Ben Reifel
| Ben Reifel | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Dakota's 1st district |
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In office January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1971 |
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| Preceded by | George McGovern |
| Succeeded by | Frank E. Denholm |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Benjamin Reifel (or Lone Feather) September 19, 1906 Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota |
| Died | January 2, 1990 (aged 83) Sioux Falls, South Dakota |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | 1) Alice Janet Johnson (m. 1933, d. 8 February 1972) 2) Frances Colby (m. 14 August 1972) |
| Children | Loyce Nadine Reifel |
| Residence | Estelline, South Dakota and Largo, Florida |
| Alma mater |
South Dakota State College, B.A. (1932) Harvard University, M.P.A. (1949); Ph.D. (1952) |
| Profession | Federal civil service |
Benjamin "Ben" Reifel, also known as Lone Feather (September 19, 1906 – January 2, 1990) was a public administrator and politician of Lakota Sioux and German-American descent. He had a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, retiring as area administrator. He ran for the US Congress from the East River region of South Dakota, and was elected as the first Lakota to serve in the House of Representatives. He served five terms as a Republican United States Congressman from the (now obsolete) First District.
Born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Reifel graduated from South Dakota State College. During World War II he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He worked for the Department of the Interior beginning in 1933, retiring as the Aberdeen, South Dakota area administrator of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in March 1960. Awarded a mid-career fellowship in public administration to Harvard University for a master's degree, he went on to earn his PhD in 1952. Elected to the Eighty-seventh Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1971), Reifel chose not to run in 1970.
Reifel was born in a log cabin near Parmelee, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. He was the son of Lucy Burning Breast, a Lakota Sioux, and William Reifel, of German descent. Ben Reifel was enrolled in the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and his Indian name means "Lone Feather" in English. He attended a Todd County school as well as the Rosebud Reservation boarding school as a child. He graduated at the age of sixteen from the eighth grade, speaking both English and Lakota.
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