Undated supplied photo of Bryan Mercier, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde that shares geography with Oregon. Mercier has been selected to serve as the next director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Courtesy of US Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bryan Mercier is the first member of a Northwest tribe in decades to supervise the federal government’s primary agency for Indigenous issues.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced this month that Mercier, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, will be acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He’ll become the permanent director after the current director, Darryl LeCounte, officially retires later this year.
Mercier has spent the last 20 years in public service — much of that in federal agencies, including the Forest Service, Department of Treasury, the Bonneville Power Administration and most recently, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he was the regional director for the Northwest.
In a statement, Mercier expressed gratitude for the promotion to national director.
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Mercier said he was looking forward to building on LeCounte’s “sound leadership to support Tribal sovereignty, strengthen Indian self-determination, and continue to improve our services by making the bureau an employer of choice for Native people.”
The appointment will give Oregon and Northwest tribal people a knowledgeable ally in Washington, D.C., says the chairwoman of the Grand Ronde, Cheryle Kennedy.
“I do expect that there’s going to be a different focus and vision to see that the Northwest tribes’ needs are understood and would be acted on sooner than what has been happening,” Kennedy said.
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In particular, Kennedy said Grand Ronde and other tribes in the Northwest are at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving federal funding for services such as police and fire protection. Kennedy said Mercier “knows that and will, I believe, be a great advocate on behalf of tribes in the Northwest.”
Kennedy said she was “thrilled” to learn from Mercier a few weeks ago that he was receiving serious consideration for the director’s job, when the two of them saw each other at an Oregon powwow.
With Mercier’s new appointment, his office will again be in D.C. But Grand Ronde leaders expect he’ll remain close to his Northwest roots.
Mercier’s brother, Chris, is the vice-chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, and their cousin, Bobby, works in the tribe’s cultural resources office.
