Politics Admitted in Indian Deal

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Politics Admitted in Indian Deal

Rogers C. B. Morton today said "the political environment" was considered when the administration decided against forcing protesting Indians out of the Bureau of Indian Affairs shortly before electon day last month.

Morton told a House Interior subcommittee hearing, however, that there was no White House "takeover" of negotiations which saw the government pay the Indians some $65,000 in expenses to leave the building they occupied for seven days and to which they caused an estimated $1 million in damage.

The panel summoned Interior officials to explain who made decisions in dealing with the Indians, who were represented by the Trail of Broken Treaties organization in their claims that the government broke promises made to Indians in administration of reservations.

The protesters, numbering about 500, barricaded themselves in the building on NOv. 2 and vowed to fight to the death against any police action to force them out. They left voluntarily on NOv. 8 after negotiating an agreement with White House officials led by John Ehrlichman, President Nixon's top domestic affairs adviser.

Morton told newsmen after the morning hearing ended that "no political decisions were made" in dealing with the Indians, but he added that "the political environment was fully evaluated and the decision was made to go the court route" instead of taking police action.