Mrs. Huff has given an indication of what it is like here in the District of Columbia, and it is true all over the country where the supplemental foods program exists.

In areas which have limited access to grocery stores, the Women and Infant Children program, based as it is on vouchers for special foods to be purchased in supermarkets, does not meet the needs of the people intended to benefit from the program if there are not nearby stores. In these areas, the old supplemental food program, as originally designed, does provide the additional nutrition needed by this group of individuals, namely pregnant women and infant children.

I might also mention that the supplemental food program needs administrative funding.

I will now turn to my colleagues. They will discuss some of the specific conditions on which this testimony has been based. May I introduce Pam Coe, director of the food resources program of the North Central Region of the AFSC, and Lorelei Means, a community associate of that program working on the Pine Ridge Reservation. STATEMENT OF PAM COE, DIRECTOR, FOOD RESOURCES PROGRAM, NORTH CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE, AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, DES MOINES, IOWA

Miss COE. Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify. I am Pam Coe, director of the food resources program of the Friends Committee, based in Des Moines, Iowa. We cover the bread basket States of Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado.

Our program is based on the premise that everyone has a right to adequate food, health services, education, and other basic human needs, especially during infancy and childhood, since deprivation in these areas during these vulnerable years handicaps the individual permanently.

It seems particularly wrong that so many children in low-income families grow up hungry in States which produce such a large proportion of the country's food.

Our program is particularly concerned to see that the federally financed food assistance programs operate to provide an adequate nutritional base for low income families. In only a few parts of the region I cover are family food programs, food stamps or commodity food programs, donated foods, operated to provide maximum benefits to people in need of more and better food.

In spite of its inadequacy, when the commodity goes out of existence on June 30, this year, the situation will worsen considerably, especially if all the programs using commodities are phased out at the same time.

The supplemental food program is particularly critical to low income families, especially to young children. Only 15 WIC-Women and Infant Children-grants totaling $1,353,000 have been given to communities in the eight States served by our program, and almost half of these funds are going to one State-Colorado.

The same eight States have a total of 104 supplemental food pro

grams donating extra, specially nutritious commodity foods to the same vulnerable age group at a dollar figure of some $3,312,000.

The State of Iowa has only one WIC program but 31 supplemental food programs. Missouri has two WIC programs and 48 supplemental food programs.

The State of Nebraska has no WIC programs and one supplemental food program serving 2,000 people. North Dakota has no WIC programs and four supplemental food programs.

Among the specific communities with which we work which provide extra commodities through the supplemental food program is the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

If this program goes out of existence, a large number of young children in our region of the country will have to do without food they desperately need. It seems particularly cruel because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has so far refused contracts for WIC programs to communities which already have supplemental food programs.

If it was known this fall that the supplemental food program would not be in existence as of this coming summer, then in all fairness communities which now have supplemental food programs should have received priority consideration in the new WIC pro

gram.

The situation of Indian reservations in the area is particularly grave, as Mrs. Means will describe. I do want to mention the emergency situation which exists now in North Dakota for Native Americans living on trust lands, which I am sure you will hear more about later.

The State Department of Social Services has officially declared that they will not be able to administer the food stamp program on Indian reservations on the grounds that the State government lacks legal jurisdiction over those lands. Unless some corrective action is taken, Indian people living on trust lands in North Dakota will be without any family food assistance program at all by July 1 of this year, and the loss could include the supplemental food program on the Fort Berthold Reservation, and I am sure others.

Since a great many Indian families on reservations use commodities for their basic subsistence, there could be emergency hunger situations by midsummer.

There will probably be increased hunger anyway, even if there is a fairly smooth transition from the commodity program to the food stamp program. For many families, the food stamp program may be unworkable without some major changes in the way it is administered.

It is very important that the program be administered by the unit. of tribal government most responsible to local people.

In many cases this means the district council. District governments should administer the food stamp programs in their own districts, just as counties administer the programs on behalf of State governments.

On the basis of a year's experience working with low income groups and individuals in the Midwest, I heartily concur with Maria Pappalardo's recommendation that the supplemental food program

should be continued, preferably on an expanded basis, at least until the WIC program is more generally available and provides food on a more flexible basis.

I would reemphasize that the bill you are now considering is the bare minimum to prevent massive hunger on Indian reservations.

Even if it is passed, there will probably still be major hunger problems unless the regulations are written to fit the situations on the reservations, and preferably with the general participation of native American people familiar with the general conditions and political realities of their tribes.

Since the food stamp program may be totally unworkable for many families which now depend on commodities, native American people living on trust lands should at least have a choice between the food stamp and commodity program. This may well be necessary for a considerable adjustment period, until major changes have been made in the local economic situation, for instance, great improvement in transportation systems and introduction of reasonably priced grocery stores.

These I would all consider stopgap measures, simply to avoid a disastrous increase in hunger. Mrs. Lorelei Means is our final witness and will put the meat on these bones.

STATEMENT OF LORELEI MEANS, COMMUNITY ASSOCIATE, FOOD RESOURCES PROGRAM, NORTH CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE, AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, PORCUPINE, S. DAK. Mrs. MEANS. My name is Lorelei Means. I am a Community Associate of the American Friends Service Committee in the Porcupine District of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM).

I am presently working with the Indian people of Porcupine to establish a free medical clinic there. We are hoping that the clinic will be able to assist in making the food stamp program, if and when we get it, available to the District people.

I would like to thank the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture Research and General Legislation for allow me this time to speak.

As I have been in Porcupine for the past year working with grass roots people in the district. I have got a good idea of how much people depend on the family commodity program. As the family commodity program will end June 30, 1974, the effects on the grass roots people of Pine Ridge will be disastrous.

If this bill, S. 2871, is passed, however, there will still be problems. The tribal councils will be the only agency allowed to administer the food stamp program on the reservations. Because of the recent political polarizations on Pine Ridge Reservation, those people supporting the present tribal administration will be the only ones to completely benefit from food stamps. Only tribal administration supporters currently have few jobs available on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Those people known to oppose the current tribal administration will be badly hurt, through discrimination, for the next 2 years-the

term of government for the tribal administration-if the council is solely responsible for the food stamp program.

For example, already over the past few years the Porcupine District has lost out on a number of programs on the reservation because the tribal administration feels it is an AIM stronghold.

And, if the current tribal council runs the food stamp program, it is unlikely that any effort will be made to make it easily available outside the Pine Ridge village.

On reservations like Pine Ridge with district councils there needs to be a guarantee that the program is equally administered in each district. Each district should be considered similar to a town and be able to run its own food stamp program.

That would mean each District would have its own certifiers, food stamp sellers and Outreach workers. If the districts are not given control of the food stamp program, the U.S. Government will be solely responsible for the actions taken by the district people in response to frustration and starvation.

This is a condition that would only perpetuate the situation that led to Wounded Knee in 1973.

The long history of the practice of fraud, illegalities and cheating by the trading posts against native Americans is well known. For, example, in talking with reservation people who participated in the recent occupation of Wounded Knee, I was told how they found rows and rows of commodity foods in the basement of the trading post. These were foodstuffs which the traders accepted as payment against debts.

Doubtless, these trading posts will do the same with food stamps, accepting them as payment even though that is illegal. The trading posts will raise prices when the food stamp program begins.

Many people of the Porcupine District do not speak English well, and cannot read or write English well. Again, there is the danger of people being cheated, or at the least grossly misunderstood and thereby losing benefits.

The distances to off-reservation stores will be another problem. Many Indian people do not have cars and must pay to be driven around. They will be forced to buy at the trading post, providing a captive audience subject again to being cheated.

More than just the tribal council should be responsible for running the food stamp program. People should be allowed to certify and sell stamps out of mobile units, from the clinics, at various district halls. And, people must be able to purchase stamps locally. If a mail system is used, the 2 weeks it will take, during which people are without both food and money will bring many people to the edge of starvation. There must be provisions also for emergencies.

Because of the great distances involved in getting around reservations. I would recommend that native Americans be allowed to deduct transportation costs from income.

Having the program run by native Americans without having the State administer the food stamp program will preserve the sovereignty of Indian nations.

In talking with Parent Child Centers on both Porcupine District and Kyle District of the Pine Ridge Reservations, I have learned

that they have never even heard of either the WIC or the supplemental food program. Just as we learn about these programs, the Government is planning to stop the supplemental food program.

This failure to let the people know about a program which has been available for 5 years is but one indication of the problems which the people face when the same administration tribal is given responsiblity to run the food stamp program.

These problems must be taken into account in any food program which is to operate on Indian reservations.

I am a resident of the Porcupine District and 7 months pregnant. I am concerned, as many district mothers will be, for my child's survival. You might as well shoot me in the back if I have to starve and my child has to starve.

Senator CLARK. Thank you very much. We appreciate your testimony. I am trying to think of a way to really summarize what the three of you have said.

It was pointed out to me that in a letter dated in January of this year from Mr. Charles Trimble, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, who I see is a witness this afternoon, a letter to Secretary Butz, contained in the working papers of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, there is summary which seems to me to include everything you have said, trying to do it in a couple of sentences. It says, "In summary, the following measures are suggested by the National Congress of American Indians:

(1). To extend the existing commodity food distribution program from June 30, 1974, to June 30, 1975 so that we have that commodity program in this interim period, at any rate.

(2). To modify Public Law 93-86 or create new legislation adopting the Food Stamp Program to better serve Indian Reservations, including provisions for options for tribal administration of the program.

That is the sort of thing it seems to me you are talking about.

"Ancillary Services Development and Educational and Information Services."

Does that pretty much summarize or do you think that there ought to be more, that you go beyond that?

Miss PAPPALARDO. I think we go a little bit beyond in trying to point out that simply saying just let the tribes do it will not solve the problems. There are many problems that are simply inherent in these reservations.

The support of the trading post system, where are the other grocery stores that people can get to to use their stamps the best?

Those are some of the things where we go into more specifics. This is the beginning legislation. The legislation S. 2817 is a start. It needs to go much beyond.

Senator CLARK. So you are strongly in support of that legislation as a beginning point?

Miss PAPPALARDO. As a base. And also with a recognition of the way some reservations are, with tribal councils and district councils. Just as in some States they did not want to administer the program in every county, so it is with tribal councils having difficulties with some of their districts. There should be some way to ensure that there is equal administration to the best advantage of all the people on the reservations, regardless of what particular district they live in.