May 2, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 72 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H3410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING BEN REIFEL

  (Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Mr. Speaker, in 1961, South Dakota's Ben 
Reifel became our Nation's first Lakota Indian in Congress.
  He grew up dirt poor in a log cabin in rural Todd County. He dropped 
out after eighth grade but later graduated from South Dakota State and 
from Harvard.
  Ben Reifel was respected in this Chamber. That gentleman was 
respected in Indian Country. You see, throughout his career at the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs and for a decade here in Congress, he worked 
tirelessly to further economic opportunity for American Indians. Ben 
Reifel celebrated education, hard work, and self-determination.
  Yesterday, I filed a bill asking that Ben Reifel's name be placed on 
the Mission Post Office. It is my hope that young American Indian boys 
and girls will see that name and realize that great American leaders 
have come, and will come again, from that place.

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