36 University Students to Assist American Indians This Summer

A domestic youth corps offering jobs for 36 University students has been organized and will have its first orientation meeting this week, according to Byron Stookey, Jr. '54, associate director of Advanced Standing.

At a conference to be held on Thursday at 8 p.m. in Sever 30, Stookey will outline the details of the plan which involves voluntary work suggested by Indians on ten reservations across the United States.

The jobs are largely in playground recreation and in community projects, and range from aiding in a Sioux fisheries program to managing a Cheyenne Little League team.

The newly-drafted Indian reservation project grew out of the demands of Harvard anthropology students. At the urging of her seminar people, Dorothy Lee, lecturer on Anthropology, contacted the Association on American Indian Affairs which negotiated the jobs with various Indian tribal councils.

A distinctive feature of the Indian youth corps is that the work "is what the Indians want, not what we think they ought to want," noted Mrs. Lee.

Financial support is the crucial limiting factor in the program, said Stookey. For the most part, corpsmen will have to pay for their own room, board, and transportation. A budget of $12,000 is needed to cover basic expenses as well as grants-in-aid to "talented men and women who need summer earnings to meet college fees."

"The success of this year's venture depends on the initiative we get on Thursday night," said Stookey. He hoped students would form an official undergraduate organization and direct appeals for financial backing to "the four or five foundations perenially interested in this sort of thing."

Begininng in May, Mrs. Lee will conduct a seminar in Indian tribal history, anthropology and the problems of cultural adaptation. In addition, Stookey saw the possibility of "an intensive fourday orientation right after exams."