WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick
Ragsdale announced on March 3 that he has named Omar C. Bradley as the regional director for the BIA’s Navajo Regional Office in Gallup, N.M., which serves the
16 million-acre Navajo Reservation located in western New Mexico, northeastern
Arizona and southern Utah. Bradley, a member of the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma, had been serving as the acting regional director since May 2006. His
appointment was effective February 4, 2007.
“Omar Bradley brings with him almost 30 years of
experience working with BIA programs and tribal governments,” Ragsdale said. “I
am pleased that the Bureau and the Navajo Nation will continue to benefit from
his extensive knowledge and expertise.”
The regional director is the senior manager for
the Navajo Region and provides executive direction for BIA program operations
that deliver services to the Navajo Nation tribal government and the 220,000
tribal members living in the area either directly or under P.L. 93-639 contract
with the tribe. His areas of responsibility include management oversight of the
16 million acres of the Navajo Indian Reservation and adjacent off-reservation
tribal trust lands and 950,000 acres of individually held allotted trust land
located in the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. He is responsible for
the administration, execution and funding of trust services, water and natural
resources management, forestry, fire management, irrigation, dam safety,
housing, education, and social services programs as well as the construction and
maintenance of more than 6,000 miles of reservation roads.
Bradley began his BIA career in 1978 as a
realty officer with the Bureau’s Southern Pueblos Agency in Albuquerque, a
position he held for the next 12 years. In 1990, he was promoted to natural resources program administrator where he was responsible for the oversight and
delivery of natural resources programs and activities to 10 Pueblo tribes and
more than 1 million trust acres within the agency’s jurisdiction. During these
years, Bradley also periodically served as the acting agency superintendent
for his and other BIA agencies including the Mescalero Agency in Mescalero,
N.M., and the Ute Mountain Ute Agency in Towaoc, Colo. As the acting
superintendent he was responsible for the daily administration and management of
all agency program services to the federally recognized tribes within their
areas.
In 1998, he became the regional water rights protection manager in the Bureau’s Albuquerque Area Office
(now known as the Southwest Regional Office) where he was responsible for water
management, irrigation construction, operations and maintenance, and dam safety
on trust lands belonging to 24 federally recognized tribes. He held the
position until 2000 when he was named deputy regional director for the Navajo
Regional Office.
As deputy regional director, Bradley was the principal advisor to the regional director for all program activities under the jurisdiction of the Navajo
Regional Office and was responsible for all day-to-day managerial and technical
functions of the regional office and its agencies and field offices on the
Navajo Reservation.
Following
a reorganization of the BIA, his title changed in 2004 to deputy regional director for trust services. His responsibilities included the day-to-day
administration and management of the BIA’s trust programs servicing the Navajo
Nation, implementation of the Interior Department’s Comprehensive Trust
Management Plan, and overseeing the work of BIA trust program employees. He
held the title of deputy regional director for trust services until May
2006.
Bradley received a
bachelor’s degree in university studies in 1974 and a master’s degree in business administration in 1975 from the University of New Mexico. That same
year, he began his career in serving tribal communities as a business economic
development specialist with the All Indian Development Association, a nonprofit
organization in Albuquerque, N.M. As such, he was responsible for promoting and
facilitating business development among the 24 tribes located in New Mexico and
southern Colorado, including the Navajo Nation. He remained with the AIDA until
1978, when he was hired by the BIA.
Bradley currently resides within the Manuelito Chapter jurisdiction
of the Eastern Navajo portion of the Navajo Nation in New
Mexico.
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