Senator DOUGLAS. Do you have much orchard land-your tribe! Mr. Torus. It has orchard lands outside the reservation.

Senator DOUGLAS. But not on the reservation?

Mr. Torus. No, very little.

Senator DOUGLAS. You are up in the hills?

Mr. Torus. No, we are in a valley. But there is no orchard there. For that reason, I think this S. 964 would help our tribe, and we are in favor of it.

That is all.

Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you very much. Is Miss Trick, a rep resentative of the Chinook Tribe, here?

STATEMENT OF BETSY TRICK, SECRETARY-TREASURER, CHINOOK

area.

TRIBE

Miss TRICK. Gentlemen, I am the secretary-treasurer of the Chinook Tribe, Inc. We are in a peculiar position. We are not a depressed We have plenty of water. We have extensive timber holdings. We have extensive fishing grounds, and a beautiful recreation center. But we are completely deprived of any ability to use them. The Bureau has been completely unsympathetic with us. Our lands are being sold.

Senator DOUGLAS. Please speak a little louder, because what you are saying is extraordinarily interesting. You say you have extensive fishing grounds, you have good land, that you have resources, but that you cannot use them, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is trying to sell them, is that correct?

Miss TRICK. They are not only trying to sell them, Senator Douglas, but they are selling them.

Senator DOUGLAS. Has your tribe given its consent to this?

Miss TRICK. We haven't been asked for our consent.

Senator DOUGLAS. You have not been asked for it?

Miss TRICK. No, we have not been asked for it.

Senator DOUGLAS. Have you been consulted about this?

Miss TRICK. We have not been consulted.

Senator DOUGLAS. Has any act of Congress been passed directing that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should abandon control or supervision over your tribe?

Miss TRICK. No. It is a process of attenuation. We sit back helplessly. We are completely helpless to do anything about it. We go to the area office, and we are treated with great disrespect. Our people are called liars.

Senator DOUGLAS. Do you have attorneys to represent you?

Miss TRICK. We have had a joint Senate and House investigation of our timber sales, and that is on the record. Last month we had a hearing here in Washington, a further hearing on the sales. I expect to turn in a written report for you, for your special reading. It is a very deplorable situation.

Senator DOUGLAS. How large is your tribe?

Miss TRICK. We have 2,000 on our membership rolls. This same thing is happening to the Macaw Tribe. That is in the very corner of the State. A new program has been presented to completely sell their holdings by power of attorney, the power of attorney process, a

supervised sale. The University of Washington is just planning a survey of their area, a political and economic survey. This will take care of all that.

Senator DOUGLAS. I notice a representative of the Indian Bureau here.

Mr. H. REX LEE. Yes, sir.

Senator DOUGLAS. Have you heard Miss Trick's statement that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is proposing to sell the communal property of the Chinook Tribe?

Miss TRICK. The Macaw Tribe and the Chinook Tribe.

Mr. LEE. Yes, sir; I heard that.

Senator DOUGLAS. Is that correct?

Mr. LEE. No, sir, that is not correct—at least to my knowledge. I would like to ask for the particulars on that, as we have no authority, under law, to sell Indian land without the consent of the owners of the land.

Senator DOUGLAS. Well, will you investigate this matter.

Mr. LEE. I cannot investigate it without some kind of evidence as to what it is we are trying to sell. Miss Trick did give me some indication on a timber hearing that was being held. We have sold some timber for individual allottees, after having received their powers of attorneys to make these sales. That is a sale only of timber on the reservations, not of land. We have no authority under law to sell any tribal land, nor to sell allotted land, unless we have the application of the owner.

Senator DOUGLAS. Was this individual land?

Miss TRICK. Would you like me to cite a most recent case? The chairman of our tribe, Roland Charlie, received a letter through the mail, a contract through the mail, that his land was to be sold to the St. Regis Timber Co. It is logged off land. The land, as well as his wife's timber, for $8,000.

Senator DOUGLAS. Had he asked for this?

Miss TRICK. He had not requested this sale at all. He refused to sign the contract. And much pressure has been exerted on that one individual, an elderly man, to sell.

Senator DOUGLAS. What kind of pressure?

Miss TRICK. They have visited him, they have threatened him, they have been three times to our attorney suggesting that he better do it. Senator DOUGLAS. When you say "they".

Miss TRICK. The area director, and the area superintendent.

Senator DOUGLAS. Do you remember their names?

Miss TRICK. Yes, I do. Mr. Clarence Ringey.

Mr. LEE. Mr. Ringey is our local superintendent at Everett, Wash. Senator DOUGLAS. Will you investigate this.

Mr. LEE. Yes, I will be delighted to. Let me simply say this. If the witness can produce the evidence along the lines she has stated, certainly we will take the proper measures to correct it.

Senator DOUGLAS. Do you have a separate inspecting staff which is not under the control of the area supervisor?

Mr. LEE. We have an inspection staff that we do send out.

Senator DOUGLAS. A central inspection staff. So you won't ask this man to investigate himself.

Mr. LEE. Yes, sir. But let me state this again. We have no authority to sell Indian land without the application of the Indian. Gener

ally speaking, we do not have authority to sell tribal land without act of Congress.

an

Senator DOUGLAS. The witness gives every appearance of telling the truth.

Mr. LEE. We would like to have the evidence that she purports to have.

Senator DOUGLAS. Will you, on my request, investigate this, so it will not be necessary for her to produce documentary evidence, which is sometimes hard to produce. But will you, on my request, investigate this matter. And will you make a report, both to the tribal council and to this committee.

Mr. LEE. Might I request this; that she give us the names of the possible violations that she thinks she knows about.

Miss TRICK. I would be happy to.

Senator DOUGLAS. Fine. Will you get together immediately after this meeting, and then inform us.

Mr. LEE. I think there have been so many statements about land sales and land policy, that it would be very helpful to you, after the witnesses are completed, to give you a brief statement as to the authorities we have and the conditions under which we make land sales.

Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you very much.

Miss TRICK. Then I in turn will turn in a written statement from the Indian's point of view of that very same policy and how it works. (The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF BETSY ANN TRICK, SECRETARY, CHINOOK TRIBE, INC.

My name is Betsy Ann Trick and I am secretary to the Chinook Tribe, Inc. There is under consideration by the United States Congress a new statement of Federal Indian policy embodied in Senator Murray's Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, which calls for Federal technical and other assistance in the maximum development of Indian resources for Indian benefit.

In connection with hearings on this statement of policy on May 13 and 14 (and on two proposals to implement this policy-namely, S. 809 and S. 964), Members of the United States Congress have suggested we submit concrete suggestions of what tribes might do under this policy that they cannot now do. I offer the following as one example:

At present, among several Indian tribes in northwest Washington, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (with powers of attorney from individual allottees) is selling stumpage from the Indians' timber allotments. Many members of the tribes who are allotted on timbered reservations of which Quinaielt is one, feel bitterly that they are not receiving as much income as they should from this rich resource. Under the present Bureau of Indian Affairs timber sales policy, 10 percent is deducted from timber income to the Indians to pay for the Bureau's "costs of supervising" these sales. Indians, and lumber companies, too, feel that these deductions are too high and that the "supervision" is inefficient, unnecessarily costly, and bureaucratic. The present policy of the Bureau on timber sales is a combination of evils brought about by the fact that for a long time Bureau officials have too readily yielded to pressure from individual Indian allottees who wanted their money "now"-at least some of it-and included, too, large areas of land in the units put up for timber sales. The result of this is that individual Indians get far less for their forest products than do the nonIndians who have not undertaken sales on this unit basis. A basic problem in the whole matter of selling stumpage on Indian reservations is that all of us, including the Bureau, are dealing with lands that never should have been allotted in the first place and all of this is confounded by the present fee patent policies of the Bureau.

A better approach, if not the only approach, some of us feel, to fuller and more beneficial use of our timber resources would be for the individual allottees to form a cooperative to work with the United States Forest Service to manage our forests, cutting on a scientific and businesslike basis, and then selling

stumpage on some basis that would provide reasonable and guaranteed income. When that is accomplished our co-op could then negotiate to encourage plywood, pulpwood, and lumber industries to come onto the reservation thereby providing employment to Indians and others in the area. We do have something to hold cut to industry as inducement-a guaranteed supply of raw materials. But in order to insure the supply of raw materials, the present policies of the Bureau on supervised land sales, fee patents, and 30,000-acre, long-term sales must be stopped. The American Forestry Association and the University of Washington, we believe, should be called in to help review the present land policies of the Bureau and to give assistance in working out plans for maximum return from and conservation of our forests through sustained-yield manage

ment.

Government cooperation is essential to stop the further alienation of land from Indian ownership. This could be accomplished by a Bureau moratorium on supervised land sales and fee patents, a return to Indian ownership of alienated lands, revocation of existing long-term contracts and the establishment of a joint tribal business council to administer the area, with authority and financial assistance for land purchase and development programs. Foremost is needed a new policy with forceful enunciation of it and explanations to reassure and unify the Indian people who own small tracts of land that such a program will operate for the benefit of all the Indian people in the area, the State of Washington, and the timber resources of the country for generations to come.

As the American Forestry Association stated in a recent article (American Forests, May 1957), if we make mistakes now in the proper development and use of our timberlands, "it will take 150 years to grow a new crop after somebody discovers the mistake." Also, unless a cooperative and long-range constructive program can be set up, the timber, the land, and potential livelihood of our forests will be lost to the Indian people. Without income and without their lands, the Indian people may become an economic and social problem on the State of Washington.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs often tells tribes the present policy of the United States Government, as expressed in House Concurrent Resolution 108 (83d Cong.), is to get the Government out of the Indian business as rapidly as possible. Indians are discouraged in many ways from developing "Indian" enterprises because the "policy" is "integration" or "assimilation" of the Indians, individual enterprise rather than enterprise by Indian groups or tribes, and liquidation of revolving credit facilities rather than expanded use.

We need the sincere and enthusiastic direction and cooperation and official blessing of government for the co-op approach, someone skilled in "cooperative" means of economic development, and a minimum of capital and, in time, we could increase our individual and tribal incomes many times over.

This is one concrete example, we believe, of what tribes with timber resources could do with a new policy, a new approach and a very small amount of money which as a matter of fact is already available through the grace of the United States Congress in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

By separate cover Judge Charles H. Paul of the firm of Helsell, Paul. Fetterman, Todd & Hokanson, has been asked to forward to you the suggested legal machinery which he painfully developed about a year ago in providing a legal vehicle for organizating the Quinaielt Indians to exploit their timber. The organization which he drafted was to act initially and merely as a timber cooperative and then gradually expand to logging operations and thence to sawmills, and eventually to veneer and plywood plants. Judge Paul's plan further provided that advisory committees be appointed, which he envisioned to be men of outstanding merit in business, finance, and timber fields. My own reflections on his plan are that it is adaptable to most any similar area in the United States.

vacant.

Another example readily comes to mind and that is that within the city of Tacoma, the Puyallup Indians have some land which has been for decades left In my opinion it is inexcusable that valuable property should be an economic loss to the city of Tacoma and the industrial life of our country as well as to the tribe and its individual members. Under other circumstances, chambers of commerce and resources development committees would be busily finding a way to make this area a productive one. This could be done by a new statement of policy by the United States Congress that would spell out and provide for resources development with conscientious and enthusiastic administration, and a minimum of Federal regulation and supervision.

Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you very much.

The final witness is Mr. C. C. Victory of the Cherokee Tribe.

STATEMENT OF C. C. VICTORY, CHAIRMAN, EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE, CHEROKEE TRIBE, OKLAHOMA

Mr. VICTORY. My name is C. C. Victory. I am a member of the Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma. I am the chairman of the executive committee. I am also legislative chairman of the Inter-Tribal Coun cil of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma.

I would like to ask the privilege to submit a written report at a later date for the reason that there are two what we call pilot counties in our area. One of those counties has already had their complete survey, and the other is being made at the present time. And I think we can give you a very complete report for the record at a later date.

Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you very much.

Senator DOUGLAS. I think that completes the list of the Indian witnesses this afternoon. I have a 4: 30 engagement, so I am afraid I shall have to ask to be excused. But I will set aside a few minutes for people to whisper in my ear, as I said I would.

We have received a number of letters, resolutions and so on, which, together with any others that may be received will go in the record.

TRIBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL,

THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES, New Town, N. Dak., March 7, 1957.

Mr. J. H. YINGLING,

Senate Office Building,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: The Tribal Business Council of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota has asked that I write to you in connection with S. 964.

The Government's tight-money policy, the drop in prices of agricultural products, high cost of operational expenses, and the deemphasization of reservation programs have left these Indians in a destitute condition.

These Indians, because of these conditions on the reservation, are leaving the reservation before they are adequately oriented and educated. Our trained and educated Indians, instead of helping and setting the pace, are also leaving. Our cultural background is as different as the Hindu Indians from the American culture as it exists today. That is why you don't see any Hindu Indians integrating in the American society.

Enactment of S. 964 will go a long way toward solving a lot of the Indian problems.

Sincerely,

CARL WHITMAN, Jr., Chairman.

STRASSER, SPIEGELBERG, FRIED & FRANK,
Washington, D. C., May 14, 1957.

Re S. 964.

Hon. PAUL H. DOUGLAS,

United States Senate,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR DOUGLAS: We are writing on behalf of the Hualapai and San Carlos Apache Tribes of Arizona in support of S. 964, your bill to establish an effective program to alleviate conditions of substantial and persistent unemploy ment and underdevelopment in certain economically depressed areas.

For your consideration we enclose copies of resolutions adopted by each of these Indian tribes, endorsing the pending legislation. We would appreciate your making these resolutions and this letter a part of the record of the hearings conducted by your committee today.

Respectfully submitted.

ARTHUR LAZARUS, Jr.