The Glacier reporter. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1953-current, 1961-12-07

GRAZ dlu lOE ScucId al WGlLdlC dS-
sistance available to States and
counties in the same fashion as
the categorical aids.
4. Direct employees of the Bu-
reau of Indian Affairs to confer
with State and county officials
in those areas where Indians are
being denied services in order to
work out joint arrangements to
help these Indians. Extremely
useful for this effort would be a
joint State-Federal study of the
ID number of Indians permanent
ly domiciled off the reservation
In the areas affected; (2) number
of Indians seeking general well
fare assistance in these areas.
Some welfare problems, such
as that of commitment, are dis
cussed in the section of this re-
port dealing with law and order.
The Task Force recommends that
in areas where these problems
exist, the Bureau of Indian At
fairs should continue negotiating
with the States involved in order
to work out solutions which are
agreeable to them, the Indians,
and the Federal Government.
-.. HOUSING
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
has branches for nearly every
phase of governmental operations
connected with human welfare,
but it has no housing branch. The
revolving loan fund is grossly
inadequate for Indian credit
needs, and its stated purpose is
to provide credit where outside
financing is not available. The
Federal Housing Agency, as of
1860, had provided to eligible
Indians S2,193,600, nearly all of
it within the previous ten years.
The report of the Credit Branch
of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
does not show any Bureau of In
dian Affairs loans for housing
purposes. When the Task Force
queried individual Indians at
Busby, Montana, ii was told that
veterans living on the reserva-
ton were not able to obtain vet
Grams housing loans because they
we're unemployed and did not
have satisfactory credit ratings.
Other Indians informed the Task
Force they could not get G.. l.
loans because they did not have
proper title to the land on which
they wished to build.
In the face of apathy by both
Indians and Government about
housing conditions in the Indian
country, the Task Force noted
only three encouraging signs:
First, that the Indian Sanitation
Act offers future promise of pro-
viding clean water and sewer
systems as a public health mea-
sure; second, that in a few loca-
tons individual Indians have
through their own efforts and
with the use of readily available
local materials, provided them
selves with self-c nstruc d
dwellings, which are weather
tight, give the appearance of
being cool in summer and warm
in winter, safe, cheap yet gener-
ally adequate; third, that through
most of the Indian country that
Task Force was able to visit,
there were sub-standard water
less dwellings which, neverthe-
less, had r. E. A. power within
easy reach. 1t seems to the Task
Force that the same ingenuity
and resourcefulness whic h
brought electrical power to re-
mote areas can be applied to the
urgent, truly shocking, Indian
housing need.
The available government hous-
ing programs which might be
turned to the solution of the
problem are as follows:
l. The Federal Housing Agency
program of long-term, low inter-
est mortgage lending and mort
gage support, which has been
applied to the Indian country
only recently. The Task Force
earnestly hopes that this pro-
gram will continue, but it does
not feel that a loan approach is
likely to meet the problem as
fast as it it growing, since reser-
walton unemployment is high
most existing dwellings ought tc
be completely replaced, and re-
strictions on alterations compli-
cate mortgage financing.
2. Veterans using loans
which have been so helpful else
where under Federal and State
sponsorship, but which are SUBJ
ject to the same disabilities in
the Indian country as FILA.
3. The Farmers Home Admin
istration which has authority and
some funds for rural home i'm
provement. Not one witness in
fifteen days of hearings indicated
any contact whatsoever between
himself and the Farmers Home
Administration for this purpose.
4. The public housing program