The Bureau of Indian Affairs has named new superintendents for the Blackfeet Agency in Montana and the Uintah/Ouray Agency in Utah, Acting Deputy Commissioner Sidney Mills announced today.
Michael A. Fairbanks, superintendent at the Michigan Agency, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, will be the new agency head at the 950,000 acre Blackfeet Reservation headquartered at Browning, Montana. Fairbanks, age 43, an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewas, attended Bemidji State and North Dakota State majoring in social sciences.
His prior BIA service included tours at Red Lake, Minneapolis, Great Lakes and Western Nevada in criminal investigation and tribal operations.
Fairbanks replaces Anson Baker who was appointed Billings Area Director in April. The Blackfeet Tribe was settled on the present reservation in Glacier and Pondera Counties in Montana in 1888 and is organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934;
The new superintendent at the Uintah/Ouray Agency is Lavern W. Collier, age 34, Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma, who holds a BA degree in public and business administration from Northeastern State University and is a graduate of the Oklahoma Military Academy. Collier, a former United States Marine Corps officer, has prior BIA service in the Joint-Use Administrative Office, Flagstaff, Ariz., Uintah and Ouray Agency, the Office of the Commissioner, Washington, D.C., and the Phoenix, Ariz. Area office in planning, tribal operations and special projects. Collier replaces William Ragsdale who has been appointed Assistant Area Director for Economic Development in the Phoenix Area Office.
The Ute tribal headquarters is at Ft. Duchesne for the 1 million acre Uintah and Ouray Reservation which was established in 1863 and federally chartered under the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934.
