Reuben A. Snake Jr.

(1937-1993) born at Winnebago. Native American rights activist, religious leader, known as major contributor to passage by the U.S. Congress in 1994 of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which overturned four decades of prejudice against the sacramental use of Peyote, he not only was a leader of the Native American Church but he also helped draw national attention to abuses of Native American rights by federal, state, local, and tribal governments; served as president from 1985 to 1987 of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest intertribal organization in the nation, recipient in June 1993 of World Peace Award from Sikhs, a religious group with an international membership of more than 18 million. Consult Omaha World Herald, May 25, 1968, p. 7 and New York Times, October 13, 1985, Sec 1, p. 39 and Notable Native Americans (Gale, 1995) 405-407 and Jay C. Fikes, Reuben Snake: Your Humble Serpent (Clear Light Publishers, 1996) and Crete /NE/ News, May 4, 2005, p. C-6.

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