Sidney L. Mills, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has been named Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Albuquerque area, Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today. Mills was formerly Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Gerard also announced the appointment of Roland Johnson as Deputy Director of the Albuquerque area. Johnson, a former tribal operations officer in the area office, has been on leave from BIA to serve as the Governor of the Pueblo of Laguna.
The Albuquerque area, one of 12 regional jurisdictions for the Bureau, includes most of New Mexico and Colorado. It includes three agencies serving Pueblo Indian groups, and five other agencies serving the Jicarilla Apaches, Mescalero Apaches, Ramah Navajos, Southern Utes and Ute Mountain Utes.
A Navy veteran, Mills, 52, entered Federal service in 1973 in the Aberdeen, South Dakota Area Office. He was the Supply and Contract Officer and, for almost a year, the Acting Deputy Area Director before transferring to Washington, D.C, in August 1975.
Mills had been Purchasing Manager for the Great Western Sugar Company; Merchandise Control Manager, Creative Merchandising Inc.; and Purchasing Manager for Sundstrand Aviation, all in Denver, Colo.
A native of Porcupine, South Dakota, Mills attended the Santa Fe Indian High School and completed numerous courses in management, marketing, and other subjects at Colorado, Arizona, Stanford, Denver and Harvard Universities.
Johnson, a full-blooded member of the Laguna Pueblo, has been Governor of the Pueblo since January, 1975. Prior to becoming Tribal Operations Officer in 1971 in the Albuquerque office, he was Chief Staffing Specialist and Servicing Personnel Officer in the BIA's Central Office in Washington, D.C.
An alumnus of New Mexico State University, Johnson, 39, began his career with BIA in 1965. He worked in personnel and employee relations in both the Navajo and Albuquerque area offices. He graduated from the Albuquerque Indian High School and completed Interior's Departmental Management Training Program in 1970.
Johnson received New Mexico's Distinguished Public Service Award in 1975.
