Zinke Names New BIA Director

KTVQ.com reports that Bryan Rice has been named the new director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced on Monday.  Rice began his government career in Montana, and most recently led the Interior Office of Wildland Fire, and led forestry and tribal programs for the federal government, according to Zinke’s office.  He was on the Helena Interagency Hotshot Crew about twenty years ago for the U.S. Forest Service in Helena.

Rice is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and supervised timber operations on the Yakama Reservation in Washington state and on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.  The BIA has four main offices, 12 regional offices and 83 agencies.  Their budget this year is $1.9 billion, with nearly 4,800 employees.