Portland area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the retirement of Jasper W. (Jap) Elliott, superintendent of Warm Springs Indian Agency, and transfers of three other Oregon and Idaho agency superintendents.
The vacancy at the Warm Springs Agency will be filled by transfer of Allan W. Galbraith, Klamath Agency superintendent since November, 1955. Galbraith's post at Klamath will be filled by the promotion and transfer of Elmo Miller, Superintendent at the Northern Idaho Agency, Lapwai, Idaho, since January 1955, and Miller's position will be filled by promotion and transfer of William E. Ensor, Umatilla Agency superintendent.
Don C. Foster, Portland area director, said the transfers will be effective June 30, and that the Umatilla agency vacancy will not be filled immediately.
“I regret the loss to our area staff of Jap Elliott who is a long time personal friend as well as fellow worker in the Indian Service,” Foster said.
"I know that Al Galbraith will do a fine job at Warm Springs, as he has done at Klamath. I have the greatest confidence that Bill Ensor and Elmo Miller will continue their unstinting devotion to the job of bettering the status of our Indians," he said.
Foster said that during Elliott's tenure at Warm Springs the "Warm Springs Indians have made excellent progress in assuming the responsibilities of tribal government. There has also been significant progress in education and resources management.
“Eleven young Warm Springs Indians are enrolled in colleges. All 26 of this year's junior high graduates will enroll at Madras high school next fall. The economic conditions of the tribe have been improved through judicious handling of tribal timber resources.
"Much of the credit for these advances must be given to Jap Elliott for his work and his understanding of the Warm Springs Indians," Foster said.
He explained that the size and resources of the various agencies determine the rank of their superintendents and that the changes represent a promotion for both Miller and Ensor. Klamath and Warm Springs agencies are of equal rank.
Elliott is retiring after almost 43 years of Federal service. He started his career, the records show, as a "typewriter” (typist) with the General Land Office (now the Bureau of Land Management) in 1914 and came to the Indian Service as a clerk at the Uintah-Ouray agency in Utah in 1915. He is a native of Utah, a graduate of Ogden high school and attended Smith Business College at Ogden. His service with BIA has included posts at San Juan, New Mexico, and Fort Belknap, Montana. He became superintendent at Warm Springs in October 1936, but his service there was interrupted from November 1951, to August 1954, while he served as an administrative officer for the Corps of Engineers, Portland District, on Indian matters involved in the construction of The Dalles Dam.
Galbraith, who was born at Wellpinit, Wash., started his career with the Indian Bureau while he was a student at the University of Idaho. He worked on the Colville reservation in various summer positions until his graduation in 1940 when he became permanently employed as a forest guard. Subsequently he held various forestry and range positions - Klamath, Colville, Fort Belknap and Rosebud, South Dakota, before becoming superintendent of the Jicarilla agency in New Mexico in 1952. He was transferred to Klamath as superintendent in November 1955. Galbraith is the brother of William A. Galbraith, assistant to the Bonneville Power Administrator.
Miller came to the Pacific Northwest via Utah, his native State, and Alaska where he served as administrative officer for BIA at Nome. A graduate of Utah State Agricultural college, he was a farmer and rancher before joining the Indian Service as a field aide in May 1941, at the Cheyenne River agency in South Dakota. He also did agricultural work at Tongue River agency, Montana, and at Colville agency in Washington. He was at Nome for four years and became Northern Idaho Indian Superintendent in January 1955.
Ensor, a native of Maryland, and a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, has served the majority of his time in the Indian Service with one of the last remaining tribes of eastern Indians, the Cherokees of North Carolina. He started his Federal Service with the Veterans Bureau in 1924 and joined BIA at the Western Navajo Agency, Arizona, in 1926. He transferred to the Cherokee agency in 1928 as clerk and remained there through successive promotions to administrative officer. He was transferred to Umatilla agency as superintendent in July 1955.
