Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the appointment of John O. Crow, Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs, as Assistant Director of the Bureau of Land Management for lands and minerals.
Secretary Udall also announced that Robert L. Bennett, Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska, would be transferred to Washington as acting Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Luther T. Hoffman, now assistant director of the Bureau of Land Management, would undertake a special assignment in the Office of the Secretary involving the leasing and management program of mineral resources on the continental shelf, with coordination and development of a long-range leasing program a major responsibility.
The changes will become effective November 1.
"These new assignments, all involving career veterans of the Department with demonstrated ability, are designed to strengthen execution of the Department's programs," Secretary Udall said.
“Mr. Crow's extensive experience in handling land and mineral matters in the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be invaluable in advancing similar programs in the Bureau of Land Management. Mr. Bennett brings a distinguished record of achievement to his new assignment and Mr. Hoffman is uniquely qualified to make an over -all review of all aspects of the Department's important program for leasing of mineral resources on the continental shelf."
Crow, a Cherokee Indian and a veteran of 32 years' service with the Indian Bureau, was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs in August 1961. A native of Salem, Mo., Crow first joined the Bureau as a clerical worker at the Fort Totten Agency in North Dakota in 1933. After serving in increasingly responsible positions of several Indian agencies, he became chief of the Bureau's realty branch in 1960.
Bennett is a veteran of 29 years' service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was named Area Director of the Bureau in Juneau, Alaska, in December 1961. An Oneida Indian and a native of Wisconsin, Bennett served as assistant area director at the Bureau's office at Aberdeen, South Dakota, from 1958 to 1961. He first came with the Bureau in 1933 and served in Unitah and Ouray, Navajo, and Consolidated Ute Agencies, and in the Washington headquarters office. A 1931 graduate of Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas, Bennett holds a law degree from Southeastern University, Washington, D. C.
Hoffman has been with the Federal Government for 29 years. He was Assistant and Acting Superintendent of Navajos for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a Project Director with the War Relocation Authority, and since 1948 has been with the Bureau of Land Management, first as regional administrator, and Management, first as regional administrator in California, as California State Supervisor in Sacramento and in 1955 as Eastern States Supervisor in Washington, D. C. He became the assistant director for lands and minerals for BLM in 1961, since which time he has been the Bureau's responsible officer for all outer continental shelf leasing.
