one laboratory so that its results may feed into geologic science in general and, specifically, aid in the search for hidden ore deposits and in the prediction of volcanic eruptions generally.

In 1919 the observatory was transferred to the United States Weather Bureau who operated it until 1924, when the observatory was transferred to the Geological Survey, their annual budget was $11,840 and the staff consisted of two scientists. The observatory was operated at about this level while 1935, at which time it was transferred to the National Park Service. While operated by the National Park Service, its budget ranged from a minimun of $6,030 to a maximum of about $18,000. At the peak of its operations, the observatory had three fulltime scientists and two part-time assistants.

In November 1947 the observatory was transferred back to the Geological Survey with two full-time employees and $10,960 to cover their salaries. In order to revive and extend the basic research on volcanic processes, the Geological Survey requests an increase of $40,000 for the fiscal year 1950. This extension of the basic research on an active volcano is essential to provide the rest of the Geological Survey with an understanding of how the earth's great heat, chemical emanations, and physical disruptions now and in the geologic past melt rock, change it, and give rise to lava flows, earthquakes, and, indirectly, to ore deposits. An active volcano is a great natural laboratory from which we can learn much about how ore deposits formed in the past. That understanding we sorely need in order to help us find new deposits. We can learn also something about predicting when volcanoes are likely to erupt or give rise to earthquakes by observing and measuring the manifestations of an active volcano.

The $40,000 increase requested will permit the observatory to enlarge its staff by three full-time employees and some temporary assistants as follows:

The balance of the increase will provide for additional scientific instruments and equipment essential to carry on the research in the physical aspects of volcanology as follows:

18 tilt meters installed in weatherproof containers.
2 seismographs, each with automatic timing equipment.
Systematic gravity survey around volcano and miscellaneous supplies___
Construction of small building for geochemical research...

Total____

23, 740

These physical researches are directed primarily at an understanding of the motions of the ground around the volcano which will some day permit predictions of forthcoming eruptions. In addition to these physical researches, it is essential that chemical investigations of the vapors arising from the vocano, and the lava itself be investigated by modern geochemical techniques. This research will be directed toward an understanding of how volcanic processes transport metallic and other elements, and give rise to ore deposits and related features of economic value. It is planned, therefore, to request an additional increase in fiscal 1951 or 1952, of approximately $75,000, to equip and staff a small chemical research laboratory to be built immediately adjacent to the present observatory which is on the rim of the crater of Kilauea. Such a chemical research laboratory will be staffed with two geochemists. By fiscal year 1952, the cost of maintaining and operating the Observatory and its research will decrease to something less than $100,000 a year.

USE OF FUNDS APPROPRIATED

Senator GURNEY. They got only $10,500, and I understand the House appropriated that much; is that correct?

Mr. BRADLEY. That is right.

Senator GURNEY. How much good could you do with $10,500? Mr. BRADLEY. We could pay part of the salaries of part of the people who are there.

Senator GURNEY. You cannot keep them there if you pay them only part time; is that right?

Mr. BRADLEY. We can't keep all of them, no.

Senator GURNEY. What good would it do to us if we just get that kind of service out of it?

Mr. BRADLEY. I don't think it would do very much good.

Senator GURNEY. We had better either increase it or take it all out; is that not right?

Mr. BRADLEY. Yes.

Senator HAYDEN. Senator Ecton, you had a witness here, I believe.

BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION

EXTENSION OF TRANSMISSION LINES INTO MONTANA

Senator ECTON. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the privilege of introducing to you at this time, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, Mr. Steve DeMers, from Flathead Indian Reservation, in Montana. Mr. DeMers is a member of the Indian tribe and council. I also would like to introduce to you at this time Mr. William Myler, a substantial businessman from western Montana. I assure you they will take but a few minutes. Also Mr. Walter Morigeau, vice chairman of the tribe and council.

STATEMENT OF S. C. DeMERS, MEMBER, AND WALTER MORIGEAU, VICE CHAIRMAN, FLATHEAD TRIBAL COUNCIL, FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION, MONT.

GENERAL STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO APPROPRIATIONS

Senator HAYDEN. You gentlemen may be seated. Do you have a prepared statement that we can place in the record?

Mr. DEMERS. Yes, sir; the clerk has our statement.

(The statement follows:)

STATEMENT IN Behalf of the ConfederaTED SALISH AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION, MONT., AGAINST THE BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION PROPOSAL FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF POWER LINES FROM SPOKANE, WASH., TO KERR DAM AND FROM KERR DAM TO HUNGRY HORSE AND FROM KERR DAM TO ANACONDA

This proposal recalls to the tribes' attention a somewhat similar proposal in 1943 by the Army Engineers and Bonneville Power Administration wherein they proposed to raise Flathead Lake and acquire by condemnation the Kerr Dam. This proposal met opposition and ultimate defeat by the people of Montana and other States. The estimate of the cost of that proposal was millions of dollars but did not give consideration to losses sustained by the Flathead Tribe.

We are again faced with a similar encroachment upon lands belonging to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes by the Bonneville Power Administration. Our people of the Flathead Tribe are seriously concerned about the proposed transmission lines from Spokane, Wash., into and through our reservation because we believe that these lines eventually will bring an end to revenues which our tribe now has and which make it possible for us to be one of the most progressive Indian tribes in America, and to have a fine standard of living which we now enjoy. Our tribe now receives $200,000 a year rental from the power site on which the Kerr Dam, near Polson, Mont., is located. We also own four undeveloped but potential power sites below the Kerr Dam

On our reservation there is the Flathead irrigation project. Many of our tribal members as well as white neighbors live on lands irrigated by this project and it is this project which contributes greatly to make our reservation a desirable and profitable place to live. The Flathead irrigation project could not continue to exist and our lands could not be irrigated except for the profits which are made from the power distribution system operated by the United States Indian Irrigation Service. These profits from the net power revenues, according to law, are used to help pay the construction cost and a portion of operation and maintenance of the irrigation project.

Paradise Dam was a great and serious threat to us. If Paradise Dam were built, much of the fine lands owned by our people would be flooded. The four potential power sites which we own on the Flathead River would be under water. Many of our people would have to move to other lands and the rights accorded us under the treaty of 1855 would be violated.

A great many of our Indian children are educated in schools which are supported by the taxes from private properties owned in Sanders and Lake Counties. Our people fear and are firmly convinced that if the Bonneville Power Administration builds these transmission lines from Spokane, Wash., into and through our reservation, eventually there will be efforts to take over the power distribution system of the Flathead irrigation project; that eventually there will be efforts to take over the Kerr Dam which may cause us to lose our $200,000 yearly rental; that eventually there will be efforts to take over the private utility properties which will disrupt and destroy the tax structure of the counties involved, all of which would result in a disruption of our school programs, road programs, and welfare programs. It would also have a most serious and adverse effect on the social and economic program of our tribe as well as our white neighbors. Almost a century ago our people were forced to move from the Bitterroot Valley of Montana to the Flathead Valley to make the Bitterroot Valley available for the white man. At that time the Flathead Indians entered into a solemn and sacred treaty (1855) wherein specific privileges and rights to the Flathead Reservation were accorded us by the United States Government, and article 6 of the Constitution of the United States upholds the sanctity of any treaty made under the authority of the United States.

The past actions of the Bonneville Power Administration and various other agencies of the Government appear to be nothing more than legal processes whereby the Indians of the Flathead Tribes would be unjustly dispossessed of assets, lands, and resources and our tribe now has no assurance that the present instance will not be a repetition of the past misrepresentations and the pretense of an action purported to be a false need.

S. C. DEMERS,

Member, Flathead Tribal Council.
WALTER MORIGEAU,

Vice Chairman, Flathead Tribal Council.

Senator HAYDEN. Can you high light what it is all about?

Mr. DEMERS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is S. C. DeMers. I am a member of the Flathead Tribe of Indians, Flathead Reservation, of Montana.

OPPOSED TO LINES FROM SPOKANE TO PARADISE DAM SITE, KERR, HUNGRY HORSE, AND ANACONDA

I am also a member of the tribal council of the Flathead Tribe, and my colleague, Mr. Walter Morigeau on my left, is vice chairman of the council. We have been authorized and directed by the tribal council and the members of our tribe to appear before your committee opposing the appropriations or at least that part of the appropriations that pertains to the Bonneville Power Administration lines from Spokane, Wash., through the Paradise Dam site to Kerr Dam, Hungry Horse, and Anaconda. Those lines, Mr. Chairman, come into and through our Flathead Reservation. Our reservation was established originally in 1855. We have considerable resources belonging to the Indians and administered by the Indians, specifically tribal

properties such as power sites, timber resources and other assets. This project, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, reminds us of a project in 1943 at which time the Army engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration proposed to come into our reservation and acquire by condemnation the Kerr Dam, which is built on our tribal power site, and to raise Flathead Lake for the purpose of storage, primarily. At that time through the efforts of our tribe, through the efforts of our Senators and Congressmen here in Washington, and the people of Montana and other States, we were successful in killing that plan. The plan at that time did not include any consideration for the Flathead Indians, of any of the properties held by them and to be acquired by the Army engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration. We feel that this again will be a similar situation based on the past actions of the Bonneville Power Administration, which I will touch on very briefly in just a moment.

The philosophy of the Bonneville Power Administration appears to be such as to scorn the dignity and the rights of the Flathead Indians as well as their white neighbors. Our Flathead Reservation has been open to allotment under the Homestead Act of 1910. We get along very nicely having always been a peaceful tribe in every sense of the word with our white neighbors. We send our children to the white schools. We use roads, bridges, and so forth in common with our white neighbors. We have built up our country to the point now where we are barely able to hold our head above water. Finally through cooperation with the counties involved, namely, Sanders County and Lake County, the two largest counties on the reservation, and a small portion of Missoula County to the east and a very small portion of Flathead County to the north. We contribute to those counties along with the moneys made available by appropriation of Congress for educational purposes.

BPA LINES EFFECT ON FLATHEAD

We maintain a relatively high standard of living among our own people. Our tribe is vitally concerned and sincerely afraid that should the Bonneville Power Administration succeed in gaining their objectives of building the line into and through our Flathead Indian Reservation, it is going to completely disrupt the social and economic program of the tribes.

RESERVATION SOURCE OF POWER

Senator HAYDEN. How would it do that? Where do you now get your power?

Mr. DEMERS. I might explain that this way, Mr. Chairman. On the Flathead Reservation we have a small power system owned and operated under the name of the United States Indian Irrigation Service. But under a law, an act passed by Congress in March of last year, the net power revenues from the proceeds of the sale of that power from that small power distribution system are made available to pay the construction cost and a portion of the operation and maintenance of the irrigation project. We find that the cost of that power is one of the cheapest power rates in the entire United States and still there is definitely a surplus of proceeds or revenues

91354-49-pt. 2- 3

made available that will eventually absorb some $60 per acre construction costs levied against every acre of irrigable land on the project. The irrigation project itself is some 100,000 acres of irrigable land. There are whites as well as Indians enjoying the benefits, as such, from that irrigation project. Any loss of those revenues would be a very severe and a very drastic tax imposed on every individual water user due to the fact that the $60 per acre construction charge would have to be dug out of their individual pockets.

INDIANS FEAR LOSS OF INCOME

Senator HAYDEN. Then what you are afraid of is that the rate at which you are selling power now could not stand the competition of the Bonneville rate?

Mr. DEMERS. That is very true, sir. In addition we maintain that should the Bonneville Administration come in, they would undoubtedly acquire eventually the Kerr Dam, as they once attempted to do in 1943, which would mean loss not only in taxes to the counties involved, but it would mean a loss to the Flathead Indians of some $200,000 annual rentals now paid to the tribe for the use of that power site.

MONTANA POWER COMPANY NOW USES SITE

They have a rental

Senator HAYDEN. Who pays you that rental? Mr. DEMERS. The Montana Power Co., sir. on a 50-year basis for the use of that power site. Senator HAYDEN. Is that $200,000 paid out to irrigation? Mr. DEMERS. No, sir, that $200,000 is the money that is paid solely and directly to the Indians for rental purposes only.

Senator HAYDEN. What do you do with that $200,000?

Mr. DEMERS. That $200,000 is used to maintain the economic and social standard of the Indians through education, hospitalization, welfare, and such things as that; a cattle program, and administrative purposes of the tribe.

Senator HAYDEN. That is, above and beyond the $200,000, how much do you take out?

Mr. DEMERS. Above and beyond the $200,000 from the Kerr Dam? Senator HAYDEN. Yes.

Mr. DEMERS. Nothing further from the Kerr Dam specifically, but in the same contract between the Flathead Indians and the power company there was included a block of power made available to the Indian Irrigation Service of some 15,000 horsepower at an exceedingly low rate of payment, some two or slightly over, mills. That is the power that the Indian Irrigation Service then distributes. They had the franchise for distributing the power on the reservation. That is, the power that the Indian Irrigation Service then distributes.

Senator HAYDEN. And the profits from that is paying out the cost of irrigation?

Mr. DEMERS. Yes, sir, and retiring the debt that United States Government first incurred-rather, the public funds that were used for the construction purposes.