OCR Text |
Show Thursday, August 29, 1974 Kina's Inin PcSey (Continued from page 8) American Programa (ONAP) was created to continue most fantJon and services lor Indiana which had been exercised by the now defunct Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), and a new Office of' Indian Manpower Programs (OIMP) was created this past summer in the Labor Department. And for a brief period in the BIA,. an Indian Water Rights Office was formed from September 1971 until December 1972, when it mh nermittod to fade with the nibble of F?Y following the Trail of Broken Treaties takeover. Special Indian operations were also created in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Labor, and the Smithsonian Institution, a federal fortress which inaugurated its Indian Awareness Program despite a long history of exclusion of Indian people. in HEW -- -- a Appwcns During the Nixon years. Vice President Spiro Agnew was the first Vice President in history to address any national Indian assemblies. In 1969, in Albuquerque, N.M., Agnew addressed the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and in 1972 he again addressed the Nationil Tribal Chairmens Association (NTCA), this time in Roswell, N.M. Among highly controversial matters touching on areas where the Nixon administration was loudly criticised and damned by Indian individuals and groups were these: MMTIKf Beginning with the Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island in November 1969, Indian militancy-whi- eh by the time of the Nixon resignation had triggered over 45 occupations across the nation-h- ad become a thorn in the side of the Nixon administration, intent on quieting any appearance of domestic unrest in America following the disorders of the black and civil rights movements in the 1960s. Largely dismissing Indian militants as urban Indians and urban guerrillas, the Nixon administration unleashed FBI and undercover agents' who began the first widespread surveillance of both, militant and moderate Indians in the twentieth century. To its credit and despite policy splits within topsiders in the Nixon administration during massive confrontations at the BIA during 1972 and at Wounded Knee in 1978, a policy of restraint of physical force and negotiation prevailed, involving the decisions of Nixon himself, thereby avoiding massive bloodshed. Uvfcnlataf At first utilising OEO as the lead . agency for Hie needs of about 500,000 Indians living off the Indian reservations, the Nixon administration spent less than $10 million on total urban Indian needs in more than five years, killed OEO itself in the summer of 1978, and has left the urban Indians unresolved issues and unmet needs to the new administration of President Gerald R. Ford. Raglofagtioi Nixons New Federalism program, aimed at dismantling the federal bureaucracy and bringing the government home to people across the country through a program of regionalizing federal operations, met uniform Indian opposition because Indians expressed their belief that regionalization of federal programs - would dismantle the direct federal-triba- l trust responsibility and and leave Indian tribes itself, reUUonihip and communities victim to competitive minority politics dominated largely by the Made community across the nation. MATsvMmc At the Interior Department, Nimm fired his first Interior Secretary Walter J. Hkkel on Oct. 4. 1971, replamghim with Rogers C.B. Morton on the following or spring. And five Indian Commissioners their equivalents have held tenure during the Nixon years: Robert L. Bennett (Oneida) till 1969, Louis R. Bruce Utos Participate in U.D.I.C. Parcdo (Mohawk) till he was fired on Dec. 6, 1978, Richard S. until he left for Wall Street. Marvin L. Franklin (Iowa) who refused the job on grounds he would be forced to do what he refused to do, and currently Morris Thompson can). Five major reorganizations of the BIA itself, and numberless minor reorganizations, occurred during the Nixon years, reflecting the uncertainty of the BLAs mission in its own eyes. Moderates among Indians pressed during the Nixon years far the removal of the BIA from Interior and the creation of a separate and autonomous Indian agency, utilizing many potent and important voices in the Congress itself for their ends. Indian militants in September 1971 attempted to place a citizens' arrest on the BIA in November 1972 the BIA headquarters itself was ransacked and seized, becoming the focus of the most intense rage among a small but potent sector of Indians. Did the Watergate selves, the so-call- ed scandals themWhite House horrors which prompted the first resignation of an incumbent American President in history, in any way touch the administration of Indians affairs? Neither insiders or outsiders involved in Indian affairs in the nations capital could say. In December of 1972, however, just me month after the Trail of Broken Treaties takeover of the BIA building here in Washington, John Wesley Dean III, then the President's lawyer, invoked the principle of executive privilege for members of the President's White House staff in refusing to appear during a probe into that Indian takeover by the House of Representatives Indian Affairs - U.B.I.C. INDIAN ROYALTY over the Uintah Basin Industrial Convention festivities earlier this month. This year's trie of beauties are Clara Peraak, Indian Princess, and her attendants JoHe .Martinez and Loin Whketail. Miae Ferank is a College of Eastern Utah coed and she ia the daughter ef Nettie Peraak and the late Ames Perank of Mytea. Miss Martinez is the dauglrtcr of Nancy Martinez and Gerald Martinos. Miss WMtetafl is the fester daughter of Lelaad Giliert. Mrs. Gloria Martinez was the chairwoman of this year's beauty pageant. 9:w9 Sub- committee. And in June of 1974, learning of the scope of taped presidential conversations during a certain period in the White House, lawyers for top defendants in the trail arising from the Wounded Knee takeover in 1978 subpoenaed any d conrelevant presidential versations and had promises of the appearance of Dean himself in the Trail as a witness for the defense. Among Indians working in the federal bureaucracy, the federal courts and the Congress, feelings were mixed following Nixons resignation. Above all there was a prevailing mood of stunned silence. White House Indian Affairs Special Assistant Bradley Patterson Jr., assessing tiie Nixon years, Indians and federal' policy to AIPA said: It was nice enough (of former President Nixon) to enunciate the (Indian) message, but when the chips were down We'Ve gotten his support cm Wounded Knee, probably Alcatraz, and on Alaska Native claims when we had to take Interior and OMB to the out in order to win. Patterson said Nixon's direct involvement in top level discussions on Indian matters occurred certainly on those three issues (when the White House taping system was functioning). Patterson also said the former President was also, in his last direct conversations on Indian matters, involved in a decision to provide to the Havasupai Tribe of Arizona a recommended total of 251,000 acres of land in trust this past May 8 while on an airline flight to Phoenix, Ariz., where Nixon formally announced his support for the tribe. And thus does a President fells into the embrace of history. Ce-refcn- ed 0 tape-recorde- Hm 4 Start 3. Paraats-Ha- va darns w - MAKING HER DEBUTE In the 1974 Uintah Basin Industrial Convention parade -- af WMterueks. BalphoBn ia the daughter si Mr. and Mm. is RalpheHa g Clifton Manning. tpta Sapt. yon ragistarad year dun? cMdrtn for tha Coatact th Head Start Offfea for nor infonuutfcu. . KNOCK OUT BOOZE - laths thorns far the float sponsored by the Ute Tribe Alcoholism and Drug Abuse program hi the U.BJ.C. parade. The float carries ammbars of the boring dnb which is aloe sponsored by the pregrem. |