Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today that Earl J. Barlow, a Blackfeet Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education.
Barlow has been Superintendent of Schools in Browning, Montana since 1973. He has also served as the Montana State Supervisor of Indian Education and has worked for thirty years as a teacher, principal and education program administrator.
Gerard announced the appointment at the annual meeting of the Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards in Denver. He was a luncheon speaker at the meeting. Gerard said, "In education circles and particularly in Indian education, Mr. Barlow is recognized as an educator who knows what needs to be done and how to get it done." Gerard noted that Barlow's experience included highly successful work with diverse tribal groups at the state level of planning programs and said that this kind of ability was "urgently needed at the national level."
Gerard said that the Education Amendments Act of 1978, enacted in November, called for major and significant changes in the operations of BIA education programs and greatly expanded the authority and responsibility of the Director of the Office of Indian Education Programs. "We are especially pleased, therefore, to be able to fill this position with a person of such high qualifications."
Barlow, 51, graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in social studies and also earned a Master's in Education from that university. He is married and has six children (five daughters and one son). Barlow has been a consultant and teacher at Montana State University, has been a superintendent of schools in three different school districts and administrator of state-wide education programs for the educationally disadvantaged. He began his career in education in 1948 as a teacher at: Hot Springs, Montana.
