Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a former U.S. senator, Olympian, and creator of Nighthorse Jewelry, died on Dec. 30. He was 92.
“A Great Warrior has left this world,” Campbell’s daughter, Shanan, the owner of Sorrel Sky Gallery, said in comments she shared with JCK.
“Nighthorse Jewelry was never just his art. It was his story, his spirit, and his values made tangible,” she added. “He will forever be the heart and soul of Nighthorse Jewelry.”
Ben Campbell was born on April 13, 1933, in Auburn, Calif. His mother, Mary Vierra, was a Portuguese immigrant. His father, Albert Campbell, was a Northern Cheyenne. Their relationship was rocky, and due to their illnesses during Ben’s childhood, he spent several years in St. Patrick’s Catholic Orphanage in Sacramento, his daughter says.
He made his first jewelry pieces with silver coins he flattened on railroad tracks, and would trade them for food. “Art became his constant, the first sign of a creative genius that would one day earn more than 200 national and international awards,” Shanan Campbell says.
After a few arrests as a teen, Campbell enlisted in the Air Force and volunteered for the Korean War. He earned his GED while serving in the Air Force, then used the GI Bill to attend San Jose State University, graduating in 1957 with degrees in physical education and fine arts.
He later moved to Tokyo for four years to train at Meiji University, which had one of the world’s most respected judo programs. Campbell won three national judo championships and a gold medal at the 1963 Pan American Games. In 1964 he became the first Native American on the U.S. Olympic judo team, which he captained at the Summer Games in Tokyo.
Campbell entered politics in 1982 and served two terms in the state legislature of Colorado (where he’d lived since the late ’70s) before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and held his seat for 12 years.
During his congressional tenure, Campbell helped establish two national parks in Colorado—Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon of the Gunnison (they had previously been designated national monuments)—and sponsored legislation that created both the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C.
Campbell had started his own jewelry company following his judo career, and he designed and made jewelry before and after serving in Congress. “I commuted to Washington every week, and I had a little shop set up in both places,” he said in a 2016 magazine interview. In Washington, Campbell often “carried around an unfinished ring or bracelet in his pocket, itching to get home and complete it or start a new piece,” according to the magazine.
Shanan Campbell says her father’s jewelry legacy continues through Nighthorse, a brand the family founded that honors Ben’s original designs through the work of his grandson, Luke Longfellow—who got his first lessons in jewelry-making from his grandfather.
“In these last years of his life, one of my dad’s greatest joys was seeing a new chapter of his life’s world come alive,” Shanan says. “Watching Luke step into the creative lineage and seeing the renewed energy and excitement around the work he loved so deeply brought my dad immense pride.”
In addition to Shanan and her son Luke, Campbell’s survivors include his wife, Linda; son, Colin Campbell; granddaughters, Lauren and Caroline Campbell; and grandson Saylor Longfellow.
Campbell will be laid to rest at Nighthorse Ranch in a private service. The family plans a public celebration of his life in the coming weeks.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Campbell’s name to the Northern Cheyenne Boys & Girls Club in Lame Deer, Mont.
Top: Ben Nighthorse Campbell with his grandson Luke Longfellow (photos courtesy of the Campbell family)
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