The Native American Embassy Website is updated daily!
Every day, hundreds of American Indian and American Indian related laws, treaties & photos are
added from our archives numbering in the tens of thousands!
![[Dividing Line Image]](Images/div.gif){kind=small}
|
|
Washington : Government Printing Office
|
|
|
|---|---|
| Chap. 92 | Navajo and Hopi Tribes. Rehabilitation, etc. |
| Chap. 92 | Appropriations authorized. |
| Chap. 92 | 45 |
| Chap. 92 | Projects. |
| Chap. 92 | Additional sums authorized. |
| Sec. 2 | Administration. |
| Sec. 2 | Completion date. |
| Sec. 2 | Report to Congress. |
| Sec. 3 | Employment of Indian workers. |
| Sec. 4 | Loans. |
| Sec. 4 | 46 |
| Sec. 5 | Leases of restricted lands. |
| Sec. 6 | Navajo tribal constitution. |
| Sec. 7 | Availability of Navajo tribal funds. |
| Sec. 8 | Tribal council recommendations, etc. |
| Sec. 9 | 47 Payments to States under Social Security Act. |
| Sec. 9 | 49 Stat. 621, 628, 646. 42 U.S.C., Sup. III, §§ 303(a), 603(a), 1203 (a). Post, pp. 548, 550, 553. |
| Sec. 10 | Joint Committee on Navajo-Hopi Indian Administration. |
| Sec. 10 | Function. |
| Sec. 10 | Powers. |
| Sec. 10 | 2 U.S.C. §§ 192-194. |
| Sec. 10 | Appointment and compensation of experts, etc. 42 Stat. 1488; 63 Stat. 972, 954. 5 U.S.C., Sup. III, §§ 1071-1153. Post, pp. 232, 262, 1100. |
| Sec. 10 | Appropriation authorized. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in order to further the purposes of existing treaties with the Navajo Indians, to
provide facilities, employment, and services essential in combating hunger, disease, proverty, and demoralization among the members of the Navajo and Hopi Tribes, to make available the resources of their reservations for use in promoting a self-supporting economy and self-reliant communities, and to lay a stable foundation on which these Indians can engage in diversified economic activities and ultimately attain standards of living comparable with those enjoyed by other citizens, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to undertake within the limits of the funds from time to time appropriated pursuant to this Act, a program of basic improvements for the conservation and development of the resources of the Navajo and Hopi Indians, the more productive employment of their manpower, and the supplying of means to be used in their rehabilitation, whether on or off the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations. Such program shall include the following projects for which capital expenditures in the amount shown after each project listed in the following subsections and totaling $88,570,000 are hereby authorized to be appropriated:
(1) Soil and water conservation and range improvement work, $10,000,000.
(2) Completion and extension of existing irrigation projects, and completion of the investigation to determine the feasibility
of the proposed San Juan-Shiprock irrigation project, $9,000,000.
(3) Surveys and studies of timber, coal, mineral, and other physical and human resources, $500,000.
(4) Development of industrial and business enterprises, $1,000,000.
(5) Development of opportunities for off-reservation employment and resettlement and assistance in adjustments related thereto,
$3,500,000.
(6) Relocation and resettlement of Navajo and Hopi Indians (Colorado River Indian Reservation), $5,750,000.
(7) Roads and trails, $20,000.000.
(8) Telephone and radio communication systems, $250,000.
(9) Agency, institutional, and domestic water supply, $2,500,000.
(10) Establishment of a revolving loan fund, $5,000,000.
(11) Hospital buildings and equipment, and other health conservation measures, $4,750,000.
(12) School buildings and equipment, and other educational measures, $25,000,000.
(13) Housing and necessary facilities and equipment, $820,000.
(14) Common service facilities, $500,000.
Funds so appropriated shall be available for administration, investigations, plans, construction, and all other objects necessary for or appropriate to the carrying out of the provisions of this Act. Such further sums as may be necessary for or appropriate to the annual operation and maintenance of the projects herein enumerated are hereby also authorized to be appropriated. Funds appropriated under these authorizations shall be in addition to funds made available for use on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations, or with respect to Indians of the Navajo Tribes, out of appropriations heretofore or hereafter granted for the benefit, care, or assistance of Indians in general, or made pursuant to other authorizations now in effect.
The foregoing program shall be administered in accordance with the provisions of this Act and existing laws relating to Indian affairs, shall include such facilities and services as are requisite for or incidental to the effectuation of the projects herein enumerated, shall apply sustained-yield principles to the administration of all renewable resources, and shall be prosecuted in a manner which will provide for completion of the program, so far as practicable, within ten years from the date of the enactment of this Act. An account of the progress being had in the rehabilitation of the Navajo and Hopi Indians, and of
the use made of the funds appropriated to that end under this Act, shall be included in each annual report of the work of the Department of the Interior submitted to the Congress during the period covered by the foregoing program.
Navajo and Hopi Indians shall be given, whenever practicable, preference in employment on all projects undertaken pursuant to this Act, and, in furtherance of this policy, may be given employment on such projects without regard to the provisions of the civil-service and classification laws. To the fullest extent possible, Indian workers on such projects shall receive on-the-job training in order to enable them to become qualified for more skilled employment.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, under such regulations as he may prescribe, to make loans from the loan fund authorized by section 1 hereof to the Navajo Tribe, or any member or association of members thereof, or to the Hopi Tribe, or any member or association of members thereof, for such productive purposes as, in his judgment, will tend to promote the better utilization of the manpower and resources of the Navajo or Hopi Indians. Sums collected in repayment of such loans and sums collected as interest or other charges thereon shall be credited to the loan fund, and shall be available for the purpose for which the fund was established.
Any restricted Indian lands owned by the Navajo Tribe, members thereof, or associations of such members, or by the Hopi Tribe, members thereof, or associations of such members, may be leased by the Indian owners, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, for public, religious, educational, recreational, or business purposes, including the development or utilization of natural resources in connection with operations under such leases. All leases so granted shall be for a term of not to exceed twenty-five years, but may include provisions authorizing their renewal for an additional term of not to exceed twenty-five years, and shall be made under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary. Restricted allotments of deceased Indians may be leased under this section, for the benefit of their heirs or devisees, in the circumstances and by the persons prescribed in the Act of July 8, 1940 (54 Stat. 745; 25 U.S.C., 1946 edition, sec. 380). Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to repeal or affect any authority to lease restricted Indian lands conferred by or pursuant to any other provision of law.
In order to facilitate the fullest possible participation by the Navajo Tribe in the program authorized by this Act, the members of the tribe shall have the right to adopt a tribal constitution in the manner herein prescribed. Such constitution may provide for the exercise by the Navajo Tribe of any powers vested in the tribe or any organ thereof by existing law, together with such additional powers as the members of the tribe may, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, deem proper to include therein. Such constitution shall be formulated by the Navajo Tribal Council at any regular meeting, distributed in printed form to the Navajo people for consideration, and adopted by secret ballot of the adult members of the Navajo Tribe in an election held under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at which a majority of the qualified votes cast favor such adoption. The constitution shall authorize the fullest possible participation of the Navajos in the administration of their affairs as approved by the Secretary of the Interior and shall become effective when approved by the Secretary. The constitution may be amended from time to time in the same manner as herein provided for its adoption, and the Secretary of the Interior shall approve any amendment which in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior advances the development of the Navajo people toward the fullest realization and exercise of the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of American citizenship.
Notwithstanding any other provision of existing law, the tribal funds now on deposit or hereafter placed to the credit of the Navajo Tribe of Indians in the United States Treasury shall be available for such purposes as may be designated by the Navajo Tribal Council and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
The Tribal Councils of the Navajo and Hopi Tribes and the Indian communities affected shall be kept informed and afforded opportunity to consider from their inception plans pertaining to the program authorized by this Act. In the administration of the program, the Secretary of the Interior shall consider the recommendations of the tribal councils and shall follow such recommendations whenever he deems them feasible and consistent with the objectives of this Act.
Beginning with the quarter commencing July 1, 1950, the Secretary of the Treasury shall pay quarterly to each State (from sums made available for making payments to the States under sections 3 (a), 403 (a), and 1003 (a) of the Social Security Act) an amount, in addition to the amounts prescribed to be paid to such State under such sections, equal to 80 per centum of the total amounts of contributions by the State toward expenditures during the preceding quarter by the State, under the State plans approved under the Social Security Act for old age assistance, aid to dependent children, and aid to the needy blind, to Navajo and Hopi Indians residing within the boundaries of the State on reservations or on allotted or trust lands, with respect to whom payments are made to the State by the United States under section 3 (a), 403 (a), and 1003 (a), respectively, of the Social Security Act, not counting so much of such expenditure to any individual for any month as exceeds the limitations prescribed in such sections.
(a) There is hereby established a joint congressional committee to be known as the Joint Committee on Navajo-Hopi Indian Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "committee"), to be composed of three members of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the Senate to be appointed by the President of the Senate, not more than two of whom shall be from the same political party, and three members of the Committee on Public Lands of the House of Representatives to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, not more than two of whom shall be from the same political party. A vacancy in the membership of the committee shall be filled in the same manner as the original selection. The committee shall elect a chairman from among its members.
(b) It shall be the function of the committee to make a continuous study of the programs for the administration and rehabilitation of the Navajo and Hopi Indians, and to review the progress achieved in the execution of such programs. Upon request, the committee shall aid the several standing committees of the Congress having legislative jurisdiction over any part of such programs, and shall make a report to the Senate and the House of Representatives, from time to time, concerning the results of its studies, together with such recommendations as it may deem desirable. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs at the request of the committee, shall consult with the committee from time to time with respect to his activities under this Act.
(c) The committee, or any duly authorized subcommittee thereof, is authorized to hold such hearings, to sit and act at such times and places, to require by subpena or otherwise the attendance of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, to administer such oaths, to take such testimony, to procure such printing and binding, and to make such expenditures as it deems advisable. The cost of stenographic services to report such hearings shall not be in excess of 25 cents per hundred words. The provisions of sections 102 to 104, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes shall apply in
case of any failure of any witness to comply with any subpena or to testify when summoned under atuhority of this subsection.
(d) The committee is authorized to appoint and, without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, fix the compensation of such experts, consultants, technicians, and organizations thereof, and clerical and stenographic assistants as it deems necessary and advisable.
(e) There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, to be disbursed by the Secretary of the Senate on vouchers signed by the chairman.
Approved, April 19, 1950.
|
|