90TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session { No. 1873 REPORT AMENDING THE ACT OF SEPTEMBER 21, 1959, RELATING TO THE RESERVATION OF THE AGUA CALIENTE BAND OF MISSION INDIANS SEPTEMBER 10, 1968.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. HALEY, from the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H.R. 17273] The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 17273) to amend the act of September 21, 1959 (Public Law 86-339), relating to the reservation of the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. The amendment is as follows: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following language: "That section 4 of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 604; 25 U.S.C. 954), is amended to read as follows: "(a) No guardian or other fiduciary shall be appointed under State law for the estate of any member of the band, or continued in office, except with the approval of the Secretary: Provided, That no conservator for any member of the band shall be appointed under State law or continued in office after the effective date of this act, unless the individual Indian concerned, with the approval of the Secretary, personally petitions for the appointment or continuation of such appointment. The Secretary shall be given notice of all proceedings in the State court with respect to the estate of any member of the band which is being administered, and he may at any time appear as a party in such proceedings, and may exercise all rights accorded to a party under state law. "(b) No guardian, conservator or other fiduciary appointed under State law shall, in his official capacity, participate in the management or disposition of any property or interest therein which is held in trust by the United States for a member of the band or is subject to restrictions against alienation imposed by the laws of the United States, execute or approve any use, expenditure, investment, deposit, or disposition of such property or interest therein, or proceeds therefrom, or receive any fee or other compensation for services hereafter performed with respect to such property or interest therein. The provisions of this subsection shall not preclude any such person, in his private capacity, from participating in the management or disposition of such property or interest therein with the specific approval of the Secretary of the Interior. Actions with respect to the use, expenditure, investment, deposit, or disposition of such property or interests therein, or proceeds therefrom, shall be valid and efficacious in all respects without participation of affirmation by any guardian, conservator, or other fiduciary appointed under state law. "(c) The Secretary, at any time, may require any guardian, conservator, or other fiduciary appointed under state law for a member of the band to submit a full and complete report concerning his handling of the estate during the preceding six years. If any person or entity required to do so by the Secretary fails or refuses to so report, or, if having reported, the Secretary concludes that any action connected therewith is fraudulent, or capricious or arbitrary or so grossly erroneous as necessarily to imply bad faith, he may request the Attorney General to cause an action to be brought in the name of the United States in the United States district court for the central district of California or in any such district court having jurisdiction over the person, or persons, and subject matter, for such relief as may be appropriate, and said courts are hereby granted jurisdiction to hear and determine such action. "(d) The Secretary may require any money or property in the possession of a fiduciary at the time the fiduciary relationship is terminated, or which is recovered pursuant to this act, to be delivered to him to be held in trust for the individual Indian concerned. "(e) Under such regulations as he shall provide, and with the consent of the individual Indian concerned, unless the Secretary determines such Indian to be incompetent by reason of minority or otherwise, in which case such consent shall not be required, the Secretary may use, advance, expend, exchange, deposit, dispose of, invest and reinvest, in any manner and for any purpose, any money or other property held by the United States in trust for such Indian. The Secretary shall make no determination that an adult Indian is incompetent except after according him an opportunity to be heard upon reasonable notice, in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. Unless the Indian otherwise agrees, the hearing shall be held in the State of California within 60 days of the date of notice. A person aggrieved by a determination of incompetency made by the Secretary shall be entitled to judicial review of such determination in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 701-706. “(f) Nothing herein shall be deemed to limit any authority possessed by the Secretary under any other provisions of law." PURPOSE The purpose of H.R. 17273, introduced by Mr. Tunney, is to modify the Federal law which permits the Superior Court of Riverside County, Calif., to appoint guardians and conservators for the property of Palm Springs Indians; to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to review the actions of such guardians and conservators and take remedial action when appropriate; and to divorce such guardians and conservators from the management or disposition of trust property. NEED The act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 604; 25 U.S.C. 954), directs the Secretary of the Interior to request in accordance with applicable State laws the appointment of a guardian of the estate of each Palm Springs Indian who is a minor, and of the estate of each adult Palm Springs Indian who is in need of assistance in handling his affairs, before making an equalization allotment to such person. About the same time the California law was modified to provide for the appointment of a conservator, as an alternative to a guardian, for an adult person, and the use of that alternative was authorized by the Secretary's regulations. This 1959 statute was based on a Federal policy to terminate special Federal services to Indians in California as rapidly as possible. Prior to the date of the statute 61 guardianships and conservatorships had |