William B. Benge, Chief of the Branch of Law and Order, Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been given a temporary assignment as Special Liaison Representative to the Seneca Indian Tribe of Western New York, Commissioner Robert L. Bennett announced today.
Bennett said that Benge's appointment is effective immediately and is expected to last only a few months while a successor is being chosen for Sidney M. Carney, who has been named BIA Area Director for the Anadarko (Okla.) Area.
Benge, a member of the Cherokee Tribe, began his service with the Bureau in 1934 as a clerk at the Turtle Mountain, N. D. Agency.
From 1946 to 1949 he was Superintendent of the New York Agency, which was abolished in 1949 when responsibility for Indian affairs was turned over to the State. Federal contact was re-estab1ished when Carney was sent to assist the Senecas with a rehabilitation program after one third of one of their reservations was taken for the new Kinzua Dam Reservoir.
