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Mr. CRITCHFIELD. I am H. M. Critchfield of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Chief, Branch of Lands. I would like to correct the record, Mr. Chairman. I have only visited the southeastern part of Alaska.

Senator CORDON. I see. Well, if you have visited the southeastern part, then we would like to hear about the southeastern part, and we will be happy for you to give us any information that you may have had by reason of your connection with others who are acquainted with the balance of the Territory.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Perhaps I might start out by giving a brief summary of the reservations in Alaska, with your permission.

Senator CORDON. If you will.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. As of June 30, 1953, there were 131 small school, hospital, and administrative sites, running up to 40 acres each. Those were established by the Bureau of Education prior to the time the educational work was transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1951.

On October 2, 1953, the Bureau requested revocation of 32 of those reserves, leaving a balance of 99.

The CHAIRMAN. Why were they returned to the Territory? Because of nonuse?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Nonuse.

The preparation of that data was a gradual process. It required study as to whether or not schools were going to be operated or schools were being abandoned and so on. There are 94 schools being operated, not all of them on the 99 reserves at the present time. In addition, under the act of June 25, 1950, the Bureau has pending transfer of school properties to local districts. We have 16 of those proposed transfers of school property to the local district, pending. Senator CORDON. Do you mean by that, real and personal property? Mr. CRITCHFIELD. That is right, the school site and the school itself. Senator CORDON. How many of those?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Sixteen. In addition, 2 have been transferred. I might point out that aside from the 131 that I mentioned previously, at this time 7 additional reserves had been revoked.

The CHAIRMAN. Revoked?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. The reserves had been revoked, had been set aside, had been restored to the public domain.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that due probably because the natives who once required the school site have moved someplace else?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. No; I think in most cases it was because the education work was transferred over to the Territory. I am not familiar with the reasons for all of them, but I know that in a number of them the educational work was transferred to the Territory.

Senator CORDON. If I understand you, there are 92 schools being operated in Alaska by the Indian Bureau for the Federal Government. Mr. CRITCHFIELD. 94.

Senator CORDON. In addition to that, numbers of Indian native schoolchildren are attending public schools operated by the Territory? Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Yes, sir.

Senator CORDON. Would you have any idea of the percentage of children in the two different classes?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. No; I do not have that, sir. I do not have the information on that. I got the figure on the number of schools primarily to compare them with the 99 from my own perspective.

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to know if there is any plan of segregation or nonsegregation followed in the construction of school facilities in Alaska.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. I don't think so, Senator.

The CHAIRMAN. As far as I know, the natives and those who become residents, are all put in the same category up there.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Where these schools are operated, primarily it is where there are very few people, such as the natives, in the northern

area.

The CHAIRMAN. Take a settlement like Nome, for illustration. Do you have a school for natives and a school for nonnatives?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. I am sorry, I cannot give you that detailed information about that.

Senator CORDON. Maybe Mr. Bartlett can answer that.

Delegate BARTLETT. The Bureau of Indian Affairs school was closed there about 5 years ago and now there is one common school system for all races.

The CHAIRMAN. I think the Delegate probably can answer the other question. It is my feeling, I will put it in the form of a statement, that it has been the policy of the administration, not whether it is Democratic or Republican, of late, to fulfill all of our responsibilities with reference to educational facilities but on a nonsegregated basis. Is that right?

Delegate BARTLETT. That is absolutely right, Senator Butler. And I might add that that process had its commencement down in southeastern Alaska within the last 10 years. I can't remember exactly when. So far as I can recall, there are no Alaskan native service schools as such in that area now except the one exception which I will note in a moment. In this general Arctic area, and some places to the south, the Alaskan native service maintains schools exclusively for natives primarily for the reason Mr. Critchfield spoke of, because there are few if no whites there. In those communities, the teachers perform many services. They are nurses and welfare agents, and teach. It is not a 9-month job but a 12-month job. The exceptions have to do with the vocational schools near Sitka and at Wrangle where the Alaskan native service maintains two large vocational schools for the native children from all over the Territory.

The CHAIRMAN. There is no real sphere of responsibility for the Alaskan natives as yet. Ultimately it should be closed up and the school services should be all under one head.

Delegate BARTLETT. And the Federal and Territorial officials are in agreement as to that.

Senator CORDON. And working to that end?

Delegate BARTLETT. Very fast, too.

Senator CORDON. Go ahead, Mr. Critchfield.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. In addition to the reservations, these small sites, there are seven reservations established under the act of May 1, 1936 (49 Stat. 1250). That is the Alaska Welfare Act, as it is commonly referred to. In addition, there were established prior to 1931 16 other reservations or reserves that are referred to commonly as native use and administrative area reserves.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you give the extent of those?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. I have the acreage. Those were established under special acts of Congress or under executive orders.

Senator CORDON. Just explain a little bit more as to what you mean by that term native use and so forth. In other words, what are the reservations for, what services are performed there?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. As I stated, those were all established. This is the wording, for instance, of one of them: "For education and economic development of the natives of the indigenous Alaska race."

Here is another phrase: "To promote the interests of the natives by vocational training, to encourage them in restocking and protecting fur-bearing animals."

A number of these are quite small. A number of them, however, are large.

The area in the 7 native areas established under the act of 1936 was 1,640,470 acres. I might go back and state that the area of the 99 smaller tracts that we could determine-in some cases they merely said not to exceed 40 acres-excluding those where we had no data, the total area of the 99 school reserves is 15,015.52 acres.

If you figured that the balance were about 40 acres, you would have roughly another thousand acres. So there would be roughly 14,000 acres in those 99 reserves.

The area that we have always referred to as the 17 native reserves, is 1,346,000. There are 17 in this group. I might add that in addition to the 16 that I gave you, there was one reservation or reserve established after the educational work was transferred to the Bureau. It was for 110 acres at Amanak Island. It was set up specifically to protect the fishing of the natives in that area, 110 acres, apparently covering some water and certain inlets, set up for a specific purpose. The total area of 16 and that one established by the Bureau is 1,346,959

acres.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the total acreage of all reservations?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. That is of the 17. I will give you the total figure later on. There were four reindeer reserves established by the Bureau of Education, prior to the time that the work was transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The total area of the four was 1,269,057.75 acres. One of them was very small, 1.75 acres at Teller for some kind of a corral and a small packing plant. One at Fort Davis-and, Mr. Coote, would you show them where these reindeer reserves are on the map-the one at Teller is of course up near the north.

Mr. COOTE. Teller and Fort Davis are right in this area on the map. The other one is

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Fort Davis was 18,056 acres, a relatively small reindeer reserve.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the term "reindeer reserve"?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. It is set aside for reindeer use.

The CHAIRMAN. I see.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Then there was one established at Cape Denbigh, of 48,000 acres.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that for reindeer?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Yes. These four that I am giving are for reindeer.

Senator CORDON: What was the Teller acreage?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. 1.75 acres.

Senator CORDON. Very small.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. The fourth one was at St. Lawrence Island and it includes the whole island being set up as a reindeer reserve.

The island has not been surveyed so, of course, these figures I am giving are the best estimates available. It is 1,205,000.

The CHAIRMAN. Would it be proper, Mr. Chairman, to get his opinion as to the success of the reindeer reserve?

Senator CORDON. I think it is altogether proper.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. I would like to say that I have not had very much connection with the reindeer work.

Senator CORDON. Who has?

We re

Mr. LEWIS. I can add one little bit of information there. cently had a discussion of the success or failure of this reindeer plan, and it was apparent from that discussion, from those who were in attendance who knew something about it, that it had not been successful except for a limited number of the natives. That is, there were a few of the natives who had done quite a job for themselves and established quite an equivalent of the cattle business. But there are very few. Some consideration was given to the possibility of bringing nonnatives in there to carry on the business so that there would be more employment for the natives who lived in that area who apparently were not interested or were not capable of running the business themselves. It is probably both reasons.

The CHAIRMAN. I think, Mr. Secretary, it would be interesting and valuable to us on the committee if we could have the figures as to the number of natives that have apparently profited by this reindeer program.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. We will be glad to furnish that information to you, all of the information that is available concerning the reindeer program.

Senator CORDON. In that, Mr. Secretary, you could indicate the herds, the numbers, and the various individuals of the native group that have succeeded in the chore of domesticating or usefully raising the reindeer.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. We will be glad to.

The CHAIRMAN. Are the natives the only residents of the Territory that profit by the reindeer herds? Is it limited to natives?

Mr. LEWIS. It is limited to natives. That was the purpose of this discussion, as to whether or not it was possible or practicable to enlarge it so that nonnatives might also go into that field.

Senator CORDON. They raise the reindeer chiefly for food, do they not?

Mr. LEWIS. They do, and for hides.

Senator CORDON. Evidently there is a market for both.

Mr. LEWIS. Yes. I think that the hides, the natives are the ones that use the hides in connection with clothing. As far as food is concerned, I know that the natives use them for food. I imagine Mr. Bartlett is much more familiar with that than I am.

Delegate BARTLETT. I think annually the North Star, the Alaska Native Service ship North Star, picks up a fairly limited number of carcasses at Univak Island and brings them down principally to southeastern Alaska for use in your new schools there. There are some sales, but not very great.

Mr. LEWIS. As I understand it, there was a period of time, probably at the beginning of this reindeer program, when there was quite a bit of use made. But then this reindeer business dwindled off through

lack of interest to the place where the product is not available to develop a market for it, if a market could be developed.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Mr. Chairman, I picked up the available information I could get at the last moment, because I did not know that I was going to be the only one from the Bureau. I do find that I have a record here of the reindeer and some very interesting figures. The total estimated number of 15 herds

Senator CORDON. How many herds?.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Fifteen herds. It is 26,735 head.

The CHAIRMAN. When was this taken?

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. This report was dated February 27, 1953. It is the last report we have on the number. It goes on to state that in some cases they were unable to count, to make a count, in the last year or within a certain period of time, so there is some variation in the count. But it shows 26,735 head. It is interesting to note that the value of the meat and skins used and sold was $114,720, according to this report; 152 families received a portion of their cash income from reindeer, either as operators, herders, or laborers. I have here the breakdown of the reindeer in these various places. I do not know whether you are interested in going into that.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it would be interesting, especially to show how the program has succeeded or failed over the years, since the time that it started.

Mr. CRITCHFIELD. Well, this merely gives the current numbers. I think we could prepare a statement for the committee on that, showing the variations.

The CHAIRMAN. It would be interesting.

Senator CORDON. I would suggest in view of the fact of the total acreage of 1,269,000 acres reserved for reindeer reserves, there is only about 60,000 acres, exclusive of the single island. That being the case, it would appear to the chairman that there isn't too much value involved in the areas to make it of any consequence for the purpose that we are making the inquiry now, which is to make land and assets available to new States. If we got it for that purpose, we would not lose very much, would we?

The CHAIRMAN. There is this question I want to ask somebody; 152 native families have gotten a portion of their sustenance from their herds. How many whites have participated in that same thing? Mr. CRITCHFIELD. I don't have that.

Mr. LEWIS. It is my impression that there are none.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there not a law against it for the whites?

Mr. LEWIS. Yes. That was the reason for this discussion, as to whether to approach a change in the law that would make something out of this reindeer program.

The CHAIRMAN. A memorandum just handed me by the committee clerk says that before the law was passed which prohibited the whites from owning reindeer, there were 712,500, according to the United States General Census of 1930. Now there are about 25,000.

Mr. LEWIS. Yes. But it is just a matter of time until, for all practical purposes, they go out of existence, unless some new approach is adopted. At least, that was the feeling of the meeting that I attended. Delegate BARTLETT. Mr. Chairman, it might be added as a historical footnote that not too many years ago there were hundreds

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