Weldon “Bruce” Loudermilk has been named to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. He succeeds Michael S. Black, who has served since 2010.
Loudermilk is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. He takes the BIA’s top job as the bureau has recently implemented new rules for granting federal recognition and has begun to create a bigger role for tribes in the management of federal lands.
He has been BIA regional director for Alaska since 2014. He was Great Plains Regional Director from 2010–2014. Before joining the BIA he worked at the department’s Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) as a Financial Trust Services Officer and as a Fiduciary Trust Officer.
Jewell also named Tony Dearman, a member of the Cherokee Nation to head the Bureau of Indian Education. The BIA has also found itself challenged by implementing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Carcieri v. Salazar ruling that makes it harder for tribes to put land into trust.
Jewell praised the departing BIA director: “Mike Black deserves our thanks and admiration for his dedicated service as Director of the BIA, especially focusing on the important work of restoring tribal homelands, returning leasing decisions to the hands of tribal communities, and facilitating tribal economic opportunities. Mike is the longest serving Director in the BIA’s history, and we are grateful for his dedication, enthusiasm and commitment to public service.”
