From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries

https://apnews.com/article/ben-nighthorse-campbell-dead-congressman-807d6e81f8264da7ae14febb8ee9da7a

DENVER (AP) -- Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the former senator and
U.S. representative of Colorado known for his passionate advocacy
of Native American issues, died Tuesday. He was 92.

Campbell died of natural causes surrounded by his family, his
daughter, Shanan Campbell, confirmed to The Associated Press.

Campbell, a Democrat who stunned his party by joining the
Republican Party, stood out in Congress as much for his
unconventional dress -- cowboy boots, bolo ties and ponytail
-- as his defense of children's rights, organized labor and
fiscal conservatism.

A member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, Campbell said his
ancestors were among more than 150 Native Americans, mostly
women, children and elderly men, killed by U.S. soldiers while
camped under a flag of truce on Nov. 29, 1864.

He served three terms in the House, starting in 1987. He then
served two terms in the Senate, from 1993 to 2005.

Among his accomplishments was helping sponsor legislation
upgrading the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in southern
Colorado to a national park.

"He was a master jeweler with a reputation far beyond the
boundaries of Colorado," said Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper
on X. "I will not forget his acts of kindness. He will be sorely
missed."

The motorcycle-riding lawmaker and cattle rancher was considered
a maverick even before he abruptly switched to the Republican
Party in March 1995, angry with Democrats for killing a
balanced-budget amendment in the Senate. His switch outraged
Democratic leaders and was considered a coup for the GOP.

"I get hammered from the extremes," he said shortly afterward.
"I'm always willing to listen ... but I just don't think you
can be all things to all people, no matter which party you're
in."

Considered a shoo-in for a third Senate term, Campbell stunned
supporters when he dropped out of the race in 2004 after a
health scare.

"I thought it was a heart attack. It wasn't," said Campbell.
"But when I was lying on that table in the hospital looking up
at all those doctors' faces, I decided then, 'Do I really need
to do this six more years after I've been gone so much from
home?' I have two children I didn't get to see grow up, quite
frankly."

He retired to focus on the Native American jewelry that helped
make him wealthy and was put on display at the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. He also
worked on a line of outdoor gear with a California-based company,
Kiva Designs, and became a senior policy adviser with the
powerhouse law firm of Holland & Knight in Washington.

Campbell founded Ben Nighthorse Consultants which focused on
federal policy, including Native American affairs and natural
resources. The former senator also drove the Capitol Christmas
Tree across the country to Washington, D.C., on several occasions.

"He was truly one of a kind, and I am thinking of his family
in the wake of his loss," said Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette on
X.

In 1982, he was planning to deliver his jewelry to California,
but bad weather grounded his plane. He was killing time in the
southern Colorado city of Durango when he went to a county
Democratic meeting and wound up giving a speech for a friend
running for sheriff.

Democrats were looking for someone to challenge a GOP legislative
candidate and sounded out Campbell during the meeting. "Like
a fish, I was hooked," he said.

His opponent, Don Whalen, was a popular former college president
who "looked like he was out of a Brooks Brothers catalog,"
Campbell recalled. "I don't think anybody gave me any kind of
a chance. ... I just think I expended a whole lot of energy to
prove them wrong."

Campbell hit the streets, ripping town maps out of the Yellow
Pages and walking door to door to talk with people. He recalled
leaving a note at a house in Cortez where no one was home when
he heard a car roar into the driveway, gravel flying and brakes
squealing.

The driver jumped out, tire iron in hand, and screamed that
Campbell couldn't have his furniture. "Aren't you the repossession
company?" the man asked.

"And I said, 'No man, I'm just running for office.' We got to
talking, and I think the guy voted for me."

Campbell went on to win and he never lost an election thereafter,
moving from the Colorado House to the U.S. House and then the
Senate.

Born April 13, 1933, in Auburn, California, Campbell served in
the Air Force in Korea from 1951 to 1953 and received a bachelor's
degree from San Jose State University in 1957. He attended
Meiji University in Tokyo from 1960 to 1964, was captain of
the U.S. judo team in the 1964 Olympics and won a gold medal
in the Pan American Games.

Campbell once called then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt a
"forked-tongued snake" for opposing a water project near the
southern Colorado town of Ignacio, which Campbell promoted as
a way to honor the water rights of the Southern Ute and Ute
Mountain Ute tribes.

He clashed with environmentalists on everything from mining
law and grazing reforms to setting aside land for national
monuments.

Despite all this -- or perhaps because of it -- voters loved
him. In 1998, Campbell won reelection to the Senate by routing
Democrat Dottie Lamm, the wife of former Gov. Dick Lamm, despite
his switch to the GOP. He was the only Native American in the
Senate at the time.

He said he was criticized as a Democrat for voting with
Republicans, and then pilloried by some newspapers for his
stances after the switch.

"It didn't change me. I didn't change my voting record. For
instance, I had a sterling voting record as a Democrat on labor.
I still do as a Republican. And on minorities and women's
issues," he said.

Campbell said his values -- liberal on social issues, conservative
on fiscal ones -- were shaped by his life. Children's causes
were dear to him because he and his sister spent time in an
orphanage when his father was in jail and his mother had
tuberculosis.

Organized labor won his backing because hooking up with the
Teamsters and learning to drive a truck got him out of the
California tomato fields. His time as a Sacramento County
sheriff's deputy in California in the late 1960s and early '70s
made him a law enforcement advocate.

His decision to retire from politics, Campbell said, had nothing
to do with allegations that Ginnie Kontnik, his former chief
of staff, solicited kickbacks from another staffer and that
his office lobbied for a contract for a technology company with
ties to the former senator.

He referred both matters to the Senate Ethics Committee. In
2007, Kontnik pleaded guilty to a federal charge of not reporting
$2,000 in income.

"I guess there was some disappointment" with those charges,
Campbell said. "But a lot of things happen in Washington that
disappoint you. You just have to get over them because every
day there's a new crisis to deal with."

I remember Campbell from my time in Colorado. Good guy.
--
Mark Shaw moc TOD liamg TA wahsnm ========================================================================
"Anyway, we delivered the bomb."
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2