WASHINGTON
- Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced
he has named William F. Benjamin as regional director of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) Great Plains Regional Office in Aberdeen, S.D.
The appointment was effective May 16, 2004. Benjamin, who is an enrolled
member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, comes to his appointment after
having served as deputy regional director of the bureau's Rocky Mountain
Regional Office in Billings, Mont.
"I am very pleased that
Bill Benjamin will be taking the helm at our Great Plains Regional Office,"
Anderson said. "His level of knowledge, as well as his extensive
programmatic and managerial experience, will ensure that the BIA will
fulfill its commitment to providing quality service to its customers."
As deputy regional director,
Benjamin was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day program and administrative
operations for the BIA regional office including trust and human services
programs, administration and personnel, environmental services, safety
programs, facilities management and information resources, as well as
working with tribal and state governments and other federal agencies.
During his tenure Benjamin also has served on several Federal water
rights negotiation teams dealing with tribal-state water rights compacts;
worked to resolve conflicts between a Montana tribe, federal agencies
and private lenders to provide housing mortgages to tribal members;
worked with irrigation water users to resolve water supply and water
rights issues; and forged productive relationships with tribal leaders,
state officials, federal representatives and members of the public.
Benjamin has built a 27-year
career with the bureau starting in 1977 as a loan specialist with the
Billings Area Office (now called the Rocky Mountain Regional Office).
Prior to that time, he had worked in the private sector where he spent
several years first as a high school teacher in Montana (1966 - 1969)
and then with the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (1969
- 1977) where he directed recruiting programs for American Indians on
reservations throughout the western United States. He later served as
finance director for the organization's office in Great Falls, Mont.
From 1977 on Benjamin worked
successfully in a series of positions dealing with human service programs
and budget and finance functions at the agency and area office (now
regional office) levels within the BIA. He served as a tribal programs
specialist in the bureau's Fort Belknap Agency in Harlem, Mont. (1977
- 1978); held budget and finance positions with the Billings Area Office
(1978 - 1993); served a temporary assignment as a supervisory accountant
with the BIA's Division of Accounting Management (DAM) in Albuquerque,
N.M. (1992); rose to the level of area supervisory accountant with the
Billings office; and was promoted to chief of DAM's payments branch
in Albuquerque (1993 - 1996) prior to his becoming deputy regional director
in the Rocky Mountain office.
Benjamin also has successfully
completed the Federal Executive Potential Training Program (1991 - 1992)
and the Interior Department's Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate
Development Program (2000 - 2001).
Benjamin, who was born and
raised in Browning, Mont., on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is a
1960 graduate of Browning High School. Following a course of study in
accounting, economics and business law at Rocky Mountain College in
Billings, he continued his education at Eastern Montana College where
he received a Bachelor of Science degree in business education, with
a major in accounting, in 1966.