Ben Reifel, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Ben Reifel

American politician

Date of Birth: 19-Sep-1906

Place of Birth: Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota, United States

Date of Death: 02-Jan-1990

Profession: politician

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Benjamin 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 University.
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.