But the majority of the full-bloods were unable to make the transition. They were crowded into their unproductive mountain areas and scrub timber. Educational progress stopped, their social life stagnated, their simple agriculture was disputed. Local rehabilitation programs in this area indicate what might be achieved if rehabilitations for the five tribes were undertaken on a scale sufficient for ultimate success. An agricultural program for those who stay on the land is essential, but land resources are inadequate for the situation. Home crafts, including spinning and weaving, if encouraged and given the support of adequate credit could be of greater help in this area. But here again there is urgent need for the introduction of industries that offer much wider employment, both to give work to those in need of it and to reduce the pressure on the already existing resources. Here is a depressed area in great need of assistance and to which we as a nation have a responsibility. Provision for assistance to Indians should include Alaska natives. This past season the pack of salmon in Alaska was so reduced that towns in southeast Alaska-primarily dependent upon the salmon industry-face a situation of acute hardship. Following a visit to Alaska in the autumn Harold E. Fey, editor of the Christian Century wrote in December: "When I visited this area last month I was reminded of conditions in the United States in the depth of the depression. Stores are empty of customers. Credit is restricted. Sales at giveaway prices are offered. Crash programs of work relief are being improved. In sharp contrast with booming business in the areas of defense construction further north, the people of the southeast are pinched at the time of year they have always had money. The end of the fishing season is marked by gloom and belt-tightening. Fishing boats, the proudest possession of the native of this region, are not receiving their usual coat of paint or engine overhaul. Some are being sold to satisfy creditors. The salmon runs have decreased alarmingly in recent years. For example, the cannery at Metlakatla packed 230,000 cases of salmon in 1935; this year it packed 36,000 cases. Every native village except two has a cannery, and all tell the same story. The Metlakatla cannery has lost money 3 out of the last 4 years; others are in no better condition. This cuts down on employment, not only of the women who work in the canneries but also of the fishermen who man the boats. This points up the urgent need for the development of other industries in this section that will offer year-round employment and remove the hazard of the single industry community. There is wide recognition of our responsibility as a nation to assist Indians as individuals and as groups to achieve a status of economic self-sufficiency that will enable them to take their proper place in our local communities, or on equal footing with their non-Indian neighbors. As another avenue for helping Indians to achieve this goal, the Indian Rights Association urges that assistance to Indians be made a specific provision of S. 2663." Senator DOUGLAS. Mr. Lindley, we want to thank you for your testimony. As I have said, we want to make this include the Indian tribes and reservations. We appreciate very much the work which you and your association have done through the past years, and we are very grateful for your testimony. At the end of your testimony, I will include some telegrams which Senator Hill, the chairman of the full committee has received. (The documents above referred to follow :) Senator LISTER HILL, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.: PASADENA, CALIF., March 26, 1956. I earnestly ask your support of S. 2663 and amendment to include the Indians. The latter is not only simple justice to a neglected and needy people, but would result in increasing their self-supporting ability and would preserve a truly valuable culture that should enrich our own. Senator LISTER HILL, Chairman, Labor Committee, MAY A. KIN BALL. GREENWICH, CONN., March 25, 1956. Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.: I strongly urge that American Indians be included in point 4 program to aid United States submarginal rural areas. This will not only benefit the Indians but the country as well. Senator LISTER HILL, RUTH THOMPSON. PASADENA, CALIF., March 26, 1956. Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.: Success of Maricopa Indian Cooperative Association in changing hopeless Indians into a successful happy self-supporting group with increasing prosperity proves Indians ability if given encouragement education opportunity through point 4 program and adequate water. Urge passing amendment S. 2663. CLARA STURGIS JOHNSON. Senator LISTER HILL, WHITTIER, CALIF., March 26, 1956. Chairman, Labor and Public Welfare Committee, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.: We feel it most important you include water rights of all Indians in adequate point 4 program, S. 2663; upper Colorado, S. 500, H. R. 3383; State water control, S. 863, H. R. 8325; directly related to morale, rehabilitation, sanitation, health. FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. CLAREMONT, CALIF., March 26, 1956. Senator LISTER HILL, Senator Office Building, Washington, D. C.: Claremont Friends meeting urges adequate point-4 program with full water rights of all Indians, including upper Colorado to help them develop their reservations. Replace fear by hope and raise living standards. FERNER NUHN, Clerk, Claremont Monthly Meeting, Society of Friends. Senator DOUGLAS. Now, I would like to recognize Mr. George A. Owl, chairman of the eastern band of the Cherokee Tribal Council. STATEMENT OF GEORGE A. OWL, CHAIRMAN OF THE EASTERN BAND OF CHEROKEE TRIBAL COUNCIL Mr. Owl. Mr. Chairman, my name is George A. Owl. I am chairman of the tribal council of the eastern band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. I am also a member of the board of directors of the Cherokee Historical Association. In both of these responsibilities I am keenly aware of the dire need for increased employment opportunities among our Cherokee people who number about 3,500. The only employment available to our people is in connection with the drama "Unto These Hills" and other projects, which are produced by the Cherokee Historical Association, and the tourist trade. Our reservation is located in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains, where 12 million tourists each season observe our Indians in their great plight. For only 4 months of the year are there jobs for our people. During the remainder of the year our public assistance burdens are staggering. I estimate that only 12 percent of our people have year-round, or near year-round, paying jobs. I urge that this subcommittee amend S. 2663 so that Indian reservations in the United States and Alaska will be qualified to take advantage of the bill which would help the Indians help themselves, if it should become law. With this amendment, I certainly endorse and support S. 2663. We appreciate very deeply the opportunity to present this state ment. Senator DOUGLAS. We want to thank you, Mr. Owl, very much. This is somewhat of an aside question. But your people are pretty well scattered over the country, aren't they? Mr. Owl. Not the eastern band of Cherokee Indians. Senator DOUGLAS. But you have some in the West, some in the Southwest; isn't that true? Mr. Owl. Part of the general tribe; yes, sir. Senator DOUGLAS. Your band is the group which decided to stay in the region and not be transferred? Mr. OwL. That is correct, sir. Senator DOUGLAS. I may say that I believe the treatment of the Cherokees by the whites was one of the worst incidents in the history of the country. And there are many of us who would like to make amends. I want to thank you very much for your testimony, Mr. Owl. Mr. Owl. Thank you. Senator DOUGLAS. Mr. Frank H. Ketcham has a telegram to read on behalf of the Congregational Church. STATEMENT OF FRANK H. KETCHAM, ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS FOR THE CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES Mr. KETCHAM. Mr. Chairman, my name is Frank H. Ketcham, and I am attorney for the board of home missions for the Congregational Christian Churches. Dr. Truman B. Douglass, who was executive chairman of the board had hoped to be able to be here this morning personally. But other events interferred. And he asked me to present this telegram to your committee and to say that the Congregational churches always are very much concerned about the welfare of the American Indian. The Congregational Christian Churches are a member of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States and on this particular bill happened tc be able to move more rapidly than our other Protestant denominations. And I do want to submit this telegram for the record. Senator DOUGLAS. It will be included in the record. (The telegram is as follows:) FRANK S. KETCHAM, NEW YORK, N. Y., March 26, 1956. Attorney for Board of Home Missions, Congregational Christian Churches, Washington, D. O.: Congregational Christian Churches have had a continuous concern for the Indian Americans since their original dispossession in the opening of the West. This concern has always included the total life of the Indian people; physical, social, and spiritual. We feel that the Indian Americans can never assume their proper place in society as responsible citizens until they become economic equals with their surrounding culture. We are therefore gravely concerned that attention be given to the reservations in any program designed to alleviate the conditions of economically depressed rural areas. Our chief concern in any approach to the depressed economy of the reservations is that the program be something more than technical assistance. We already have agricultural and industrial technology and a fair appraisal of the resources of the reservation areas. The point of failure thus far is in the communication of these techniques to the Indian communities. This is a matter of basic democracy and attitudes, a sensitive understanding of the cultural values and patterns, and a recognition of certain adaptations that must be made if our technology is to be utilized by the Indian communities to help themselves. Technicians must work in constant conversation with specialists in the social aspects of the Indian communities and this includes the churches we as a fellowship of churches with more than a century of effort among the Indian Americans, fervently hope that our Government will initiate a program commensurate with the tragic need, that will offer technical assistance to the Indian Americans in such a skillful manner that the Indian Americans will be able to use our techniques to raise themselves from economic disaster. TRUMAN B. DOUGLASS, Executive Vice Chairman, Board of Home Missions, Congregational Senator DoUGLAS. That concludes the list of witnesses for this morning. The next meeting will be on Wednesday. I would like to thank all the witnesses for coming here this morning. The subcommittee is now adjourned. (By direction of the chairman, the following is made a part of the record :) INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL, ARIZONA, March 20, 1956. COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: The Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona respectfully petitions your committee to amend S 2663 to insure that Indians will be eligible to participate in the benefits of the bill. Indians of Arizona are greatly in need of such assistance as S. 2663 might provide and urge your favorable consideration of the bill with amendment as suggested above. Sincerely, CLARENCE WESLEY, Chairman, Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona and General Manager, San STATEMENT OF MRS. TEOLA TRUCHOT, VICE CHAIRMAN, and Mr. Frank W. PARKER, MEMBER OF THE FORT HALL BUSINESS COUNCIL OF THE SHOSHONE-BANNOCK TRIBES, INC., FORT HALL, IDAHO This is a joint statement from Mrs. Teloa Truchot, vice chairman, and Mr. Frank W. Parker, member of the Fort Hall Business Council of ShoshoneBannock Tribes, Inc., of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation on behalf of the 2,300 Shoshone-Bannock Indians living on their reservation in southeastern Idaho near the town of Pocatello, Idaho. Senate bill S. 2663 states in section 2: "The Congress hereby finds and de clares that the maintenance of the national economy at a high level of prosperity and employment is vital to the best interests of the United States and that the present existence of excessive unemployment in certain areas of the Nation is jeopardizing the health, standard of living, and general welfare of the Nation." Your attention is invited to the fact that along with other Indian reservations, there exists in southeastern Idaho a reservation that has, since its treaty in 1868, been a depressed area for the reason that it involved people of a different culture from the immigrants who settled the West, who speak a different language and who are still laboring under the difficulty of educating and training themselves to be able to compete successfully with their white neighbors. Since 1868, the United States War Department and later the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been wrestling valiantly with the problem of educating and christianizing these people at what perhaps could be considered an excellent rate of progress even though there may be many people and organizations who oftentimes become impatient with the progress that has been made. It is our belief that Indian tribes could be given a great amount of assistance in dealing with these people who are still destitute, who do not have means of obtaining gainful employment except periodic, seasonal employment and whose plight has, from the beginning, been a jeopardy to the health, standard of living and general welfare of the Nation. We, therefore, petition Congress to amend S. 2663 so that not only the Fort Hall Indian Reservation but other reservations in the United States and Alaska may be assisted in accomplishing that end to which their efforts have been dedicated for so many years and to fulfill the promise made these people in many and varied treaties entered into with them by the United States Government. STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY MRS. HELEN L. PETERSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS), at the REQUEST OF THE CHAIRMAN, NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBAL COUNCIL, LAME DEER, MONT. The chairman of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe, Lame Deer, Mont., petitions the Subcommittee on Labor, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, to amend Senate bill 2663 to make certain that the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and American Indians generally might benefit from the bill. This tribe is one of the poorest in the Nation and desperately needs help of the kind proposed in S. 2663, a bill to establish an effective program to alleviate conditions of excessive unemployment in certain economically depressed areas. The members of the United States Congress probably could not believe the conditions of our people unless they could see them. In fact, we wish some of the members of your committee could visit our reservation to see the need of our people for such a bill as S. 2663. MARCH 21, 1956. Senator JAMES E. MURRAY, United States Senate Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: For many years we have been deeply concerned over the problems facing the American Indians including, in particular, there accute poverty and lack of opportunity for advancement. As we now see the situation, the economics of most reservations are now at the breaking point where they simply cannot support the rapidly growing Indian population. Therefore, we the Apache people feel that S. 2663 and S. 2892 be amended for the purpose of bringing Indians to the provision of the legislation providing Federal assistance to these depressed areas. Bill S. 2663 and bill S. 2692 might be amended to include Indian reservations to be entitled to such assistants. |