The Casselman Testimony: GSA's Involvement in the Occupation of the BIA Building, 1968-04-22

Item — Box: 67, Folder: 5

Identifier: CAC_CC_009_2_67_5_0018

Staff Only

The General Counsel of the General Services Administration testified before the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs regarding the recent occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Building by a group of Indians known as the Trail of Broken Treaties. He explained that the GSA is responsible for maintaining, operating, and protecting Federal buildings and other property, and for appointing special policemen to enforce laws on Federal property. He stated that the GSA had been assisting the Department of the Interior in planning for the proposed demonstration of the Trail of Broken Treaties, but that at no time was there any indication that the Indians' visit would be anything but orderly. He noted that the GSA had deployed additional officers in and around the BIA Building and had maintained a 24-hour standby force of Federal Protective Officers in the Interior Department Auditorium, but that no request had been made to evict or arrest the demonstrators who had begun to enter the main part of the BIA Building. He stated that