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Testimony by Dr. Margaret Mead -2 April 19, 1977

those associated with conflict, aggression, cooperation, sympathy, and tolerance is useful; how such basic emotions as fear, happiness, anger, disgust, surprise, and contempt are expressed or patterned is obviously important. These things differ, sometimes quite considerably, from one culture to another, and in rather striking ways. Visual and auditory data on such expressions, systematically prepared and preserved as research records provide the means for detailed and repeated examination and evaluation as new problems in human affairs surface or new questions are asked.

For over a decade I have been supporting the effort to establish a Center at the Smithsonian to deal with this increasingly urgent need. The Smithsonian Institution is clearly the right place for this type of scholarly activity. Indeed, a group of twenty-six eminent scholars representing eighteen institutions of higher learning, convened by the National Science Foundation, recommended that the central and national character of the Smithsonian Institution made it particularly suitable as the base for such an effort. The Smithsonian is also international, and this kind of program fits well into the scholarly role it has traditionally sought in world affairs.

Solid backing has come from the appropriate professional organizations: The American Anthropological Association voted unanimously in Plenary Session to support the effort to create the National Anthropological Film Center at the Smithsonian. Similarly the Ninth International Congress of the Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences overwhelmingly adopted a resolution of urgency and support at its meeting in Chicago in 1973.

The nucleus is now established; good national and international contacts have been made. We have an eminently workable basis on which to proceed. Dr. Richard Sorenson, who is directing the development of this Center, has received remarkable cooperation within the United States and very warm welcomes abroad, particularly in Third World nations containing crucial reserves of traditional ways of life and culture. The techniques of visual inquiry he has begun to employ are readily seen as a tool which aids in defining a sense of national identity in relation to important elements of the cultural heritage.

What is now needed is an appropriate support base. Without such a base we cannot take advantage of the groundwork done or respond to the opportunities which have suddenly blossomed overseas as a result of Dr. Sorenson's efforts.

Two very recent events have seriously outdated the $136,000 proposed for the Center in the current budget request:

1) The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities have been helping to siq>port the development of the Center at approximately $171,000

Testimony by Dr. Margaret Mead -3 ^ril 19, 1977

per annum since its opening. During the Endowments' budget hearings in the Senate, they were told that the Smithsonian should seek its money directly from Congress—not through the National Endowments. It would be a serious setback if this money could not now be appropriated for the National Anthropological Film Center's use.

2) Dr. Sorenson recently visited many Third World nations in an attempt to evaluate current problems and possibilities. He has had remarkable success in getting interest and cooperation from officials and scholars in the most critical countries. Indeed, in a very few weeks he acconqplished what 1 would have thought inqiossible, gaining entree and welcome even in regions barred to foreigners. Officials in these countries have become enthusiastic. Certainly it would be a serious setback if they were disappointed. Work should start quickly in at least three of these countries.

Thus the budget request of $136,000 submitted by the Smithsonian Institution needs to be increased to $562,000. This would include an additional $255,000 to inaugurate studies in the most critical countries as well as a direct appropriation of the $171,000 previously obtained from the National Endowments.

I and many of my valued colleagues have worked hard and long to create the basis for the kind of effort now needed. Appropriate technology is now available; good methodologies now exist; we have developed the proper institutional base and the right kind of contacts throughout the world. All we need now is the basic funding to begin to deal seriously with the problem. I hope that you will be able to help provide this.

Dr. Margaret Mead

President, American Association

for the Advancement of Science

Miss Mead. This center is designed to conserve the films that already exist on vanishing peoples. They cannot be repeated again. Some of them were taken 20, 30 or even 40 years ago, and now constitute records of great value that we are gathering in and storing properly and keeping them for science.

Mr. Yates. Where are they being stored ?

Miss Mead. At the Smithsonian. At the same time, we are trying to get new films made of areas not yet filmed, and are disappearing because with our technological civilization spreading over the world, we are losing one culture after another. Sometimes through the death of a people, but more often thi'ough their changing their ways of life completely.

So, these are things that have to be done now if they are going to be done at all. Nomads are being settled down in villages, and people are coming out of the jungles and living on the roads and so forth.

We have worked for many years now to get our techniques in shape. We have young film makers. We have equipment that will stand being taken into the tropics, which it didn't when I first started working. We have enough young people to do this. We have a good director. Dr. Sorenson, here with me, who has made a great many very valuable contracts in other countries, that will assure us entry if we are able to send film makers in.

If we lose these records, we are going to have an irreparable loss to our knowledge of what human beings are capable of, as we ask them to be capable of things they were never capable of before, as far as we know.

I am specifically here to ask help on the budget. We have been receiving $171,000 a year from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arts. But they, during the Senate hearings

Mr. Yates. May I interrupt you for a moment ? How much did you get from NE.A and how much from NEH ?

Mr. Sorexsox. The figure of $171,000 represents an average over the time the center has been in being, which has been about 2 years.

Mr. Yates. From both of the Endowments ?

Mr. Sorenson. We don't have the figures on how that breaks down. It is primarily the National Endowment for the Humanities. The arts endowment is much smaller.

Miss ]VIead. Now, we ai"e instructed, when the endowment budget hearings came up, that the Smithsonian should seek this money directly from Congress for the center, and not to continue to ask the endowment for it.

So that the specifics of my being here is to support our request, the increase to the budget request submitted by the Smithsonian, which was oiily $136,000. It needs to be increased to $562,000. This would include an additional $255,000 to inaugurate studies in the most critical countries, as well as a direct appropriation of the $171,000 previously obtained from the National Endowment.

Mr. Yates. How long has the Smithsonian been engaged in this activity ?

Miss Mead. We have been working on getting it organized for over 10 years, and it has been actually formally organized only 2 years. It has taken a Ions time.

Mr. Yates. Wliere are the films kept ? The reason I ask that question is that there are three current repositories for film. There is the Museum of Modern Art, there is the George Eastman House, and there is the Library of Congress.

I assume the Archives has some film, too, but I don't know what kind, and I think we ought to find out what kind of film tlie National Archives keeps. Where will the Smithsonian keep the films?

Mr. SoRENSON. We have from a private contribution that was made to the Smithsonian just for this purpose built a refrigerated humidity-controlled vault, which will hold 2i/^ million feet of film. That has been built and is working now. It is a modular type of construction, so when and if this is filled, you can make the same sort of thing all over again.

Miss Mead. We are not trying, Mr. Chairman, to get all the films in the country. Any film that is well taken care of now we are very thankful for. But, there are masses that are not in any of these repositories. Some of them are in shoe boxes under people's beds literally. And we are planning to annotate them and archive them for research in ways that are much more modern than are being followed by the other repositories.

Mr. Yates. In which department do you come—Dr. Challinor's?

Mr. SoRENSON. Yes.

Mr. Yates. Well, thank you very much. I am sure the committee will give you very sympathetic consideration for this.

I see that the Smithsonian is engaged in some kind of a controversy at the moment. Did you read this morning's paper ?

Miss Mead. You see, the Smithsonian—as I understand it now—is a quasi-governmental organization. I worked in the National Research Council all through World War II. AVe had to go and get from private donors things that didn't fit into Government grants. We were in a position in this center where we had a nice sum of money from the Endowment. It couldn't buy us a place to put our film. People were giving us all our film, and we didn't have our refrigerated vault. We had to go to private sources for it because none of the endowing institutions were able to give us a vault. This happens very often.

Mr. Yates. Did you ask the Library of Congress?

Mr. SoRENsoN. The Library of Congress does not have sucli a facility themselves.

Mr. Yates. You mean a refrigerated facility, and therefore they cannot store colored film very long.

Mr. SoREXsox. And second, the Library of Congress is not interested in archiving things which are not copywrited productions. And most of the film that we are talking about is film taken by anthropologists and other people.

Mr. Yates. I think wo still have to work out what our Government's relationship is to film, both as an art form and as a recording form.

Mr. SoREKSox. We are talking about it here as a scientific and humanistic resource, not an art form.

Mr. Yates. It can be both, though, can't it?

Mr. SoRENSO]s^ Right.

Miss Mead. You see, we used to only depend on words, and many records of vanished cultures depend on words—the forest work I did. But now that we have film and sound, we have something with much higher scientific value, if we can make and preserve it.

Mr. Yates. Thank you, Dr. Mead.

Thank you, sir.

Indian Health Care Improvement Act

WITNESSES

JOHNATHAN TAYLOB, UNITED SOUTHEASTERN TRIBES RONALD L. COURNOYER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED SOUTHEASTERN TRIBES, INC.

Mr. Yates. Mr. Taylor, you are with the United Southern Tribes. Your statement may be inserted in the record at this point. [The statement follows:]

JOHNATHAN L. TaYLOE, PRESIDENT UNITED SOUTHEASTERN TRIBES, INC.,

Nashville, Tenn.

I appreciate this opportunity to submit tliis statement on Public Law 94-437, ttie Indian Healtli Care Improvement Act. This new law can be one of the most important pieces of health legislation ever passed for Indian people. The Federal Government now recognizes its responsibility for the care and education of the Indian people by improving service and facilities of Federal Indian health programs. The unmet health needs and poor health status of Indian people are documented facts and need not be expanded upon except to say that only through legislation such as this will the health status of the Indian people be raised to that comparable to the general population.

The Indian Health Service, through the passage of this law, now has the additional mechanisms and authorization levels to begin to meet the health needs of the Indian people. Based upon documented health need, the original Senate version of the bill (S. 522) proposed authorizatiou levels for $1,609,987,000 over a 7-year plan. After suffering many authorization cuts and weakening amendments, it was passed into law on September 30, 1976 as Public Law 94-437. Although the appropriation level has now decreased to 26 percent of the original Senate bill 522, the unmet needs have not decreased in a similar manner. I, therefore, believe that unless the full level of authorization is appropriated, the national goal of the U.S. Government to provide the quantity and quality of health services which vsdll permit the health status of Indians to be raised to the highest possible level, as stated in section 2 of the act, will not be met.

I would now like to address specific portions of Public Law 94-437 and respectfully submit for your consideration and action these recommendations :

TITLE I, SECTION 102

Recommendations:

(1) The full authorized amount of $900,000 be appropriated for fiscal year 1978, and for subsequent years the full amount be appropriated.

(2) The applications submitted by tribes or tribal organizations that have existing health professions recruitment programs be given first priority.

(3) The summer science and math enrichment programs for Indian students necessary for enrollment in health professions schools be given priority in funding.

TITLE I, SECTION 103

Recommendations:

(1) The funding level authorized at $800,000 for fiscal year 1978 be appropriated, and for subsequent years the full amount be appropriated.

(2) That stabilized tribal and appropriated and tribal organizational health entities should be the mechanisms through which scholarshii)s are granted.

TITLE I, SECTION 104

Recommendations:

(1) The funding level authorized at $5,450,000 for fiscal year 1978 be fully appropriated, and for subsequent years the full amount be appropriated.

(2) The Indian Health Service .shall consult establi.shed nonprofit American -Indian financial aid agencies such as American Indian Scholarships, Inc., in the development of guidelines for funding priority of Indian students.

(3) That the Indian Health Service monitor the progress of students receiving these scholarships to see if their financial needs are being adequately met.

TITLE I, SECTION 106

Recommendations:

(1) That Indian health professionals be given priority in funding continuing education allowances.

(2) That authorized level of funding be appropriated for this and subsequent years.

TITLE II, HEALTH SERVICES

Recommendations:

(1) In view of the fact that 90 percent (14,000 Indian children) of the simple surgical operations necessary to correct otitis media have not been performed and that two-thirds of the hospitals, and four-fifths of the outpatient clinics are at or below 80 i>ercent stafiing levels. USET. Inc., fully supports and endorses this title to be funded at present authorization levels this year and subsequent years.

TITLE III, HEALTH FACILITIES

Recommendations:

(1) Less than one-half of the IHS Hospitals are .T.C.A.H. accredited and le.ss than a quarter meet fire safety standards. In addition. HIS staff housing is insufficient in number of inadequate in regards to condition. Therefore, USET, Inc., fully .supports and endorses this title to be funded at pre.«ent authorization levels this year and subsequent years.

I mentioned in my opening statement tliat this law can be one of the most important pieces of health legislation ever passed by Congress for American Indian people. It can be^ but only if it is funded at tlie full level of appropriations authorized in the act.

United Southeastern.Tribes. Inc.. is an intertrilial American Indian organization with representatives from:

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Philadelphia, Miss., population 4.000.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee, X.C. population 6,000.

Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, Miami, Fla., population 400.

St. Regis Band of Moliawks of Xew York. Hogansliurg. X.Y., papulation (i.OOO.

Seminole Indian Tribe of Floridii. Hollywood. Fin., iiopulation 1,500.

Seneca Nation of Indians, Salamanca. X.Y.. population 5,000.

Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. Charenton. La., population 2,50.

Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Elton. La., population 250

"We would like to express our sincere appreciation for your allowing us the opportunity to pre.sent this testimony and hope that our recommendations are acted upon in a positive manner.

Mr. Taylor. Tliank you, Mr. Clitiiriiian.

I am honored again to come before this committee. We do liave a written statement made part of tlie record, and we won't go throii<rh the wliole statement but just hit some of the highlights, what we would like you to hear us sav.

Public Law 94-437, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, I think it was the wisdom of the Congress to pass such an act that would help tlie Indians meet the unmet health needs on the reservations. 'WHien we talk about unmet needs, we are talking about education, like where we could educate our own people, our own children to come back and work and help on the reservations, and scholarships.