reservations. Individuals have also been helped to improve homes, farms, and other enterprises through family improvement programs based on judgment awards.

The Indian Claims Commission, an independent tribunal, was created by Congress in 1946 to hear and determine claims of tribes, bands, and other identifiable groups of American Indians living in the United States. More than 850 claims have since been filed, of which about 25 per cent have been finally adjudicated. Awards totaling nearly $140 million have been granted.

Claims Commission judgments during 1964 were:

Settled and appropriated for:

Settled and awaiting appropriations:

*On appeal and beneficiaries have not been determined.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced the appointment of Arthur O. Allen, a general engineer in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as Assistant Commissioner for Engineering. Allen succeeds Fred M. Haverland, who retired January 11.

Allen was born at Martin, S. D and is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He was graduated from. Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kan. in 1927 and joined the Bureau as an assistant foreman at Muskogee, Okla., a position he held until 1935 when he was named an associate architectural engineer in the Bureau's central office in Washington.

Between that time and the present Allen has served in the following positions: assistant director of construction, senior administrative analyst, construction management engineer, general engineer and supervisory general engineer. During this time he received four award for outstanding performance. He has served on the Department of the Interior's Board of Contract Appeals.

Allen earned a Bachelor of Laws Degree at Southeastern University, Washington, D.C., and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Bennett noted that Allen has had the responsibility for the development and administration of the Bureau's construction contracting policies and procedures and has "demonstrated proven administrative ability in the field of engineering."

Allen will head the Bureau's Division of Engineering, which has responsibility for approving and supervising design, contracting, construction and maintenance of Bureau buildings and road.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service have entered into an agreement on the construction and management of recreation at Yellowtail Darn and Reservoir in Montana and Wyoming, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Under the agreement, Reclamation is responsible for constructing boat ramps at Barry's Landing in Montana near the multi-purpose Yellowtail Dam, and also on the Wyoming shoreline of the reservoir, at Horseshoe Bend and Kane Bridge. The Bureau expects that construction of ramps will begin as early as the spring weather permits, so they will be ready to use in a few months while the 71-milelong reservoir is filling. The dam, now 84 percent complete, is scheduled to start impounding water later this year.

The National Park Service will plan and construct other details of the recreation developments and will operate and maintain them when construction is completed.

The Crow Indian Tribe, whose lands adjoin a portion of the reservoir in Montana, is reviewing plans to join in the recreational development of the reservoir area for tourist use. The agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service in no way limits the possible participation of the Crow Tribe, said Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. He has indicated he wishes the Tribe to have full opportunity to consider ways in which it might take part in the development endeavor.

Yellowtail Dam and Reservoir, on the Bighorn Hiver, are the principal features of the Yellowtail Unit of Reclamation's Missouri River Basin Project. Primary purposes of the Unit are irrigation, flood control, and hydropower. Increased public interest in the area's recreation and fish and wildlife conservation potentials has brought these functions into national significance.

Legislation has been introduced in the 89th Congress to create a Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, with Yellowtail Reservoir as its central attraction.

Responsibilities of the Bureau of Indian Affairs could be carried out with greater benefits to the Indian people if there were greater rapport between Federal and State governments and between the Indians and non-Indians of each community, Philleo Nash, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said today in Tucson, Ariz.

Commissioner Nash's comments were directed to representatives of labor, church groups, and government agencies attending a National Conference on Poverty in the Southwest which opened January 25.

“The war on poverty,” Commissioner Nash said, "gives us a starting point. It calls for community action, and clearly implies the need for cooperation among individuals and groups, not rivalry. For the Indian people this means that they must be willing to assume a more active part in the shaping of their own future. For the Bureau of Indian Affairs the time has come for us to work more closely with State and local governments. Let us resolve to abandon the all too-common practice of dissipating energy by engaging in fractionated projects."

The Indian Commissioner offered as an explanation for the chronic poverty besetting many reservation areas the growth of the “culture of poverty" in which lithe meaning of life has all but disappeared for many thousands of Indians since the days of the Indian wars.”

The results of the poverty culture, he continued, are these:

"Idleness becomes an acceptable way of life, dependency upon welfare appears to be a normal means of existence; resentment against constraint and authority becomes as natural as breathing.”

"A social system which includes these values and these techniques is nothing but the product of our own social, economic, and administrative failures" Commissioner Nash continued.

Outlining the greatly increased Bureau expenditures during the past four years to expand educational opportunities for Indians and hasten economic development of reservations to provide new sources of income from land that cannot support an agrarian economy, Mr. Nash added that Federal spending programs without changes in national attitudes cannot be fully effective.

"Although the Indian Bureau of today is a modern service agency, it is still viewed by some as a creature from whom the poor Indians must be rescued," Mr. Nash declared. He then added:

"But where can they go for the everyday services the Bureau alone provides? To the county for general welfare aid? Not often. To the County again for roads maintenance? To the county or State for medical assistance? Not usually. To the State or the school district for school buildings and buses? Often, here, too, the answer is 'no'.

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs provides for reservation Indians most of the major services that counties or States normally provide for other citizens.”

Commissioner Nash called the period of the 1960's the "overture" to the Great Society and called upon the conferees to "face social problems honestly.” One of these problems, he said is the existence of many different ethnic groups, among them the Indians, each of which deserves "consideration and help." The southwest he described as becoming a ”vital center" of the Nation and it must plan ahead, he said, for some “inevitable” changes in community life.

A roll to determine which Indians in California are eligible to share in two awards totaling $30 million in land claims funds is being prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Office in Sacramento, according to Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The money comes from awards in settlement of two Indian claims against the United States Government for approximately 65 mi11iQn acres of California land taken from the Indians without compensation.

Indians who believe they are eligible to share in the awards, including those on the 1950 roll, may obtain application forms and instructions from the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Sacramento, Area Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, Calif., 95825, Bennett said.

Applications must be filed with the Area Director by the close of business on Sept. 22, 1969. Applications must be filed by everyone wishing to be enrolled.

Bennett emphasized that there is no fee for any part of the application process. Those who may be eligible to share in the awards are Indians:

1. Whose name or the name of a lineal or collateral relative appears to any of the approved rolls heretofore prepared under the Act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602) and its amendments.

2. Who can establish lineal or collateral relationship to an Indian who resided in California on June 1, 1852.

3. Who were born on or before and were living on Sept. 21, 1968.

The funds of a 1944 award will be divided equally among those eligible when the roll is completed. The funds of a 1964 award will be divided equally among those on the completed ro1i, except those persons whose ancestry is derived solely from one or more of the following groups, and persons of mixed ancestry who elect to share in any award made by the Indian Claims Commission to the following groups: Northern Paiute, Southern Paiute, Mohave, Quechan (Yuma), Chemehuevi, Shoshone, Washoe, Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians.

Bennett noted that current residence in California is not a requirement and eligible California Indians will be found in "practically every State of the Union."

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today plans for establishment of an Educational Cultural Center for Alaskan Native students between the ages of 17 and 20 in cooperation with the University of Alaska.

Udall said the signing of an agreement with the University of Alaska by the Bureau of Indian Affairs brought to successful culmination negotiations which began on June 4, 1968.

The Secretary had directed that steps be taken looking to establishment of such a center following a report to him on April 1, 1968 by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, based on personal observations of four members during a trip to Alaska, which included this statement:

"The Board found that education which gives the Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut knowledge of--and therefore pride in--their historic and cultural heritage is almost non-existent, either in BIA or in State public schools in Alaska."

The agreement between BIA and the University of Alaska calls for preparation by the University by July 1 of a preliminary proposal for developing a model for an educational cultural center for Alaskan Native students.

It is hoped that at least a pilot program of instruction may get underway by next September. A budget of $50,000 for the 1969 calendar year is to be funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The University will appoint a full-time project director to develop the curriculum and methods of teaching, staff requirements, facility needs, counseling services, student eligibility standards and selection procedures, and so forth. The director also will develop a proposed operating budget for at least three years.

The proposal states that the aim will be to develop an exciting and totally new concept for the education of the native people of Alaska, using as a basis an arts centered curriculum.

"The Center would be an innovative institution where selected high school native students will have an opportunity to complete their high school education and learn to become contributing members of society, drawing from their own heritage for strength, and utilizing it in devel­oping the skills and knowledge necessary to participate fully in today’s society," the agreement adds.

It is pointed out that the proposed center would be another benchmark in efforts to implement programs called for by President Johnson in his unprecedented message to the Congress last year on the plight of the American Indians and Alaska Natives.

In discussing the objectives, the agreement says:

"The development by the University of Alaska of a model for an

Educational Cultural Center for the Alaska Natives would unite the forces of the Federal government, the University of Alaska, the State Department of Education, and the greater Indian community in one concen­trated inter-institutional offensive against existing educational, economic, cultural, and social problems confronting Alaskan students today. The approach will be to help the Natives identify themselves through the cultural arts so that they can successfully complete their education and take their full place in the world.

"The program to be developed will be based on a curriculum designed to meet the unique needs of the Native students of Alaska. The program will give the Native students’ knowledge of their historic and cultural heritage and will attempt to develop in the students pride in their cultural heritage in order to help them develop a positive self-image. It is felt that a well-defined interpretation of their heritage will assist the Alaska Native youths to attain the security necessary to become contribut­ing members of today's society.

"Specialized techniques for assisting the Native students of Alaska to enter contemporary society with dignity and confidence will be developed. It is believed that by linking the best in native culture to contemporary life, the Alaskan Natives will find adjusting to today's society much easier."

The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded an $8,640,411 contract to construct nearly 6 miles of main canal tunnel and open canal on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project about 59 miles east of Farmington, N.M., the Department of the Interior reported today. The project is being built by Reclamation for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The joint venture of Shea-Kaiser-Macco, Redding, Calif., was awarded the contract on the lowest of ten bids received under Specification No. DC-6l87.

Under the contract, the firm will do excavation work and concrete lining of approximately five miles of main canal tunnel running southwesterly from Gobernador Canyon to a point near Cutter Canyon, in Sen Juan County. At the upstream end of the tunnel, near Gobernador Canyon, 650 feet of concrete-lined canal will be built to connect the tunnel with a siphon crossing the canyon. The siphon, to be built under a later contract, will connect a two-mile section of tunnel (now being built from Navajo Reservoir to the canyon) with the second section of tunnel to be constructed under the contract just awarded.

At the Cutter Canyon end, the tunnel emerges and water then will be carried in an unlined canal for the final 3,200 feet of the contract work. From there a siphon crossing the canyon will be built under a later contract.

The tunnel and canal sections to be built under the contract just awarded will form part of a 152-mile conveyance system that will transport up to 508,000 acre-feet of water annually from Reclamation’s Navajo Reservoir to some 110,000 acres of Navajo Indian Reservation lands south of the San Juan River.

Work by Shea-Kaiser-Macco is expected to generate about 450 man-years of employment at the construction site and at least an equivalent amount elsewhere in the manufacture and furnishing of materials and equipment.

Second low bidder for the job was the joint venture of Gates &Fox Company, Inc., and Walsh Construction Company of Placerville, Calif., $9,099,881. Third, with an offer of $9,857,318, was another joint venture, Koppers Company, Inc.- Malan Construction Dept., Saliba-Kringlen Corporation, and Civil Constructors, Inc., Gardena, Calif.

The Eskimos sometimes arrive at the Seattle Orientation Center, a motel unit near the University of Washington, Seattle, in heavy parkas, wool clothing, and mukluks.

They come to Seattle as the first lap in a journey toward a better life. Each applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska to move to a large city where employment and training opportunities, are better than they are at home.

­ In the opinion of BIA's Employment Assistance Branch in Alaska, the Alaska Native, whether Eskimo, Indian or Aleut, needs orientation to urban life in the "Lower 48" before he can be successfully trained or employed. This is the task of the Bureau's "halfway house" the Seattle Orientation Center.

When the Eskimo was accepted in the program he may have been picked up by a bush-pilot in a four-place plane which landed on the over with pontoons in summer or skis in winter. He was then flown the largest nearby town where he took a commercial plane, probably to Anchorage or Fairbanks. There he boarded a jet and in a matter of hours was in Seattle.

When he arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport the Eskimo was met by a BIA employee and taken to the Seattle Orientation Center, which takes up two-thirds of a wing of the Coach House Motel, at 4801 24th Avenue, N.E.

Airplanes, radios, and boats are familiar to him. Cars and buses are strange. Asked if he had ever been in a city, one Eskimo replied; "Yes, I've been to Bethel." Bethel is a town in Alaska of about 1,500 population.

At home he may have known and spoken to everyone. In Seattle he may know no one. No one speaks nor smiles. If a person did not speak nor smiles at home, that meant he was angry.

If the Eskimo is alone in Seattle he will be housed with several other single men. If he comes with his family, they will be housed together. Each living unit has a couch, kitchen, coffee table, several beds. Cribs and cots are available.

The Eskimo initially is taken on a tour of the city, instructed in map reading, and urged to telephone the bus company for instructions to what bus to take if this becomes necessary. The. University ­­ Village Shopping Center near the motel becomes a "school." Its two large supermarkets, bank, post office, dime, store, hardware store, and drugstore are used by the Eskimos and their counselors as "textbooks."

The Center inventories clothing needs of the Eskimo, Indian, or Aleut and tries to see that he is properly equipped with the necessities as far as funds permit. The shopping is done in stores that emphasize high quality and low cost. Budgeting does not always come naturally to the Eskimo, raised perhaps on the tradition that the man who kills the largest animal and shares it with his family and neighbors is the man to be admired.

A group counseling session in which the Eskimo is encouraged to air his difficulties takes place each day at 9:30 a.m. In the afternoon, the Eskimo is taken through various commercial and industrial operations to give him an idea of what is involved in various kinds of work. Although the Alaskan has made his decision as to the city to which he will go and the occupation he will enter either directly or through training - he sometimes needs additional vocational advice.

The Eskimos are also taken to a session of the Seattle municipal court where they are impressed with the difference between law in a city and that in Alaska. The judge often addresses them personally.

The Eskimo, Indian, or Aleut ordinarily stays at the Center at least two weeks, although he may remain as long as the staff of the Center believes orientation is necessary.

He leaves for other Employment Assistance Offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs including those in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, Alameda, San Jose, Washington, D.C., and the Madera, Calif., and Roswell, N.M. Training Centers. The Madera and Roswell Training Centers specialize in whole family training of the disadvantaged. At these centers the Alaska Native receives train­ing in a vocation leading to employment in the Lower 48 or in Alaska if that is his plan.

The Eskimos are taken to the bus depot by Seattle Orientation Center personnel to leave for their training or employment destination. Each has a folder that gives in detail information about the city for which they are bound and how to get to their hotel. They are given cab fare. If they arrive before 4:00 p.m., they call the Bureau of Indian Affairs Employment Assistance Office in their destination city. If not, they telephone next day.

Since the Seattle Orientation Center started operations in July, 1963, 1,264 Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts have been served. Approximately 8 percent of that number were returned to Alaska either because they changed their minds about relocation or because of emotional or physical difficulties which made actual relocation impossible.