Ben reifel biography
- Benjamin Reifel also known as Lone Feather was a Sicangu Lakota public administrator and politician.
- Benjamin Reifel, also known as Lone Feather, was a Sicangu Lakota public administrator and politician.
- Benjamin Reifel was born September 19, 1906, in a log cabin within the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
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Ben Reifel Named-Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Ben Reifel, a former South Dakota Congressman and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, has accepted a "recess appointment" as Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
President Ford announced the appointment of Reifel December 7 following a recommendation by Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe. Reifel succeeds Morris Thompson who left the post November 3 to return to Alaska as Vice President of the Alcan Pipeline Co.
Reifel will take the oath of office in a ceremony in Secretary Kleppe's office at 3:30 p.m. today.
Reifel, 70, worked 22 years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs before beginning five terms in Congress in 1960. He started with BIA as a Farm Agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He later was Agency Superintendent at Pine Ridge and at the Fort Berthold Agency in North Dakota. He was, from 1955-60, Director of the Bureau's Aberdeen Area, which includes North and South Dakota and Nebraska.
A World War II Army veteran, Reifel is a graduate of South Dakota State College. He received a Master's Deg
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The names of Sioux Falls' new schools — Thomas Jefferson High School and Benjamin Reifel Middle School — have been approved as of Monday night.
And while you'd be hard-pressed to find a high school student who doesn't know our third president, Reifel, a five-term Republican congressman, isn't as well-known. But his former field director thinks Reifel has a story that will be an inspiration to those who pass through the school bearing his name.
Rolly Samp worked for Reifel from 1962-1969, and said the congressman was a hard worker with a good sense of humor, who made sure to pay close attention to everything happening around him.
"Schools should be named after someone that inspires the students," Samp said. On that point, he said, Reifel succeeds.
Reifel was born in a log cabin on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Samp said, and worked his way to a job at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1933 where he worked for nearly 30 years, broken up only by serving in World War II and attending Harvard.
Eventually he decided to run for Congress, taking office in 1961, where
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Ben Reifel
Native American politician from South Dakota, U.S.
Ben Reifel | |
|---|---|
| In office 1976–1977 | |
| President | Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | Morris Thompson |
| Succeeded by | Forrest Gerard (as Asst. Sec. of the Interior for Indian Affairs) |
| In office January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | George McGovern |
| Succeeded by | Frank E. Denholm |
| Born | Benjamin Reifel (1906-09-19)September 19, 1906 Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S. |
| Died | January 2, 1990(1990-01-02) (aged 83) Sioux Falls, South Dakota, U.S. |
| Nationality | Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, American |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses |
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| Children | Loyce Nadine Reifel |
| Alma mater | [1] |
| Profession | Federal civil service |
Benjamin Reifel (RIFLE; September 19, 1906 – January 2, 1990), also known as Lone Feather (Lakota: Wíyaka Waŋžíla), was
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