Week 1 Charles Curtis (1868-1936) Charles Curtis, the first person of American Indian heritage to become vice president of the United States, had a life that reads like American mythology. Born in a log cabin on an Indian reservation in Kansas, he first became a professional jockey and then became a lawyer. He subsequently started his political career when he ran for office as Shawnee County (Kansas) prosecuting attorney. Curtis went on to serve for decades as a U.S. Representative and Senator from Kansas before becoming Vice president to Herbert Hoover in 1929. Curtis was born on January 25, 1860, in North Topeka, Kansas. His father was a white abolitionist who fought in the Civil War; his mother was of part French and part Kanza (or Kaw) Indian heritage. After his mother's death in 1863, Curtis spent some years with his maternal grandparents on the Kanza reservation, where he spoke the Kanza language and fit comfortably into the tribe. "I had my bows and arrows," he recalled later, "and joined the other boys in shooting arrows at nickels, dimes and quarters, which visitors would place in split sticks." He attended the Quaker school for Indians on the reservation, but later said, "Until I was eight I lived there, happy and contented, playing, riding horses and learning very little." Curtis's Indian grandparents decided that he should go to live with his paternal grandparents in the town of Topeka, so that he could attend school and have a better life. In fact, he became a jockey, racing horses on his grandfather's racetrack in Topeka from 1869 to 1876. He was known as one of the best jockeys in Kansas. When he stopped riding professionally, he decided to return to the Kanza Tribe, which was moving to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. But his Indian grandmother dissuaded him, telling him that on the reservation he would end up without an education or a future, and that he should go to school. Curtis took her advice and left the tribe: "the next morning as the wagons pulled out for the south, bound for Indian Territory, I mounted my pony and with my belongings in a flour sack, returned to Topeka and school," Curtis said later. "No man or boy ever received better advice, it was a turning point in my life." Curtis finished high school in Topeka and studied law with an attorney in town. He passed the bar exam in 1881, at the age of 21, and plunged into practice, focusing on real estate and criminal law. In 1884, Curtis ran for election as Shawnee County Attorney. His father and grandfather had both owned saloons, so he had the support of the liquor interests. To their dismay, Curtis insisted, once elected, on enforcing the state's prohibition laws and closed down all the saloons in the county. Curtis then set his sights on the House of Representatives, and toured the county in 1891. According to William Allen White, who met Curtis in 1891, Curtis charmed hostile audiences with "a rabble rousing speech with a good deal of Civil War in it, a lot of protective tariff, and a very carefully poised straddle on the currency question." Curtis won a seat in the House as a Republican in 1892. Curtis served as a U.S. Representative from 1893 until 1907. He devoted much of his time to the Committee on Indian Affairs, where he drafted the "Curtis Act" in 1898. The act, entitled "An Act for the Protection of People of the Indian Territory and for Other Purposes" actually ended tribal sovereignty in Indian territory by abolishing the enforcement of tribal law, subjecting all persons in the territory to federal law, and abolishing tribal courts. The act also enabled citizens of tribes to petition federal courts for incorporation. Curtis resigned from the House in 1907 to fill a vacancy in the Senate, and served as a Senator until 1913. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1912, but was elected to the Senate again for the term commencing in 1915. Curtis served as Republican whip and actively supported legislative proposals for the Nineteeth Amendment, granting women the right to vote; and a bill making all American Indians citizens of the United States. In 1923, Curtis continued his rise through the political ranks when he became chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Two years later, he became majority leader. In that position, he had a reputation as a legislative tactician who could keep his party united and make deals to get legislation through. In 1928 Curtis unsuccessfully sought nomination for president of the United States. Hoover won the Republican nomination and a disappointed Curtis was selected as his running mate. Witnesses of his inauguration ceremony remembered the contingent of American Indians in the parade. In November 1932, Hoover and Curtis lost in a landslide to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Curtis decided to remain in Washington, resuming private practice as a lawyer until his death in February 1936. In his day, Curtis was a successful and widely admired representative of Kansas in the Congress, a huge achievement at the time for a man of American Indian heritage, born in Kansas in a log cabin. In 2002, a rededication ceremony was held at the Curtis gravesite in Topeka Cemetery. The new headstone proclaims, "Charles Curtis, Vice president of the United States, 1929-1933, Son of the Kanza Nation." Websites with more information Mark O. Hatfield, with the Senate Historical Office, Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789-1993 (Washington: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1997), available online. 2002 Charles Curtis Gravesite Rededication Kaw Nation Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress. American Indian Heritage Month 2003 | Links