WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has confirmed Clayton J. Gregory as regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pacific Regional Office in Sacramento, Calif., effective July 11. Gregory, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana with more than 20 years of government service, had been serving as the acting regional director since May 2003.
“Clay Gregory is an outstanding senior manager with a long commitment to serving Indian people,” Anderson said. “I am confident that, as director of the BIA’s Pacific Regional Office, he will continue to provide excellent service to the California Indian tribes and their members.”
Gregory started his federal career in the early 1970s holding a variety of positions with the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and Wyoming, including wilderness ranger/fireguard, supervisory forestry technician, trail crew supervisor and forestry aide. He later joined the BIA in Montana as a forester, and went on to develop a career in natural resources management as a natural resources specialist and, later, as a natural resources officer.
In the early- to late-1990s, Gregory served three stints as acting superintendent of the BIA’s Crow Agency, also in Montana, which provides services to the Crow Tribe. In that capacity, he oversaw the agency’s day-to-day operations working with the tribe to protect, conserve and enhance its trust assets and resources while providing human services assistance to individual tribal members, as well as working with other federal, state and local governments and the general public.
From March 2000 to May 2003, Gregory served as a natural resources officer in the BIA’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings where he supervised and managed the regional Division of Natural Resources with programs in forestry and fire management, land and minerals, and water resources. During his tenure, he chaired the Crow Boundary Settlement Act of 1994 Steering Committee and the Federal Water Rights Negotiation Team for the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana.
In addition, Gregory served as acting deputy regional director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in 2001 and in 2003. In that capacity he was responsible for overseeing six BIA agency and field offices as well as tribal and trust programs serving eight Federally recognized tribes in Montana and Wyoming.
As acting regional director of the Pacific Regional Office, Gregory has supervised and directed the day-to-day operations of four BIA agency and field offices as well as trust and human services programs for the 104 Federally recognized tribes in California.
Gregory graduated from Lodge Grass High School in Lodge Grass, Mont., in 1970 and went on to the University of Montana-Missoula where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry in 1978. He also successfully completed the Federal Executive Potential Training Program (1992 – 1993) and the Interior Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program (2002).
