The Department of the Interior announced today that Thomas H. Dodge, superintendent for the past seven years at San Carlos Indian Agency, San Carlos, Ariz., will transfer on November 26 to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where he will serve as superintendent of the Osage Agency, replacing Russell G. Fister.
Mr. Fister has retired, effective December 31, after 32 years of service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Mr. Dodge, who first joined the Indian Bureau in 1935, is a son of the famed Navajo Indian leader, the late Chee Dodge, and was himself chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council from 1933 to 1935. Before moving to San Carlos in 1951, he served for five years as superintendent of the Truxton Canyon Agency, Valentine, Ariz.
From 1941 to 1946 he was a district supervisor on the Navajo Reservation and during this same period served as secretary of the Selective Service Board of San Juan County, N. Mex. His first position with the Bureau was as legal adviser and assistant to the superintendent of the Navajo Agency from 1935 to 1939. For two years thereafter he was out of Government service engaged in reorganizing his father's extensive sheep and cattle operations.
Born on the Navajo Reservation in 1900, Mr. Dodge holds a law degree from St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. Before assuming the chairmanship of the Navajo Tribal Council in 1933, he spent several years in private law practice at Santa Fe, N. Mex.
The successor to Mr. Dodge as superintendent at San Carlos Agency has not yet been named.
