Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (born April 13, 1933) is an American politician. He was a U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1993 until 2005 and was the only Native American serving in the U.S. Congress. Campbell was a U.S. Representative from 1987 to 1993, when he was sworn into office as a Senator following his election on November 3, 1992. Campbell also serves as one of the 44 member Council of Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, which enrolled him in 1980.

Originally a member of the Democratic Party, Campbell switched to the Republican Party in 1995. Reelected in 1998, Campbell announced in March 2004 that he would not run for reelection to a third term in November of that year. He expressed interest in running for Governor of Colorado in 2006. However, on January 4, 2006, he announced that he would not enter the race. His Senate seat was won by Democrat Ken Salazar in the November 2004 election.

Early life, military service and family

Ben Campbell was born in Auburn, California. His mother, Mary Vierra, was a Portuguese immigrant who had come to the U.S. at age six. There Vierra's family settled in the large Portuguese community near Sacramento. When Vierra contracted tuberculosis in her youth, she met Albert Campbell who was also recieving treatment at the hospital. The couple married in 1929, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell was born in 1933.

During Campbell's childhood, his father had problems with alcoholism, often leaving the family for weeks and months at a time. His mother continued to have health problems, with tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease that limited the contact she could have with her children. These problems led to Ben and his sister Alberta spending much of their early lives in orphanages.

Campbell attended Placer High School, dropping out in 1951 to join the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed in Korea during the Korean War; he left the Air Force in 1953 with the rank of Airman Second Class, as well as the Korean Service Medal and the Air Medal.

Campbell got married and divorced before marrying Linda Price in 1966. The couple have two children, Colin Campbell and Shanan Longfellow.

Education and Olympic competition

After returning to the United States, Campbell attended San Jose State College (now San Jose State University), where he joined the judo team, a sport he first participated in as a teenager. He received a bachelor's degree in physical education and fine arts in 1957. Campbell later studied Japanese culture at Meiji University in Tokyo as a special research student from 1960 to 1964. While in Japan, Campbell continued to return to the United States to compete in judo competitions, winning three U.S. national championships and a gold medal at the 1963 Pan American Games.

Campbell was the captain of the U.S. judo team in the 1964 Summer Olympics, competing in the open weightclass. He won his first round match, but seriously injured his knee during his second round match, ending his judo career. Campbell was chosen to carry the American flag during the closing ceremonies, after swimmer Don Schollander was unable to attend. He remained involved in judo as an instructor, and wrote the judo training manual Championship Judo Training Drills, published in 1974.

Political career

Campbell later became a self-employed jewelry designer, as well as a rancher and horse trainer, in his adopted hometown of Ignacio, Colorado. His jewelry has been displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian. In 1982, he ran for and won a surprise victory to the Colorado General Assembly, where he served for four years. In November 1986, Campbell was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He took office in January 1987 and held the seat until he was sworn in as Senator six years later. In March 2006, Campbell was mentioned as a potential replacement as Secretary of Interior, replacing Gale Norton. If appointed, Campbell would have been the first Native American to serve in the United States Cabinet, overseeing the agency that oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service. Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne received the nomination.

Quotations

"A lot of senators are so worried about convention and how they look that they wouldn't let their hair down if they had any."

"No longer will Native American culture be bottled up in collections and hidden from so many people in the world who wish to share them." — Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for the National Museum of the American Indian

"The recognition they're given now is richly deserved and long overdue." — Referring to the Navajo Code Talkers who created and employed the famously unbreakable code used by the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II

Source

Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia