Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs: Sac and Fox Indians, 1970

The Department of the Interior recommends that neither H.R. 1192 nor H.R. 11771, both bills relating to the division of funds appropriated to pay judgments in favor of the Sac and Fox Indians, be enacted in their current form. The department recommends the enactment of a substitute bill instead.

The text contains proposals for dividing the Sac and Fox Tribes of Oklahoma and Iowa between the two states, based on criteria such as current membership, the 1891-1892 allotment and annuity rolls, and the 1909 census rolls. The Interior Department's proposal is to use the official census rolls from 1937 as the basis for the division.

Elmer Manatowa, Jr., the principal chief of the Sac and Fox Tribe of Oklahoma, writes to congressman John N. (Happy) Camp to express his disappointment with a recent decision by the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. The committee has recommended a formula that would result in a loss of approximately $900,000 for the Oklahoma Sac and Fox Tribe. Manatowa asks Camp to intervene and prevent any further action on the recommendation until after the Oklahoma Sac and Fox Tribe's annual meeting, at which time Manatowa will report back with his recommendations.

The Sac and Fox Tribal Business Committee recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where they testified before a subcommittee of the Interior and Insular Affairs on the division of a tribal claim. The group received high compliments from their congressional delegation and other delegations as one of the best Indian presentations that had ever come before a subcommittee. The Business Committee is composed of Peggy Acoya, National Congress of American Indians secretary; Mary McCormick, Sac and Fox tribal secretary; Dora S. Ortega, councilwoman; Lee Bass Jr., second chief of the Sac and Fox tribe; Lloyd Tiger, councilman; Elmer Manatowa, chief of the tribe; George Pietsch, tribal claims attorney; and Dan Jennings, executive director of the tribe.

Elmer Manatowa, Jr., principal chief of the Sac and Fox Tribe of Oklahoma, is in support of H.R. 11771. This bill provides for a division of a judgment recovered from the United States in proceedings before the Indian Claims Commission. The Oklahoma Sac and Fox and the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (which will be referred to as the Iowa Sac and Fox) are the owners of the claim. On the basis of the current membership of the Oklahoma Sac and Fox and Iowa Sac and Fox, the Oklahoma Sac and Fox would receive 71.72% of the judgment funds and the Iowa Sac and Fox would receive 28.28%. The Department of the Interior recommends the enactment of a substitute bill that would provide for the division of the award based upon census rolls taken as of January 1, 1937. The Oklahoma Sac and Fox are opposed to its enactment.

This text contains two bills relating to the disposition of funds appropriated to pay judgments in favor of the Sac and Fox Indians. The first bill (H.R. 1192) was introduced by Representative Kyl and referred to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. The second bill (H.R. 11771) was introduced by Representatives Steed, Edmondson, and Camp and referred to the same committee. Both bills provide for the division of the funds between the two tribes on the basis of membership, and both allow for the use of the funds for any purpose authorized by the tribal governing bodies and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.