Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B Morton today announced the appointment of Marvin L. Franklin, 56, an Oklahoma City business executive and member of as Assistant to the Secretary for the Iowa Indian Tribe Indian Affairs, a new position in the Interior Department.
Franklin will be the senior official for Indian affairs within Interior, and will immediately assume direct responsibility for all Department programs concerning Indian and Alaska Native people on an interim basis, Secretary Morton said. He will report directly to the After a Commissioner of Indian Affairs is named, Franklin Secretary will continue to advise Secretary Morton on ways to improve Indian programs and their relationships with other Federal agencies.
The appointment marks the completion of a two-month effort by Richard S. Bodman, Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget to administer programs and provide services for Indians following the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters last fall.
Franklin has been employed by Phillips Petroleum Company since 1947, and since 1965 has been its Director of Cooperative Projects. A major part of his assignment has been to work with government to develop industry in disadvantaged areas, especially those where Indians are in need of job opportunities.
In this capacity Franklin has worked closely with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in its industrial development program for reservations, as well as with the Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Administration and the Small Business Administration.
Having an Indian heritage, Franklin has been a Councilman with the Iowa Tribe, Chairman of the General Tribal Council and presently is Vice Chairman of the Tribal Executive Committee. The Iowa Tribe once controlled the land area between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, but the Westward Movement resulted in the tribe being located on a 400-square-mile reservation in northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska.
Franklin's efforts on behalf of Indians were recognized by the Department of the Interior on June", 1971, when Secretary Morton presented him with the Public Service Award for Conservation o£ Human Resources for results achieved in creating economic betterment for Indian reservations.
His affiliations also include being president of Indian Enterprises, Inc., founded by the four Indian tribes of northeastern Kansas to assist in bringing job opportunities to tribal members. He also is President of the Phillips Industrial Finance Corporation, Vice-President of Provesta Company, member of an advisory committee to the American Petroleum Institute; President, First Americans Corporation; and a director of the Navajo Forest Products Industries, the Navajo Chemicals Company, Papago Explosives Company, Oklahoma Vocational-Technical Foundation, and the American Indian National Bank.
While in Oklahoma City Franklin has had an opportunity to engage in business outside of his required services to Phillips Petroleum. He has been an organizer and active officer in a life insurance company, an investment company and partner in law firm. Franklin was born July 18, 1916 in Ponca City, Oklahoma. He was graduated from Northern Oklahoma College in 1940, and received a law degree from Oklahoma City University in 1955. From 1940 to 1947 he was a commercial pilot and trained pilots during World War II. He also was Director of Page Aviation Flight School under contract to Oklahoma University. His home is in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
