From the Reservation to Washington: The Rise of Charles Curtis

by Debra Goodrich

The first person of color to serve as vice president, Charles Curtis was once a household name but has become a footnote in American history. As a mixed-race person who became a public figure in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his story is more relevant today than ever. He was constantly forced to choose whether to be Indian or white. Society would not let him be both. When his temper flared it was his “savage nature” coming through; when he presided over the United States Senate with an unprecedented knowledge of the rules and procedures, it was evidence of his “civilized” ancestry. Charles Curtis was born into Bleeding Kansas and came of age during the most turbulent of times. His father participated in the violence, as a Kansas Redleg avenging the actions of Missouri bushwhackers. As Civil War evolved into the Plains Indian Wars, Curtis was an eyewitness as his own people were starving and even the most powerful of tribes were confined to reservations. These forces shaped his philosophy and perspective. To this day he holds the distinction of being the only person of Native American heritage to be elected the second highest office in the land. He served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under Herbert Hoover. Private and pragmatic, he became a respected statesman championing citizenship for Native Americans and rights for women. But his path of inclusion was perceived by others as destroying tribal sovereignty. Perhaps he realized that. But in his experience the most powerful force on earth was the federal government, and he learned to play the government game and to be better at it than almost anyone else.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

My library was displaying Kansas Notable Books and I picked this book up on impulse. I knew nothing of Charles Curtis or his 40 years as a successful Congressman, Senator and Vice President of the United States. But I have some acquaintance with the severe prejudice in our nation against Native Americans. So I read with great delight about a man who successfully navigated among so many humans who was Native American. Simultaneously, this book does not hold back from frank excerpts from newspapers of the time of Charles Curtis displaying the shameful thought processes that so embody our nation. I'm so glad to have read this biography but part of me read it all the way through with a mixture of delight and pain.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite growing up in Kansas, I knew nothing of Charles Curtis until I lived to Topeka. This book lays out the events of his life and it is one anyone interested in the history of Kansas should read.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

recounts the life of a native who was a horse racer, a lawyer, a politician, and vice president, to hoover. no mention of him meeting jim thorpe at the olympics. b/w images.