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The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior today advised that Indians who are eligible to share in the 1961 Cherokee judgment award must file their claims by October 9, 1965.

The net amount to be distributed to the 41,935 tribal members on the Cherokee tribal roll is $11,741,800, under an award granted September 14, 1961 by the Indian Claims Commission. The per capita payment amounts to $280. The award represents additional recompense to the Cherokee Nation for lands in Oklahoma ceded by the Indians to the United States in the past century.

Eligible to share in the award are those whose names appear on the Cherokee tribal roll which was closed and made final as of March 1907, or their heirs. Heirs of deceased enrollees must file satisfactory proof of death and inheritance with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Office, Federal Building, Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401, where the Cherokee roll is maintained.

Claimants should direct all inquiries to the Muskogee Area Office and include all factual information possible in their correspondence.

JICARILLAS TAKE THE LEAD IN CATTLE MARKETING

The Jicarilla Apache Cattle Growers' Association, instrumental in establishing the cattle market in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, reports that the market not only is commanding prices equal to or better than other nearby markets, but also is stimulating other businesses on the reservation.

Jicarilla cattlemen, who organized with the aid of the County Agricultural Extension Agent and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, held their first public cattle sale in October 1963. Impressed with sales prices that were higher than those usually received locally; non-Indian neighbors of the Jicarillas organized the Rio. Arriba Cattle Marketing Association and asked the Indian cattlemen to pool their know-how in a joint sales operation.

Two joint sales held in 1964 brought prices comparable to those received at Clovis, New Mexico and other established markets. This year four sales have been approved by the joint associations.

MILLION DOLLAR HOUSING PLANS FOR WARM SPRINGS (OREGON) RESERVATION

When the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon decide to do something, it generally turns out to be a big-money and big-idea project. They are the group that developed the Kahneeta Springs mineral resort - pools, lodge, campsites and trails - which attracted tourists from the entire Pacific Northwest last year.

Now they are planning a residential community of 200 homes to supplant substandard housing in the area of Greenville, Hollywood and Park. The floods of last December, which damaged many of the Indian homes on the reservation--as well as inundating the Kahneeta Resort in mud - Ied the tribal council to conclude that a new community should be built. The council also is looking ahead to expansion of facilities at Kahneeta. The housing project was approved overwhelmingly in a recent tribal referendum.

Financial and technical assistance in the development projects are the core of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' work at Warm Springs Reservation.

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION – 1965

Contracts for school construction or expansion, totaling more than $8 million, have been awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since January 1965.

While most of the construction was of minor auxiliary facilities or repairs at several Bureau-operated schools throughout the western States, three major projects were also commenced.

A new elementary day and boarding school at Beshbito, Arizona, will soon serve 1,000 Navajo reservation children who are now out of school because of the lack of facilities in the areas of Greasewood, Pine Springs, Seba Dalkai and Steamboat, Arizona. The construction contract is for more than $5 million.

In Tahlequah, Oklahoma, high school facilities will be added to the Sequoyah School to serve rural students from the eastern part of that State and from Choctaw communities of Mississippi. Many of the latter have no access to public schooling. The expansion will cost nearly $1.8 million.

Supplanting a trailer school for Pueblo primary day students at Ojo Encino, New Mexico will be a three-classroom school, complete with dining facilities and living quarters for staff. Ninety children, in grades 1-4, will attend the new school, the total outlay for which is $486,000.

These projects are part of intensive Bureau efforts to keep pace with growing school enrollments and to serve young Indians who live in isolated areas without access to public schools. Such children often require special programs to overcome language and cultural barriers that limit their chances for success in public school systems.

There are at least 100,000 Indians in public schools today--more than twice the number enrolled in Federal schools. The number of Indians in school or seeking to enter school is increasing at a more rapid rate than that of school enrollments in the general population.

ELECTRONICS ASSEMBLY PLANT ON CROW RESERVATION

A new electronics assembly plant providing jobs for an estimated 30 or more Crow Indians is scheduled to commence operations this month on the Crow reservation in Montana. The venture signals a further step toward diversification of job opportunities for the Crow Indians, who are already established in ranching-- including buffalo breeding--and who are developing tourist recreational areas on some of their scenic lands.

The new electronics firm, U. S. Automatics Corp., is privately owned but financed in large part with Crow tribal funds. In addition to the assembly plant on the reservation, the company has opened a research center in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

A tribal loan of $235,000--some of which the Tribe, in turn, borrowed from the Bureau of Indian Affairs--has financed the purchase of equipment and provided working capital. The electronics assembly operation is housed in a new $65,000 factory building constructed and owned by the Crow Tribe and leased to the company.

The plant will manufacture- a variety of products in the general category of electronics and voltage regulation. The Bureau expects to participate in the project through an on-the-job training program for Crow Indians.

RECENT AWARDS BY INDIAN CLAIMS COMMISSION

Two judgment awards were recently granted to Indian groups by the Indian Claims Commission.

A final award of $1,789,201 was granted to the successors in interest to the Sac and Fox Nation. The recipients are the Sac and Fox Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma; the Sac and Fox Tribe of Missouri; and the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa. The amount represents additional compensation for lands in Iowa ceded under treaty in 1830.

The Snohomish Tribe of Indians received an award of $136,165, less offsets, for lands in Washington ceded under treaty in 1855. The amount of the offsets, which represent gratuitous Federal expenditures made on behalf of the tribe and not required by the treaty, will be determined at a later date.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced that his Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs, at the request of the Hoopa Valley Indians of California, has approved a $600 per capita distribution to tribal members from the Tribe's emergency reserve fund. Many Hoopa Valley families suffered severe economic setbacks, including loss of homes, in the series of floods which swept the region early this year.

The per capita distribution is in addition to funds provided for reconstruction of homes, rehabilitation of roads and irrigation works, and restoration of other facilities in flood-stricken Indian areas of northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

A total of $2,910,000 in supplemental funds has been appropriated to Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and is being channeled into flood damage reconstruction and road repairs in the following Indian areas: Hoopa Valley Reservation and other nearby Indian communities in California; the Warm Springs, Umatilla and Yakima Reservations of Oregon; the Nez Perce and Fort Hall Reservations of Idaho; and the Pyramid Lake and Washoe Ranches areas of Nevada.

A substantial part of the emergency appropriations will be used for home construction. Indians whose homes were damaged or lost in the floods will be required to contribute toward rehabilitation or replacement of their homes to the extent of their financial ability.

Since the first helicopter survey was made last New Year's Day, while the waters were still churning through timber stands, home sites, irrigation ditches, and roadways, the Federal Government, through several aid agencies, has been at work in behalf of the stricken Indian communities.

Cooperating with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in administering emergency aid have been the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation, and the Public Health Service, the Corps of Engineers, and the Office of Emergency Planning, as well as the Red Cross and local groups, to restore vital facilities and provide shelter and food to stricken families. The long-range reconstruction phase has brought the Federal Housing Administration and the Small Business Administration into the effort.

Interior's Bureau of Reclamation contracted for and supervised emergency work involving the clearing of debris from the river channel, the repair of roads on Indian lands and in the Six Rivers National Forest and the restoration of sewage facilities, all at a cost of about $2.25 million.

The Bureau of Reclamation also is engaged in comprehensive river basin studies of northern California rivers to evolve plans for reservoirs and other works which would protect the Hoopa Valley from floods by putting the waters to work for irrigation, municipal and industrial supply and hydroelectric power production, fish and wildlife enhancement and recreation. These studies are being coordinated with the activities of State and other Federal agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

To stimulate greater economic growth and development on Indian reservations, the Department of the Interior has asked Congress to increase by $35 million the authorized amount of the revolving loan fund of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Under a bill proposed by the Department, authorization for the program would be boosted from $27 million to $62 million and the Bureau would be permitted to make grants of not more than 20 percent of the borrowed amount in connection with the loans under certain circumstances.

In drafting its proposal, the Department took into consideration the "Report of the Committee on Federal Credit Programs," which was submitted to the President February 11, 1963. The Presidentially appointed committee included the Secretary of the Treasury, Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.

Present loan funds of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are inadequate to meet the needs of financing Indian economic enterprises, the Department said. Although Indians received an estimated $103 million of financing from sources serving other citizens in 1964 the total of unfulfilled commitments and pending applications for Bureau loans is nearly $42 million greater than the available cash balance, the Department reported.

Industrial and commercial development of reservation areas, planned use of mineral, timber, and land resources, along with human development, constitute the core of the Bureau's overall effort to improve social and economic conditions among reservation Indians.

The grant feature of the proposed legislation is intended to help borrowers, including both Indian organizations and individual Indians, during initial loan periods and times of emergency. In many cases, a grant may make the difference between success and failure of an Indian enterprise financed from the fund, the Department said, explaining that grants would not be made in connection with all loans, but only in cases of clearly justifiable need.

Seeking to encourage broader private financing of economic development on Indian reservations, the Department of the Interior has asked Congress for authority to establish an Indians' Loan Guaranty and Insurance Fund of $15 million under administration of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It would be used to guarantee or insure loans made by private lenders either to Indian organizations or to individuals of one-quarter or more Indian blood.

The Department believes that such a fund would multiply by several times the amount of financing from private sources presently available to American Indians.

Under the proposal, the Secretary of the Interior would be authorized to guarantee up to 80 percent of any loan made to an Indian organization, or to an individual Indian of one-quarter or more degree of Indian blood. In lieu of such guaranty, the Secretary would be authorized to insure loans against losses up to 15 percent of the aggregate of the loans made by one lender. The Department anticipates that the loan guaranty provision would be used in financing the larger tribal enterprises and industries on a loan-by-loan basis, while the insurance provision would be administered through institutional lenders and used mainly in financing of individual Indians and smaller tribal enterprises.

Under the proposed bill, the guaranties on insurance would be provided only to applicants unable to obtain financing from customary sources on reasonable terms. The maturity period of loans qualifying under the program would be limited to 30 years. Loans by Federal agencies would be precluded from guaranty or insurance protection.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today directed the Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of Territories to make family planning services available in their social services programs.

The service will be on an entirely voluntary basis. It is in line with the May 25, 1965, report of the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences. The study described the growth of U. S. population as a serious obstacle to the realization of many goals of society and one which puts the nation's general prosperity out of reach of millions of its citizens.

The Secretary's memorandum to the concerned agencies directed that birth control information and family planning services comparable to those generally available in other communities in the Nation be made available to all persons within their charge. It further specified that such services were to be "entirely voluntary" and that use of such services should "not be a prerequisite to receipt of the benefits of or participation in any program or activity.”

A copy of the Secretary's memorandum on the subject is attached.

There is attached a copy of a memorandum from Secretary Udall setting forth the policy to be followed by this Bureau and others in making family planning services available.

Please note especially the last four paragraphs and be guided by their explicit instructions.

Questions of interpretation should be transmitted to this office. Any proposed procedures should also be cleared with this office.

Memorandum

The Department of the Interior has responsibilities for furnishing various social services in its assigned programs.

From time to time the question has been raised whether the Department will furnish information or services on birth control and family planning.

In the past, on some Indian reservations and in some Indian communities in Alaska and in areas of the Territories, inadequate education, welfare, or medical services have deprived residents of the area of birth control and family planning advice and services generally available to other people in major metropolitan communities. In some of these areas the available natural resources will not be adequate in future years unless existing population growth rates decline.

To the extent possible within the Department of the Interior's authority and resources, it is the policy of the Department to seek new ways to use our knowledge to help deal with the explosion in world population and the growing scarcity in world resources, and to assure to all communities referred to above birth control information and family planning services comparable to those generally available in other communities throughout the Nation.

All such information and services shall be entirely voluntary; use of any family planning services shall not be a prerequisite to receipt of the benefits of or participation in any program or activity.

All such information and services shall be provided in accordance with State, local, and Territorial law or enactment.

Physicians employed by the Office of Territories are authorized to offer appropriate birth control advice and services to their patients, consistent with the patient's culture and conscience, or refer patients to appropriate persons.

Social service workers are authorized to refer persons who for various personal reasons may decide that pregnancy should be avoided to appropriate public or private medical services.

A $16 million road construction program has been carried out on Indian reservations by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal year which will end June 30, 1965, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash announced today.

Improved roads open up undeveloped sections of Indian reservations for industrial and commercial development, tourism, and increased recreational use. More and better roads also mean improved school bus services for Indian youngsters and easier access to market areas for Indian farmers and ranchers.

The two latest road contracts, announced today by the Bureau, total more than one-half million dollars for projects on Indian lands in the Dakotas and in California.

A $409,657 contract for grading and bituminous surfacing of more than 13 miles of road west of the Oahe Reservoir in North Dakota from State Highway 24 near Fort Yates west to State Highway 6, will provide Indians on the Standing Rock Reservation with an all-weather paved road to the market cities of Mandan and Bismarck, North Dakota, and will also make recreational areas more accessible to tourists. Low bidder was the Brezina Construction Company, Inc., of Rapid City, South Dakota.

A second contract for $134,750 was awarded for construction of more than 1.5 miles of roads and water lines on Big Sandy Reservation near Auberry, in Fresno County, California. This marks the final road project in a public works construction program undertaken on forty-one California rancherias and reservations under the Rancheria Act of 1958 (P.L. 85-671). Low bidder was Dan E. Mason, Inc., of Fresno, California.

One of the year's largest contracts, more than $1 million awarded in April, will open a north-south route through that part of the Navajo Reservation where Arizona and New Mexico have a common border. It will also improve access to the Wheatfields Lake Recreation Area. The project calls for construction of a 16 mile stretch of Navajo Route 12, one of the most scenic highways on the reservation, which will link State Route 264 at Window Rock, Arizona to State Route 64 at Mexican Water, Arizona. A contract for the remaining 17 mile stretch of Navajo 12 is expected to be awarded this summer.

Other road construction projects were undertaken by the Bureau on 55 Indian reservations located in 22 States during the current fiscal year.

Three 1965 honors graduates from Haskell Institute, the Bureau-operated vocational-technical school at Lawrence, Kansas, will be participants in a special graduation and award-presentation ceremony at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1951 Constitution Avenue, N.W. at 2:00 P.M. today.

The lure of the Nation's Capital brought the students to Washington a few days before the graduation ceremonies at Haskell. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash will, therefore, present them with their diplomas and honors awards.

The graduates are Brenda Itta, an Eskimo from Barrow, Alaska, who was selected Student Secretary of the Year, one of Haskell's highest awards; Lillian Merculief, an Aleut from St. George Islands in the Pribilofs; and Gloria Holden, a Cherokee from Muskogee, Oklahoma. All were A-average students.

Miss Itta, the eldest of 11 children, is the second member of her family to be singled out for special achievement. Her older brother last year was a member of the U.S. Team at the Olympics for the Deaf held in Finland. Miss Itta is now employed by Counselors on National Problems of Quadri-Science, Inc.

Miss Merculief and Miss Holden are both working as secretaries in the Education Branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Department of the Interior said today it has recommended enactment of Federal legislation to amend the Indian Long-Term Leasing Act by permitting leases on Indian land at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, to be made for 99-year periods.

The basic Act of 1955 authorized leases of Indian lands for public, religious, educational, recreational, residential, or business purposes for terms not to exceed 25 years, with an option to renew for one additional term of not more than 25 years.

While the basic Act has been amended to extend leasing periods at certain specified Indian lands, Pyramid Lake is not among them. Legislation now being considered by Congress would make the 99-year leasing authority applicable to an area which has been described as one of the Nation's fastest-growing recreation locations.

Several potential investors have been negotiating with the Pyramid Lake Indians to develop the area, but a major obstacle to firm agreement has been the limitations on leasing periods, the Department said. In addition, existing leasing restrictions, which would be overcome in the proposed legislation, have hampered new housing development because of National Housing Act and Federal Savings and Loan Association stipulations that mortgage insurance be made available only if a leasehold is not less than 50 years.

The Department of the Interior acted today to exempt certain lands owned by the Agua Caliente Indians of California from the effects of a new zoning ordinance adopted by the Palm Springs, California city council.

The Indians, whose reservation lands include considerable Palm Springs real estate now leased or contracted to others, had objected to certain points in the ordinance before it was adopted on June 10. They contended that the measure was too restrictive for future development of their property.

Interior's action in the case came in the form of a notice scheduled for publication in the Federal Register this week. It specifically exempts the Indian-owned lands from the application of three zoning categories in the new city ordinance--categories R-4, R-4-VP and C-1AA.

The Department's authority to exempt Indian lands from local and State ordinances was clarified in a notice published in the Federal Register on June 9, amending a regulation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (25 CFR 1.4). Exemption from local laws is permitted under this clarifying order if the Department determines that such laws are discriminatory or unreasonably detrimental to Indian interests.