Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Loren J, Farmer, 35, Blackfeet Indian, to be Superintendent of the Yankton Agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs office that serves the Yankton Sioux Indian Tribe of South Dakota. His appointment was effective March 31.
Farmer replaces Charles James who transferred to the Aberdeen, South Dakota, Area Office of the Bureau.
Farmer assumes the new post after having served as Administrative Manager of the Cheyenne River Agency, which serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Farmer was graduated from Bremerton, Washington, High School in 1956 and from Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kansas, in 1959. He began his Bureau of Indian Affairs career at Western Washington Agency, Everett, Washington, the following year.
He became an Administrative Assistant and a management trainee with the Bureau in 1961, working in the Portland, Oregon, Area Office. He moved, then, into a job as Plant Management Assistant and became an Administrative Officer with the Neah Bay Job Corps Center, Neah Bay, Washington. He has also been an accounting technician and a supervisory accounting technician. He became Administrative Manager at Cheyenne River Agency, Eagle Butte, South Dakota, in 1971.
Farmer has been vice president and president of the Portland American Indian Center, Portland, Ore. He has also been sports chairman of the Interior Associates of the Northwest (Portland).
Farmer's wife, Rochelle, is a Cheyenne River Sioux Indian. They have six children.
