Ralph F. Keen, a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma, has been appointed Acting Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Trust
Responsibilities, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has announced.
In this position, Keen is responsible for the administration of more than 50 million acres of tribal lands held in trust by the United States.
A native of Hominy, Oklahoma, Keen succeeds Martin Seneca who has accepted a position with the Federal Energy Administration
Keen attended the Chilocco Indian High School and graduated from Oklahoma's Northeastern State University at Tahlequah with a B.A.
and a teaching certificate He later completed law studies at the University of Tulsa.
Before going into the practice of law in Tahlequah, Keen was Business Manager of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma 1967-69. He
had previously been Director of the Bureau of Indian Services at the University of Utah and Executive Director of the Inter-Tribal Council
of Nevada. He was for a short period a teacher at the Haskell Indian Institute at Lawrence, Kansas.
Keen, 42, is a member of the American Bar Association and the Oklahoma Bar Association.
