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Indians Show Concern For Land at Meeting

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well, assistance is required on two points, he said:
1. School lunches used to be provided to Indian children without cost. The program permits expenditure only of funds collected for lunches. Gradually, districts have changed over to charging Indian and non-Indian children alike, exempting those of any race unable to buy their own. VanHorn asked that the pay plan be made universal.
2. The law provides the same educational facilities for Indians as for others, but it also imposes the same responsibilities, especially attendance. Enforcement is difficult. VanHorn asked that all tribes pass resolutions clearing truant officers to work on Indian lands.

Untaxed Lands

Federal funds, he said, are to compensate for untaxed Indian lands within school districts and to meet the need for improvement of the program for educating Indian children.
Donald P. Gooding, administrative assistant for the State Department of Fisheries asked all Indian tribes to set up conservation committees and adequate enforcement to insure that salmon runs will have sufficient escapement to maintain or increase them.
He said the department has worked out arrangements with a number of tribes, reducing pressure on Chinook salmon and substituting less easily destroyed salmon such as silvers and chums.
Gooding reviewed history of the department. It was organized by the Legislature in 1890 with four people and a $3,500 budget. Today it employs 250 and has $3 1/2 million a year from state, federal and private sources.
Where once enforcement was the main conservation weapon, today fishways, stream clearance, use of 19 hatcheries rearing 35 million salmon annually and research are aiding the resource-building program. Power dams are a major problem. Sixty-seven studies are being pushed by all agencies on getting adult salmon up and small migrants down over the dams.
Indian fisheries take in excess of half a million salmon, valued at over $750,000 annually, giving the tribes a major stake in the industry. He urged their help with conservation and enforcement.
Walter Neubrech, enforcement chief for the State Department of Game, said his organization is recommending issuance of a special hunting and fishing license for Indians, without cost to them, which would eliminate need for constant proof of Indian blood.
He said his department has also approved a regulation permitting an Indian to move a deer or elk off-reservation, provided he shot it on the reservation. In the past, Indians have been subject to arrest for possession of deer or elk off-reservation during a closed season.

Help Needed

State agencies can't maintain game and sports fish without help of all citizens, he said. The steady growth in population for the West means the management problem is steadily more difficult.
Management works, he said. In 1935, the Puget Sound drainage yielded 7,000steelhead on hook and line. In 1954 the catch was 186,000. In 1935, 5,000 deer were taken. This year, the total will probably reach 85,000.
He said the Indians must work for conservation. They can make real money from the hunters and fishermen. Over half a million licenses are sold annually. The sportsmen spend about $100 million. Lakes, open to the public, will be stocked by the game department and resort revenue is good. Guiding is profitable. The camp-out trend means more cash for camp owners. Leasing of duck clubs is profitable.
Neubrech urged all tribes to set up game management programs. He said state agencies are willing to help with problems which may develop.
The conference delegates had a banquet last night, with members of the Yakima Tribe providing entertainment. Daisy Bond played dinner music. Hazel Corbett, Thelma Johnson, Yvonne Musmusto and Jeanette Wesley, in ceremonial costume, sang and did "Thunderbird" and "Feather" dances. Hazel Miller sang. Duayne Speedis gave the "Eagle Dance." Mrs. Charles Speedis was dance director. Don Umtuch gave a reading.

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