Tribal gambling, recognition oversight changes hands again

Erica Werner

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 9:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The No. 2 official at the Bureau of Indian Affairs has removed herself from Indian gambling and recognition decisions so she can go to work for a private law firm without facing conflict of interest questions.

Aurene Martin, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs, will resign effective Sept. 10, department spokesman Dan DuBray said Tuesday. Effective immediately, responsibility for tribal gambling and recognition decisions is being given to Mike Olsen, who now holds the title of counselor to the assistant secretary.

Olsen will become the third official in less than a year to assume responsibility for two of Indian country's top issues. BIA head Dave Anderson, who was confirmed by the Senate last December, removed himself from those decisions in April to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Anderson co-founded Grand Casinos Inc.

Meanwhile, several other BIA officials are also switching jobs or leaving, in the latest changes at an agency that has been criticized as ineffective by lawmakers. Anderson said the timing was coincidental, praised Martin and said the changes would make the department stronger.

"It appears like it's a shakeup, but it's not," Anderson said in an interview. "I think the scuttlebutt comes from, I think in any administration when you have a new leader it's like a flock of geese when they're flying, that you always have a little turbulence, but the thing is that everybody is flying in the right direction."

Martin was not available for comment, DuBray said. He said she planned to look for work at a law firm, and ethics guidelines required her to recuse herself from issues potential employers might have an interest in.

Among other changes in the BIA: Woodrow Hopper, a deputy assistant secretary, is transferring to a BIA human resources job in Oklahoma; Amy Courson, an attorney, is leaving to take a job with her tribe, the Tohono O'odhams; and Terry Virden, deputy commissioner of Indian affairs, returned to Minnesota, where he has family, to pursue an opportunity there several months ago.