Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Daniel D. McDonald, 46, to be Director of Tribal Resources Development, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. His post is the first of an anticipated five top jobs within the Bureau to be filled.
"As Director of Tribal Resources, Mr. McDonald will head the Central Office functions related to the Bureau's programs in assisting Indians in business entrepreneurship, in creating job opportunities on reservations, in conducting manpower training programs, in finding employment on or off reservations, in obtaining credit and financing (including assistance in establishing and operating credit and financing institutions), and in providing technical assistance to tribes in road construction and maintenance," Thompson said.
McDonald, is a Nez Perce/Flathead Indian who grew up on the Flathead Reservation, Mont. and is the 9th of 13 children. Following service in the U.S. Marine Corps, during World War II, he graduated from the University of Montana and later did graduate work at George Washington University.
"McDonald brings to the job a unique background of first hand knowledge of the Indian people he will serve, their resources and their potential. He also has the experience and the education to help these people make maximum use of their resources," said Thompson.
McDonald will move to the post from his present job as Director of Inter-governmental Relations, National Council on Indian Opportunity, in the Office of the Vice President, where he has worked since May, 1970.
In his National Council on Indian Opportunity position, McDonald encouraged full use of all Federal programs to benefit the Indian population. He also appraised their impact and progress and helped to develop ways to improve such programs.
Earlier, as an Industrial Development Specialist for BIA at the Navajo Area Office (1967-1970) McDonald received a superior performance award for his assistance in the establishment of 11 new industries on the Navajo Reservation; promoting the expansion of the embryonic Fairchild Semi-conductor Division into a giant operation employing more than 1,000 Navajo tribal members -- the largest single employer of Indians in the United States; establishment of the General Dynamics plant at Fort Defiance, Ariz. , and establishment of the Fed-Mart Store, first supermarket on the Navajo Reservation, and the Window Rock Motor Inn, both at Window Rock. He was an Industrial Development Specialist for BIA’s Gallup, N.M. Area Office from 1963 to 1967.
He began his Bureau of Indian Affairs career in 1956 as relocation assistant on the Fort Belknap Reservation at Harlem, Mont.
He is married to the former Gloria Gardipe of the Flathead Reservation and resides with his family in Rockville, Maryland. They are the parents of three sons and one daughter.
