Louis R. Bruce Jr.; Former Indian Affairs Commissioner

Louis R. Bruce Jr., 83, an Indian who was commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1969 to 1973 and was dismissed after a takeover of the bureau’s Washington headquarters by about 500 Indians protesting injustices. Although Bruce was a known advocate of Indians’ civil rights, he came to represent to Indians the problems they were having gaining input to the bureau, legal guardian of the land on which 950,000 Indians live. Bruce was born on a reservation; his father was a Mohawk doctor and minister, and his mother was an Oglala Sioux. During his tenure he was credited with hiring many Indians to head bureau offices and help structure bureau policy. In Arlington, Va., on May 20 of cancer.