[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 7, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H3465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING THE SERVICE OF 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 the 1960s, South 
Dakota's Ben Reifel became the first Lakota Indian to represent our 
country in Congress. He grew up dirt poor in a log cabin. He dropped 
out after the eighth grade, later going on to graduate from South 
Dakota State and from Harvard.
  Throughout his career, Ben Reifel, at the Bureau of Indian Affairs 
and for a decade here in Congress, fought to advance economic 
opportunity for American Indians. He celebrated hard work, education, 
and self-determination. He was respected in Indian Country, and he was 
respected in this Chamber.
  Last week, I filed a bill to put Ben Reifel's name on the Rosebud 
Post Office. I am hopeful that young Indian boys and girls will look 
upon that name and realize that great Americans have come and will come 
again from that sacred place.

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