tary regarding the utilization of available rolls of records and SEC. 2. After the deduction of attorney fees, litigation ex- SEC. 3. The Secretary shall distribute a share payable to a living enrollee directly to such enrollee or in such manner as is deemed by the Secretary to be in the enrollee's best interest. The Secretary shall distribute the per capita share of a deceased enrollee to his heirs or legatees upon proof of death and inheritance satisfactory to the Secretary whose findings upon such proof shall be final and conclusive. Sums payable to enrollees or their heirs or legatees who are less than 21 years of age or who are under a legal disability shall be paid to the persons whom the Secretary determines will best protect their interests. Proportional shares of heirs or legatees amounting to $5.00 or less shall not be distributed and shall remain to the credit of the Nooksack Tribe. Any sum of money remaining to the credit of the Nooksack Tribe as a result of this judgment, three years after the date of this Act, shall escheat to the United States and shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States in miscellaneous receipts. SEC. 4. The funds distributed under the provisions of this Act shall not be subject to Federal or State income taxes. SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to prescribe rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act. SPECIAL REPORT In April 1966, at the time the committee considered the nomination of Robert L. Bennett to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Executive Report No. 1 accompanying the nomination stated, in part, as follows: *** We are requesting that the Indian Bureau immediately begin to furnish up-to-date reports on all tribes whose judgment distribution bills are now before Congress, and provide Bureau appraisals of the capacity of these tribes and their individual members to manage their own affairs. Such reports should automatically accompany future distribution bills submitted to Congress. The special report on the Nooksack Tribe, dated September 29, 1966, is set forth below: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR SENATOR JACKSON: H.R. 12437 is awaiting action by the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. The proposed legislation concerns the disposition of funds awarded to the Nooksack Indians of the State of Washington in Indian Claims Commission. docket No. 46. This letter is submitted in compliance with a request in the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee's Executive Report No. 1 for up-to-date reports on all tribes whose judgment distribution bills are now before Congress, together with Indian Bureau appraisals of the capacity of these tribes and their individual members to manage their own affairs. GENERAL CLAIMS BACKGROUND Funds were appropriated by the act of April 30, 1965 (Public Law 89-16), to cover a net award of $49,383.50 to the Nooksack Tribe of Indians in Indian Claims Commission docket No. 46. The award was for inadequate compensation for lands in Washington and for valuable resources taken by the United States under the Point Elliott Treaty of January 22, 1855 (12 Stat. 927). By virtue of that treaty the Federal Government extinguished the rights of occupancy to lands held by the Nooksack Indians, even though the Nooksack were not a direct party to the treaty, and thereafter treated and disposed of those lands as public lands. The Nooksack Indians have been granted no other judgment by the Indian Claims Commission and have none pending. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Historically, the Nooksack Tribe belonged to the coastal division of the Salishan linguistic family. Prior to the Point Elliott Treaty, the Nooksack occupied lands along the Nooksack River in what is now Whatcom County, Wash. They were at one time a part of the Squawmish Tribe of British Columbia and speak the same dialect as the Squawmish. LAND CLASSIFICATION The Nooksack Indians have no reservation. However, in 1891 the Federal Government approved allotments to Nooksack Indians of public domain lands; for the most part these lands are located near Everson and Van Zandt in Whatcom County, Wash. Most of these allotments were issued to Nooksack Indians who had lived in that area prior to the Point Elliott Treaty. Today, 3,009.51 acres or 85 percent of the original allotted area-remain in trust status. There are complications of multiple landownership and many of the holdings are scattered. There is only one inherited tract in single ownership. Nine tracts are held by from 2 to 10 persons; 12 belong to 10 or more owners. Nearly all the Nooksack allotments are cutover timberlands. There has been very limited timber sale activity in the past. Since the timber is young growth and not prime commercial grade, Nooksack land would be more valuable if cleared: an acre is valued at $100 after removal of timber and $400 after complete clearing. At least 2,600 acres of the allotted lands are highly suitable for various agricultural pursuits such as the growing of berries. However, there are no irrigated lands; no grazing lands; and fewer than 110 acres are in use for rural homestead purposes which would include family gardening. The costs of clearing the land and the problems of fractionated heirship have largely prevented the development of these potentially good agricultural lands. TRIBAL MANAGEMENT AND FINANCING The Nooksack group has never been formally recognized as an organized tribe and the Nooksack constitution and bylaws, adopted by the group in 1929, have never been approved. The group is organized primarily for the preservation of its Indian identity and the protection of claims against the United States. The Nooksack organization has a tribal governing body of seven members constituting a business council. Local tribal funds in fiscal year 1966 consisted of $1,334.10 which were deposited in the individual Indian money account at Western Washington Agency several years ago and have since lost their identity as to source. They are presumed to be repayments to an old rehabilitation loan program in existence at one time. All funds have been advanced to the Nooksack tribal treasurer. POPULATION AND MEMBERSHIP DATA The best available current estimate of the Nooksack population in Whatcom County is 267. The last census taken of known Nooksack Indians, dated January 1, 1942, lists 256. The Nooksack organization does not have an approved membership roll, but the council, in 1963, approved a list of 621 Nooksack names. However, the list was compiled as a result of questionnaires sent out by the Nooksack Council and not all of the questionnaires were returned. There is at present no way of knowing the number of persons of Nooksack Indian ancestry who do not live in Whatcom County. INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES A recent report indicates that there are 31 Nooksack family heads and 9 individuals who are either employed or employable. Of this total group, 26 earn incomes ranging from $1,000 to $2,999 per year and 9 earn from $3,000 to $6,000 per year. None earns over $6,000 a year. One individual is reported as earning less than $1,000 per year. Data on 4 of the total group of 40 were not returned. The average family income is $3,055 per year. The average per capita income is $525. Fifty-four percent of the total group earns wages or are selfemployed (although only four family heads-two in fishing and two in farming are included in the latter category). Family heads and single employables hold wage work primarily in the timber industry or as seasonal laborers, but some are employed in garages, service stations, and small stores located in Whatcom County communities. Members of the Nooksack group show considerable initiative and motivation in obtaining employment in berry fields, on large potato farms and, in some instances, year-round farm employment. Of these unemployed, only 14 persons (9 men and 5 women) are considered permanently unemployed and there probably are factors other than lack of employment opportunities involved in these cases. Six persons are reported as seasonally unemployed and two as temporarily unemployed. There are few industrial development opportunities on allotted Nooksack lands because the allotments are too scattered to lend themselves to such development. Employment assistance has benefited only three family units of six persons. However, vocational training has aided six family units involving a total of eight persons and four additional units of eight persons are presently in vocational training. WELFARE State public welfare programs, including assistance programs, are available to the Nooksack Indians on the same basis as for other citizens. Bureau of Indian Affairs welfare caseloads consist of counseling cases, boarding school cases, and referrals to other agencies. During 1964 and 1965, the Bureau handled a total of 22 referral cases, 9 counseling cases, and 2 boarding school cases. In fiscal year 1966 there were 3 boarding school cases, 1 counseling service case, and 6 referral cases, for a total of 10. These activities are administered in coordination with the State department of public assistance. There are no Bureau of Indian Affairs or group-operated commodity programs in the Nooksack area. The State department of public assistance administers this program in Whatcom and other counties. It is available and is being used by the Nooksack group. Generally speaking, the State and local welfare officials are sympathetic to the needs of the Nooksack people and are providing needed services to them on the same basis as for other citizens. EDUCATION The Nooksack area is serviced by the Nooksack Valley Public School District, as it has been for many years. The Indian population is scattered throughout a rural area for which bus service is available. The nearest public post-high-school training course is available in Bellingham, Wash., a distance of 15 miles from the Nooksack community. A 4-year State college, a business college, and a technical school are located in Bellingham. A number of youths from the Nooksack area this year attended special programs-Catchup for 13- and 14-year-olds, and Project Overcome for high school seniors to be which were offered by the college in Bellingham. The Bureau of Indian Affairs provides boarding school training for only those students above the elementary-grade level whose education and social needs cannot be met on a local level and in 1965 had only one student from the Nooksack area. Available to older Nooksack youth is a post-high-school summer program at Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kans.; a post-high-school 2-year vocational training program at Haskell; and a 2-year post-high-school training program at the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, N. Mex. The summer of fiscal year 1967 marked the first year for a Bureau of Indian Affairs summer program in the Nooksack area consisting of a summer school activity and a social enrichment-recreational component. The Bureau of Indian Affairs offers an educational grant to eligible Indian students who wish to attend a 2- or 4-year institution; however, no grants-in-aid were made to Nooksack Indians during the past fiscal year. Surveys made in 1965 showed 25 Nooksack preschool youngsters; 25 students in grades 1 through 4; 12 in grades 5 through 8; and 12 in grades 9 through 12. The only available dropout rate is based on statistics from records of public school districts scattered throughout western Washington, including the district in which Nooksack children attend school. These figures indicate that the withdrawal rate among youngsters in the elementary grades is 11 percent; 28 percent among junior high school students; and 22 percent among high school students. With respect to adults beyond the age of 17, the median education level is the ninth grade. Thirty-eight have an 8th-grade-or-less education; 31 have a 9th- to 12-grade education; and 3 have training past the high school level. The Nooksack population of Whatcom County makes limited use of library facilities, although the Whatcom County Library has available a bookmobile service which stops throughout the general area where the majority of the Indians reside. State extension services are available to the Nooksack community and the residents occasionally take advantage of this service. HOUSING The Nooksack group does not have a housing authority and there is no housing scheduled or underway. Twenty-four residents are on trust allotments concentrated in two localities within the Nooksack area. Fifteen of these residences need to be replaced by new structures because of severe deterioration, inadequate size, lack of sanitary facilities, and other inadequacies. Nine of the existing homes, although inhabitable by health standards, also require improvements. HEALTH All hospitalization, obstetric care, and most dental care, is provided through local community facilities on a contract basis with the Division of Indian Health of the U.S. Public Health Service. A few Nooksack Indians use biweekly clinic services provided on the Lummi Indian Reservation. The nearest hospital with adequate facilities is located at Bellingham. Prevalent diseases among the Nooksack diseases of the respiratory system, influenza, pneumonia, and diseases of the digestive systemreflect the unsatisfactory home conditions of most Nooksack families. Inadequate waste disposal and food sanitation, crowded and substandard housing, and deficiencies in heating and ventilating of the homes all contribute to the health problems experienced by Nooksack families. Some families in the Nooksack community still carry or haul water from contaminated or potentially contaminated sources. There is a problem of collection and disposal of garbage and refuse in the Nook |