OPA

The Department of the Interior today announced the appointment of Reginald W. Quinn as Superintendent of the Seminole Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, at Hollywood, Florida.

Quinn, a Sioux Indian and a native of South Dakota, has served for nearly 30 years in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. His most recent assignment was that of Chief Tribal Operations Officer in Washington, D.C.

Born in Peever, South Dakota in 1913, Quinn attended South Dakota schools.

From 1936 to 1949 he was employed in various capacities at the Western Shoshone Agency in Nevada, in the Washington and Chicago offices of the Land Division of BIA, and at the Crow Creek Indian Agency in South Dakota.

In 1949 he took up his duties as Superintendent at the Fort Berthold Agency in North Dakota, where he served until becoming Administrative Officer at Inter-Mountain School, Brigham City, Utah, in 1952.

In 1954, he transferred to the Menominee Agency in Wisconsin and served as Program Officer and Administrative Officer until his assignment to the Washington, D. C. office of BIA in 1957.

Quinn brings to his new post a unique understanding of Seminole affairs. Tribal leaders recently expressed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs their high regard for the new superintendent and their appreciation for his assistance during the Tribe's organizational period.

He succeeds Doyce L. Waldrip, who has been appointed Superintendent of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon.

In line with President Johnson’s war on waste in Government administration, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has consolidated responsibility for fiscal and management analysis under the Deputy Commissioner and a special assistant. The announcement was made today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash.

Both areas of responsibility will be under the immediate direction of Deputy Commissioner John O. Crow. Appointed to a newly created post as his special assistant is J. Leonard Norwood, former chief of budget and finance. Mr. Norwood will aid in management analysis, including cost reduction and safety programs, and will also supervise internal audit of Bureau expenditures.

In announcing the consolidation, Nash said:

“By focusing these major responsibilities under the direction of Crow and Norwood, both experienced trouble-shooters in BIA, we expect to develop an aggressive management improvement and cost reduction program.”

One of Norwood's new duties will be coordination of Bureau-wide record-keeping at an automatic data processing center to be opened at Albuquerque, New Mexico, on or about January 1, 1966.

Also newly assigned to the Deputy Commissioner's office is George W. Mathis, a career employee and former chief of real estate appraisal services for the Bureau. His appointment brings fiscal and management operations into close alliance with the Bureau's stepped-up program of economic development of Indian lands for commercial and industrial use, and with the trend toward long-term leasing as a source of steady revenue to Indian owners.

Publication of a new 96-page conservation booklet, "Quest for Quality," was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, It will be distributed initially to those participating in the White House Conference on Natural Beauty, being held next week (May 24-25) in Washington, D. C.

"Today we face perhaps the gravest--certainly the most stimulating-- challenge in the history of conservation" the publication declares. "It is the challenge to build a quality society--one in which we manage not just to preserve the delicate balance between the needs of our people and the natural resources of our land, but actually to improve the heritage which has been handed to us.

"The historian," the text continues, "looking back on our moment ·in time may note that the United States of America reached its golden days in the mid-20th century with respect to the equilibrium between needs and resources. From this truly bountiful land we have drawn amply to satisfy our material needs. The incomparable machine civilization, which we alternately enjoy and endure, has reached its current peak because we have had the resource wherewithal to draw on, to develop, to convert and build and bend to our will."

Carrying many full-color illustrations to portray both wise and improper use of natural resources, the conservation yearbook is the first in a proposed series outlining the problems presented by a rapidly growing America and challenges the reader to a critical look at the demands of tomorrow on the Nation's resources.

The new publication is available from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., 20402, for $1.

"It deserves a place in the library of every person concerned with conservation problems," Secretary Udall said.

"The concept of conservation cannot be isolated on little islands of awareness," says the publication's introduction. "It must become universally accepted as a familiar, taken-for-granted part of everyday life."

Running throughout the publication is the theme, "applied ecology."

This, in the language of the text, "means living things and how they relate to their total environment.

"It means stretching our resources to cover the demands of a growing population and still observing the rightful claims of the inhabitants' of many an obscure ecological niche."

The broadly conceived "new conservation," the publication explains, is a story of how two Presidents, "against a backdrop of unplanned sprawl and planned ugliness, have moved to develop new measures designed to bring order and meaning into the overall conservation picture."

Seventy full-color illustrations, 31 toned pictures, and many black-and-white photographs portray the problems and provide details on how the Interior Department is facing the conservation challenge of the 1960's.

Credit for its major role in writing a new conservation record is given in the publication to "a magnificently bipartisan Congress."

Noting that the 87th Congress established three National Seashores for public enjoyment, the "Quest for Quality" comments that the 88th Congress "capped the performance by approving Canyonlands National Park and Fire Island National Seashore," and a wide range of other public-use areas.

In an introduction to the "Quest for Quality," Secretary Udall counsels:

"Our resource problems in the 1960's are measured by the flyway of a bird, the length of a river, the half-life of an element, the path of a wind, the scope of the oceans, and the shape of our cities. The years ahead will require both public and private conservation statesmanship of a high order."

The publication describes "the new direction conservation is taking" as "not just the setting aside of priceless and irreplaceable natural treasures and the wisest use of renewable resources, but an honest attempt to understand the relationship of all creatures--from the tiniest organisms in the chain of life to the lords of creation which we fondly imagine to be ourselves.

"The integrity of this chain is becoming increasingly apparent," says the booklet's introduction, "and our exalted position atop the pyramid of life is secure only if the base is allowed to remain broad and varied."

The book describes how "this Nation's caretakers, thoughtfully and surely are arriving at new programs, designed not just to remedy our yesterdays, but to enhance our tomorrows."

Allocations of nearly $10 million in recreation grants-in-aid for which States and territories may apply under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act were announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The grants-in-aid allocations are the first announced under the new Act. To take advantage of the allocations, States or territories must match them in equal amounts. The money can be used for planning, acquiring, and developing outdoor recreation areas and facilities for public use.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund derives its revenues from sale of the new $7 Federal Recreation/Conservation Sticker, other Federal outdoor recreation fees, the Federal motorboat fuels tax, and proceeds from the sale of Federal surplus real property.

"These grants-in-aid mark an important day in the annals of conservation," Secretary Udall declared. "Money which Congress has appropriated for this purpose will help the Nation meet its increasing demands for outdoor recreation opportunities.”

Apportionments from the Fund to the States and territories is based on 40 percent of the amount available being divided equally among the States and the rest on population, Federal resources and programs, and other factors.

Under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act; States may request money for comprehensive outdoor recreation planning needed to qualify for. acquisition and development grants. After such plans have been accepted, States must submit proposals for individual projects before grants-in-aid are actually made for the acquisition and development.

Allocations announced by Secretary Udall today are from $16,000,000 appropriated by the Congress for the fiscal year which ends June 30, 1965. Of this amount, $10,375,000 is available for State recreation purposes, the remainder for Federal purposes.

Approximately one million dollars of the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been retained by the Department of the Interior as a State contingency reserve.

The allocations will remain available to the States for qualifying projects through June 30, 1967. The President's 1966 budget requests appropriations of $75 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for State outdoor recreation projects. Congress has not completed action on that request.

The money available currently has been apportioned among the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States, as follows:

Alabama	$167,256	Maine	$110,366	Pennsylvania	$391,206
Alaska	92,744	Maryland	174,509	Rhode Island	108,950
Arizona	131,045	Massachusetts	233,710	South Carolina	142,290
Arkansas	126,190	Michigan	303,662	South Dakota	110,390
California	528,346	Minnesota	183,119	Tennessee	169,421
Colorado	139,657	Mississippi	130,517	Texas	388,162
Connecticut	158,972	Missouri	201,423	Utah	113,825
Delaware	95,784	Montana	117,070	Vermont	92,687
Florida	227,005	Nebraska	129,580	Virginia	182,094
Georgia	176,581	Nevada	96,341	Washington	159,786
Hawaii	102,698	New Hampshire	97,463	West Virginia	123,049
Idaho	102,069	New Jersey	276,128	Wisconsin	194,669
Illinois	378,725	New Mexico	121,097	Wyoming	103,065
Indiana	210,277	New York	601,610	District of Columbia	24,798
Iowa	157,868	North Carolina	183,264	Puerto Rico	59,181
Kansas	144,709	North Dakota	107,267	Virgin Islands	786
Kentucky	146,422	Ohio	357,056	Guam	1,476
Louisiana	177,705	Oklahoma	147,345	American Samoa	526
		Oregon	135,559

Effective May 17 the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs offices was moved to 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, D. C. The Bureau formerly had its headquarters in the Interior Department's main building at 18th and C Sts., NW.

The new quarters were formerly occupied by the National Science Foundation. The building was constructed in the early 1930's.

The move will enable most of the Bureau's Washington staff to be together under one roof for the first time in several years. About 350 persons will be affected.

Emphasis upon economic development of Indian reservation areas and an all-out drive to upgrade the educational opportunities of American Indians have led to expansion of programs in these directions. The Bureau's administration has been handicapped by the physical separation of these operating units.

Fiscal services, presently occupying space in a downtown Washington office building, are scheduled to be centered in Albuquerque, New Mexico after January 1, 1966. A data processing center will be established there for Bureau-wide recordkeeping.

SPECIAL PROJECTS READY INDIANS FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT

Two promising projects involving pre-vocational training for Indian men and women are being undertaken through the joint efforts of the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of Labor, and State education and employment assistance agencies in Washington, Arizona, and Texas.

Pre-vocational training often means the difference between success and failure of Indian people in job training and employment, Bureau specialists have learned from previous experience in helping Indian men and women to attain marketable skills.

An experimental project, now under way on the campus of Arizona State University at Flagstaff, has just "graduated" a group of 20 single men, who will now enter training in occupational skills. The pre-training consisted of remedial teaching in mathematics, science, language skills, blueprint reading and other subjects related to industrial work, in addition to orientation in the responsibilities of the employee to his job. The 20 who have completed the course will be followed throughout their skill training period and employment, to compare their achievements and staying power with another 20 who entered occupational training without the preliminary preparation. The experiment is financed under the Manpower Development and Training Act.

In Seattle, Washington, Indian men and women have also been channeled into pre-vocational training programs operated under MDTA, attending classes in public schools. About 50 are currently in training, with another 50 scheduled to enter soon. A similar effort has been proposed for Fort Worth, Texas, to involve an estimated 200 Indians.

ANNUAL LAKE QUINAULT TROUT DERBY

Washington State's magnificent Olympic Peninsula is the scenic setting for the Annual Quinault Trout Derby, an event popular with Northwest fishermen and vacationers. This year the Derby will take place on May 29 and 30.

The Quinault Indian Reservation and Lake Quinault are located on U. S. Route 101, about 44 miles north of Hoquiam, Washington.

The two-day Derby features cash prizes for the largest fish caught each day, a 34-mile canoe race, performances by the Taholah War Dancers, carnival rides, a dance, and a salmon bake both days. On the 30th competitions will be held in Indian water sports, with prizes for the winners.

TWO AWARDS GRANTED BY THE INDIAN CLAIMS COMMISSION

The Indian Claims Commission recently granted two final awards of $965,560 to the Sac and Fox Nation of Indians, and $633,193 to the Iowa Nation. These awards represent compensation for lands in Missouri ceded to the United States under a treaty in 1824.

SEMINOLE AVIATION PLASTICS PRODUCTION OPERATING IN THE BLACK

Since January 1965, Wewoka Plastics, an enterprise of the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma, has been solidly on the black side of the ledger.

The company, which merged last year with Systems Engineering Electronics, Inc. (SEE) of Dallas, Texas, reports that monthly payrolls in the first quarter of 1965 approximated $10,000. A total of 35 employees are on the job, three-fourths of them Seminole Indians. Seminoles also hold top posts in company management in the Dallas office. The Chairman of the Tribal Council is a SEE Director.

A large backlog of orders from such aviation electronics firms as Bendix, Texas Instruments, Lockheed and Boeing indicates continued demand for company products and a possible future need for increased hiring.

The company emblem carries out the Indian image, showing a Seminole war dancer holding a micrometer in one hand, a caliper in the other.

Much has happened in our country since the last annual conference of the National Congress of American Indians--much of tragedy and much of accomplishment.

I am sure I do not need to recall to you that shattering event of last November. The friendship of the late President Kennedy for the American Indians and his warm, personal interest in seeing that the full resources of the Federal Government were employed in their behalf is well known to you. Our loss is great.

Yet, we can count ourselves fortunate in that the loss of one great President has led to the gain of another.

President Lyndon Johnson, moving forward with dedication to assume the commitments of his predecessor, has given them dimensions of his own. He has pledged himself to a war against injustice and a war against poverty and he has made it plain that he considers the American Indians to be in the forefront of such a war.

In a recent address to the graduating class of the University of Michigan, the President elaborated upon what he felt could be done to conquer poverty. He told that group of young Americans that, through the conquest of poverty, the people of this country will be free to explore the routes leading to the Great Society.

"The Great Society, “President Johnson said, "rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice--to which we are totally committed in our time.

"The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce, but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community, It is a place where man can renew contact with nature, It is a place which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to understanding"

More than many other people in this country, the Indian people, I believe, have an understanding of what President Johnson meant when he referred to the Great Society. I believe, along with Oliver LaFarge, that the deeply embedded desire of most Indians is to prove themselves whole men in our world without ceasing to be Indians. But poverty--chronic, soul shattering poverty--blocks fulfillment of that desire.

The American people, all of us, will make a most important choice about our future and the future of our country in November.

From the viewpoint of the American Indian and his welfare, the choice seems clear-cut.

Many and serious problems confront this country's first inhabitants, but the platform just dictated for one of the major political parties by its candidate completely ignores the Indians and their problems.

In Barry Goldwater the Republican Party has a candidate for the highest office in the land who is acclaimed for his camera studies of picturesque Indians, but who in the past 12 years has opposed nearly every major effort to improve the big picture of poverty and neglect on Indian reservations.

A program for Indian people cannot be grown in a sterile atmosphere guided by a man who stands on a platform of callous silence and who writes:

"Conservatism therefore looks upon the enhancement of man's spiritual nature as the primary concern of political philosophy.”

What can one say about "leaders" who are "for" Indians in the abstract but who work and vote against tangible programs which would enable their children to obtain decent educations, live in modern housing, and have greater employment opportunities.

The whole history of American progress is woven on the loom of community action. It is beyond my comprehension to understand the concepts of those who believe that every child is born with a hidden bootstrap that will command his destiny if only he has the gumption to pull it.

The whole sorry history of "land allotments" and tribal termination has emerged from such shallow thinking and if we do nothing else this year-...let us void the mistakes of the past.

The causes of Indian poverty have historic depth and some of these causes stem from the fluctuating nature of Federal-Indian relations.

For this reason, as our Government prepares itself for a frontal attack on Indian poverty, it is worth our time to consider for a moment the long, winding trail which it has already trod in its relations with Indian tribes.

Following the Revolutionary War, we dealt with Indians in much the same way as had our British forbears. At this time, our emphasis was primarily on controlling trade with the various tribes. Both England and France retained a great interest in the North American continent and the Indians were potentially useful allies in the event of future conflicts with these foreign powers. The ' role of the earliest Indian Commissioners was principally a diplomatic one. We might call them "commercial attaches" with portfolios from the War Department.

Later, as the government of the United States affirmed itself, relations with the Indians shifted. Diplomacy gave way to conquest, expulsion and resettlement, emphases which were to persist until after the Civil War.

The Allotment Act of 1887 has been the root of much of the poverty suffered by Indians today, although its architects had no such intention. Tribal holdings were individualized, and a 25 year period was allowed for "acculturation". The framers of the legislation had visions of Indian families moving easily and gracefully into the white man's way of life, tilling their allotted lands, raising chickens, and a few cows, owning a team of horses, and working from dawn to dusk with Sundays off to go to church. Few people understood that many Indians could not adapt to the shackles of such life when they had been accustomed to roaming the lands. As a result, two-thirds of the allotted lands--the best of the lands-- slipped out of Indian ownership. Public disillusionment led to renunciation of the Allotment Act--but not for nearly fifty years.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ushered in a new era in Indian Affairs, although I feel it was an era still much misunderstood. Frequently I hear references to the period of the 1930's as one in which Indians were encouraged to return to tribalism and to isolate themselves further from the mainstream of American life. With these conclusions, I could not disagree more.

The official record clearly demonstrates that the Indian Reorganization Act, as interpreted by the administration of Commissioner John Collier, was an instrument which, like the Allotment Act of 1887, was designed to achieve acculturation. However, the approach was from an entirely different philosophical base. Whereas the Allotment Act had called for the individualization of Indian lands, the Indian Reorganization Act encouraged the consolidation and enlargement of the tribal land base. Whereas the Allotment Act called for destruction of Indian communities, the Indian Reorganization Act urged their creation or preservation and their strengthening. Whereas the Allotment Act provided for destruction of Indian culture, the Indian Reorganization Act supported the continuation of those elements of the Indian way of life which could enrich the cultural heritage of the Nation and provide stability and security for Indian tribes and individuals during the period of assimilation.

Thus, the emphasis in Indian Affairs growing out of the Indian Reorganization Act was on the development of the individual within his own community. This emphasis is not unlike that of the Area Redevelopment program commenced in 1962 and the Economic Opportunity Act which President Johnson has proposed to Congress this year.

It is unfortunate that World War II and its aftermath interrupted and perverted the great social experiment begun in Indian affairs during the 1930's, for we shall never know how much farther down the road toward the elimination of Indian poverty we might be today had that experiment enjoyed three decades of continuous support, rather than the single decade allotted to it.

For much of the period since the end of the Second World War, the Federal Government's approach to Indian affairs has been dictated more by frustration and impatience than by understanding of the issues and realistic attempts to resolve them.

Indian affairs assumed the characteristics of that period of the 1950's which Archibald MacLeish once described as "a time out, a between time, a limbo, a Gaza Strip of history to be lived by unliving."

It was my awareness of conditions, as the result of my service on the Indian Affairs Sub-committee of the United States House of Representatives, which led me in 1961 to appoint a special task force to study the problems of Indian administration and to make recommendations for the benefit of both the Indians and the Nation.

The deliberations of that Task Force involved many thousands of people, Indians as well as non-Indians. Bill Keeler, as its Chairman, brought to the assignment an intimate knowledge of Indian needs and an ability to translate Indian desires into recommendations that form the framework of present policies. The Task Force included other people well known to you, also--Commissioner Philleo Nash, Associate Commissioner James Officer, and Deputy Commissioner John Crow, who served as a special adviser. Working with the Task Force on many occasions was Assistant Secretary John A. Carver. The continued presence of these men in the Department of the Interior has assured consistent efforts to carry out the goals laid down by the Task Force.

Those goals were: maximum economic self-sufficiency; full participation in American life; and equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for all Indian people. Those goals recognize that Indian citizenship can never be fully realized, regardless of statutory rules, unless the Indian people are in a social and economic position to important--to wish to participate--to merge the wisdom and special qualities of their cultural heritage with that offered them by the rest of American society.

The past three and one-half years have been a test of how effective we have been in moving toward those goals. Some people say that the Indian Bureau is the advance guard in the war on poverty, I would say that the preliminary scouting has been done, and the areas of attack pinpointed: They are education and economic development, the bread and butter of any society in these times.

We are focusing on primary targets: Housing, vocational education, development and use of resources, credit to stimulate business and industry, and technical aid to tribes to generate foresighted planning in the use of settlement funds and other monies coming their way.

But when we talk about the 400 public housing units that have now been constructed, and the 3,000 planned, we need only to look around almost any reservation to see the need for 60,000 new homes for families who have lived too long in squalid shacks.

When we talk of the 3,500 adults enrolled in vocational training programs, we are talking in terms of less than one percent of the reservation Indian population--and I am certain that more than one percent could benefit from the chance to learn a skill that will put cash in the family sugar bowl.

When we point to the great gains in high school graduations among Indian chi1dren--and they great--we must still remember that only about 6,000 young people from the reservations entered college or technical training last year.

When we talk of promoting industry in order to promote job opportunities, we can point with pride to the record of 40 plants in operation on or near reservations, employing 1,500 workers, and to several other plants under construction promising additional jobs, But on the other hand are the fifty percent or more of able-bodied men and women who cannot find jobs for lack of training or local opportunity.

Funds invested in economic development--Bureau funds, tribal funds, and, greatest of all, private funds--are a sign of forward thinking and planning, We can point with pride to pyramiding credit for economic development: nearly $20 million in Federal funds, over $25 million in tribal funds--and $100 million in private funds are now invested in ,enterprises that are creating jobs. This total of $150 million may seem like a great deal of money--but it actually adds up to barely enough for a modest venture here and there, We are only scratching the surface of potential for development of enterprises on the reservations making use of the human and natural resources available.

There is no need to recite further statistics to an audience such as this. Suffice to say that it is going to take time and it is going to take money--and, above all, it is going to take will and effort on the part of the Indian people themselves--in order to plug up the seepage of our greatest resource, our human resource, into the spiritual swampland of chronic poverty.

Time, money, and will--the ingredients of victory over poverty.

Time is running out in the sense that the rate of change in the world around us is continually accelerating. Man's knowledge is doubling every ten years, they say, Meanwhile jobs for the unskilled are declining to a point where they are probably now less than five percent of the entire job market. We have to step up our own pace tremendously in order to make up for lost time.

Money--we have more money than ever before to spend in the battle against poverty. Until 1960, there had been less than three billion dollars spent by the Bureau during the entire preceding 160 years. But Congress has, in the past few years, been generous. Since 1960, more than $700 million has been authorized, and we have been able to break land, so to speak. But with the backlog of a century to eliminate, we cannot expect miracles of accomplishment all at once. Therefore, we are looking to the Economic Opportunity legislation to lend new dimensions to our present efforts.

If Congress enacts the Economic Opportunity legislation this summer--and we are confident it will--then there will be more funds available to the Indian people, not only through the Bureau of Indian Affairs but through the extension of many other services of many other Federal agencies.

And it is around the Economic Opportunity Act that I wish to consider the element of personal will and interest in self-improvement.

The proposed Economic Opportunity bill, paralleling the primary directions of the Indian Bureau, focuses on education as the basis for economic development. It recognizes that poverty has many causes, and that there is no instant cure. But it is premised on confidence that the American people, together, will make an unyielding long-term commitment to root out the many causes of poverty and will approach the task with willingness to try new ideas and new programs.

The bill directs attention to the needs of many young people for special education and training opportunities. It approaches the school dropout problem not from the static argument of "stay in school" but from the enticing prospect of a chance to live in a new environment, to learn a Skill, to earn while learning. The legislation would establish residential centers for vocational training and work experience--the youth camps of which you have already heard much. (I might add here that some of these camps will be designed for girls, although most of them will, in all likelihood, be for boys.)

The Department of the Interior has already developed plans to help establish these camps on public lands, Where youngsters can learn the ways of woodland existence and contribute to the improvement of forest and park areas, fish and wildlife refuges} and grasslands now eroding for want of vegetation, check dams and brush control.

With the concurrence of tribal authorities, some of the camps may be located on reservations. They can be of tremendous value to the tribes, not only as places where Indian youth may find inspiration to broaden their educational horizons, but where work on soil and forest conservation projects will help improve the natural resources.

The camps are, of course, only one aspect of the Economic Opportunity bill. It would broaden employment and training opportunities for adults who have been on jobless rolls for long periods, and would provide grants to finance agricultural enterprises and loans for family businesses.

Other provisions call for urban and rural community action programs to help mobilize entire communities for concerned attacks on poverty.

Here, again, are direct implications for Indians. One of the causes of Indian poverty has been a lack of cohesiveness in years past among tribes as organizational units. Community action programs mean action by the people of the community--action in whatever directions they feel would help improve their social and economic condition.

Community action calls for cooperation of Federal, State and local agencies and tribal authorities. We are already working with such agencies as the Public Housing Administration, the Area Redevelopment Administration, and the Public Health Service, and State and local health, education and welfare agencies. The interties would become stronger, we expect, under the Economic Opportunity program.

President Johnson has said that the Indian people are in the forefront in this war on poverty. What does this mean? I think it means that, despite the fact that the Indian people are among the poorest in the Nation, they are among the most likely to derive important benefits from the war on poverty.

The strength of the Indian culture--the closeness of family life, the oneness with nature, the generosity of spirit, the talent for learning--all of these are large assets to a people who are striving to move away from poverty.

I am reminded of a paragraph from the final chapter of John Collier's memoirs:

"These tribal Indians were keepers of something more than only their specific traditions and institutions of language, of ritual, of discipline, of art, of toil. They were among the keepers of that one value which men must live by even to the end, and foreswearing which, they worse than perish. That value was the conception of public good as the one and controlling consideration, and of public good as being no solely material thing, but the affirmation of the Spirit by man."

The Indian people, then, must surely understand that the price of sustaining the best of the Indian way of life need not be physical poverty. Quite the contrary, poverty inhibits the full flowering of the spirit in man. Because the Indian people have a heritage of convictions that has sustained them through a century of torment, they are now in a position to render leadership in, as well as become beneficiaries of, a national war on poverty.

I leave you with this thought, and with confidence that you will become active participants, for your own sake and for the sake of the country, in the war on poverty that should become mankind's greatest monument to peace.

Much has happened in our country since the last annual conference of the National Congress of American Indians--much of tragedy and much of accomplishment.

I am sure I do not need to recall to you that shattering event of last November. The friendship of the late President Kennedy for the American Indians and his warm, personal interest in seeing that the full resources of the Federal Government were employed in their behalf is well known to you. Our loss is great.

Yet, we can count ourselves fortunate in that the loss of one great President has led to the gain of another.

President Lyndon Johnson, moving forward with dedication to assume the commitments of his predecessor, has given them dimensions of his own. He has pledged himself to a war against injustice and a war against poverty and he has made it plain that he considers the American Indians to be in the forefront of such a war.

In a recent address to the graduating class of the University of Michigan, the President elaborated upon what he felt could be done to conquer poverty. He told that group of young Americans that, through the conquest of poverty, the people of this country will be free to explore the routes leading to the Great Society.

"The Great Society, “President Johnson said, "rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice--to which we are totally committed in our time.

"The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce, but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community, It is a place where man can renew contact with nature, It is a place which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to understanding"

More than many other people in this country, the Indian people, I believe, have an understanding of what President Johnson meant when he referred to the Great Society. I believe, along with Oliver LaFarge, that the deeply embedded desire of most Indians is to prove themselves whole men in our world without ceasing to be Indians. But poverty--chronic, soul shattering poverty--blocks fulfillment of that desire.

The American people, all of us, will make a most important choice about our future and the future of our country in November.

From the viewpoint of the American Indian and his welfare, the choice seems clear-cut.

Many and serious problems confront this country's first inhabitants, but the platform just dictated for one of the major political parties by its candidate completely ignores the Indians and their problems.

In Barry Goldwater the Republican Party has a candidate for the highest office in the land who is acclaimed for his camera studies of picturesque Indians, but who in the past 12 years has opposed nearly every major effort to improve the big picture of poverty and neglect on Indian reservations.

A program for Indian people cannot be grown in a sterile atmosphere guided by a man who stands on a platform of callous silence and who writes:

"Conservatism therefore looks upon the enhancement of man's spiritual nature as the primary concern of political philosophy.”

What can one say about "leaders" who are "for" Indians in the abstract but who work and vote against tangible programs which would enable their children to obtain decent educations, live in modern housing, and have greater employment opportunities.

The whole history of American progress is woven on the loom of community action. It is beyond my comprehension to understand the concepts of those who believe that every child is born with a hidden bootstrap that will command his destiny if only he has the gumption to pull it.

The whole sorry history of "land allotments" and tribal termination has emerged from such shallow thinking and if we do nothing else this year-...let us void the mistakes of the past.

The causes of Indian poverty have historic depth and some of these causes stem from the fluctuating nature of Federal-Indian relations.

For this reason, as our Government prepares itself for a frontal attack on Indian poverty, it is worth our time to consider for a moment the long, winding trail which it has already trod in its relations with Indian tribes.

Following the Revolutionary War, we dealt with Indians in much the same way as had our British forbears. At this time, our emphasis was primarily on controlling trade with the various tribes. Both England and France retained a great interest in the North American continent and the Indians were potentially useful allies in the event of future conflicts with these foreign powers. The ' role of the earliest Indian Commissioners was principally a diplomatic one. We might call them "commercial attaches" with portfolios from the War Department.

Later, as the government of the United States affirmed itself, relations with the Indians shifted. Diplomacy gave way to conquest, expulsion and resettlement, emphases which were to persist until after the Civil War.

The Allotment Act of 1887 has been the root of much of the poverty suffered by Indians today, although its architects had no such intention. Tribal holdings were individualized, and a 25 year period was allowed for "acculturation". The framers of the legislation had visions of Indian families moving easily and gracefully into the white man's way of life, tilling their allotted lands, raising chickens, and a few cows, owning a team of horses, and working from dawn to dusk with Sundays off to go to church. Few people understood that many Indians could not adapt to the shackles of such life when they had been accustomed to roaming the lands. As a result, two-thirds of the allotted lands--the best of the lands-- slipped out of Indian ownership. Public disillusionment led to renunciation of the Allotment Act--but not for nearly fifty years.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ushered in a new era in Indian Affairs, although I feel it was an era still much misunderstood. Frequently I hear references to the period of the 1930's as one in which Indians were encouraged to return to tribalism and to isolate themselves further from the mainstream of American life. With these conclusions, I could not disagree more.

The official record clearly demonstrates that the Indian Reorganization Act, as interpreted by the administration of Commissioner John Collier, was an instrument which, like the Allotment Act of 1887, was designed to achieve acculturation. However, the approach was from an entirely different philosophical base. Whereas the Allotment Act had called for the individualization of Indian lands, the Indian Reorganization Act encouraged the consolidation and enlargement of the tribal land base. Whereas the Allotment Act called for destruction of Indian communities, the Indian Reorganization Act urged their creation or preservation and their strengthening. Whereas the Allotment Act provided for destruction of Indian culture, the Indian Reorganization Act supported the continuation of those elements of the Indian way of life which could enrich the cultural heritage of the Nation and provide stability and security for Indian tribes and individuals during the period of assimilation.

Thus, the emphasis in Indian Affairs growing out of the Indian Reorganization Act was on the development of the individual within his own community. This emphasis is not unlike that of the Area Redevelopment program commenced in 1962 and the Economic Opportunity Act which President Johnson has proposed to Congress this year.

It is unfortunate that World War II and its aftermath interrupted and perverted the great social experiment begun in Indian affairs during the 1930's, for we shall never know how much farther down the road toward the elimination of Indian poverty we might be today had that experiment enjoyed three decades of continuous support, rather than the single decade allotted to it.

For much of the period since the end of the Second World War, the Federal Government's approach to Indian affairs has been dictated more by frustration and impatience than by understanding of the issues and realistic attempts to resolve them.

Indian affairs assumed the characteristics of that period of the 1950's which Archibald MacLeish once described as "a time out, a between time, a limbo, a Gaza Strip of history to be lived by unliving."

It was my awareness of conditions, as the result of my service on the Indian Affairs Sub-committee of the United States House of Representatives, which led me in 1961 to appoint a special task force to study the problems of Indian administration and to make recommendations for the benefit of both the Indians and the Nation.

The deliberations of that Task Force involved many thousands of people, Indians as well as non-Indians. Bill Keeler, as its Chairman, brought to the assignment an intimate knowledge of Indian needs and an ability to translate Indian desires into recommendations that form the framework of present policies. The Task Force included other people well known to you, also--Commissioner Philleo Nash, Associate Commissioner James Officer, and Deputy Commissioner John Crow, who served as a special adviser. Working with the Task Force on many occasions was Assistant Secretary John A. Carver. The continued presence of these men in the Department of the Interior has assured consistent efforts to carry out the goals laid down by the Task Force.

Those goals were: maximum economic self-sufficiency; full participation in American life; and equal citizenship privileges and responsibilities for all Indian people. Those goals recognize that Indian citizenship can never be fully realized, regardless of statutory rules, unless the Indian people are in a social and economic position to important--to wish to participate--to merge the wisdom and special qualities of their cultural heritage with that offered them by the rest of American society.

The past three and one-half years have been a test of how effective we have been in moving toward those goals. Some people say that the Indian Bureau is the advance guard in the war on poverty, I would say that the preliminary scouting has been done, and the areas of attack pinpointed: They are education and economic development, the bread and butter of any society in these times.

We are focusing on primary targets: Housing, vocational education, development and use of resources, credit to stimulate business and industry, and technical aid to tribes to generate foresighted planning in the use of settlement funds and other monies coming their way.

But when we talk about the 400 public housing units that have now been constructed, and the 3,000 planned, we need only to look around almost any reservation to see the need for 60,000 new homes for families who have lived too long in squalid shacks.

When we talk of the 3,500 adults enrolled in vocational training programs, we are talking in terms of less than one percent of the reservation Indian population--and I am certain that more than one percent could benefit from the chance to learn a skill that will put cash in the family sugar bowl.

When we point to the great gains in high school graduations among Indian chi1dren--and they great--we must still remember that only about 6,000 young people from the reservations entered college or technical training last year.

When we talk of promoting industry in order to promote job opportunities, we can point with pride to the record of 40 plants in operation on or near reservations, employing 1,500 workers, and to several other plants under construction promising additional jobs, But on the other hand are the fifty percent or more of able-bodied men and women who cannot find jobs for lack of training or local opportunity.

Funds invested in economic development--Bureau funds, tribal funds, and, greatest of all, private funds--are a sign of forward thinking and planning, We can point with pride to pyramiding credit for economic development: nearly $20 million in Federal funds, over $25 million in tribal funds--and $100 million in private funds are now invested in ,enterprises that are creating jobs. This total of $150 million may seem like a great deal of money--but it actually adds up to barely enough for a modest venture here and there, We are only scratching the surface of potential for development of enterprises on the reservations making use of the human and natural resources available.

There is no need to recite further statistics to an audience such as this. Suffice to say that it is going to take time and it is going to take money--and, above all, it is going to take will and effort on the part of the Indian people themselves--in order to plug up the seepage of our greatest resource, our human resource, into the spiritual swampland of chronic poverty.

Time, money, and will--the ingredients of victory over poverty.

Time is running out in the sense that the rate of change in the world around us is continually accelerating. Man's knowledge is doubling every ten years, they say, Meanwhile jobs for the unskilled are declining to a point where they are probably now less than five percent of the entire job market. We have to step up our own pace tremendously in order to make up for lost time.

Money--we have more money than ever before to spend in the battle against poverty. Until 1960, there had been less than three billion dollars spent by the Bureau during the entire preceding 160 years. But Congress has, in the past few years, been generous. Since 1960, more than $700 million has been authorized, and we have been able to break land, so to speak. But with the backlog of a century to eliminate, we cannot expect miracles of accomplishment all at once. Therefore, we are looking to the Economic Opportunity legislation to lend new dimensions to our present efforts.

If Congress enacts the Economic Opportunity legislation this summer--and we are confident it will--then there will be more funds available to the Indian people, not only through the Bureau of Indian Affairs but through the extension of many other services of many other Federal agencies.

And it is around the Economic Opportunity Act that I wish to consider the element of personal will and interest in self-improvement.

The proposed Economic Opportunity bill, paralleling the primary directions of the Indian Bureau, focuses on education as the basis for economic development. It recognizes that poverty has many causes, and that there is no instant cure. But it is premised on confidence that the American people, together, will make an unyielding long-term commitment to root out the many causes of poverty and will approach the task with willingness to try new ideas and new programs.

The bill directs attention to the needs of many young people for special education and training opportunities. It approaches the school dropout problem not from the static argument of "stay in school" but from the enticing prospect of a chance to live in a new environment, to learn a Skill, to earn while learning. The legislation would establish residential centers for vocational training and work experience--the youth camps of which you have already heard much. (I might add here that some of these camps will be designed for girls, although most of them will, in all likelihood, be for boys.)

The Department of the Interior has already developed plans to help establish these camps on public lands, Where youngsters can learn the ways of woodland existence and contribute to the improvement of forest and park areas, fish and wildlife refuges} and grasslands now eroding for want of vegetation, check dams and brush control.

With the concurrence of tribal authorities, some of the camps may be located on reservations. They can be of tremendous value to the tribes, not only as places where Indian youth may find inspiration to broaden their educational horizons, but where work on soil and forest conservation projects will help improve the natural resources.

The camps are, of course, only one aspect of the Economic Opportunity bill. It would broaden employment and training opportunities for adults who have been on jobless rolls for long periods, and would provide grants to finance agricultural enterprises and loans for family businesses.

Other provisions call for urban and rural community action programs to help mobilize entire communities for concerned attacks on poverty.

Here, again, are direct implications for Indians. One of the causes of Indian poverty has been a lack of cohesiveness in years past among tribes as organizational units. Community action programs mean action by the people of the community--action in whatever directions they feel would help improve their social and economic condition.

Community action calls for cooperation of Federal, State and local agencies and tribal authorities. We are already working with such agencies as the Public Housing Administration, the Area Redevelopment Administration, and the Public Health Service, and State and local health, education and welfare agencies. The interties would become stronger, we expect, under the Economic Opportunity program.

President Johnson has said that the Indian people are in the forefront in this war on poverty. What does this mean? I think it means that, despite the fact that the Indian people are among the poorest in the Nation, they are among the most likely to derive important benefits from the war on poverty.

The strength of the Indian culture--the closeness of family life, the oneness with nature, the generosity of spirit, the talent for learning--all of these are large assets to a people who are striving to move away from poverty.

I am reminded of a paragraph from the final chapter of John Collier's memoirs:

"These tribal Indians were keepers of something more than only their specific traditions and institutions of language, of ritual, of discipline, of art, of toil. They were among the keepers of that one value which men must live by even to the end, and foreswearing which, they worse than perish. That value was the conception of public good as the one and controlling consideration, and of public good as being no solely material thing, but the affirmation of the Spirit by man."

The Indian people, then, must surely understand that the price of sustaining the best of the Indian way of life need not be physical poverty. Quite the contrary, poverty inhibits the full flowering of the spirit in man. Because the Indian people have a heritage of convictions that has sustained them through a century of torment, they are now in a position to render leadership in, as well as become beneficiaries of, a national war on poverty.

I leave you with this thought, and with confidence that you will become active participants, for your own sake and for the sake of the country, in the war on poverty that should become mankind's greatest monument to peace.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today called for a ten-year plan "to raise the standard of living on Indian reservations above the poverty line."

In a memorandum transmitted through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to reservation superintendents and other top administrators of the Bureau, the Secretary restated the goals of manpower and resource development on reservations that have characterized the Department's administration during the past three years.

October 1, 1964, was set as the deadline for submission of reports by Bureau officials spelling out ways and means to institute a ten-year plan, and outlining needs on each of the 300 reservations under the Bureau's trusteeship.

Calling for the "best, boldest and most imaginative thinking" on the part of Bureau officials, the Secretary listed the following five factors to be considered in preparation of reports on reservation needs:

"1. New ideas for state or Federal programs or laws that would help raise the level of economic opportunity at Indian reservations.

"2. New program efforts that might be financed by outside capital provided from invested savings or by income from the tribe.

"3. Identification of the probable amount and probable time of receipt of any forthcoming judgment funds or large oil or mineral royalties, with indications of present plans of affected tribes for use and investment of such funds.

"4. A conservative estimate of the probable costs of each new program, aside from expected expansion of existing, ongoing programs.

“5. Projection of probable population changes in the ten-year period ahead.”

Each of these five points reflects the tenor of Bureau programs since 1961, when a Task Force on Indian Affairs, appointed by Secretary Udall, called for action leading to economic self-sufficiency for reservation Indians and full participation in American life.

The Bureau's programs are currently focusing on two interrelated objectives: education and vocational training, and economic development.

Programs and services instituted or expanded since 1961 include the following: Low-cost housing (in cooperation with the Public Housing Administration) and tribal housing projects improved real estate appraisal services to assure fair value to tribes and individuals in sale and lease of lands; economic feasibility surveys to determine industrial and business potential on reservations; school construction to provide sufficient classrooms for all Indian children who have no access to public schools; relocation, vocational training and job placement for adults; and industrial development on reservations (resulting in the establishment thus far of 40 small private manufacturing plants on or near reservations).

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today released details on 14 Job Corps camps for more than 1,300 men which are to be activated in the early fall. The camps are in national parks, wildlife refuges, on reclamation projects and Indian reservations, and other public lands administered by Interior. Decision to open the camps was announced August 15 by President Johnson. Eight additional camps will be operated by the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Each camp, Secretary Udall said, will originally take about 100 men of the Job Corps, and a few of them will gradually be built up to handle 200. In getting the program started, existing facilities are being used to the fullest extent possible, he added.

The 14 sites selected for early use are in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Men will start arriving at the camps in October, Secretary Udall said, and will immediately begin their combined program of work and education.

Secretary Udall explained that Interior's Job Corps camps will be located on public lands managed by the Department. Administration of the camp8 will be handled by bureaus of the Department with the education and welfare programs for the men being drawn up and overseen by the new Office of Economic Opportunity, which the President has announced will be headed by Peace Corps Director R. Sargent Shriver.

The work program at each camp will include a wide variety of conservation projects--providing more outdoor recreation facilities, reforestation and timber stand improvement, wildlife habitat development, stream clearance, and others.

"There is no 'made work' here," Secretary Udall stressed. "The work that the Job Corps will do will help us catch up on a backlog of much-needed conservation work that has been piling up for nearly three decades, while at the same time--and more importantly--thousands of young men will be gaining new skills and new confidence in their ability to become full participants in the bounty of this Nation."

"Each of these camps will also be a great community asset. Local payrolls and expenditures will amount to more than one-half million dollars the first year," Secretary Udall said. "By the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1965, Interior will open more than 75 camps in about 30 States."

Following is a brief description of each of the 14 camps selected for activation on early this fall:

ARIZONA

Winslow Base. This camp is designed for 300 enrollees and is located on the Navajo Reservation eight miles from the town of Winslow in Navajo County. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has facilities available at this site. The enrollees at this camp will be involved in streambank protection and stabilizations, channel erosion control, fencing, brush control, windbreak and shelter" belt planting, and road improvement. They will also assist in community improvements for schools and community centers, recreation development programs at Canyon Diablo and Grand Falls and in the rejuvenation of prehistoric ruins. CALIFORNIA

Lewistown Facilities are available for 200 enrollees at this site in Trinity County one mile south of Lewistown and about 35 miles from Redding. This camp is located on Bureau of Reclamation land. The enrollees will assist in roadside fire hazard reduction in the Trinity Lake area and the construction of campgrounds and picnic areas. In addition to these projects, the enrollees will be engaged in making property line surveys, assisting in helistop construction, fuel break construction, recreation and administrative road construction and rehabilitation and construction of trails.

Ryan

This camp site, on National Park Service land, is 14 miles from Death Valley National Monument in Inyo County. The 100 enrollees will be given the opportunity to work in many phases of wildlife and land management including development of game watering holes, game management and protection, and erosion control; conservation, preservation and interpretation of natural features, including fencing, walks, trails, exhibits and displays

Toyon.

Most of the necessary facilities for 100 enrollees are available at this camp site on Bureau of Reclamation lands. It is 13 miles from Redding in Shasta County. This area provides tremendous opportunity for conservation work--wildlife habitat improvement, timber stand improvement, timber planting and seeding and trail rehabilitation and construction. In addition, the enrollees will construct campground and picnic areas and timber access roads. Major projects the enrollees will assist in will be the ShastaKeswick Erosion Control Project, and roadside fire hazard reduction in the Shasta Lake area.

For an invention that dramatically reduces accident risks and at the same time results in sizeable cost reductions, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has awarded the highest incentive payment in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to an engineering technician on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.

Frank H. Roderick, a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, received a check for $1,350 in recognition of the usefulness of his design for a new type irrigation canal check.

The award-winning invention is called "Rod's Rotating Check." Now being adapted for use on all irrigation canals on Indian reservations, it replaces the use of the plank-on-plank method of diverting canal flows or raising water levels. It resembles a louvered steel fin, inserted between the concrete canal walls at the check point, which can be opened or shut by means of a crank.

The mechanical method of operation does away with the need for inserting planks and then hauling them out again when desired water levels are reached. It takes one man a few minutes to crank Rod's Rotating Check to desired position. It takes three men three hours, using a crane, to insert and remove the standard plank checks.

Equally important, Rod's Rotating Check reduces a serious safety hazard to near zero. During the calendar year 1964, there were 24 stop-work accidents in irrigation operations on Indian reservations, about 90 percent of which involved ditch riders or irrigation operators. Most of these accidents occurred during the process of retrieving silt-anchored check planks.

Roderick may be eligible for further financial recognition of his invention if it is put to use by other Bureaus of the Department of the Interior. Developed while he was on the job, the design is the property of the United States Government.