Charles Curtis
Vice President of the United States from 1929 to 1933 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was an American attorney and Republican politician from Kansas who served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under Herbert Hoover. He had served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. A member of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas Territory, Curtis was the first Native American and first person in a racial minority group to reach either of the highest offices in the federal executive branch.[2]
Charles Curtis | |
|---|---|
 Curtis in 1931 | |
| 31st Vice President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933 | |
| President | Herbert Hoover |
| Preceded by | Charles G. Dawes |
| Succeeded by | John Nance Garner |
| Senate Majority Leader | |
| In office November 28, 1924 – March 3, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Cabot Lodge |
| Succeeded by | James Eli Watson |
| Leader of the Senate Republican Conference | |
| In office November 28, 1924 – March 3, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | James Eli Watson |
| Senate Majority Whip | |
| In office March 4, 1919 – November 28, 1924 | |
| Leader | Henry Cabot Lodge |
| Preceded by | J. Hamilton Lewis |
| Succeeded by | Wesley Livsey Jones |
| Senate Minority Whip | |
| In office December 13, 1915 – March 3, 1919 | |
| Leader |
|
| Preceded by | James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Peter G. Gerry |
| President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
| In office December 4, 1911 – December 12, 1911 | |
| Preceded by | Augustus Octavius Bacon |
| Succeeded by | Augustus Octavius Bacon |
| United States Senator from Kansas | |
| In office March 4, 1915 – March 3, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph L. Bristow |
| Succeeded by | Henry Justin Allen |
| In office January 29, 1907 – March 3, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | Alfred W. Benson |
| Succeeded by | William Howard Thompson |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas | |
| In office March 4, 1893 – January 28, 1907 | |
| Preceded by | Case Broderick |
| Succeeded by | James Monroe Miller |
| Constituency |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1860-01-25)January 25, 1860 North Topeka, Kansas Territory, U.S. |
| Died | February 8, 1936(1936-02-08) (aged 76) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Topeka Cemetery |
| Nationality | American Kaw Nation |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse |
Annie Baird
(m. 1884; died 1924) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | White Plume (great-great-grandfather) |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | "Indian Charlie"[1] |
Based on his personal experience, Curtis believed that Native Americans could benefit from mainstream education and assimilation. He entered political life when he was 32 years old and won several terms from his district in Topeka, Kansas, beginning in 1892 as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives.[3] There, he sponsored and helped pass the Curtis Act of 1898, which extended the Dawes Act to the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory. Despite Curtis being unhappy with the final version of it, implementation of the Act completed the ending of tribal land titles in Indian Territory and prepared the larger territory to be admitted as the State of Oklahoma, which occurred in 1907. The government tried to encourage Indians to accept individual citizenship and lands and to take up European-American culture.
Curtis was elected to the U.S. Senate first by the Kansas Legislature in 1906 and then by popular vote in 1914, 1920, and 1926. Curtis served one six-year term from 1907 to 1913 and then most of three terms from 1915 to 1929, when he was elected as vice-president. His long popularity and connections in Kansas and federal politics helped make Curtis a strong leader in the Senate. He marshaled support to be elected as Republican Whip from 1915 to 1924 and then as Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. In those positions, he was instrumental in managing legislation and in accomplishing Republican national goals.
Curtis ran for vice president alongside Herbert Hoover for president in 1928—winning a landslide victory. In 1932, he became the first United States vice president to open the Olympic Games. However, when Curtis and Hoover ran together again in 1932 during the Great Depression, they lost as the public gave the Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner a landslide victory that year. Curtis remains the highest-ranking enrolled Native American who ever served in the federal government. He is also the most recent officer of the executive branch to have been born in a territory, rather than a state or federal district. He remained the only mixed-race vice president in American history until the inauguration of Kamala Harris in 2021.