Anthropologist who headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and advised them on minority affairs. A Democrat, he was also the 33rd Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin from 1959 to 1961.
He spent a year on an Indian reservation as part of the doctoral dissertation, and then got involved with the Office of War information, working on matters of minorities within the armed services.
As the special assistant for minority affairs under Truman, he fought for equality in hiring practices, which led to him being accused of communist sympathies by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
He was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.
His wife was a childhood friend of Ernest Hemingway's, which inspired him to found the local Riverwood Roundtable literary society.