As far as the relocation program is concerned, I believe before World War II or prior to that time my people have relocated themselves. I have no quarrel with that program. I think it is fine. Senator DOUGLAS. You mean the present program? Mr. McDONALD. Yes; that is right. Senator DOUGLAS. You have no quarrel with it? Mr. McDONALD. No, because our people have done that on their own before this program came in. We only have a very few under the program now, and they are doing fine, all right. But I say it is more applicable to other reservations. Senator DOUGLAS. In your prepared statement at the bottom of page 1 you say: The only answer the Federal Government is currently giving is through the so-called relocation program of the Indian Office, under which Indians are given one-way tickets to very distant, highly industrialized areas. If this were the answer to the problems of these depressed areas, the simple remedy to be adopted as a substitute for this bill would be the appropriation of enough money to send the unemployed from where they are to some other spot. In spite of the increasing misery, loud propaganda from the Indian Office, and frustrations with Bureau management of their lives, no great number of Indians have been relocated, and from those who have been the reports have been so unsatisfactory that it is doubtful that the program could ever be made to work except, of course, as it always has worked to the extent some individuals voluntarily leave the reservation whether or not there is a program to promote their leaving. Mr. McDONALD. Senator, I will clear that up. I still say on my reservation it is working, but from the connection I have with the other Indians of Montana, other tribes, it is not. That is what I meant by that. Maybe I did not make myself clear. Senator DOUGLAS. You heard the testimony of Commissioner Emmons. What would you say to his comment that no effort is made to induce, coerce or persuade Indians to leave the reservation and to accept relocation? Mr. McDONALD. Well, on my reservation I will speak specifically. There it is a voluntary program, and it is Senator DOUGLAS. What about these other reservations? Mr. McDONALD. From what I hear from Montana it is a voluntary deal because, Senator, I will tell you why. I have a nephew who is relocation officer in Montana, a graduate of Montana University. He was a social worker for the State before. Now he is on this job. And he tells me that his job is to help these boys who want to go. They go out on their jobs and Senator DOUGLAS. There is no compulsion? Mr. McDONALD. That is right. Senator DOUGLAS. No false propaganda? Mr. McDONALD. No, not by this man. He is a very intelligent man. Mr. McDONALD. Yes. I don't know about others, but I know Montana, as far as his district is concerned. I may go on to say there is not much land left on the Flathead Reservation, and we feel there is a need to keep that land. I think last month there were 48 eighties up for sale. We have only 16,000 acres of Indian land left under irrigation against the white man's 147,000. Senator DOUGLAS. Is this Indian land that is put up for sale? Mr. McDONALD. That is right. Senator DOUGLAS. Who put it up for sale? Mr. McDONALD. The individual allottee. Senator DOUGLAS. The tribal holdings have been broken up into individual holdings? Mr. McDONALD. Yes, as of the Allotment Act. Senator DOUGLAS. I see. Mr. McDONALD. We would like to find ways and means of getting that land in the name of that tribe, hold it in escrow. When a man comes along, why deal with him and let him have it at no profit? The fundamental basis of our reservation or any reservation is real estate. We have at least got a home there and we want a program like that. I know if we went into buying this land, we would have to use our own money. I might reiterate we cannot use our own money because the stockholders want their money, the people who are not living on the reservation, because they are not getting the benefits that we do up there. Senator DOUGLAS. That is, you would like to have the right to purchase irrigated land formerly held collectively as tribal property but later split up into individual holdings? Mr. McDONALD. Yes, that is right. Senator DOUGLAS. Which the individual Indian now wants to sell in the open market. Mr. McDONALD. That is right, Senator. We see there will probably have to be another loan made to resell that because at the present time tribal lands cannot be sold by any individual or anybody else. They will be assigned, and we don't be lieve in the assignment method. "We would like to sell it and there are so many things like that that we would like to do and we have to do it on our own money. Senator DOUGLAS. Mr. McDonald, have you studied these bills! Mr. McDONALD. Yes, not too greatly, but I have the knowledge of them. Senator DOUGLAS. Which of the bills do you prefer? Mr. McDONALD. S. 964, because I might reiterate again that we want to know where the responsibility lies in the bill because of the feeling that if the Bureau is designated by the bills, the Secretary of Interior or the Commissioner, why, we would probably be back under regulations that would restrict us like we are at the present time on loans. The public health program made a change which is very successful, I think, on my reservation, very good, and now all over. We have had industries of our own up there. We have had to start them by ourselves. We built a half million dollar bathhouse with tribal funds at Hot Springs, Mont., which we operate, our own per sonnel and employees; and our income last year was $50,000 for Christmas tree cutting, and the trees were shipped all over the world. That is what the buyer paid us-$50,000-but the cutters probably got about $150,000 in 1 month or 6 weeks. We reserved 122 percent of that money. That is our own program-reforestation, pruning the trees. We are trying to get along, and we are doing a good enough job, but that is one thing about the reservation. I might say here for the record, that our principal cut was ponderosa pine, which was as high as two or three dollars a thousand, and we had a very good income, I think, 2 years ago $750,000. But the last year the economic trend has changed which affects Indian reservations. The big buyers back East went into spruce, a cheaper grade of lumber. Our quantity of cut was there, but we didn't have the quality. It was about one-third off. So there we were down in our income and that makes the members wonder where our money is going. Senator DOUGLAS. You can't expect to be protected against all the inevitable vicissitudes of life. Mr. McDONALD. That is right. But that is just how it affects stockholders; and, so, therefore, the cream of our crop has gone in timber. Speaking for the Flathead Tribe, why, we are interested in a program like this, very interested. As far as work on reservations, I don't think anything much has been done since the old CCC days and WPA days, which was a great program. In northern Cheyenne, the boys have talked to me, at meetings, of their coal deposits. That is at Ranger, Mont., 300 or 400 miles from my place. They feel they need some development there of their own on the coal mines. I think they stated to me that usually we furnished coal for the schools, and so forth, that it was on a competitive bid, and they might go way down in Wyoming and bring up the coal. On that kind of thing there is a need for development and probably will be. We had one other very important conference up in Montana that we hold every year, and that is the Institute on Indian Affairs. I am very instrumental in getting up and going forward with this Institute on Indian Affairs at the university. We call it in Missoula. It is the sociology department. We have it in April every year. All the people in Montana who are interested come there and discuss these problems. I have with me today a letter from Dr. Tascher, professor of the University of Montana, and he comments on your bill, Senator, because these things were analyzed, this question of labor and everything-welfare-and I would like to submit that for the record. Senator DOUGLAS. Yes. We would like to have your formal statement a part of the record. Mr. McDONALD. We have other tribes of Montana here. There are members of the Crow Tribe and Blackfeet Tribe. They probably have their own individual problems, but I must reiterate again that we are certainly interested in this program. I believe so many people wouldn't be off the reservation today if they had the means of developing their own land. Senator DOUGLAS. In other words, you think that this is an alternative to relocation in some cases? Mr. McDONALD. That is right. We have them right there, and we would bring them right home. We have a beautiful country that we live in, and the chamber of commerce in Montana Senator DOUGLAS. You are around Lake McDonald? Mr. McDONALD. Yes. Right south. Flathead Lake is half on the reservation. Senator DOUGLAS. Years ago I trapped over those passes and thought it one of the most beautiful sections. Mr. McDONALD. In fact, there is a pamphlet by the chamber of commerce I would like to hand you personally, Senator Douglas. It may bring out the feasibility of everything up there. They are working along with us to try to get industry and everything, and I think when everybody cooperates, the Caucasian neighbors along with the Indian people, why, it takes that to make a bill a success. Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you very much. Mr. McDONALD. I don't have anything else. (The complete statement of Mr. McDonald, the letter from Mr. Tascher, and the program of the Institute on Indian Affairs in Montana follow :) STATEMENT OF WALTER W. MCDONALD, CHAIRMAN OF THE MONTANA INTERTRIBAL POLICY BOARD Mr. Chairman, I am chairman of the Montana Intertribal Policy Board on whose behalf I appear here today. I am also the preesident of the Tribal Council of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Mont. We Indians of Montana heartily endorse the purpose of the bills pending before your committee, and are especially pleased that S. 964 specicfially mentions Indian tribes as among those to whom loans are authorized. We hope that S. 104 and S. 1433 will be amended to specifically include Indian reservations as among the "municipalities" to which financial assistance can be accorded. A common misapprehension exists that in some way the Indian Office is set up with large appropriations for rehabilitation of Indians to overcome the serious effects of unemployment and misery which in some areas are distressing, indeed. The Indian Office is not equipped to do and does not do more in the way of overcoming the lack of job opportunities for the Indians than, say, does the Depart ment of Commerce. As a result, we have in Montana, not only among the "landless Indians" and at the infamous Hill 57 near Great Falls, but on entire reservations, conditions of abject poverty due directly to the inability of Indians to find employment. I call particular attention to the Northern Cheyenne or Tongue River Reservation in Rosebud and Bighorn Counties; Fort Belknap Reservation in Blaine and Phillips Counties; and Rocky Boy's Reservation in Cascade, Chouteau, and Hill Counties-a total area of more than a million acres. I wish the committee could visit those areas and see the dire condition of the people. At one time we did have help on the reservations in getting employment through the Civilian Conservation Corps, public works and WPA projects. When the general economic level picked up to the point where these projects withered, nothing took their place at such places as the Tongue River, Fort Belknap, and Rocky Boy's reservations. The CCC and WPA projects represented about the only real solution which so far has been developed for these acutely depressed areas. The only answer the Federal Government is currently giving is through the so-called relocation program of the Indian Office, under which Indians are given one-way tickets to very distant, highly-industrialized areas. If this were the answer to the problems of these depressed areas, the simple remedy to be adopted as a substitute for this bill would be the appropriation of enough money to send the unemployed from where they are to some other spot. In spite of the increas ing misery, loud propaganda from the Indian Office, and frustrations with Bureau management of their lives, no great number of Indians have been "relocated," and from those who have been the reports have been so unsatisfactory that it is doubtful that the program could ever be made to work except, of course, as it always has worked to the extent some individuals voluntarily leave the reservation whether or not there is a program to promote their leaving. Mr. Chairman, I take it that the purpose of these bills is to afford a measure of hope and remedy to areas within the definitions of the bills-whether areas of substantial and persistent unemployment or rural redevelopment areas, even though they are Indian country. The Montana Indian reservations, and particularly the ones I mention, are clearly within the definitions of the bills. We hope that the bills will pass and bring these seriously depressed areas some measure of salvation. Hon. LEE METCALF, MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY, House of Representatives, Congress of the United States, Washington, D. C. DEAR LEE: Enclosed is a copy of the program of the Fourth Annual Institute on Indian Affairs held April 9-12, 1957, in Missoula. On the first page you will note the cooperating agencies and groups. The four workshop sessions gave us the joint opportunity to consider welfare services available, economic opportunities, youth and family problems, and the place of self-help on the part of Indian people in their own communities. The most outstanding result of the meeting this year was the fact that Indian people in reservation areas, operating largely under outmoded regulations, do not have adequate job and wage opportunities to enable them to demonstrate their economic competence on the job as well as to maintain a standard of living which is adequate and desirable. Reservation areas are definitely long on labor and short on work opportunities. The result is a community condition which is far from satisfactory. Since relocation is only a partial answer the chief requirement is better economic opportunity at home. There is much confusion on the part of most people about this matter of improving the economic lot of Indian people in reservation areas. The institute recognized the need for a serious and a devoted effort to have Indian leaders and others in the State sit down together to think through what is involved and what can and should be done. In other words, a 2-day study conference might well be held to achieve a fresh and new look at what is really involved in this situation. Then, leadership might be taken in a somewhat more effective manner. The above is viewed in contemplation of any help made available by the Federal Government along lines of area development (Douglas bill). Such help can and should be viewed as a spur to local activity as presented above. In any case, the great need for an improved reservation area employment and opportunity program cannot be denied. As chairman of the Montana Committee on Human Relations which has been concerned about reservation problems since 1953 and as one who has planned and administered four annual institutes on Indian affairs, I wish to urge you to do all in your power to support Federal legislation which will recognize Indian reservation areas in Montana as deserving of area development support. Sincerely yours, HAROLD TASCHER, Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology. PROGRAM, INSTITUTE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS IN MONTANA, APRIL 9-12, 1957 Montana State University, Missoula, Mont. Theme: Unresolved situations involving the Montana Indian. Purpose: To consider the attitudes and values of people about the above-unresolved situations. Place: School of Music Building and Lodge, campus. Sponsored by the Montana Committee on Human Relations, in cooperation with the State Intertribal Policy Board; the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the public service division, Montana State University; and a wide variety of State and local groups and citizens interested. Administered by the Community Services Laboratory, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Welfare and the departmental staff. 7:30-10: 8-9: TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 9 Public reception and program, Yellowstone Room, Lodge. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 Registration, main lobby, Music Building |