Albuquerque lawyer confirmed as new head of BIA
Story-Date: 12:28 a.m. PST Tuesday  , November 11, 1997

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Albuquerque lawyer confirmed as new head of BIA



WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has confirmed Albuquerque, N.M., lawyer
Kevin Gover to run the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Gover, 42, is an enrolled member of the Pawnee tribe. An anti-gambling
group had opposed his nomination as assistant interior secretary for Indian
affairs because of his work for Indian casinos in New Mexico.

But Gover was widely supported by tribal leaders, and the Senate approved
his nomination Sunday.

"The BIA is possibly one of the least efficient government agencies and is
in desperate need of guidance and leadership," said Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-N.M. "We are putting our trust in Kevin Gover to step into this
leadership vacuum."

At confirmation hearings before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee last
week, he said the BIA "carries the baggage of every mistaken policy
initiative, every naive assistance program and every broken promise ever
directed toward tribal governments."

Gover has said his first mission will be to find consensus "on what the
Bureau of Indian Affairs is to be in the next century."

Senators, who took up Gover's nomination along with a number of other
appointments, spproved it without debate.

The BIA provides services to reservations, including law enforcement,
education and welfare. Its policies affect more than 500 tribal governments
and 2 million individual people.

However, the agency has long been considered one of the worst-run
government agencies.

Gover, 42, a native of Lawton, Okla., has said the BIA can function
properly with the right leadership. Gover also has said he wants to lead
the agency by inspiration instead of intimidation.

"The people of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are good people and can do
their jobs successfully if given the opportunity to apply their natural
ability and creativity," he said in his confirmation hearing.

"This necessarily includes the right to make mistakes. We will make
mistakes, but I want them to be errors of enthusiasm rather than sloth."

The bureau has about 11,000 employees and a $1.6 billion annual budget.
Gover said the BIA has the tools to deliver service "in virtually any form
a tribe might desire," but that it is up to tribes to determine that form.

Ultimately, Gover has said, "The BIA needs to get smaller."



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