Abourezk, James G. (James George), 1931-

James George Abourezk (born February 24, 1931) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative from South Dakota's 2nd congressional district from 1971 to 1973 and as U.S. Senator from South Dakota from 1973 to 1979.

Born in Wood, South Daskota and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, he attended public schools in Wood and Mission, South Dakota. Between 1948 and 1952, Abourezk served in the United States Navy during the Korean War. After his military service, he earned a degree in civil engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City in 1961 and a J.D. degree from University of South Dakota School of Law in Vermillion in 1966. He began a legal practice in Rapid City, South Dakota. In 1968, he unsuccessfully ran for Attorney General of South Dakota.

In 1970, Abourezk was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from South Dakota's 2nd district; two years later, Abourezk was elected to the U.S. Senate. As a Senator, Abourezk criticized the Office of Public Safety (OPS), a U.S. agency linked to the USAID and the CIA, and which provided training to foreign police forces. Abourezk also was instrumental in the creation of both the American Indian Policy Review Commission and the Select Committee on Indian Affairs. Deeply interested in representing the tribes in Congress to work toward better federal relations, he chaired the Policy Review Commission the entire time it existed. He took the gavel as chair of the Indian Affairs Committee from its creation in 1977 to 1979, when he retired. His signature legislation was the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA, 1978), designed to protect Indian children and families from being torn apart.

Since his retirement from the Senate, Abourezk has worked as a lawyer and writer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1980, Abourezk founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a grassroots civil rights organization. In 1989, he published Advise and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate. He is the co-author, along with Hyman Bookbinder, of Through Different Eyes: Two Leading Americans — a Jew and an Arab — Debate U. S. Policy in the Middle East.