Appointment of Robert L. Bennett, a member of the coordinating staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, as superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.
Elbert J. Floyd, whom Mr. Bennett replaces, has been designated as administrative officer in charge of a new area field office to be established by the Bureau at Zuni, N. Mex.
Both moves are part of the current reorganization of the Bureau and are effective June 6.
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., and two years as placement officer with the Indian Bureau at Aberdeen, S, Dak., prior to. joining the Bureau's Washington staff as Program Officer in 1951.
Mr. Floyd, Born at Hartsville, Mo. in 1900, came with the Bureau in 1925 at the Consolidated Ute Agency and served there for 17 years as laborer, farm leader, and agricultural extension agent. In 1942 he transferred to the Klamath Agency in Oregon as agricultural extension agent and remained in that position until 1950 when he was appointed superintendent at Consolidated Ute. In his new position he will be responsible for the Bureau's "Work on the Zuni Reservation and will be under the supervision of Area Director William Wade Head at Gallup, N, Mex.
