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Gene Peltola Jr. Of Bethel Named To Alaska's Top BIA Position

Courtesy of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior

The new director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Alaska Region is a Bethel-born Orutsararmiut Native Council Tribal member. Gene "Buzzy" Peltola Jr. has been named to the director position and will oversee the BIA offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Together, the offices provide services to 227 Alaska Native tribes.

Peltola comes to the position after 34 years of working with another federal agency: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Most recently, Peltola coordinated and implemented subsistence management on all federal lands in Alaska as the Federal Subsistence Management Program lead.

Peltola also has a background in business and local government. He’s sat on the boards of Bethel Native Corporation and its subsidiaries Bethel Solutions, LLC, and Bethel Services Inc. For two years, from 2010 to 2012, also Peltola served as vice-mayor and council member for the City of Bethel.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.