Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 3, 1 March 2011 — Akaka elected lndian Affairs Chairman [ARTICLE]

Akaka elected lndian Affairs Chairman

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawai'i) on Feb. 16 was formally selected to lead the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs as Chairman in the 1 1 2th Congress, becoming the first Native Hawaiian to chair the committee. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) was elected, also unanimously, to serve as Vice Chairman. Both Akaka and Barrasso pledged to eon-

tinue the committee's tradition of bipartisanship in addressing issues important to American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. Akaka later appointed Loretta Tuell as the next Staff Director for the Indian Affairs Committee, replacing outgoing Staff Director Allison Binney. Tuell grew up on the Nez Perce reservation, has served on the Indian Affairs Committee as Counsel to former Chairman Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawai'i), and is a former partner at Anderson Tuell LLP, an American Indian-owned law firm in Washington, D.C. Among other posts, Tuell has served as Counselor to the Assistant of Secretary of Indian Affairs, Director of the Office of American Indian Trust, and Acting Director of the Office of Tribal Services at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She also served as Co-Chair of the Joint Federal-Tribal Task Force in the development of the Indian Affairs Bureau Consultation Policy and was an appointee to the Federal Task Force for Native Hawaiians.