Appointment of James F. Canan as superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Indian Agency, Ignacio, Colo., succeeding Robert L. Bennett, who transfers to the Indian Bureau's Aberdeen, S. Dak., area office as program officer, was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons. The transfer will be effective January 29.
A native of Altoona, Pa., Mr. Canan graduated from Haverford College, Haverford, Pa., in 1949 and later that same year entered the Department of the Interior as a trainee in the office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Land Management. In October 1950, he joined the Washington staff of the Indian Bureau as a business economist and four months later was called for military duty. Upon his return in March 1953, he became a member of the Bureau's program coordinating staff and one year later was assigned to his present position as administrative assistant in the area office at Gallup, N. Mex. In his new assignment he will supervise operations at the adjoining Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Reservations in southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico.
An Oneida Indian, Mr. Bennett was born at Oneida, Wis., in 1912 and attended the Haskell Indian Institute, Lawrence, Kans., from 1929 to 1931. He came with the Bureau in 1933 as a clerk at the Uintah and Ouray Agency, Ft. Duchesne, Utah, and five years later was promoted to senior clerk in the Bureau's Washington office. In 1943 he transferred to the Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Ariz., and was promoted to administrative assistant later that same year. In 1945 he was inducted into the Marine Corps and served one year, returning to the Navajo Reservation as District Supervisor at Ft. Defiance., Ariz., for a few months in 1946. This was followed by three years of service with the Veterans' Administration at Phoenix, Ariz., two years as placement officer with the Indian Bureau at Aberdeen, S. Dak., and three years as a member of the Bureau’s Washington staff as program officer prior to his appointment as Consolidated Ute superintendent in 1954.
