Posted on 08/14/2020 8:43:54 AM PDT by UnwashedPeasant
Charles Curtis (1860–1936) was an American attorney who served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933.
A member of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas-Nebraska Territory in 1860, Curtis was the first person with significant Native American ancestry and the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the highest offices in the Federal Executive Branch. He is the highest-ranking enrolled Native American ever to serve in the federal government. He is the most recent Executive Branch officer to have been born in a territory rather than a state.
He was 3/8 American Indian. His mother was Native American of mixed Kaw, Osage, Potawatomi, and French ancestry. His father was of English, Scots, and Welsh ancestry. Curtis was descendant of chief White Plume of the Kaw Nation and chief Pawhuska of the Osage. His first words as an infant were in French and Kansa. During the war between the states, he was raised by his maternal grandparents on the Kaw reservation and returned to them in later years. He lived with his paternal grandparents while attending Topeka High School.
He was an excellent horseman. By age 3 he could ride alone bareback at speed. When he was age 8, after Cheyenne warriors invaded the Kaw Reservation, he rode 60 miles to Topeka to seek assistance from the governor. He was a highly successful jockey in prairie horse races.
Curtis did not go to law school. Instead, he "read law" in an established firm where he worked part-time. He was admitted to the bar in 1881, and began his practice in Topeka.
Curtis was Republican Whip in the U.S. Senate from 1915 to 1924 and Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. Curtis ran for vice president with Herbert Hoover as President in 1928. They won a landslide victory.
The news is wrongly reporting a different kind of Indian as the first VP candidate "of color."
For further reading, here is a book "From Kaw Teepee to Capitol: The Story of Charles Curtis": https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b310631&view=1up&seq=1
This is a significant catch! And just to be sure, I checked it with Wikipedia. Curtis was an enrolled member of the Kaw nation. And a Republican.
Someone should inform Trump about this. It would make an excellent gotcha reply the next time some reporter asks him about that “first person of color” Kamala Harris.
Wait a minute; Injuns don’t count as POC- ask BLM and they’ll tell you.
History didn’t start until Big Lies Matter said it did, just like no one is black until Joe Biden says they are.
bkmk
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