Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Jose A. Zuni, 53, full-blooded Isleta Pueblo Indian, and Superintendent of the Nevada Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, to be Director of Administration of the Bureau.
“The Director of Administration of the Bureau of Indian Affairs must be a proven expert administrator and manager in order to direct and fully utilize the manpower, appropriations, natural resources, and potential not only of the Bureau but of the Indian people," Thompson said. "We believe we have a man that has those qualifications in Jose Zuni."
Zuni is a graduate of the University of New Mexico who has had 27 years in the Bureau, the last dozen of those as an Agency Superintendent. The Agency Superintendent is the line official who more than any other single Bureau person, determines the success or failure of the Bureau mission which is to help the Indian people take control of their destinies, Thompson said.
Zuni has also been a lieutenant Governor and Tribal Judge for the lsleta Pueblo.
Zuni served as Superintendent of the Nevada Agency of the Bureau from 1966 to the present, and Superintendent of the Consolidated Ute Agency from 1961 to 1966. He became Assistant to the General Superintendent, United Pueblos Agency, in 1958.
He was Tribal Relations Officer for the United Pueblos beginning in 1958, and Administrative Assistant to the Area Director, Gallup Area Office, beginning in 1956. He entered the Bureau in 1949 as a management assistant for the United Pueblos and became a budget analyst for that same agency in 1951.
He has been a part of the Department of the Interior Management Training Program and attended the Federal Executive Seminar in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1971. He was a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force in World War II.
He is married to the former Christine Cata, a San Juan Pueblo Indian. They are the parents of four daughters and three sons.
