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Transcribe page 28 of 88
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Download PDF for NMAI-010_003_02_028 (project ID 41631)
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I wish to stress Reservation planning because it seems to me that now, as never before, we must prepare ourselves to become self-sufficient for that day which now seems not too far distant when we may be called upon to look no more to the Federal Government for monetary help. We know that the temperament of the general public, some Congressmen, and some of our own Indians, is that the Indian Bureau should be dissolved as rapidly as possible. This feeling will grow even more intense as Indian claims against the Government are won and moneys are deposited to the credit of various Indian tribes, irrespective of whether or not some tribes may win no judgments. As you are aware, under the Indian Claims Commission Act of August 13, 1946, all our unfiled claims against the government must be filed within five years from that date, if not extended by Congress. We will be asked to finance more and more of the administrative expenditures of our Reservations. With these requests we must be prepared to counter with the demand that our authority be increased in proportion to the tribal money expended, and not, as has happened in the past and is now happening, submit to the expenditure of Indian money in reverse proportion to the authority released to the people who are footing the bills. We must be in a position to prove that we are capable of handling and deciding how our moneys should be spent. We must be in a position to demand that the administrative division of the Government will relinquish to the Indian the authority that the legislative branch, through Acts of Congress, has already said they should pass on to the Indian, but have not done so. Many Indians are now contributing large sums of money for the upkeep of their Reservations, but are not afforded the right to hire and fire as they please or as the interests of the Indian demand. Many Indians are now supporting many projects on their Reservations without one employee who is strictly accountable to the tribal governing body alone. I am happy to say that there are some Reservations--and mine is one of them--where the tribal organizations are being strengthened and are being given more and more authority, responsibility and freedom to act for themselves on many matters which were formerly decided for them. But this situation is an exception rather than the rule. This transfer of authority must be the rule on all Reservations if we are to advance. We will never learn how to make change for a dollar, if we are sent to the store with only one cent. And so we must plan. We must plan today. Some Reservations have already made and are following their plan. Others are just now beginning to realize that they need a plan peculiar to them alone, a plan that we can take to and sell to Congress; a plan that will guarantee to us that the Federal Government will not suddenly drop us on our own before we are ready--as many Reservations are more advanced in the white man's way and others are not. Some have resources; others have very little. We should contract with the Government, through a contract that will assure us as individual Reservations that we will receive moneys over a period of years, just as with the Navajo Plan, until such time as we are self-sustaining. -26-
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