Reifel, Ben, 1906-1990

Benjamin Reifel, also known as Lone Feather (September 19, 1906 – January 2, 1990) was a Lakota Sioux politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1961 to 1971 representing South Dakota's 1st congressional district. Reifel was the first person of Lakota or Sioux descent to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he attended Todd County rural schools before earning a B.S. from South Dakota State College. After graduating, Reifel was hired by Hare's School in Mission, South Dakota as an adviser for boys. He began working at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1933; he was assigned to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a farm agent to the Oglala Lakota. After a year, he was promoted to field agent at the Pierre, South Dakota regional headquarters. Reifel's BIA career was interrupted by World War II. In 1931, he had been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve. In March 1942, the Army ordered Reifel to active duty, and he served until July 1946. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After being discharged, Reifel continued working for the BIA. He was selected as a Tribal Relations Officer and later promoted to the position as Superintendent of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. In 1949 Reifel was awarded a scholarship to study public administration at Harvard University under a Civil Service Commission program for management development of career government officials. He earned his master's degree in 1949. He received a John Hay Whitney Foundation Opportunity Fellowship and completed his Doctorate in Public Administration in 1952. Following his graduation, Reifel returned to the BIA. He worked briefly at its national headquarters in Washington, D.C. before returning to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation as Superintendent. Reifel later served as Superintendent at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In 1955 he was promoted as the Area Director of the Aberdeen Area Office in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In 1960, Reifel retired from the BIA and successfully ran for Congress in South Dakota's 1st congressional district.

In Congress Reifel held several committee assignments. In his first term, he was appointed to the House Agricultural Committee; in his second, to the House Committee on Appropriations. He served as the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations subcommittee on Interior Department Affairs. He worked hard for farming interests in South Dakota and the Plains states in general, opposing cuts in farm support programs, pushing the Oahe Dam to supply water for irrigation, and similar matters. At the same time, he continued to work vigorously for American Indian education, with significant accomplishments. Opposing segregation, he believed that the key to ending the isolation of the Native American people was in educational programs that enrolled American Indian and non-Indian students together in modern progressive facilities, rather than keeping children in Indian-only boarding schools. Reifel supported the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and an increase in the minimum wage.

In 1970 Reifel decided not to seek reelection. While he intended to retire in 1971, he remained active, accepting an appointment by President Richard Nixon as chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, which has oversight over federal projects in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He next served as Special Assistant for Indian programs to the Director of the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior. He also served as Interim Commissioner of Indian Affairs during the last two months of the Ford administration.

Reifel retired to Estelline, South Dakota and Largo, Florida. He died in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.