State of Montana looking for new Indian affairs director

First, a word of thanks to Jennifer Perez Cole, Montana’s Indian Affairs director, who has worked hard for Montana and for tribes in the state. She announced her resignation on Thursday as she accepted another job in Bozeman. Read on from a statement she wrote in an email explaining her departure:

Friends and Colleagues,

It is with a happy yet heavy heart that I bring you news today. I have accepted a career position with the U.S.D.A. Farm Service Agency as the Public Affairs Specialist, Outreach Coordinator and State Civil Rights Coordinator in the Office of the State Executive Director in Bozeman. While I am very excited to go to work for Montana’s farmers and ranchers, I must soon exit a position that I really love. My time here in the State Office of Indian Affairs working with Governor Schweitzer, his entire administration and each and every one of the hard-working tribal leaders, urban Indian leaders, tribal department directors, staff and citizens across the state will be forever cherished. It is so special to be part of an era in which this state and tribal nations are actively working together to strengthen state-tribal relationships and to advocate for and advance Indian people. I look forward to working with you all in my new role supporting all Montana farmers, ranchers and agriculture in every community in Montana – border to border.

I will be assisting with Governor Schweitzer’s search for a new director through the nomination process with tribal governments. Nominations letters from the governor are being sent to tribal leadership today via fax, email and mail. The deadline for nominations is Tuesday, May 11^th, and we hope to have the new director on board on June 1^st so that I can assist in their transition. My last day here will be June 3^rd, and my first day in my new job will be June 7^th. I sincerely thank each and every one of you for your leadership and service, and look forward to our continued work together.”

Here is the official state release:

“State Director of Indian Affairs Jennifer Perez Cole has accepted a position with the U.S.D.A. Farm Service Agency as the public affairs specialist, outreach coordinator and state civil rights coordinator in the state office located in Bozeman. Her new position will become effective on June 7, 2010. Jennifer was nominated by the Fort Belknap Assiniboine & Gros Ventre tribes and appointed by Governor Brian Schweitzer and has overseen the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs since November 2007. Her last official day in the Governor’s Office will be June 3, 2010.

As Director of Indian Affairs, Jennifer serves on the Governor’s cabinet and is the bridge between state government and tribal governments, citizens and organizations to strengthen government-to-government relationships and improve state-tribal communications.

Prior to her gubernatorial appointment, Jennifer worked as editor of Fort Belknap News, a tribally-operated newspaper of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Jennifer graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall, a private preparatory school in Connecticut in 1996, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in print journalism from the University of Montana in 2001, and also attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and Montana State University-Northern in Havre, Mont. Jennifer was a 2001 Chips Quinn Journalism Scholar and graduated from the Freedom Forum’s two-year Associated Press Managing Editors/American Society of Newspaper Editors Fellowship Program in fall of 2003. Her professional journalism career began as a reporter with the Great Falls Tribune until the fall of 2003 and continued in her role as editor of her tribal newspaper.

She and her husband, Skip, have two children, Emma and Frank, and she has two step-daughters, Shelby and Jessie. Jennifer, age 32, was born and raised on a ranch on the Fort Belknap Reservation where she is an enrolled member of the Assiniboine Tribe.