As a result of his election on November 3, 1992, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (born 1933) of Colorado became the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate in more than 60 years. A member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Campbell was also a renowned athlete and captained the U.S. judo team for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell was born in Auburn, California, on April 13, 1933, to Mary Vierra, a Portuguese immigrant, and Albert Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne Indian. He had a hard childhood, with a mother frequently hospitalized for tuberculosis and an alcoholic father. Indeed, by the time he turned ten years old Nighthorse had spent half of his life in St. Patrick's Catholic Orphanage in Sacramento, California. At home there was frequently no one to care for him or his younger sister, Alberta. As a result, the youngster spent much of his time in the streets getting into trouble.

While working as a fruit picker in the Sacramento Valley, Nighthorse befriended some Japanese youths who taught him judo. That sport, according to the senator, "kept me off the streets and out of jail." After graduating from high school, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1953. Stationed in Korea as an Airman 2nd class, he continued with his judo training. On completing his military service, Campbell entered San Jose State University and supported himself by picking fruit and driving a truck. He still was a member of the Teamsters and proudly displayed his union card while a senator. In 1957 he received a Bachelors degree in physical education and fine arts. Upon graduation, Nighthorse moved to Tokyo for four years to work on his judo and study at Meiji University.

Campbell's ability in judo not only won him All-American status in that sport and helped him become three-time U.S. judo champion but allowed him to win the gold medal in the Pan-American Games in 1963. The next year he captained the U.S. judo team at the Tokyo Olympics. Later, the Olympian coached the U.S. international judo team.

Although Campbell worked as a teacher, policeman, and prison counselor, as well as a farm laborer and a truck driver, his success came as a designer of Native American jewelry. He had been interested in this Indian art form since his childhood, but learned how to laminate different metals in Japan. Although traditionalists argued that this technique did not follow the style of Indian art, Arizona Highways recognized his creativity in a 1972 article that identified him as one of twenty Native Americans undertaking new forms of art. He won more than 200 design awards for his hand-crafted rings, bracelets, and pendants. Some of his work has sold for as much as $20,000. In 1977 Campbell moved to a 120-acre ranch on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation near Ignacio, Colorado. With his wife, Linda Price Nighthorse (Campbell's third marriage), and their two children, Colin and Shana, Campbell trained champion quarter horses on the ranch until a severe injury, incurred while breaking a colt, put an end to that career.

Nighthorse's involvement in politics came about because of bad weather. Unable to fly his single-engine airplane to the West Coast to deliver some jewelry due to heavy storms, he visited a meeting of Colorado Democrats seeking a candidate for the state's 59th House District. At that meeting Democratic leaders persuaded him to run for that office. To nearly everyone's surprise, he defeated his better known opponent and served in the state legislature for four years. In 1986 voters of Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, a normally Republican district, elected Democratic Campbell to the U.S. House of Representatives. He defeated incumbent Mike Strang in a closely fought election to become only the eighth Native American ever elected to Congress. He won reelection to that post three times by large margins.

In Congress he earned a reputation for having a "straight-shooting approach," and his charm, sincerity, charisma, and political blend helped him gain support from a wide variety of factions within and outside Congress. Although a strong fiscal conservative (he supported a balanced-budget amendment), he was a liberal on social issues (strongly pro-choice). As a congressman he served on the House Committees on Agriculture and on Interior and Insular Affairs. He played an important role in securing legislation to settle Native American water rights, and in 1991 he won a fight to change the name of Custer Battlefield Monument in Montana to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, in honor of the Native Americans who died in battle. He also initiated and guided through Congress legislation to establish the National Museum of the American Indian within the Smithsonian Institution.

After six years in the House of Representatives, Campbell decided to run for the Senate seat vacated by Tim Wirth, a liberal Democrat who declined to run for a second term. He defeated Josie Heath and former Governor Dick Lamm in the Democratic primary. And on November 3, 1992, after a nasty campaign, he bested Republican state senator Terry Considine, a conservative, for the Senate. That victory made him the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate in more than 60 years. In that office he almost always supported the programs of the Clinton administration.

In early 1995, Campbell decided to switch political parties. Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report quoted him as stating, "I can no longer continue to support the Democratic agenda nor the administration's goals.... My personal beliefs and that of the Democratic party are far apart." Campbell was joined by Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama and Congressman Nathan Deal of Georgia in moving from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

The response was swift and decisive. On one side of the aisle, his new fellow Republicans welcomed the Senator from Colorado, who as it turned out was part of a wave of defections that spread to several members of the Senate and House. In Newsweek, Joe Klein cited Campbell's action as a sign of what was to come, Democratic defeat in 1996. Among many of his old party members and their supporters, Campbell became a source of anger; a New Republic article noted that Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska wrote a letter to Campbell asking that he return $250,000 worth of Democratic money used in his campaign.

In 1996, Campbell was again involved in controversy. Banana Republic, a popular clothing store owned by The Gap, had featured Campbell in its advertising, for which he was paid $2,000. Campbell donated the money to a Native American school in Montana, Dull Knife Memorial College. But Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and leader of the Environmental Law Advocacy Center at his school, led a boycott of Banana Republic and threatened demonstrations because Campbell had voted against several environmental measures. Banana Republic quickly responded to the threats by pulling the Campbell spots; which were, ironically, part of a series celebrating freedom of expression.

An article in Advertising Age noted that Banana Republic had chosen Campbell as its symbol of a free spirit because of his "image as a renegade." He had made himself known not only for challenging the dress code, but also for actions that embarrassed his conservative colleagues, such as his attendance at a fund-raiser for the legal defense of a Hell's Angels motorcycle gang member. True to his unflappable image, Campbell did not let the Banana Republic incident, or the larger furor surrounding his change of party affiliation, affect him. In an April 21, 1997, interview with Insight on the News, Campbell noted he did not regret his switch to the Republican party, and criticized President Clinton for attempts to "coerce" votes from Native Americans.

When Campbell spoke at the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, he noted that he was one of the few people who had attended both Democratic and Republican conventions. He made light of his well-known personal characteristics, noting "I'm still the only Member of Congress who goes to work on a motorcycle, hates neckties, and is never accused of using the Senate barber shop." On a more serious note, he listed the reasons for his change of party affiliation, citing his adopted party's stance in favor of a balanced budget and property rights, and against crime. But higher than these, he stressed a quality that knows no party affiliation, an essential characteristic of being an American: freedom.

Campbell was re-elected to the senate on November 3, 1998. Although well known as a leader in public lands and natural resources policy, he also achieved recognition as an opponent to illegal drug use. On the latter score, he crafted legislation to secure funding to fight the trafficking of drugs through the creation of the first ever Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). The program coordinated federal, state and local law enforcement agencies efforts to combat the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs.

After a dozen years of working in Congress to upgrade the Black Canyon of the Gunnison from a national monument to a national park, Campbell eventually saw his legislation win approval. In 2001, he won national historic designation status for the site of the Sand Creek Indian massacre in Eastern Colorado. He also got the Animas-La Plata water project rolling again after a long delay.

Although Campbell had been fairly consistent in his support of President George W. Bush, he broke party ranks to oppose creating a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, because he was afraid trucks carrying radioactive waste might veer off the mountainous highways leading to the site. Campbell was also against the Republican rule of limiting party members to six years as chair or ranking committee members of Senate committees. Under the rule, he would be required to give up the chairmanship of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2004.

Campbell is a member of the Appropriations Committee; Energy and Natural Resources Committee; Veterans' Affairs Committee; and the Indian Affairs Committee. He also chairs the Helsinki Commission. He was expected to become chairman of the Treasury and General Government subcommittee, and Indian Affairs in 2003.

In November 2002, the 69-year-old Campbell declared that he would almost certainly be a candidate for re-election in 2004. Campbell said he had been urged to seek re-election by no less than President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Further Reading

• There are several good articles with excellent biographical data on Campbell. For instance, see "Big Ben," by Harland C. Clifford, in the Boston Globe Magazine (August 2, 1992). Also see a profile of him in the April 6, 1992, issue of People magazine.