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The skills of the corpsmen would not only be of great service in construction but the people by working with them might acquire proficiency themselves in some of these areas which would serve them in the future. (Clipped hereto is copy of a letter we have received from the village outlining their plans.)

In addition to Holikachuk there are other communities that have plans to move; for example, Fort Yukon will have to relocate if the proposed Rampart Dam becomes a reality. Moreover, the feeling I got was that we will see more and more a tendency for these small isolated villages to move together to form larger units.

(b) In Juneau there is an area called the Indian Village in the very heart of the city, where because of a longstanding doubt as to the ownership of the land, no economic development has taken place. The Indians of Juneau and Indians migrating to Juneau in ever-increasing numbers from other areas, have settled in the village, living in substandard housing erected in irregular patterns presenting a sanitation problem, a fire hazard and a generally poor appearance. When I was in Juneau it was pointed out to me that there were persons in the city, both native and nonnative, interested in cleaning up this area and improving the standards under which these people live.

It was also indicated to me that should a National Service Corps program be authorized, Juneau would undoubtedly be sending a request for help on this particular project.

Further I was told that in the summertime the Indian women display handicrafts along the streets in front of their houses for sale to tourists. If this area were cleaned up and made more attractive, visitors would be more inclined to visit the Indian community and, as a result, income to the natives from the tourist trade might be increased considerably.

(c) The native peoples of many of the communities of Alaska catch fish for both subsistence and sale. (I refer here not to communities where fishing is the main industry.) Where there is no cannery nearby, fish are dried in the sun exposed to all the elements and insects, especially flies. Much of the food value of the fish is lost in this process of preserving. Moreover, it is extremely unsanitary.

By teaching better methods of preserving fish products, the nutritional value of native food would be improved and it is possible that a new industry for fishery products could be developed, for example, the packaging and selling of smoked river salmon as a delicacy item.

(d) We have heard many ideas concerning adult education in Alaska. The one most often mentioned is adult literacy education. On my trip, however, I heard other suggestions which seem to me to have merit also. For example, it was pointed out to me that the native village councils in most areas are sadly lacking in knowledge of parliamentary procedure. Training in this area might be combined with a basic course in civics and a basic course in State and Federal law. Area Director Bennett pointed out to me that if the leaders of the villages were taught to use communications devices such as slide projectors, felt boards, etc., they could greatly increase the understanding of the villagers for State and Federal programs and laws affecting them. Other areas which might be included in adult education are insurance, mail ordering, and home accounting and budgeting. I was surprised to hear that many fishermen in the southeastern area of Alaska do not know how to care for or repair their boats and equipment. Often they lost part of a season with broken down boats, waiting for a mechanic to work them into his busy schedule. Care and repair of gasoline motors, diesel motors, generators, radios, and possibly heavy equipment such as bulldozers and graders are skills that could easily be taught and are much needed.

(e) A great deal of concern was expressed to me over the village sanitation problem. It was pointed out that the Public Health Service at present does as much as possible toward teaching good practices in sanitation for prevention of tuberculosis. It is my understanding the PHS could definitely use service corpsmen to supplement their field personnel in the program. This could also be part of the general village sanitation program carried on by the State, including the training of medical aids for villages who would be able to perform first aid and administer and dispense medicine. (Clipped hereto is a letter requesting such help from the president of Point Hope, an Eskimo village.) The Bureau of Indian Affairs has formed a committee to consider all possible areas and problems in Alaska which might fit into a National Service Corps program. Area Director Bennett has offered the facilities of the BIA high school at Mount Edgecumbe, Alaska, for training corpsmen should such a program become a

reality. I think that a National Service Corps would receive a great deal of aid, information, and cooperation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska.

I'm sure they would receive an enthusiastic response as well as volunteers from the student body of the University of Alaska.

The various agencies of State government, the chambers of commerce, and the leaders of business and industry are all extremely interested in doing what they can to help the less developed areas and peoples of Alaska.

All in all, I would say that the National Service Corps would receive not only a challenge in Alaska but also overwhelming support from Alaskans.

Senator WILLIAMS. Our next witness is Carl Whitman, Jr., who is chairman of the Tribal Business Council of Three Affiliated Tribes, who comes to us from Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

I would like your distinguished Senator to be chairman for part or all of your testimony. I relinquish the chair to your distinguished Senator, Mr. Whitman.

Senator BURDICK (presiding pro tempore). Members of the subcommittee, I would like at this time to introduce to the subcommittee, Mr. Carl Whitman, who is chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in the Berthold area of North Dakota.

Mr. Whitman has long demonstrated his ability and interest in these Indian people and has through the years worked diligently in their behalf. As a matter of fact, Mr. Whitman has attained national recognition for the way he has proceeded on behalf of the Indian people and for their betterment.

So it is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this subcommittee this morning, Mr. Whitman.

STATEMENT OF CARL WHITMAN, JR., CHAIRMAN, TRIBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL, THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES, FORT BERTHOLD RESERVATION, NEW TOWN, N. DAK.

Mr. WHITMAN. Thank you, Senator.

For the record I would like to state I am Carl Whitman, Jr., chairman of the Tribal Business Council, Three Affiliated Tribes, Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

I appreciate this opportunity to appear before your subcommittee because this gives me a chance to testify in favor of a program that makes a lot of sense. It is a very practicable approach. I know that it will help my people as well as others.

My reservation is in the northwest part of North Dakota and is inhabited by three tribes; namely, Mandan, Hidatso, and Arikora. The reservation embraces some 430,000 acres. This is what is left after the Garrison Dam and Reservoir project took 155,000 acres which represented our best lands. I bring this up because I believe this is what "broke the camel's back."

Before the taking of our rich, flat bottomlands of the Missouri River Valley, these Indians were on the way toward economic independence after years of being subjected to a parade of Government programs. Every new administrator had a pet program which he launched and for this reason no program ever really had a chance to develop. Now that hope of economic self-sufficiency was apparent, the Garrison Dam project posed another threat. Our protests had no effect. The dam was built. There was a mass relocation.

You can push around any group of people just so long. There comes a time when they will give up. My people were no different.

They gave up.

We were told that we got a generous settlement for the taking of our lands. The Indians were and are not convinced that it was a "generous settlement." Your congressional records and committee hearings contain numerous statements and petitions by my people against this taking. This land was considered their mother, which provided them with food, shelter, and clothing. You cannot place a price tag on a mother.

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After the "generous settlement" was spent in trying to adapt to the new environment where we had been relocated, the Government turned its back on us. We were accused of dissipating the funds. Our requests and pleas for a comprehensive program fell on deaf ears. Government evidently found some comfort in blaming the Indians for the misuse of our funds. They ignored the actual hardship the Indians were experiencing.

The Indians were not all to blame for the dissipation of the settlement. The Government must assume its share of the blame. The Bureau of Indian Affairs specified what it could be used for.

At one time, the Bureau stated that minors' funds were to be used to purchase bicycles, TV's, radios, playground equipment, et cetera. None of it was to be used for investment purposes. Now, I would like to point out this is somewhat of a change of theme from what I was taught while I was attending school. There I was educated on the relative merits of investment and here was the Bureau which was supposed to be teaching us the relative merits of investment, telling us to buy some things that were not productive and which would not produce any income.

At the time when we accepted the settlement because we had no alternative, we submitted a program designed to put our money to best use in a program that would meet the needs of every segment of our population. We set aside so much for scholarship; a fund to take care of our old-age groups; straighten out our complex land holdings; set up a loan fund to help our nonresident members in house purchases and help our local Indians to start any kind of a business enterprise.

The Government sat on this good program until the Indians got impatient and demanded a per capita distribution of the settlement money. This was finally done in such small amounts that any sensible investment was impossible.

For these reasons, I state that Indians are not all to blame for the misuse of the settlement. It seems to me, it is useless to put the blame where it belongs. It is all history now. We cannot change it. It is done. No use crying over spilt milk. All we can do is consider the effects.

All this "generous settlement" ever accomplished was to give the Indian a false economy. We are paying dearly for the "generous settlement." All our community organizational structures have been destroyed; our way of life has been affected; it has killed the initiative of my people. Today over half of our reservation is being used by the non-Indian, almost half of our able-bodied workers are unemployed.

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Last fall when public works funds were available, we were left out because we received a settlement. The question that haunts me is, "Where do we go from here?"

During my second term as chairman of the tribal business council, in 1957, we made a heroic effort. We employed a large firm to conduct a study of our potential for tourism, agriculture, and industry. Their report, in brief, was "You are sitting on a gold mine of opportunities. But like the gold, it is not much good unless it is mined." With no loaning program on our reservation, we could not implement these findings.

Stubbornly, I called a series of community meetings in an effect to mobilize our Indians into some productive action, but the result was nil. I even initiated a community contest hoping this would provide the badly needed spark. Again nothing. Yes, my people gave up.

When I was attending the executive meeting of the National Congress of American Indians here in Washington, I heard about the National Service Corps. As soon as I reported on my Washington trip to the tribal business council, a resolution. requesting assistance from the National Service Corps, was unanimously adopted. I was asked to prepare the papers. I prepared them and brought them with me when I came during the latter part of April. As soon as we heard Captain Anderson was appointed, we extended an invitation to him to visit our reservation.

I personally took him through our reservation because I insisted on conducting the tour. When the Bureau of Indian Affairs conducts a tour, they usually take them to the best places. When they make reports, it is usually glossed over. For this reason, no one here in Washington knows what the actual situation is. Captain Anderson saw the actual situation. I made sure of that.

Fort Berthold Reservation is not a hopeless situation. The potential is there. I have learned in the course of my study in economics that a multiple economy means a stable economy. Fort Berthold can have a stable economy. Development of our potential will give my people a real choice from numerous opportunities-not a choice of one or another as has been done by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We could have enterprises on the reservation that will make money come in and keep it there so that it will generate other incomes through profit and employment. To get these businesses established, we lack the know-how which can be provided by the National Service Corp. I would like to point out, in addition, that whatever money is earned through employment or obtained through lease incomes or through welfare is usually spent outside of the reservation and in business establishments that are owned by the non-Indian.

For this reason, a dollar that is spent by the Indian does not help the Indian where, on the other side, the grocery store employs nothing but non-Indians.

I think in order to overcome these problems we need to set up businesses on reservations where this would generate employment because it would make the same dollar go farther.

Our real problem is trying to keep money in the reservation, and to have other money coming in. This is really good economic philosophy, until we reach the point where we have too much money and then we will have inflation. But I am sure we will be capable of solving that problem when we get to it.

One other aspect of the reservation problem is social apathy. We need help in mobilizing the people into action. Our educational system should be revamped to fit the need.

We are not waiting for someone to come and do something for us. All we want is someone to show us how. We believe the National Service Corps is the answer.

It is not only the Indians that need motivating. I believe that the dedicated and enthusiastic workers the National Service Corps will call forth will motivate the career people as well.

At present these career people are more concerned about their own comforts than what they are there for. They have lost their focus. We believe the National Service Corps will put them back on the right track.

In the course of this hearing this morning and the questions and discussions that have ensued, I was thinking about other things that were not really covered.

I would like to say at this time that we do have two men coming from Harvard University on the reservation. They are supposed to be concentrating on the youth program, education, and recreation.

The comparison between this type of service and the National Service Corps is that I don't know what I have coming from Harvard. I don't have any idea. Along this basis, the National Service Corps can do a lot of screening before they send people out to my reservation, therefore I would have some knowledge of who really is coming to our reservation as part of the Peace Corps.

Another disadvantage of the two fellows coming from Harvard is that they will be there for only 3 months. They will just scratch the surface of the problem although they will help us.

I would like to make another observation here and I would like to make it from the Indian viewpoint, that we live in a kind of economy where production determines whether we have prosperity or depression. It seems somewhat inconsistent in my Indian logic that here, where production determines prosperity or depression they would provide funds like unemployment compensation and welfare to give to people not to do anything. So, for this reason, every year there is so much time, so much manpower wasted doing nothing that could be redirected in some productive avenue which will help our country as a whole in net production. For this reason, I think this is an area where certainly the National Service Corps would make a big contribution.

I also would like to reemphasize again the social situation among my Indians. They lived along the Missouri River Valley, and this is typical of my race, there they had everything. Wooded areas of the Missouri River provided them with food, shelter, and clothing in the form of game, berries, lumber for homes, and so on. The rich bottom lands provided rich ground for their gardens with which to produce plenty.

Now, what complicates our situation further is that there are three tribes that live on my reservation, the Mandans who occupied the territory south of the Missouri River. I think on that map you will see most of the Indians have lived along that area colored yellow. The Arikoras occupied the eastern part of the reservation, the Hilatsos occupied the west side, the north and northwest of the reservation.

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