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Frank Charles William Kuehn was born on September 4, 1884, in LeMars, Iowa. His family moved to Dakota Territory when he was just seven months old, settling on a claim in Jackson Township, Sanborn County, on March 1, 1885. The family lived in a sod shanty, surrounded by Kuehn's extended family, including his grandfather and the siblings of his parents, Elizabeth and Frank Theodore Kuehn. In March 1903, the family relocated to Huron, South Dakota, where Kuehn would live for the next 67 years. On June 3, 1914, Kuehn married Amelia Johanna Wagner, and together they had three daughters: Jeannette, Lois, and Margaret. Amelia passed away in October 1950 due to a heart attack, and Kuehn remarried Florence Dokken Hanson on August 15, 1954.

From a young age, Kuehn was determined to become an architect. He enrolled in the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in 1907 began working for Huron architect George Issenhuth. He continued working for Issenhuth through 1909 while furthering his studies. On September 9, 1909, Kuehn opened his own architectural office in Huron, SD, and quickly established himself as a school architect with a design for a two-story brick school in Frankfort, SD. This building, a notable example of Prairie-School Style architecture, marked the beginning of his 41-year relationship with the South Dakota Department of Public Instruction.

In 1918, to supplement his income during a decline in building projects due to World War I, Kuehn began selling insurance. He continued this work alongside his architecture throughout his life. In the early 1920s, Kuehn designed homes and notable downtown Huron buildings, and began producing county maps for South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. In the 1930s, he founded the Huron Blueprint Co., which provided services during the Great Depression. He also worked for the Home Owners Loan Corporation, inspecting homes for financing. During the 1940s, Kuehn’s Standard Rural School Plans gained recognition beyond South Dakota.

In the 1950s, Kuehn shifted his focus almost exclusively to his expanding county map business. By the 1960s, he had broadened his maps to include highway maps for Minnesota counties and compiled books combining maps from South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota, which sold well. Kuehn passed away in 1970 following an illness. Over the course of his career, he designed numerous projects, many of which are detailed in the 1984 publication F.C.W. Kuehn Prairie Architect, written by his daughters, which documents his life and architectural contributions.

Ben Reifel (1906–1990) was the first Lakota Sioux elected to the U.S. Congress. He was born September 19, 1906, in a log cabin on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, the son of a German American father and a full-blooded Lakota Sioux mother. An enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, he was given the Lakota name Lone Feather. Reifel grew up bilingual and attended both a reservation boarding school and a local county school, completing the eighth grade at age sixteen. After working on his parents’ farm, he studied at the School of Agriculture in Brookings, South Dakota, and later enrolled at South Dakota State College, graduating in 1932 with a degree in agriculture. He financed his education through one of the first federal loans available to Native American students and was elected president of the Students’ Association in his senior year. In 1933, he married Alice Janet Johnson, and they had one daughter, Loyce Nadine.

Reifel began his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1933 as a farm agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation and was soon promoted to field agent, where he helped implement the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. His work advancing agricultural programs and economic development earned him recognition across South Dakota reservations. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army, rising to Lieutenant Colonel and distinguishing himself in the European theater. Following the war, he returned to the BIA, serving as Tribal Relations Officer and later as Superintendent of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. In 1949, he entered Harvard University, earning a master’s degree in 1950 and a doctorate in public administration in 1952. He then returned to the BIA as Area Director of the Aberdeen Area Office, overseeing federal Indian programs in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.

In 1960, Reifel resigned from the BIA to run for Congress. He was elected as a Republican to represent South Dakota’s First District and served five terms. In Congress, he focused on agriculture, Native American education, and civil rights. He advocated desegregation in Indian schools, was instrumental in bringing the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) center to South Dakota, and supported the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee and later the Appropriations Committee, he defended farm subsidies and advanced irrigation projects critical to the regional economy. He chose not to seek re-election in 1970.

After leaving Congress, Reifel continued public service as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, Special Assistant for Indian Programs to the Director of the National Park Service, and Interim Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Gerald Ford. He was active in civic organizations, particularly the Boy Scouts of America, receiving the Silver Antelope, Silver Beaver, Silver Buffalo, and Gray Wolf awards. He also served on the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church and as trustee and board president of the South Dakota Art Museum, where he established its first Native American collection.

Reifel received numerous honors, including the Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award and honorary doctorates from South Dakota State University, the University of South Dakota, and Northern State College. After the death of his first wife, Alice, in 1972, he married Frances U. Colby. He continued his advocacy for Native American rights and education until his death from cancer on January 2, 1990. His legacy endures in his contributions to Native American policy, public service, and South Dakota’s cultural and political life.