Ben Reifel

Career Following his graduation in 1932, 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.

Harvard 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.

Political career Ben Reifel (Rosebud Lakota), U.S. Representative from South Dakota's 1st Congressional District, 1961–71. South Dakota's congressional delegation in the 87th U.S. Congress.L-R: Ellis Y. Berry, Joseph H. Bottum, Karl E. Mundt, and Ben Reifel. In 1960, Reifel retired from the BIA and ran for Congress in South Dakota's 1st congressional district. At the time it included all of the counties east of the Missouri River, colloquially known as East River. (The district was redrawn in 1931 to include 21 counties in the southeast part of the state. ) Reifel was elected by a substantial margin; he was the first person of Lakota or Sioux descent to serve in the US Congress.

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. 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, as was recommended by the 1928 Meriam Report, rather than keeping children in Indian-only boarding schools. Reifel supported the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and an increase in the minimum wage.

Reifel was instrumental in getting the Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) of the US Geological Survey located in South Dakota. In addition, he gained support to keep Ellsworth Air Force Base as an active military base in the state.

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.

Later years Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Reifel was a member of the Masons, Rotarians, and Elks. He also served on the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He also served as national president of Arrow, Inc., a Native American service organization.

In 1977, Reifel became a trustee of the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings. He served terms as the board president in 1982–83. He established the first Native American collection at the Art Museum in 1977, donating most of his personal collection.

Legacy and honors 1956, Outstanding American Indian Award. 1960, awarded the Annual Indian Achievement Award from the Indian Council Fire. 1960, received the Silver Antelope Award from the Boy Scouts of America, as well as the Gray Wolf, Silver Buffalo and Silver Beaver Awards in Scouting. 1961, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of the Interior for his career with the BIA. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center in Badlands National Park was named in his honor. Reifel received honorary doctorates from South Dakota State University, the University of South Dakota, and Northern State College. A dorm on the South Dakota State University campus was named after him and opened in 2015. 2018, became the namesake of a new middle school in the Sioux Falls School District.

Marriage and family On December 26, 1933, Reifel married his college sweetheart, Alice Janet Johnson of Erwin, South Dakota. They had a daughter, Loyce Nadine Reifel. She married Emery Andersen. Alice Reifel died of pneumonia on February 8, 1972.

Ben Reifel remarried on August 14, 1972 to Frances Colby of DeSmet, South Dakota. He died of cancer on January 2, 1990.