European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 7, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse The establishment chief Cato Valandra 46, is Short round faced and Indian dark Achain smoker who has just been elected to his fourth term As tribal chairman of the 7,000 Brule Sioux on the Rose Bud reservation in South Dakota inthe six years he has been at his Post Indus r has come to a land that was once Barren of jobs and hundreds of Homes have been built for people who once lived in tents and car bodies. Without Cato said one Bureau of Indian affairs officers on the Reserva Tion none of this could have been since Valandra took office the tribe with Federal help has built a $5.5 Mil lion school Complex erected 375 Low rent housing units plus 50 houses constructed under a sort of build it your self equity and payment program and attracted three Small but growing industries which officials Hope will solve the tribe s employment prob lems. Valandra was born add raised on Rosebud and his formal education ended there with a High school diploma from the St. Francis Catholic Mission school. He is the father of 10 children owner of two grocery stores three service stations and a member of three presidential commissions. Valandra arrives for work Ever morning in a White shirt and tie a style not often found in the relaxed Western style informality of the Dakota office is like that of a corporate executive. His desk is piled High wit papers. His receptionist s office is crowded. His own office is lined by those who have discovered the Back door. And his Telephone buzzes every90 seconds. V Alandra believes the secret of the development of Rosebud was simply a matter of learning to take advantage of All the opportunities. Most tribes Don t take advantage of the assistance they have available. Our concept of the Bureau of Indian affairs is to use it As a source of advice As technical assistance. The Bia is very anxious to help if they Are Only Given the was a tribe he said looking Back with thousands and thousands of acres and natural resources and a very Small annual income and nothing was being done. First of All we knew that in order to get anything started or finished we had to get All the people concerned together and see what we wanted to do. We got the housing started in 1962with 92 units. Jobs were an Issue so we began to look around for industries outside and on developing educational office of economic Opportunity came into being and As program were started we began to look at the ones that could be made available part of the tribe s recent Success i improving conditions Valandra believes can be attributed to the willing Ness of the local Bia officers to go out on a limb for example Bia superintendent Harold w. Schunk authorized the us of government bulldozers cranes trucks and workmen to remove the thousands of old motor car bodies that blotched the Rosebud was advised by his superiors to Stop the use of the government Menand equipment but the work quietly went has no More no less than the other reservations in South is Prairie land land that warps gently up and Down land for grazing and wheat growing and the kind of country to Gallop a horse the question is what makes Cato Valandra different from other tribal leaders. I believe he said that if a tribal office Holder really wants to do something to help his peo ple the opportunities Are Pace 14 Arapaho chief Jesse Rowlodge protests against to portrayal of indians by petition above Johnson sought More help for first continued from Page is difficult history of negro emergence one cannot forget that the negro was once a slave and that this inhuman condition nearly destroyed his human dignity. For the Indian something of the re verse was True. The Indian was not brought to America As a slave. The land was his and his Possession of it had gone unchallenged. When Columbus came the Indian was self sufficient Clever As a Hunter Brave As a time passed and the White Man s numbers increased so did his the indians never quite under standing the White Man s lust for prop erty his obsession for inviolate Boun Daries were steadily pushed Back. To the stars and stripes _ through it All the american in Dian retained one thing his Pride has been passed through generation after generation. The Hunter and the Warrior remain the Ideal. For the Indian the proud Ness was rein forced not Only by his heritage but by his very isolation from the rest of society. He got Little help and he asked for , the twist in the comparison while the negro has had to struggle to regain his dignity in the eyes of the rest of society the Indian has had tonight to overcome it. The Indian remained silent and twas Only after the White Man visited the reservations he had created tha Taid and attention began to be focused on the american the presidency of George Washington until 1849, Federal Indian policy was directed by the Secretary of War which says much about the character of relations. Since then the Bureau of India affairs an Agency of the Interior we apartment has guided the destiny of we american Indian. For the most part � would not be inaccurate to say that web a has misguided Indian affairs As Many of the leaders in the Bia admit today. Officially the Bia s duties Are to protect the resources of the Indian to see that his land is not stolen from my or sold when it would be in his Best interests to hold on to it in addition Thebia provides schools builds and maintains roads and irrigation projects an performs certain administrative chores. Through the last Joo years the Whas carried out these duties reason ably Well Given the resources it sunday july 7,1968
