Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the establishment of new Bureau of Indian Affairs area offices at Window Rock, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
An administrative staff to serve both new offices will remain in Gallup, New Mexico and some of the personnel assigned to Window Rock will continue to have headquarters there.
The office at Window Rock, to be designated the Navajo Area Office will serve a reservation the size of the State of West Virginia. The Navajo Tribe of nearly 100,000 people constitutes over one-fifth of the total Indian population under Federal trusteeship.
The Albuquerque Area Office will serve the tribes located in New Mexico and Colorado now being served by the Gallup Area Office through the following agencies which will continue: The Consolidated Ute Agency at Ignacio, Colorado; the Jicaril1a Apache Agency at Dulce, New Mexico; United Pueblos Agency, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Mescalero Agency at Mescalero, New Mexico; Zuni Agency at Zuni, New Mexico; and the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, New Mexico.
"The establishment of the Navajo Area Office is intended to provide better coordinated and more effective services to America's largest Indian group," Secretary Udall said. "Since the Navajos represent such a large part of the total Indian population of the United States, this move will be most helpful in advancing the overall programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was one of the recommendations of the Task Force on Indian Affairs which I appointed in 1961.”
Udall said that the other tribes presently combined with the Navajos under the jurisdiction of the Gallup Area Office include nearly 30,000 Indians, more than are covered by most of the Indian Bureau's nine other regional offices. “Considering their numbers and the opportunities for social and economic development which are available to them, these Indians also merit the special attention they will get through having an Area Office separate from the large Navajo tribe," Udall said.
The new Area Director at Window Rock will be Graham E. Holmes, currently Assistant Commissioner for Legislation in the Washington office of the Indian Bureau. Holmes previously served as Director of the Bureau's Area Office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and at one time was an Assistant Area Director in Gallup. He has been the Superintendent of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and Assistant Solicitor for Indian Affairs for the Department of the Interior. He is a native of Oklahoma.
Glenn R. Landbloom, who for the past seven years has been General Superintendent of the Navajo Reservation, will become the Area Director of the Indian Bureau's office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to joining the Navajo Agency staff, Landbloom was an Assistant Area Director in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He is a graduate of North Dakota State University.
Named as Area Director for the New Albuquerque office is Walter O. Olson, presently General Superintendent of the United Pueblos Agency. He is a former Assistant Area Director in Gallup and Superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico.
Fredrick M. Haverland, who has been Gallup Area Director since 1962 will join the Washington staff of the Indian Bureau for an assignment with the Commissioner's Office. He formerly directed the Bureau's Area Office in Phoenix and was an Assistant Area Director previously in Billings, Montana, and Muskogee, Oklahoma.
In order to begin staffing the new Albuquerque office, the Indian Bureau expects to transfer about 24 persons from Gallup. The total planned Albuquerque complement of 116 will be reached over the next 12 to 18 months, largely through the transfer of persons now employed in Gallup.
Although Window Rock will be the location of the Navajo Area Office, there is not expected to be any increase in the number of Bureau employees stationed there. Instead, Bureau personnel now on the Navajo Agency staff will be moved into positions with the new Window Rock office. Approximately 185 persons - out of the present total of 309 - will remain in Gallup, most of them to provide administrative and supporting services to both new Area Offices.
