From: mshaw@panix.com   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/ben-nighthorse-campbell-dead-congress   
   an-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   
      
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