Howard F. Johnson, 54, a veteran of more than 32 years Federal service, has been appointed Special Liaison Representative to the Seneca Nation of Indians, it was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett.
Bennett also announced that John L. Pappan, 40, now superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency, Fort Hall, Idaho, will succeed Johnson as superintendent of the Osage Agency, Pawhuska, Okla.
Johnson's transfer from Pawhuska to Salamanca, N. Y., will be effective March 10. The position of special liaison representative has been vacant since the transfer of Sidney M. Carney last year to be Area Director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Anadarko, Okla.
The position of special liaison representative was established to assist the Senecas of New York with a rehabilitation program after one-third of one of their reservations was taken for the Kinzua Dam Reservoir. Congress voted approximately $15 million to recompense the tribe for the land taken and to finance the rehabilitation program.
Johnson was born at Gravity, Iowa, on September 21, 1913. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree from Colorado State College in 1935 and in September of that year entered Federal service with the Department of Agriculture. He transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1940 as an assistant soil technologist at the Navajo Agency. He has held progressively responsible positions since, including service as Superintendent of the Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., from 1957 to February 1964, and Superintendent of Osage since the latter date.
Pappan, of Kaw Indian descent, was born at Newkirk, Okla., on March 8, 1927. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree from Oklahoma A & M College in 1950 and later joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs staff at the Colorado River Agency as a soil conservationist. He served in progressively responsible positions until his appointment in July 1946 as superintendent at Fort Hall.
Superintendent Pappan will report at Pawhuska after winding up his affairs at Fort Hall.
