William A. Mehojah, a Kaw Indian, has been appointed superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Turtle Mountain Agency in Belcourt, North Dakota, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash announced today. The agency serves the Fort Totten and Turtle Mountain Reservations.
Mehojah, a career employee with more than 24 years of service, has served since 1962 as administrative manager of the Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, North Dakota. At Belcourt he succeeds Leonard Lay, who has transferred to the Bureau's Aberdeen Area Office as housing development officer.
A native of Washunga, Oklahoma and a World War II veteran, Mehojah joined the Interior Department Bureau's staff in 1939 as a clerk-stenographer at the Pawnee Indian Agency in Oklahoma. In 1946 he transferred to the veterans Administration regional office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as a claims examiner. He returned to the Indian Bureau in early 1953 as a supervisory procurement clerk in the Billings, Montana, area office. He subsequently served in a series of supervisory positions with the Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Montana; the Rosebud Agency, Rosebud, South Dakota; and the Standing Rock Agency.
"Mr. Mehojah has demonstrated his administrative ability in his many years of capable service with the Bureau," said Commissioner Nash. "We are pleased to have this opportunity to appoint another American Indian with managerial and leadership qualities to a post where he can serve and inspire the Indian people.
