Statement Supporting Legislation To Enlarge the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

I AM PLEASED to announce my support of a major enlargement of the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Grand Canyon. Ousted from lands on the canyon rim almost a century ago, the Havasupai Tribe lives isolated on two small tracts at the bottom of the canyon. The tribe has patiently appealed for the restoration of a land base on the rim. This addition would return historic and religious sites, ancient burial grounds, and life-sustaining springs to the Havasupai. In addition to its historic and religious claims, the tribe needs this land to relieve overcrowding on the reservation and to provide a better economic base.

The land which the tribe seeks lies within the national park and forest systems. When Senators Goldwater and Fannin introduced a bill to enlarge the reservation early in 'this Congress, the Departments of Interior and Agriculture took the position that a year should be devoted to studying the question. However, after consultation with Secretary Morton, Secretary Butz, Commissioner [of Indian Affairs Morris] Thompson, the Arizona delegation, and receiving representations of the tribe, I have concluded that the Havasupais have waited long enough. The House Interior Committee will take up the bill early next week, and Congressman Steiger will offer this plan as an amendment to the bill at that time.

Therefore, I am recommending, first, that sufficient acreage to meet the tribe's economic and cultural needs, up to 251,000 acres of national park and forest lands, be held in trust for the Havasupai Tribe; second, that the tribe and the National Park Service conduct a joint study of the area held in trust and develop a master plan for its management; and third, that the Secretary of the Interior be given a right of access over the lands deleted from the Grand Canyon National Park and held in trust for the Havasupai, in order that he may continue to administer the matchless resources of that park. This plan, which would be due a year after enactment of the legislation, would preserve the area's scenic and environmental values, with special provisions for environmentally sensitive uses. During the interim, the National Park and Forest Services would administer the area so as to protect the status quo: that is, no development would be permitted, and use could not exceed present levels. What I am proposing, in short, is instant trust status for the land which the Havasupais have claimed and, one year later, a determination by both the tribe and the Secretary of the Interior as to how the values which originally led to the inclusion of the area in national parks and forests can be maintained under Indian ownership.

I note that the acreage to be placed in trust for the tribe does not include a corridor along the Colorado River. This corridor is under scrutiny by the Department of the Interior for possible wilderness designation, and today's recommendation would not affect the outcome of that decisionmaking process.

With the environmental protections built into the recommendation I am making today, I believe that transfer of park and forest lands into trust for the Havasupais would protect the integrity of the area. We must remember that the conservation record of the American Indian, stretching over the thousands of years he has inhabited this continent, is virtually unblemished.