Former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell was elected to the National Native American Hall of Fame on Nov. 6 in Oklahoma City.
The newly opened First Americans Museum hosted the ceremony in which Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) and seven others, including U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Muscogee Nation) and Indian Health Service leader and World War II U.S. Army Nurse Marcella LeBeau (Cheyenne River Sioux), were inducted.
“For an awful long time, if you read any book about Indians or saw any movie, they were always cast in a negative stereotype. And I think that our children are raised with that attitude,” Campbell said Friday in an interview. “It’s tough to break out of there, but a lot of us have in sports or in science or in (the) military.
“I think it’s incumbent on us to set examples for Indian kids that they can do it, they can make it, they can forge ahead,” he said. “And I think that’s one of the best things about inducting people into (the National Native American Hall of Fame).”
Campbell served a long and illustrious career in multiple levels of government. He was elected to the U.S. House representing western Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District after serving two terms as a Colorado state legislator. He served as a U.S. senator from 1993 until 2005, switching from a Democrat to a Republican in 1995.
Campbell served 22 years in public office, becoming the first Native American to ever lead the Indian Affairs Committee. He also sat on the Appropriations, Energy and Natural Resources, and Veterans’ Affairs committees.
“I never let the chance go by when I don’t give talks about the importance of running for public office for Indian people,” he said.
“(Indigenous peoples) are just now recognizing that they can be successful in public office,” he said, referencing U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna) and the more than 114 Indigenous candidates who ran for office in 2020.
He sponsored numerous bills that became law, many of which helped Indigenous peoples, including the Native American Technical Corrections Act of 2004 and the Indian Financing Amendments Act of 2002.
Campbell also helped create the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and worked with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to establish its sovereignty over air quality on its reservation.
“I couldn’t shirk what I felt was my duty, so we worked very hard to help Indian people all over,” he said.
Campbell said one of his favorite bills he worked on while in Congress was the National Museum of the American Indian Act, which established the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
The National Native American Hall of Fame was established in 2016 by James Parker Shield (Little Shell Chippewa) with support from Native communities across the U.S.
“It was an obvious hole in the fabric of our country that we didn't have a hall of fame for Native Americans,” he said. “Too often people’s perception of Native Americans is that after the Indian Wars our people went on the reservations (and) we just kind of languished there. When actually our people survived reservations and boarding school and government policies that weren’t too kind and tried to eliminate us.
“Some have thrived and overcome adversity and have gone on to achieve great things in their lives and great things for the American people,” Shield said. “And those are the people that we honor by inducting them into the Hall of Fame.”
Hall of Fame candidates must be federally enrolled, a member of a state-recognized tribe or have verifiable Native American descent. They are assessed by their leadership, sacrifice, contributions to Indian Country, mentorship, legacy and accomplishments, according to the National Native American Hall of Fame website.
So far, 32 people have been inducted in the first three classes, including Olympian and football star Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox Nation), writer N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa Tribe) and journalist Hattie Kauffman (Nez Perce Tribe).
The National Native American Hall of Fame has made a particular effort to recognize the diversity of Indigenous peoples, Shield said.
“We’re honoring people for their achievements and what they contributed to bettering the lives of Native Americans in general,” he said. “You don't always have to be somebody that’s well-known.”
Shield pointed to LeBeau, who served in the Indian Health Service on her reservation for 31 years, and Katherine Siva Saubel (Morongo Band of Mission Indians), who worked to preserve Indigenous languages and founded the Malki Museum at the Morongo Reservation, the first Native American museum created and managed by Indigenous people.
“To us, culture is very important and somebody that devotes their life to preserving it deserves recognition and deserves to be honored by being in the Hall of Fame,” he said.
In addition to running the Hall of Fame, the National Native American Hall of Fame develops educational materials for schools across the country. The organization has developed a curriculum that teaches students about Native Americans and Hall of Fame inductees.
“Some of the achievements by individual Native Americans have been overlooked. And so we’re trying to shed light on those achievements,” Shield said.
He heaped praise on Campbell.
“We’re very proud to have your senator in the Hall of Fame. He is quite a guy and not only did he achieve in one area, but he was a virtual renaissance man. He achieved in a number of areas,” Shield said.
For his part, Campbell expressed gratitude for the honor.
“I was very proud,” he said.
ahannon@durangoherald.com
