When he passed away on December 30, 2025 Ben Nighthorse Campbell was surrounded by family, friends, and spiritual singing.
Monday, dignitaries and colleagues from across the U.S. gathered at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio for a celebration of Campbell's life, and his extraordinary, even unlikely, trajectory.
He was a U.S. Olympian, a veteran, an artist, a motorcycle enthusiast, and a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.
"Once he found a path, he did not deviate from it," daughter Shanan Campbell said during her eulogy. "Not for comfort. Not for convenience, not for anyone."
Ben Campbell's Cheyenne father was an alcoholic, often absent; his mother was an immigrant from Portugal who suffered from tuberculosis.
Campbell and his sister lived stretches of their childhood in a Sacramento orphanage.
"My dad grew up in real darkness," Shanan Campbell said on Monday. "The orphanage. Constant hunger. Abandonment. Troubles with the law."
Campbell emerged from his troubled youth to chart a course that defied expectation. He graduated college and served in the Air Force during the Korean War.
He learned about judo from Japanese farm laborers he met while doing agricultural work, and started practicing the martial art during his military service.
He moved to Japan in the early 1960s to pursue serious study, and eventually joined the 1964 U.S. Olympic team.
For 18 years, he served as a U.S. Congressional representative and then a Senator.
"Ben set a standard for elected leaders," said Sen. Michael Bennett, one of three members of Colorado's congressional delegation who spoke on Monday.
"As the first and only Native American to chair the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Ben forced congressional leaders to recognize and reckon with our government's broken promises to tribal nations," Bennet said.
Campbell used his clout as a Senator to push for the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in eastern Colorado. He was also a leading congressional advocate for the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
"He fought for the tribes' sovereignty and freedom to make their own decisions," Bennet said. "Whether that involved water rights or energy or health care."
Pro-choice and an ardent defender of gun rights, Campbell's beliefs crossed party lines.
He eventually crossed over himself.
He entered Colorado state politics as a member of the Democratic Party. But in 1995, two years into his first term as a U.S. Senator, Campbell switched parties.
At the time, Democratic leaders viewed his decision as a betrayal. But on Monday, Bennett praised Campbell for his strength and principles.
"He was never afraid to stand up for what was right," Bennet said. "Even if that meant walking a solitary path, like switching political parties, an almost unimaginable act today. You hear a lot of rhetoric about that kind of courage and independence in today's politics. Rarely do you see anybody act on it. But Ben did. It was central to who he was."
Monday's program included a performance of young Native hoop dancers, remarks and prayers from both Northern Cheyenne and Southern Ute leaders, and an honorary doctorate from Campbell's alma mater, San Jose State University.
Campbell was an ardent motorcycle enthusiast, and his biker buddies showed up too.
"You know, they said he had an affinity for people who came from the other side of the tracks and the outlaw. Well, here we are," Mike Lovato said.
Lovato co-founded Four Corners Motorcycle Rally with Campbell in 1992, which he said drew an estimated 65,000 people to the region at its peak.
Lovato recounted a story of a rally he and Campbell attended in Las Vegas.
"We had gotten there, beat up, long hair, dusty from the road, (and) got into a buffet line. We hadn't eaten all day," Lovato said. "It just so happened they were having a bridge tournament. So as we're waiting in the buffet line, there are like six or seven women in front of us."
Lovato said he and Campbell had struck up a conversation with the women in the buffet line. The women expressed surprise that the bikers in the hotel were so polite.
"They asked Ben, 'So what do you do for a living?'" Lovato recalled on Monday. "He said, 'Well, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me.' They said, 'Of course we would!'
He goes, 'I'm a United States Senator.'
In unison, they said, 'We don't believe you.'"
Monday, April 13, 2026, would have been Ben Nighthorse Campbell's 93rd birthday.
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