In 1881, farmers in Yankton County organized the first alliance in Dakota Territory, inspired by Milton George, editor of the Western Rural, who condemned discriminatory railroad practices and advocated for the National Farmers’ Alliance. A sharp drop in wheat prices in 1884 fueled widespread unrest, prompting mass meetings in Clark, Huron, Mellette, and Redfield, where farmers called for railroad regulation. In response, a territorial railroad commission was established in January 1885, but opposition rendered it powerless to set freight rates. The movement strengthened in February 1885, when delegates from eleven counties convened in Huron to form the Dakota Farmers’ Alliance, affiliating with the national organization. By mid-summer, the number of local alliances in the territory had tripled, demonstrating the growing influence of the farmers’ movement.
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.
Richard Franklin Pettigrew was a U.S. Delegate from the Dakota Territory and later a U.S. Senator from South Dakota. Born in Ludlow, Windsor County, Vermont, on July 23, 1848, he moved with his family to Wisconsin in 1854. He attended public schools and Evansville Academy before enrolling at Beloit College in 1864. After a year of teaching and studying law in Iowa, he entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1867.
In 1869, Pettigrew moved to Dakota Territory as part of a U.S. deputy surveyor team. He settled in Sioux Falls, where he was admitted to the bar around 1871 and practiced law while engaging in surveying and real estate. His political career began with service in the Dakota Territorial House of Representatives in 1872, followed by terms in the Territorial Council in 1877 and 1879.
Pettigrew was elected as a Republican Delegate to the Forty-seventh Congress (1881–1883) but was unsuccessful in his bid for reelection in 1882. He returned to the Territorial Council in 1885, continuing his involvement in legislative affairs. Pettigrew later played a crucial role in securing statehood for South Dakota and went on to serve as one of its first U.S. Senators.
A strong advocate for progressive and populist policies, Pettigrew eventually broke with the Republican Party, aligning himself with the Populist movement and advocating for economic reform and government regulation of monopolies. His political career and writings reflected his commitment to challenging corporate power and advancing policies to benefit the working class and farmers.
Henry Langford Loucks was born on May 24, 1846, in Hull, Ontario, Canada, to William J. and Anna (York) Loucks. Educated in Canadian common schools, he married Florence Isabel McCraney on May 22, 1878, in Oakville, Ontario. They had seven children, four of whom—Perry, Anna, Elizabeth, and Daniel—survived to adulthood.
Loucks immigrated to the United States, operating mercantile businesses in Michigan and Missouri before settling on a government homestead near Clear Lake in Deuel County, Dakota Territory, in 1884. Arriving as the regional economic boom declined, he experienced firsthand the challenges facing farmers. In response, he organized a “farmer’s club,” which evolved into the Territorial Alliance and affiliated with the National Farmers’ Alliance in 1885. As its president, Loucks promoted cooperative ventures such as insurance and merchandising enterprises and founded The Dakota Ruralist, a newspaper that advanced his reform ideas for two decades.
Initially active in the Republican Party, Loucks and his associates sought to achieve reform from within. In 1890, he was nominated for governor at a joint convention of the Knights of Labor and the state Farmers’ Alliance. Although he lost the election, his efforts helped consolidate support for a new political movement—the Populist Party. He presided over its first national convention in 1892 and that same year became president of the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union. A strong proponent of direct democracy, Loucks was instrumental in securing adoption of the initiative and referendum process in South Dakota in 1898.
Loucks wrote extensively on political and economic reform. His publications include The New Monetary System (1893), Government Ownership of Railroads and Telegraphs (1894), and The Great Conspiracy of the House of Morgan and How to Defeat It (1916). Though he lived for many years in Watertown, South Dakota, he died in Clear Lake on December 29, 1928.
Sigurd Anderson, the 19th governor of South Dakota, was born on January 22, 1904, on an island near Arendal, Norway. His parents, Karl and Bertha Anderson, immigrated to the United States in 1908, settling on a farm southwest of Canton in Lincoln County. Anderson attended Pleasant Ridge School and graduated high school in 1925, the year his family moved near Bancroft in Kingsbury County.
He enrolled at South Dakota State College in 1925, engaging in public speaking, literary, and journalistic activities. After contracting scarlet fever, he took a year off to work as a farmhand and teach in rural schools. In 1928, he transferred to the University of South Dakota, graduating cum laude in 1931. He taught high school history in Rapid City and Webster before returning to USD for law school, earning his degree in 1937. During this time, he married Vivian Walz of Vermillion; they had one daughter, Kristin.
Anderson established a law practice in Webster in 1937 and was twice elected Day County state’s attorney. In 1950, he won the Republican nomination for governor and was elected, setting a record in 1952 as the only South Dakota gubernatorial candidate to receive over 200,000 votes. His administration established the Legislative Research Council and achieved debt-free status for the state for the first time in 40 years.
After two terms, Anderson was appointed to the Federal Trade Commission by President Eisenhower and reappointed in 1958. He resigned in 1964 to return to Webster and run again for governor but lost the Republican primary to Nils Boe, who later appointed him circuit judge, a position he held until 1975.
Anderson received numerous professional and political honors and was active in various organizations. He died on December 21, 1990.