Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith has appointed Carl Shaw, a Cherokee Indian, as his special assistant and director of public affairs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Smith said that Shaw would be the principal counselor to the Assistant Secretary and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations on all matters of public affairs nature.
Shaw, a native of Nacogdoches, Texas, was director of the BIA' s public information office in 1972. He transferred to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1973 where he was a public information specialist and assistant to the assistant secretary for public affairs. In that position, he served for three years as advance man for the HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He resigned from the federal government in 1979 to go into a private business venture.
In his new position, Shaw has responsibility for the direction and supervision of the BIA's public information staff. Principal functions include press relations, preparing informational materials for the general public and drafting speeches or briefing materials.
Shaw's first position with the federal government in Washington was as a public information specialist for the Rural Electrification Administration in 1967. In 1972 he worked briefly in a White House position as assistant press coordinator for the President's Office of Emergency Preparedness.
Born in 1937, Shaw served three years in the U.S. Army, 1956-59. In 1960-65 he worked as a reporter on several East Texas dailies and directed a successful political campaign for Congressman John Dowdy of Texas, subsequently serving as his administrative assistant in Washington. From 1965 to 1967 he was director of public relations for the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative.
