Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson, today announced the appointment of Alton R. Nordwall, 47, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, to be Assistant Area Director of the Minneapolis Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Nordwall has a BS degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University, a commercial certificate from Haskell Institute --now Haskell Indian Junior College --and has just completed the Department of the Interior Manager Development Training Course.
His most recent post is that of BIA Muskogee Area budget officer at Muskogee, Oklahoma, which he held for nine years prior to taking the nine-month Departmental Training Course.
“The Indians of the Great Lakes are fortunate in having a man from one of their tribes who has proven capability to assume the important post of Assistant Area Director of the Minneapolis Area Office," Commissioner Thompson said.
Nordwall began his Bureau career in 1952, following nearly four years service in the U.S. Navy, at the Pawnee Agency in Oklahoma. After completing his college work he returned to the Bureau to serve at the Horton, Kansas, Agency. In 1957 he beC8nle an administrative assistant at the Portland Area Office of the Bureau and in 1958 real property assistant and officer at the Colville Agency, Washington. He became assistant to the superintendent of Rocky Boy's Agency, Montana, in 1959 and administrative manager of the Blackfeet Agency, also in Montana in 1962. He became budget officer of the Muskogee Area Office in 1964.
While in the Departmental Manager Development Training Course he worked with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Acting Deputy Commissioner.
He is married to the former Eva L. Fields, Pawnee, of Oklahoma, and they have two sons and two daughters.
