Navaho Tribal Council Colville Business Committee Cow Creek Seminole Community Coun- Nez Perce Tribal Council cil Creek Nation Crow Tribal Council Crow Creek Tribal Council Delaware Tribal Council Dresslerville (see Washoe) Duck Valley (see Shoshone-Paiute) Duckwater Shoshone Tribal Council Duwamish Tribal Council Eastern Shawnee Tribal Council Elwha Valley Tribal Council Nisqually Tribal Council Nooksack Tribal Council Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council* Omaha Tribal Council Oneida General Tribal Council Osage Tribe* Otoe Tribal Council Palm Springs* Papago Council Pawnee Business Council Ponca Board of Governors (Nebraska) Flandreau Santee-Sioux General Busi- Ponca Tribal Council (Oklahoma) Flathead (Confederated Salish and Forest County Potawatomi General Fort Apache (see White Mountain Fort Belknap Community Council Port Gamble Community Council Prairie Island Tribal Council Rocky Boy's Business Committee Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Com- Rosebud Tribal Council* munity Council Goshute Business Council Sac and Fox Tribal Council (Sac and Hannahville Indian Community Council Sac and Fox Tribal Council (Okla Havasuapi Tribal Council Hopi Tribal Council Hoopa Valley Tribal Council Iowa (Kansas and Nebraska) Tribal Iowa (Oklahoma) Business Committee Kalispel Indian Community Council Keweenaw Bay Indian Tribal Council Kootenai Tribal Executive Committee Tonkawa Tribal Committee Tulalip Board of Directors Washoe Tribal Council White Mountain Apache Tribal Coun- Turtle Mountain Advisory Committee Wichita Tribal Business Committee Umatilla Tribal Business Committee Walker River Paiute Tribal Council* Wind River (see Arapahoe and Sho- Winnebago Tribal Council Yavapai Apache Tribal Council The following tribes complied with the request of the Chairman and completed the questionnaire: Jicarilla Apache Tribal Council Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council Osage Tribe Palm Springs Rosebud Tribal Council Southern Ute Tribal Council Uintah and Ouray Tribal Business United Pueblos (All Pueblo) Council Walker River Paiute Tribal Council NEWSLETTER "INDIAN AFFAIRS," DATED MARCH 1958, PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION ON AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS, COMMENTING ON THE POLICY OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT AND PRESENTATION OF THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN VARIOUS TRIBES AND THE DEPARTMENT [Indian Affairs, No. 25, March 1958] GREAT PLAINS TRIBES RESIST SALE OF THEIR LANDS-ASSOCIATION ON AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS MAKES FOUR APPEALS TO INTERIOR DEPARTMENT In recent weeks Montana, Nebraska, and Dakota tribes have variously implored and demanded that the Interior Department_review the policy of its Bureau of Indian Affairs which, the tribal spokesmen say, is resulting in the disappearance of the land base upon which the Indian communities rest. It is a standing principle of the Association on American Indian Affairs that American Indians have the right to survive in communities of their own people and that the United States has the responsibility to protect Indian ownership of the lands without which the communities cannot continue to exist. The association's advocacy of this principle has long been well known to the Interior Department. However, in support of the Plains tribes in their own actions to obtain a revision of Indian Bureau land policy, Association President Oliver LaFarge has four times in the past few months written Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, urging that a new look be taken at the plight of the tribes which are working on economic development plans for their communities at the very same time that the communities are being sold away from under their feet. The Interior Department answered the first of Mr. LaFarge's letters. His other letters have not at this writing been acknowledged. THE NORTHERN CHEYENNES The lands of the Northern Cheyennes lie about Lame Deer, Mont. Some of these lands are tribally owned, and some are allotted to individual members of the tribe. These lands constitute the Northern Cheyenne community. When grouped into grazing units, they also constitute the basis of the community's cattle-raising economy. The usefulness of these grazing units depends upon the presence in them of key tracts"-tracts, for example, controlling the only water available to an entire unit. If a key tract passes into non-Indian hands, Indian lands around it can become worthless. A non-Indian desiring to acquire a whole grazing unit at low rental or sale price, therefore, does well to purchase one of these key tracts. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, on May 15, 1955, instructed Bureau reservation officials to facilitate the sale of individually owned Indian lands, even when these lands were key tracts upon which the value of other Indianowned lands depended. Then, admittedly responding to outraged protest by the tribes and organizations friendly to them, the Commissioner in late 1955 revised his instructions to reservation officials to read: If there is any real possibility that the disposal of a particular allotment might adversely affect other Indian lands in trust, the Bureau will take the initiative in consulting with the Indians concerned and will give them every possible assistance in working out a satisfactory solution to the problem. Last summer the Billings area office of the Indian Bureau announced that 60 tracts of Northern Cheyenne land would be put up for public bidding. Included in this acreage was a key tract. The Northern Cheyennes did not want to see their lands pass out of the ownership of their people, and in August they acted under authority given them by a resolution of their own tribal council-a resolution authorizing the sale of a herd of tribal cattle for $40,000 for the express purpose of buying up Northern Cheyenne lands about to be sold, and appropriating $10,000 for the express purpose of purchasing for the tribe the above-mentioned key tract. These funds, sufficient to buy up the lands being offered for sale, had to be released by the Indian Bureau in Washington before the tribe could spend them. The Bureau refused to release the tribe's own funds to the tribe before the land sale was held, and refused to postpone the land sale until the funds were released. Over Northern Cheyenne protest, the sale was held as scheduled in October. Nearly 1,000 acres of Northern Cheyenne land were sold out of Indian ownership, including, to be sure, the key tract. This information was telephoned to the Association on American Indian Affairs immediately after the sale by John Woodenlegs, Northern Cheyenne tribal chairman. Mr. Woodenlegs added, with some relief, that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had informed him that the $40,000 had been released too late to save the key tract and other lands which were gone now, but in time to save lands which would go up for sale in the future. Early in the above chain of events Mr. Woodenlegs had appealed to the Association on American Indian Affairs and to Senator Murray, of Montana. The association, and the Senator on behalf of the entire Montana congressional delegation, wrote independently to the Secretary of the Interior to inquire into the strange conditions under which the Northern Cheyenne land sale was being held. They also inquired into an allegation of Mr. Woodenlegs that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, despite its publicly announced interest in promoting economic development in Indian areas, was using every possible means to hamstring the operations of First Americans, Inc., a small manufacturing enterprise which was giving wage employment to Northern Cheyennes on their reservation. Replying to the association's inquiry on January 14, after the land sale had been held, the Interior Department said that upon investigation it was satisfied with the behavior of Indian Bureau officials. The Interior Department defended the Indian Bureau policy of permitting individual Îndians to sell their land out of the tribal community and |