management of the timber resource and continued availability of it, under public sale procedures, to sawmills and other wood-using plants in the area. National forest management also would provide public access to and use of the wildlife, range, and recreational resources and conservation of the soil and watersheds. Predominantly forested areas of the Colville Indian Reservation very likely will contain areas of grass, brush, noncommercial timber, or barren lands intermingled with the timber types. There may also be instances where areas of nonforest types will constitute fringes around predominantly timbered units. These generally are integral parts of the larger land management units. Inclusion of such nontimbered types within the units found chiefly timbered in character would be logical, and we would interpret the provisions of the bill as permitting such action. The Bureau of the Budget advises that, while there is no objection to the presentation of this report to the committee, the Bureau, in its report on S. 1413, states that, in the absence of any convincing evidence of the need for Federal purchase of tribal lands of the Colville Indians, and in recognition of the substantial expenditures required for this purpose, deletion of these provisions from the bill is recommended in favor of either continued trusteeship arrangements, private sale, or a combination of these. Sincerely yours, ORVILLE L. FREEMAN, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE, Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This letter is in response to your request of March 12, 1965, for a report on S. 1413, a bill to provide for the termination of Federal supervision over the property of the Confederated Tribes of Colville Indians located in the State of Washington and the individual members thereof, and for other purposes. S. 1413 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a referendum to ascertain the wishes of the Colville Indians regarding the termination of Federal supervision over their property and affairs. The bill also authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to bring up to date all land and ownership records of the lands of the Colville Indian Reservation; to cause appraisals to be made to determine the fair market value of the lands including the value of tribal mineral rights and hunting and fishing rights; to select portions of the tribal property to be sold to provide members withdrawing from the tribe their beneficial interest in the total tribal property; to sell such property; to cause a plan to be prepared for a tribal corporation to manage the tribal property for those who elect to remain in the tribe; and to take other steps as appropriate to remove Federal restrictions on the property of the tribes and individual members. The bill also provides that upon the removal of said Federal restrictions, the individual members of the tribes shall not be entitled to any of the services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians. Of particular interest to this Department is the fact that the bill does not make any reference to the health and sanitation services provided the Colville Indians by the Division of Indian Health, Public Health Service, but would terminate such services. It should be noted that the health status of the Colville Indians is far below that experienced by the general population of Washington State. Mortality rates from tuberculosis are 1.5 times greater than the general population; influenza and pneumonia claim three times the relative number of lives, and diseases of early infancy account for a mortality rate five times as great as that experienced by the general population of the State of Washington. Also, in 1955, 70 out of 1,000 live births among the Colville Indians resulted in infant deaths. By 1962 this number had been reduced to 65. But this is still almost three times as large as the infant death rate for Washington as a whole. Since 1955, when the Devision of Indian Health, U.S. Public Health Service, assumed the responsibility for providing health services to the Indians, there has been a gradual improvement in the mortality experienced by the Indians of the Colville Reservation. In 1955 the death rate from all causes was 1,369. In 1962 the total mortality rate had dropped to 1,226. This change is further re flected in the fact that, compared to Washington State, the ratio of the Colville death rate has dropped from 1.5 to 1 to 1.3 to 1. This change is primarily due to the reduction of infectious and communicable disease deaths. For example, mortality rates for infectious and parasitic diseases dropped from 39.7 per 100,000 in 1955 to 8.5 in 1962; gastritis death rates were reduced from 29.8 to 17. In spite of these improvements, the health status of the Indians does not compare favorably with the rest of the residents of the State of Washington. Your attention is invited to the mortality table below. The Division of Indian Health, U.S. Public Health Service, provides a comprehensive health program including curative, preventive, and sanitation services to Indians on the Colville Reservation through direct and contract services. Outpatient medical and dental care is available at the health center located near Nespelem on the Colville Agency grounds. For those medical services that cannot be provided by the health center staff and for Indian beneficiaries living too far from the health center, needed care is provided through contract doctors, hospitals and pharmacies. Contract dental care for Indian children is provided in a similar manner. During fiscal year 1964 there were 5,771 medical and 1,591 dental outpatient visits at the health center. In addition, 2,051 days of hospital care and more than 400 outpatient medical visits were provided by contract hospitals and doctors. To reinforce the medical care, preventive health services are provided by a public health nurse, a sanitarian aid, and a social worker on the health center staff. In the eastern part of the reservation, additional public health nursing services are furnished through contract by the Ferry County Health Department. Under the provisions of Public Law 86-121 cooperative Public Health Service-tribal projects have been undertaken on the Colville Reservation for the construction of water and sewerage facilities for Indian homes. Upon completion of authorized projects, approximately 75 percent of the Colville Indians living on the reservation, or on nearby tax-free Indian lands, will be served by these facilities. Additional projects are needed to serve Indian families in the Nespelem-Grand Coulee area of the reservation and in four areas adjacent to the reservation. The cost of the health services provided by the Division of Indian Health to the Colville Indians during the past fiscal year were as follows: Fiscal year 1964 actual obligations for Colville NOTE.-Construction cost for Public Law 86-121 projects not included. The termination of Federal health services will obviously have a severe impact upon State and local health services as well as upon the health status of the Indians. It is estimated that only about one-half of the Colville Indians have sufficient appreciation and understanding of modern health practices to seek early medical attention and to manipulate living habits and environmental factors successfully in the achievement of satisfactory levels of health. The rest need much more health education and constructive noncritical support during this period of cultural transition. Careful planning, therefore, based upon the health and sanitation needs must be conducted with the State and local health services to assure that these services will be provided with due regard to the general acculturation of the Indians to the customs and practices of the non-Indian population of the State. The impact of these requirements upon the resources of the State and local health agencies will probably be such as to require a period of phasing out before the State and local health services are able to meet the health and sanitation needs of the Colville Indians. Since the bill is devoted to matters of direct concern to the Department of the Interior, we defer to their views on such matters. We would recommend, however, that the bill be amended to give specific recognition to the health responsi bilities of this Department under the transfer statute of August 5, 1954 (68 Stat. 674), as amended, and provide for studies of health needs and resources of the Colville Indians and for the planning and establishment of transitional programs. Time has not permitted us to secure advice from the Bureau of the Budget as to the relationship of the bill to the program of the President. Sincerely, WILBUR J. COHEN, Assistant Secretary. MORTALITY TABLE Death rates from selected causes of death among Indians in the Colville service unit for the 2 3-year periods, 1954–56 and 1961–63 compared with the rates for all races in the State of Washington, 1955 and 1962 Indian-Data for the Colville service unit are taken from the Portland area office annual health statistics reports 1954-56 and 1961-63. Washington State, all races-Vital Statistics of the United States, 1955, vol. I, table B R; 1962, vol. II, Mortality, pt. A, tables 1-13, pp. 1-22. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C., April 3, 1965. Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. Senate, New Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in response to your request for the views of the Bureau of the Budget on S. 1413, a bill to provide for the termination of Federal supervision over the property of the Confederated Tribes of Colville Indians located in the State of Washington and the individual members thereof, and for other purposes. We are The general purpose of the bill is adequately described in its title. not able at this time to comment on the detailed provisions of the bill, but we do wish to express to the committee our concern with respect to its broad objectives. First of all, we have no clear evidence that termination of Federal supervision as proposed by the bill is either necessary or desirable at the present time. So far as we know, the views of tribal members on this question have not been for mally sought, although we understand a significant number of the enrolled members do favor termination. In these circumstances the committee may wish to assure that the referendum required by section 1 will, in fact, represent a decision by the majority of the adult members of the tribe rather than a majority of those voting in the referendum. Second, subsection 6(f) requires the Secretary of Agriculture to purchase for national forest lands, any tribal lands offered for sale. This provision raises a number of questions: (a) Are additional national forest lands in this section of the Nation desirable? The Federal Government already has over 6 million acres of commercial forest in Washington and 15 million acres in Oregon; the State of Washington owns 2 million acres of commercial forests. Suitable arrangements can be made for recreation, soil stabilization, and careful land management whether the land is in Indian, Federal, or private ownership. (b) Does the Federal Government have an obligation arising from its trust responsibilities to assure a market for these lands? We do not believe the Federal Government has this responsibility and recommend continued trust arrangements if private sale is not a feasible or desirable alternative. In any event, sale arrangements should permit disposal over a period of years to minimize adverse effects on the market for timberlands. (c) Are the Federal expenditures required for purchase of the lands the wisest use of Federal funds in all the circumstances? We note that the Stanford Research Institute some years ago estimated the value of the lands at amounts ranging from $38 million to $100 million, based on various assumptions. The appraisal provisions in subsections 6 (b) through (d) may well result in an appraisal which exceeds the fair market value of the property. Even if, as is recommended, the provision for Federal purchase of the land is deleted and the appraisal is used simply to establish an estimated value of the tribal property and to assist in the sale of the lands, we would recommend the deletion of subsections 6 (b) through (d) and the substitution of language authorizing the Secretary to cause separate appraisals to be made of the units designated under subsection 6(a) for the purpose of ascertaining the fair market value of each such unit. In summary, we urge most careful consideration of the merit of termination, both from the Federal Government standpoint and from that of the tribe. Further, in the absence of any convincing evidence of the need for Federal purchase, and in recognition of the substantial expenditures required for this purpose, we recommend deletion of these provisions from the bill in favor of either continued trusteeship arrangements, private sale, or a combination of these. Sincerely yours, PHILLIP S. HUGHES, Assistant Director for Legislative Reference. Senator METCALF. So that the record may be complete, I would like to offer some background surrounding the introduction of this legislation. Public Law 772 of the 84th Congress restored over 800,000 acres of undisposed ceded lands to the Colville Tribe. That act also provided, in section 5, that The Business Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation shall, in accordance with Resolution Numbered 1955-33, dated April 8, 1955, of the Colville Business Council, submit to the Secretary of the Interior within five years from the date of enactment of this Act proposed legislation providing for the termination of Federal supervision over the property and affairs of the Confederated Tribes and their members within a reasonable time after the submission of such proposed legislation. In compliance with the 1956 act, the tribal business council submitted proposed legislation providing for a two-stage termination program. That proposal was introduced in the 88th Congress as S. 1442. In late October 1963, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, Senator Church, of Idaho, held hearings on S. 1442 at Spokane, Nespelem, and Seattle, Wash. Officials representing the tribal business council and various organizations of Colville Indians, as well as individual Indians, and county and State officials gave testimony on and suggested amendments to S. 1442. The vast majority of those appearing to testify did not support S. 1442 as introduced but recommended instead a one-step termination process that would result in ending trusteeship at the earliest possible date. Following the printing and distribution of the 1963 hearings a number of revised drafts of S. 1442 were prepared by the Colville Business Council and by the staff of this committee. On August 17, 1964, S. 1442 was amended by this committee and reported to the Senate. The legislation passed the Senate on August 18. Due to the lateness of the session, it was not possible for action to be taken by the House Interior Committee. On January 12, 1965, the tribal business council by Resolution 1965-1, a copy of which will be included in this record, requested the reintroduction of S. 1442 with certain proposed amendments. Senator Jackson introduced this proposal as S. 1413, as requested by the council. (The resolution referred to appears on page 63.) The various executive departments have been asked to submit reports on S. 1413, and their comments and recommendations have been inserted in this hearing record. We have a rather long list of witnesses who wish to be heard on this bill. From the mail I have received in recent days, it is obvious that there are differences of opinion on the general subject of termination for the Colvilles as well as the specifics of any program that might be adopted. All of those communications that lend themselves to printing in this record will be included in the appendix. The record will be held open for 10 days following this hearing to receive any additional material that may be submitted, and the hearing will be printed and distributed just as quickly as it is possible to do so. The 1963 hearings contain a great deal of material that was furnished by various tribal witnesses. I hope that we will avoid, to the extent possible, any repetition of items that have already been presented to this committee. We want everyone to have ample opportunity to be heard; therefore, I shall request that witnesses confine themselves to the subject matter of the bill before us; namely, S. 1413. We shall now begin by hearing from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. Philleo Nash, who will testify on behalf of the Department of the Interior in connection with this bill. Mr. Commissioner, I am pleased to have you again before the committee. You may go ahead just as you are prepared to do. STATEMENT OF PHILLEO NASH, COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY GRAHAM E. HOLMES, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER FOR LEGISLATION, AND JOHN O. CROW, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS Mr. NASH. I am Philleo Nash, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. With the chairman's permission I should like to have with me this morning the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. John O. Crow, and the Assistant Commissioner for Legislation, Mr. Graham Holmes. Senator METCALF. We are pleased to have them before us. We had Mr. Holmes with us all day Friday. |