Appointment of Thomas M. Reid as Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. Mr. Reid has been serving as staff assistant to the Commissioner since December 1953, specializing in the field of resources (extension, forest and range management, irrigation, management of trust land, roads, and soil conservation) and program development.
As Assistant Commissioner, Mr. Reid will be concerned primarily with the readjustment of Federal responsibilities in Indian Affairs and will serve as personal representative of the Commissioner in contacts with Indian tribal groups affected by recent terminal legislation and with local, State and Federal agencies in carrying out Bureau policies.
Prior to joining the Bureau as consultant in August 1953, he served two years as agricultural attache at the American Embassy first in Guatemala and then in Cuba. He also served as chief of the quarantine division with the United States mission for the eradication of the foot and mouth disease in Mexico and for four years conducted his own ranching business in Valencia County, N. Mex. From 1933 to 1943 he was a county agricultural agent in New Mexico and served for two and one-half years of this period as State extension agronomist.
Born at Roswell, N. Mex., Mr. Reid graduated from New Mexico A&M College in 1933 with a B.S. in agriculture. He is married and has two children.
