OPA

John A. Moore, 43, previously Superintendent of the southeast Alaska Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with headquarters in Juneau, was appointed Assistant Area Director of the Juneau Area office today, effective June 13, by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. He is the first Negro to achieve this post in the Bureau.

In announcing the appointment, the Commissioner said “This appointment involves at least two ‘firsts'. Not only is Mr. Moore the first Negro to be appointed Assistant Area Director but his post, which involves responsibility for programs, is new. He will be responsible for coordinating social services, housing, employment assistance, roads, real property management and economic development functions within the Juneau area of the Bureau."

Frank X. Morin, 54, an economic development representative with the Economic Development Administration, Department of Commerce, Chicago, has been named Superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Belcourt, North Dakota, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today. Morin is an enrolled member of' the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Born on the reservation he is now to work on, Morin attended public schools near Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation until be enrolled at North Dakota state University. He received his B.S. degree in animal husbandry with a minor in economic from South Dakota state University.

He began his career as a dairyman in 1942, working at Indian schools in Montana and South Dakota until 1955, when he resigned to accept the position of county extensions agent in Sioux County in North Dakota.

In this position be worked continuously with the Indian people of the Standing Rock Reservation, serving as liaison between the Board of County Commissioners, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the State Extension service. He assisted tribal governing bodies with their Programs including the new plans and programs for development resulting from the construction of the mille Oahe Dam and Reservoir.

Doyee L. Waldrip, 47, Superintendent, Warm Springs Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Warm Springs, Ore, will become assistant area director for administration of the Portland Area office of the Bureau June 27, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today. He will replace James E. Sayers, who was retired.

Said the Commissioners in announcing the appointment. "The new Assistant Area Director of the Portland Area Office has demonstrated executive and managerial capabilities and personal characteristics essential to progressive and responsive administration leadership.”

Waldrip served as Superintendent of the Warm Springs Agency beginning in 1965· Prior to that he was Superintendent of the Seminole Agency of Florida.

He was graduated from West Texas State University with a degree in science and agriculture in 1950, and began his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a teacher in the Cherry Creek Day School, Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, South Dakota. He moved from there to the Cheyenne River Boarding School on the same reservation. He has served as field representative and as administrative officer for the Fort Totten agency, North Dakota, and as administrative officer for the Seminole agency.

A new environmental awareness award program for Indian schools and communities was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. The program is an outgrowth of new emphases upon environment and conservation in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. It is designed to encourage environmental awareness throughout a11a'spects of daily life in the community.

Local Indian school board members will take part in selecting projects for awards, and will present them in ceremonies concluding the school year, Bruce said. Not only students but any other individuals in the community, as well as classroom groups, community groups, or schools or communities as a whole may qualify for the commendations.

"We hope the awards program will encourage students, teachers, parents and others to learn together," Bruce said. "Indians are often regarded as the Nation's 'first environmentalists,' and we expect the program to help carry this concept forward to meet the complex environmental challenges of today."

He pointed out that the 219 schools operated by the BIA are stressing environmental awareness through language arts, social studies, science and art curricula "in keeping with the National Environmental Policy Act which aims for harmony between man and his environment and an understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation."

Bruce also said: "We believe this approach to environmental awareness encourages a sense of responsibility to tribe, community and country, and will enable more people to have a constructive influence in a.l1 these spheres. Studies of Indian myths, religion, philosophy, ethics indicate a reverence for the natural environment which may be a lesson for the non-Indian."

Cooperating in the environmental education program is Interior's National Park Service.

National parks have set aside outdoor areas for the study of ecology and have provided materials for classroom and outdoor study projects, and is helping to provide materials that demonstrate the interdependence of man and his environment and show how Indian cultural values reinforce the balance between man and nature.

Further information on the awards program will be available through BIA schools, school boards, and tribal organizations.

Celestine P. Mau., 49, loan specialist, Branch of Credit, Red Lake Agency, Bureau of Indian Affair, Redlake, Minn., was named, Superintendent of the Red Lake Agency today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce. Maus, who replaces P. Miller in the post, has been Acting Superintendent since October.

Maus started a 16-year career with the Bureau as a Minnesota Area Office Finance Specialist in 1955. He had been farm manager for St. Mary’s Catholic Mission, Red Lake, prior to entering Federal service. From his post 8.8 Finance Specialist he was promoted to Loan Examiner in 1961 and loan Specialist in 1964.

He received awards tor Sustained Superior Performance in both 1964 and 1970.

Born at St. Cloud, Minn., Maus is married and the father of a son and a daughter.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today the appointment of Curtis Geiogamah, 44, a Kiowa Indian from Mountain View, Okla., as Assistant Area Director (Administration) of the Phoenix Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs. He replaces Albert Lassiter who is retiring.

Geiogamah has served as the Administrative Officer of the Navajo Area Office for the past six years and prior to that time he was Budget Officer in another Area Office that also served the Navajo Tribe.

Geiogamah entered Federal service in 1949 following graduation from Haskell Institute. His first duty was at Pine Ridge Agency. He has also held assignments at Anadarko and Muskogee Oklahoma Area Offices.

Geiogamah and his wife, Julia, have three children, two boys and a girl.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce today announced the appointment of William F. Streitz, 44" to be Superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah. Now Superintendent of the Sisseton Agency; S. Dak., Streitz will assume the Utah post January 2.

Streitz, a native of Belle Plaine, Minn., has a B.S. degree in history and social science from St. Cloud state College, Minn. He I began his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1949 on the Cheyenne River Reservation, S. Dak., as a school teacher. He then held teaching and administrative posts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, S. Dak., Standing Rock Indian Reservation, N. Dak., Field Employment Assistance Office, Cleveland. He became Superintendent of the Sisseton Agency in 1967.

Streitz served in the U. S. Navy from 1944 to 1952 with the U. S. Pacific Fleet: in personnel accounting. Married, he is the father of three children.

Raymond Lightfoot, 54, Assistant Area Director for the Minneapolis Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was named Area Director for the Minneapolis Area Office today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce.

An enrolled member of the Michigan Band of Chippewa Indians, Lightfoot replaces Owen D. Morken, who retired in January 1971.

Lightfoot was born at Fort Thompson, S. Dak. After he completed a course in Business Administration at Nettleton College, Sioux Falls, S. Dak., Lightfoot, joined the Bureau in 1937.

He has been in responsible administrative positions in the Aberdeen and Navajo Area Offices and at Cherokee Agency, in North Carolina. He has been in the Minneapolis Area Office as Administrative Officer and Assistant Area Director for 11 years.

In making the announcement the Commissioner of Indian Affairs said: "He is one of our most able Indian administrators. He has had wide experience throughout the Bureau. He has always had the confidence and respect of the Indian people, the Indian tribal governments, and the Indian organizations with whom he has dealt."

Acting Secretary of the Interior Fred J. Russell today announced that former South Dakota Congressman Ben Reifel, an American Indian, will serve without compensation as an assistant for Indian Affairs to the Director of the National Park Service.

Representative Reifel voluntarily retired at the close of the 91st congress after serving five consecutive terms.

Before his election to represent South Dakota First District, Reifel was for 22 years an administrator in the Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs. While there he served both as an agency superintend and as an area Director and earned the Department’s highest employee recognition, its Distinguished Service Award.

Born of a Sioux mother and a German-American father at Parmelee, S. Dak., in 1906, Reifel received a Bachelor of Science degree at South Dakota State College in 1932. He attained a master’s degree in 1950 and a doctorate in public administration in 1952, both from Harvard University. He was named Outstanding American Indian in 1956 and began his congressional career with the elections of 1960.

George B. Hartzog, Jr., director of' the National Park Service, said this in welcoming the Reifel appointment:

“Ben Reifel brings to us a wealth of experience and knowledge which will materially enhance our efforts to support and assist the Indian Tribes, many of whom are close neighbors of the national parks, in preserving and interpreting their natural and cultural heritage and enhancing the vast outdoor recreational opportunities available on their lands.

“With Mr. Reifel’s commitment, imagination, and enthusiasm, I am confident that this most worthwhile program will achieve a new and sharpened dimension of public service.”

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today the appointment of Morris Thompson, an Alaska Native, as the new Alaska Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Thompson's appointment was effective February 7, 1971.

"I am most happy to be announcing this appointment, “Commissioner Bruce said, “because Thompson is the first Alaska Native to be Alaska Area Director. The Alaska Natives have long wanted this. “

At 31, Thompson is also the youngest man in BIA history to be named as an area director.

Bruce pointed out that Thompson's appointment was endorsed by the executive committee of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska in a meeting in Juneau January 30. Thompson is an Athabascan Indian, born in Tanana, Alaska.

Prior to his Alaska assignment, Thompson was an Assistant to Commissioner Bruce. He also acted as a special assistant for Indian affairs under former Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel and had been associated with administration of Indian programs for the State of Alaska.

He attended the first eight grades at Tanana Day School and was a 1959 graduate of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, where he was a member of the National Honor Society. He studied for two and a half years at the University of Alaska, majoring in civil engineering with a minor in political science. He continued his studies at the RCA Institute in Los Angeles, and after graduation worked as a technician at the RCA satellite tracking facility at Gilmore Creek near Fairbanks.

Thompson has a wide background of involvement in affairs of Alaska Natives and is a former chairman of the Board of the Fairbanks Native Association.

Thompson succeeds Charles A. Richmond, who has been named director of education for the BIA in eastern Oklahoma. Richmond formerly taught in BIA schools.