View source for Charles Curtis

{{short description|Vice President of the United States from 1929 to 1933}}
{{About other people|the vice president of the United States}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Charles Curtis
| image               = Charles Curtis-portrait.jpg
| alt                 = 
| caption             = Curtis in 1931
| order               = 31st
| office              = Vice President of the United States
| president           = [[Herbert Hoover]]
| term_start          = March 4, 1929
| term_end            = March 4, 1933
| predecessor         = [[Charles G. Dawes]]
| successor           = [[John Nance Garner]]
| jr/sr1              = United States Senator
| state1              = [[Kansas]]
| term_start1         = March 4, 1915
| term_end1           = March 3, 1929
| predecessor1        = [[Joseph L. Bristow]]
| successor1          = [[Henry Justin Allen]]
| term_start7         = January 29, 1907
| term_end7           = March 3, 1913
| predecessor7        = [[Alfred W. Benson]]
| successor7          = [[William Howard Thompson]]
{{collapsed infobox section begin
| cont                = yes
| Senate positions
| titlestyle          = border:1px dashed lightgrey;
}} 
{{Infobox officeholder
| embed               = yes
| office2             = [[Senate Majority Leader]]
| 1blankname2         = Whip
| 1namedata2          = [[Wesley L. Jones]]
| term_start2         = November 28, 1924
| term_end2           = March 3, 1929
| predecessor2        = [[Henry Cabot Lodge]]
| successor2          = [[James Eli Watson]]
| office3             = [[Leader of the Senate Republican Conference]]
| term_start3         = November 28, 1924
| term_end3           = March 3, 1929
| predecessor3        = ''Office established''
| successor3          = James Eli Watson
| office4             = [[Senate Majority Whip]]
| leader4             = Henry Cabot Lodge
| term_start4         = March 4, 1919
| term_end4           = November 28, 1924
| predecessor4        = [[J. Hamilton Lewis]]
| successor4          = Wesley L. Jones
| office5             = [[Senate Minority Whip]]
| leader5             = {{plainlist|
* [[Jacob Harold Gallinger]] (1915–1918)
* Henry Cabot Lodge (1918–1919)
}}
| term_start5         = December 13, 1915
| term_end5           = March 3, 1919
| predecessor5        = [[James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.]]
| successor5          = [[Peter G. Gerry]]
| office6             = [[President pro tempore of the United&nbsp;States&nbsp;Senate]]
| term_start6         = December 4, 1911
| term_end6           = December 12, 1911
| predecessor6        = [[Augustus Octavius Bacon]]
| successor6          = Augustus Octavius Bacon
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
| state8              = Kansas
| term_start8         = March 4, 1893
| term_end8           = January 28, 1907
| predecessor8        = [[Case Broderick]]
| successor8          = [[James Monroe Miller]]
| constituency8       = {{plainlist|
* {{ushr|KS|4|4th district}} (1893–1899)
* {{ushr|KS|1|1st district}} (1899–1907)
}}
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1860|1|25}}
| birth_place         = [[North Topeka, Kansas|North Topeka]], [[Kansas Territory]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1936|2|8|1860|1|25}}
| death_place         = Washington, D.C., U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Topeka Cemetery]]
| nationality         = American<br>[[Kaw Nation]]
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Annie Baird|1884|1924|reason=died}}
| children            = 3
| relatives           = [[White Plume]] (great-great-grandfather)<br>[[White Hair]] (great-great-great-grandfather)
| signature           = Charles Curtis Signature.svg
| signature_alt       = Cursive signature in ink
| nickname            = "Indian Charlie"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who Was Charles Curtis, the First Vice President of Color? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-charles-curtis-first-non-white-vice-president-180976742/|access-date=February 16, 2024 |website=smithsonianmag.com}}</ref>
}}

'''Charles Curtis''' (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was the 31st [[vice president of the United States]] from 1929 to 1933 under President [[Herbert Hoover]]. He was the [[Senate Majority Leader]] from 1924 to 1929. An [[Native American recognition in the United States#Recognition of individuals|enrolled]] member of the [[Kaw Nation]] born in the [[Kansas Territory]], Curtis was the [[List of Native American firsts|first Native American]] to serve in the [[United States Congress]], where he served in the [[United States House of Representatives]] and [[United States Senate|Senate]] before becoming Senate Majority Leader. Curtis also was the first and only Native American and first multiracial person to serve as vice president.

Curtis believed that Native Americans could benefit from mainstream education and [[cultural assimilation|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]]. There, he sponsored and helped pass the [[Curtis Act of 1898]], which extended the [[Dawes Act]] to the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] of the [[Indian Territory]]. Despite Curtis being unhappy with the final version, implementation of the Act completed the ending of tribal land titles in the Indian Territory and prepared the larger territory to be admitted as the [[State of Oklahoma]] 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 [[direct election|popular vote]] in [[1914 United States Senate election in Kansas|1914]], [[1920 United States Senate election in Kansas|1920]], and [[1926 United States Senate election in Kansas|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. He introduced the first version of the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] to the Senate in 1921; it was not approved for ratification until 1972. Curtis 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. His long popularity and connections in Kansas and federal politics helped make Curtis a strong leader in the Senate.

Curtis was nominated for vice president at the [[1928 Republican National Convention]], and became Herbert Hoover's running mate; the two won the [[1928 United States presidential election]] in a landslide victory. In [[1932 Summer Olympics|1932]], he became the first United States vice president to [[List of people who have opened the Olympic Games|open]] the [[Olympic Games]]. However, when Curtis and Hoover ran together again [[1932 United States presidential election|later that year]] during the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], they lost when the public gave the Democrats [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[John Nance Garner]] a landslide victory. Curtis remains the highest-ranking 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.

== Early life and education ==
Curtis was born on January 25, 1860, in [[North Topeka]], [[Kansas Territory]],<ref>{{cite news |title=From a Kansas Log Cabin to Leadership in the Senate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/649198630/ |newspaper=[[The Kansas City Times]] |location=Kansas City, Missouri |date=June 16, 1928 |pages=6–7 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}} - [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65449305/ Clipping of first] and [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/163472820/ of second page] at [[Newspapers.com]].</ref> a year before Kansas was admitted as a state. Curtis had three-eighths Native American ancestry and five-eighths European American ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Estes |first1=Roberta |date=August 14, 2013 |title=Charles "Indian Charley" Curtis – 1st Native American in the White House |url=https://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/08/14/charles-indian-charley-curtis-1st-native-american-in-the-white-house/ |access-date=December 2, 2021 |website=Native Heritage Project |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Andrews|2002|loc=online}}.</ref> His mother, Ellen Papin (also spelled Pappan), was [[Kaw people|Kaw]], [[Osage Nation|Osage]], [[Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation|Potawatomi]], and [[French American|French]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=McKie |first1=Scott |title=Charles Curtis: America's Indian Vice President |url=https://theonefeather.com/2014/02/charles-curtis-americas-indian-vice-president/ |access-date=June 20, 2016 |work=Cherokee One Feather |date=February 4, 2014 |archive-date=June 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630041902/https://theonefeather.com/2014/02/charles-curtis-americas-indian-vice-president/ |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=January 29 – This Date in History: Kaw Member Charles Curtis Becomes US Senator |url=http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/january-29-date-history-kaw-member-charles-curtis-becomes-us-senator/ |access-date=June 20, 2016 |work=Native News Online |date=January 29, 2014 |archive-date=August 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810032315/http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/january-29-date-history-kaw-member-charles-curtis-becomes-us-senator/ |url-status=dead |language=en}}</ref> His father, Orren Curtis, was of [[English American|English]], [[Scottish American|Scots]], and [[Welsh American|Welsh]] ancestry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christensen |first1=Lee R. |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3592549W |title=The Curtis Peet Ancestry of Charles Curtis Vice-President of the United States 4 March 1929 – 3 March 1933 |access-date=December 26, 2019 |archive-date=November 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107181919/https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3592549W/The_Curtis_Peet_ancestry_of_Charles_Curtis_Vice-President_of_the_United_States_4_March_1929-3_March_ |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref> On his mother's side, Curtis was a descendant of chief [[White Plume]] of the Kaw Nation and chief [[White Hair|Pawhuska]] of the Osage.<ref>{{harvnb|Andrews|2012|loc=online}}.</ref>

Curtis's first words as an infant were in French and [[Kansa language|Kansa]], both languages that he learned from his mother. She died in 1863, when he was 3 years old, but he lived for some time thereafter with his maternal grandparents on the Kaw reservation and returned to them in later years. He learned to love racing horses and was later a highly successful jockey in prairie horse races.<ref name="sho">{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Curtis.htm |title=Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President (1929–1933) |work=U.S. Senate: Art & History |publisher=US Senate.gov |access-date=December 14, 2011 |archive-date=January 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118135359/http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Curtis.htm |url-status=live |language=en}}, reprinted from {{cite book |title=Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |year=1997 |language=en}}</ref>

After Curtis's mother died in 1863, his father remarried but soon divorced. While serving in the [[Union army]] during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Orren Curtis was captured and imprisoned. During that period, the toddler Charles was cared for by his maternal grandparents. They also later helped him gain possession of his mother's land in North Topeka; under the Kaw [[matrilineal]] system, he inherited it from her. His father tried unsuccessfully to get control of that land. Orren Curtis married a third time and had a daughter, Theresa Permelia "Dolly" Curtis, who was born in 1866, after the end of the war.<ref name="sho" />

On June 1, 1868, one hundred [[Cheyenne]] warriors invaded the Kaw Reservation. The Kaw men painted their faces, donned regalia, and rode out on horseback to confront the Cheyenne. The rival Indian warriors put on a display of superb horsemanship, accompanied with war cries and volleys of bullets and arrows. Terrified white settlers took refuge in nearby [[Council Grove, Kansas|Council Grove]]. After about four hours, the Cheyenne retired with a few stolen horses and a peace offering of coffee and sugar from the Council Grove merchants. No one had been injured on either side. During the battle, [[Joseph James and Joseph James Jr.|Joe Jim]], a Kaw interpreter, galloped {{convert|60|mi}} to Topeka to seek assistance from the governor. Riding with Jim was the eight-year-old Charles Curtis, then nicknamed "Indian Charley."<ref>{{harvnb|Unrau|1971|pp=72–75}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Crawford|1911|p=289}}.</ref>

Curtis re-enrolled in the [[Kaw Nation]], which had been removed from Kansas to the [[Indian Territory]] when he was in his teens. Curtis was strongly influenced by both sets of grandparents. After living on the reservation with his maternal grandparents, M. Papin and Julie Gonville, he returned to the city of Topeka. There, he lived with his paternal grandparents while he attended [[Topeka High School]]. Both grandmothers encouraged his education.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Gershon |first1=Livia |date=January 13, 2021 |title=Who Was Charles Curtis, the First Vice President of Color? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-charles-curtis-first-non-white-vice-president-180976742/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 2, 2021 |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113163645/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-charles-curtis-first-non-white-vice-president-180976742/ |archive-date=January 13, 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis [[read law]] in an established firm, where he worked part time. He was admitted to the bar in 1881<ref name="sho" /> and began his practice in Topeka.<ref>{{cite news |title=Curtis, Quarter Indian, Began His Ride To Fame as a Jockey; Roamed Plains With Kaws When a Boy; Fought Way Upward |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/100500336/ |work=Cincinnati Enquirer |agency=Associated Press |date=June 6, 1928 |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> He served as prosecuting attorney of [[Shawnee County, Kansas]], from 1885 to 1889.<ref>{{cite web |date=March 2015 |title=Charles Curtis |url=https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/charles-curtis/12029 |url-status=live |access-date=December 2, 2021 |website=Kansas Historical Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217134309/http://kshs.org/kansapedia/charles-curtis/12029 |archive-date=December 17, 2010 |language=en}}</ref>

== Marriage and family ==
On November 27, 1884, Curtis married Annie Elizabeth Baird<ref>{{harvnb|Blackmar|1912|p=487}}.</ref> (1860–1924). They had three children: Permelia Jeannette Curtis (1886–1955), Henry "Harry" King Curtis (1890–1946), and Leona Virginia Curtis (1892–1965). He and his wife also provided a home in Topeka for his paternal sister Dolly Curtis before her marriage. His wife died in 1924.

A widower when he was elected vice president in [[1928 United States presidential election|1928]], Curtis had his long-since-married sister, Dolly Curtis Gann (March 1866 – January 30, 1953), act as his official hostess for social events.<ref name="gann" /> She had lived with her husband, Edward Everett Gann, in Washington, D.C., since about 1903. He was a lawyer and once an assistant attorney general in the government. Attuned to social protocol, Dolly Gann insisted in 1929 on being treated officially as the second woman in government at social functions. The diplomatic corps voted to change a State Department protocol to acknowledge that while her brother was in office.<ref name="gann">{{cite news |title=Dolly Gann, 86, Dead; Winner in Social Feud |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1953/01/31/page/21/article/dolly-gann-86-dead-winner-in-social-feud |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107181843/https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/ |archive-date=November 7, 2020 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 31, 1953 |access-date=July 26, 2016 |language=en}}</ref>

To date, Curtis is the last vice president to remain unmarried during his entire time in office. [[Alben W. Barkley]], who served as vice president from 1949 to 1953, entered office as a widower but remarried while in office.

== House of Representatives (1893–1907) ==
{{See also|List of Native Americans in the United States Congress}}
[[File:Curtis, Hon. Chas. Crop.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by [[C. M. Bell]] {{circa}} 1893–1894]]
First elected as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to the House of Representatives of the [[Fifty-third United States Congress|53rd Congress]], Curtis was re-elected for the following six terms. Naturally gregarious, he also made the effort to learn about his many constituents and treated them as personal friends.<ref name="history">{{cite web |title=Curtis, Charles |url=https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/CURTIS,-Charles-(C001008)/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 2, 2021 |website=History.house.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104000101/http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/CURTIS,-Charles-(C001008)/ |archive-date=January 4, 2013 |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis promoted [[cultural assimilation]] of Native Americans into the dominant white American society, most notably in the [[Curtis Act of 1898]].<ref name="cd">{{cite web |title=S. Doc. 58-1 – Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session – beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903 |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-04562_00_00-001-0001-0000 |website=GovInfo.gov |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=July 2, 2023 |pages=34–35 |date=November 9, 1903}}</ref> In his hand-written autobiography, Curtis noted having been unhappy with the final version of the Curtis Act.<ref>Colvin manuscript, Kansas State Historical Society</ref> This was due to the bill HR 8581 having gone through five revisions in committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with little left of Curtis's original draft. He believed that the Five Civilized Tribes needed to make changes, and that the way ahead for Native Americans was through education and use of both their and the majority cultures. However, he also had hoped to give more support to Native American transitions, something which Congress was not prepared to extend.

In 1902, the [[Kaw Allotment Act]] disbanded the Kaw Nation as a legal entity and provided for the allotment of its communal land to members in a process similar to that experienced by other tribes. The act transferred 160&nbsp;acres (0.6&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of former tribal land to the federal government. Other land that had been held in common was allocated to individual tribal members. Under the terms of the act, as enrolled tribal members, Curtis and his three children were allotted about 1,625&nbsp;acres (6.6&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of Kaw land near [[Washunga, Oklahoma|Washunga]] in Oklahoma.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Government of the Kaw Nation Since 1902 |url=https://kawnation.com/?page_id=3330 |url-status=live |access-date=December 2, 2021 |website=Kaw Nation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503061241/http://kawnation.com/?page_id=3330 |archive-date=May 3, 2012 |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis served several consecutive terms in the House from March 4, 1893, to January 28, 1907.<ref name="history" />

== Senate (1907–1913, 1915–1929) ==
[[File:Charles Curtis, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left LCCN92522327 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Portrait by G. V. Buck, 1908]]

Curtis resigned from the House after he had been elected by the [[Kansas Legislature]] to the [[U.S. Senate]] seat that was left vacant by the resignation of [[Joseph R. Burton]]. Curtis served the remainder of his current term, which ended on March 4, 1907.<ref name="CB">{{CongBio|C001008|inline=yes}}</ref> (Popular election of U.S. senators had not yet been mandated by constitutional amendment.) At the same time, the legislature elected Curtis to the next full Senate term. From March 4, 1907, he served until March 3, 1913. In 1912, Democrats won control of the Kansas legislature and so Curtis was not re-elected.

The [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|17th Amendment]], providing for direct popular election of Senators, was adopted in 1913. In 1914, Curtis was elected to Kansas's other Senate seat by popular vote and was re-elected in 1920 and 1926. In total, he served from March 4, 1915, to March 3, 1929, when he resigned to become vice president.<ref name="CB" />

[[File:Calvin Coolidge, Mrs. Coolidge and Senator Curtis.jpg|thumb|right|Senator Curtis (right) with [[Calvin Coolidge|President Coolidge]] and First Lady [[Grace Coolidge]] on their way to the [[United States Capitol|Capitol]] building on [[Second inauguration of Calvin Coolidge|Inauguration Day]], March 4, 1925]]

During his tenure in the Senate, Curtis was [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|President pro tempore]], Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior, of the [[United States Senate Committee on Indian Depredations|Committee on Indian Depredations]], and of the Committee on Coast Defenses; and Chairman of the Republican Senate Conference. He also was elected for a decade as Senate Minority Whip and for four years as Senate Majority Leader after Republicans won control of the chamber. He had experience in all the senior leadership positions in the Senate and was highly respected for his ability to work with members on both sides of the aisle.

Curtis introduced the first version of the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] to the Senate in 1921.<ref name="BaltSun">{{Cite news |title=WOMAN'S PARTY ALL READY FOR EQUALITY FIGHT; Removal Of All National and State Discriminations Is Aim. SENATE AND HOUSE TO GET AMENDMENT; A Proposed Constitutional Change To Be Introduced On October 1 |last=Henning |first=Arthur Sears |date=September 26, 1921 |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |page=1 |title-link=c:File:Equal Rights Amendment proposed in Congress 1921.jpg}}</ref> The amendment did not pass. In 1923, Curtis, together with his fellow Kansan Representative [[Daniel Read Anthony Jr.]], proposed the second version of the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] to the [[U.S. Constitution]] to each of their Houses, but it did not pass.

[[File:Senators Curtis & Lodge LCCN2016822441.jpg|thumb|left|Curtis served as deputy to then–Senate Majority Leader [[Henry Cabot Lodge]] (R-[[Massachusetts|MA]]), shown here in 1921, and would succeed him upon Lodge's death in 1924.]]

Curtis's leadership abilities were demonstrated by his election as [[United States Senate Republican Whip|Republican Whip]] from 1915 to 1924 and [[United States Senate Majority Leader|Majority Leader]] from 1925 to 1929. He was effective in collaboration and moving legislation forward in the Senate. Idaho Senator [[William Borah]] acclaimed Curtis as "a great reconciler, a walking political encyclopedia and one of the best political poker players in America."<ref name="sho" /> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine featured him on the cover in December 1926 and reported that "it is in the party caucuses, in the committee rooms, in the cloakrooms that he patches up troubles, puts through legislation" as one of the two leading senators, the other being [[Reed Smoot]].<ref name="time19261220">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,711494,00.html |title=The Congress: Quiet Leader |magazine=Time |date=December 20, 1926 |access-date=December 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220111458/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0%2C16641%2C19261220%2C00.html |archive-date=December 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis was remembered for not making many speeches and was noted for keeping the "best card index of the state ever made."<ref name="star" /> Curtis used a black notebook and later a card index to record all the people whom he met in office or while he was campaigning. He continually referred to it, which resulted in his being known for "his remarkable memory for faces and names:"

{{Blockquote|Never a pension letter, or any other letter for that matter, came in that wasn't answered promptly&nbsp;... And another name went into the all-embracing card index. The doctors were listed. The farm leaders. The school teachers. The lists were kept up to date. How such an intricate index could be kept up to date and function so smoothly was a marvel to his associates. It was one of Curtis's prides.<ref name="star">{{cite news |newspaper=Kansas City Star |title=Obituary |date=9 February 1936}} Quoted in
{{cite news |last1=Mendoza |first1=J. R. |url=http://cjonline.com/stories/032303/our_curtis.shtml |title=Charles Curtis: Doing it his way |newspaper=Topeka Capital-Journal |date=March 23, 2003 |access-date=October 19, 2013 |archive-date=June 4, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030604075445/http://cjonline.com/stories/032303/our_curtis.shtml |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref>}}

Curtis was celebrated as a "[[Standpatter Republican|stand patter]]", the most regular of Republicans but also as a man who could always bargain with his party's progressives and with Senators from across the aisle.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=U.S. Senate: Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President (1929–1933) |url=https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/VP_Charles_Curtis.htm |access-date=June 12, 2021 |website=Senate.gov |language=en}}</ref>

== Vice presidency (1929–1933) ==
[[File:CURTIS, CHARLES. VICE PRESIDENT LCCN2016862357.jpg|right|thumb|Portrait by [[Harris & Ewing]] {{circa}} 1929–1933]]
[[File:Greeted by the Vice President. Premier Ramsey MacDonald, today made his first call upon the Vice President of the United States. The group, made on the steps of the United States Capitol LCCN2016889442.jpg|right|thumb|Prime Minister [[Ramsay Macdonald]] and British Ambassador [[Esmé Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith|Esmé Howard]] greeted by Vice President Curtis at the United States Capitol, 1929]]
Curtis received 64 votes on the presidential ballot at the [[1928 Republican National Convention]] in [[Kansas City]] out of 1,084 total. The winning candidate, [[Herbert Hoover]], secured 837 votes and had been the favorite for the nomination since August 1927, when President [[Calvin Coolidge]] took himself out of contention. Curtis was a leader of the anti-Hoover movement and had formed an alliance with two of his Senate colleagues, [[Guy Goff]] and [[James E. Watson]], as well as Governor [[Frank Lowden]] of Illinois. Hoover's pedigree as a progressive follower of [[Theodore Roosevelt]] did not sit well with conservatives like Curtis. Less than a week before the convention, he described Hoover as a man "for whom the party will be on the defensive from the day he is named until the close of the polls on election day."<ref name="p38">{{harvnb|Warren|1959|p=38}}.</ref> However, Curtis had no qualms about accepting the vice-presidential nomination.

Although Hoover gave few speeches during the 1928 presidential campaign, Curtis traveled coast to coast and spoke almost every day.<ref name="corsicana" /> While covering the convention, [[H. L. Mencken]] described Curtis as "the Kansas comic character, who is half Indian and half windmill. Charlie ran against Hoover with great energy, and let fly some very embarrassing truths about him. But when the Hoover managers threw Charlie the Vice-Presidency as a solatium, he shut up instantly, and a few days later he was hymning his late bugaboo as the greatest statesman since [[Pericles]]."<ref name="p38" />

The Hoover–Curtis ticket won the [[1928 United States presidential election|1928 presidential election]] in a landslide by receiving 444 out of the 531 Electoral College votes and 58.2% of the [[popular vote (representative democracy)|popular vote]]. Curtis resigned from the Senate the day before he was sworn in as vice-president. After he took the [[oath of office of the Vice President of the United States|oath of office]] in the [[United States Senate Chamber|Senate Chamber]], the presidential party proceeded to the East Portico of the [[U.S. Capitol]] for [[inauguration of Herbert Hoover|Hoover's inauguration]].<ref>{{harvnb|Warren|1959|p=52}}.</ref> Curtis arranged for a Native American [[jazz]] band to perform at the inauguration.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Indian Biography: Vice-President Charles Curtis |work=Native American Netroots |url=http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/642 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020164548/http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/642 |archive-date=October 20, 2013 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:United States Indian Band with Curtis, (4-26-29) LCCN2016843641.jpg|thumb|left|Curtis at the 1929 inauguration with the "United States Indian Band"]]

Curtis's election as vice president made history because he was the only native Kansan, and the only Native American to hold the post. The first person enrolled in a Native American tribe to be elected to such a high office, Curtis decorated his office with Native American artifacts and posed for pictures wearing Indian headdresses.<ref name=":0" /> He was 69 years old when he took office, which made him the oldest incoming vice-president at the time.

Curtis was the first vice-president to take the oath of office on a Bible in the same manner as the President. Curtis named Lola M. Williams as private secretary to the vice-president, and Williams was one of the first women to enter the Senate floor, which was traditionally a male monopoly.<ref>{{cite news |title=Curtis' Secretary Is First Woman to Hold High Office: Lola M. Williams' Life Is Marked by Spirit of Determination |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/618958849/ |work=Evening Star |location=Washington, D.C. |date=March 2, 1929 |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref>

Soon after the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] began, Curtis had endorsed the five-day [[working time|work week]] with no reduction in wages as a work-sharing solution to unemployment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=John A. |year=1967 |title=Questions of the Day |language=en}}</ref> In October 1930, in the middle of the campaign for [[1930 United States elections|1930 midterm elections]], Curtis made an offhand remark that "good times are just around the corner". The statement was later erroneously attributed to Hoover and became a "lethal political boomerang."<ref>Warren (1959), p. 190.</ref>

At the [[1932 Republican National Convention]], Hoover was renominated almost unanimously. Curtis failed to secure a majority of votes on the first ballot for the vice-presidential nomination. He received 559.25 out of 1,154 votes (or 48.5%), with Generals [[Hanford MacNider]] (15.8%) and [[James Harbord]] (14.0%) being his nearest contenders. On the second ballot, the Pennsylvania delegation shifted its votes to Curtis from [[Edward Martin (Pennsylvania politician)|Edward Martin]], which gave him 634.25 votes (54.9%) and secured him the nomination for the second time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=60093 |title=US Vice President – R Convention Race – Jun 14, 1932 |website=Our Campaigns |access-date=May 18, 2017 |archive-date=November 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110224955/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=60093 |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis [[list of people who have opened the Olympic Games|opened]] the [[1932 Summer Olympics]] in [[Los Angeles]] and so became the first U.S. executive branch officer to open the Olympic Games.<ref>{{cite news |title=Curtis Opens Tenth Olympiad with Over 100,000 Looking Over |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/314368982/ |work=The Nebraska State Journal |location=Lincoln, NE |date=July 31, 1932 |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis cast three [[list of tie-breaking votes cast by the vice president of the United States|tie-breaking votes]] in the Senate.

Following the stock market crash in 1929, the problems of the [[Great Depression]] deepened during the [[Hoover administration]] and resulted in the defeat of the Republican ticket in 1932. The Democrat [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] was elected in 1932 as president, with a popular vote of 57% to 40%. Curtis's term as vice president ended on March 4, 1933.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charles Curtis |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/635289037/ |work=The Iola Register |location=Iola, KS |date=March 4, 1933 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> Curtis's final duty as vice president was to administer the oath of office to his successor, [[John Nance Garner]], whose swearing-in ceremony was the last full-term swearing-in to take place in the Senate Chamber.<ref>{{harvnb|Warren|1959|p=293}}.</ref>{{efn|Vice President [[Nelson A. Rockefeller]] was sworn in for a partial term on December 19, 1974, in the Senate Chamber.}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Vice President Curtis receives peace pipe from Chief Red Tomahawk, slayer of Sitting Bull. Chief Red Tomahawk, leader of the Sioux Nation and credited with having killed Sitting Bull, LCCN2016889332.jpg|Vice President Curtis receives a [[peace pipe]] from the [[Standing Rock Sioux Tribe|Lakota]] Red Tomahawk, slayer of [[Sitting Bull]].
File:Hot weather cabinet, Vice President Curtis LCCN2002712156 (cropped).tif|Vice President Curtis during the summer of 1929 before the Depression
File:News-Week Feb 17 1933, vol1 issue1 (cropped).jpg|Vice President Curtis (standing) presiding over the count of the Electoral College votes of the 1932 election
</gallery>

== Post–vice presidency (1933–1936) ==
[[File:Charles Curtis bust.jpg|right|thumb|Charles Curtis's vice-presidential bust]]

Curtis decided to stay in [[Washington, D.C.]], to resume his legal career, as he had a wide network of professional contacts from his long career in Congress and the executive branch. He participated in one of the earliest known triathlons in the city.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yves. |first1=Cordier |title=Triathlon : [technique, tactique, entraînement] |year=1991 |publisher=Laffont |others=Malaurent, Max. |isbn=2221071557 |location=Paris |oclc=53765579}}</ref>{{Dubious|date=February 2023}}

Curtis died from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] on February 8, 1936, at the age of 76.<ref name="APobit">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gYMgAAAAIBAJ&pg=2160,1762809 |title=Former Vice President, Charles Curtis. Succumbs |work=Southeast Missourian |date=February 8, 1936 |page=1 |access-date=August 13, 2011 |archive-date=November 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106181748/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gYMgAAAAIBAJ&pg=2160%2C1762809&dq=charles+curtis&hl=en |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref> By his wishes, his body was returned to Kansas and buried next to his wife at the [[Topeka Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Death to Curtis: The Former Vice-President and Senator From Kansas is Victim of Heart Attack |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/656952171/ |newspaper=[[The Weekly Kansas City Star]] |location=Kansas City, MO |date=February 12, 1936 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}} - [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/163473240/ Clipping] at [[Newspapers.com]].</ref>

== Legacy and honors ==
Curtis was the first multiracial person to serve as [[Vice President of the United States]],<ref name="corsicana">{{cite news |title=Charles Curtis Was Stricken By Heart Attack Saturday: Former Vice President Only Man of Indian Ancestry to Reach Position |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/6036669/ |agency=Associated Press |work=Corsicana Semi-Weekly Light |location=Corsicana, TX |date=February 11, 1936 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}} - [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/163473103/ Clipping] at [[Newspapers.com]].</ref> and was the only one until [[Kamala Harris]] was inaugurated in 2021.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brockell |first1=Gillian |title=Harris will be the first female, Black and Asian vice president. But not the first VP of color |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/11/12/charles-curtis-kamala-harris-vice-president-native-american/ |access-date=November 13, 2020 |date=November 12, 2020 |issn=0190-8286 |language=en-US}}</ref> Curtis was also the only United States vice president to have inaugurated the [[1932 Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The opening ceremony of the Games of the Olympiad |work=International Olympic Committee |url=https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Opening_ceremony_of_the_Games_of_the_Olympiad.pdf |date=February 8, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Over the course of his career, Curtis was featured on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine on three occasions. Two of these appearances – on December 20, 1926, and June 18, 1928 – occurred while Curtis was a senator.<ref name="time19261220" /><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19280618,00.html |title=Senator Charles Curtis |magazine=Time |date=June 18, 1928 |access-date=December 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121034528/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0%2C16641%2C19280618%2C00.html |archive-date=November 21, 2010 |url-status=dead |language=en}}</ref> The third occasion was December 5, 1932, during the final months of his vice presidency.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19321205,00.html |title=Lamest Duck |magazine=Time |date=December 5, 1932 |access-date=January 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090402014908/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0%2C16641%2C19321205%2C00.html |archive-date=April 2, 2009 |url-status=dead |language=en}}</ref>

Curtis's house in [[Topeka, Kansas]], is now operated as a [[historic house museum]] known as the Charles Curtis House Museum. It is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] and designated as a state historic site.<ref>{{cite web |title=Charles Curtis House Museum |url=http://www.charlescurtismuseum.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202121018/http://charlescurtismuseum.com/ |archive-date=February 2, 2011 |language=en}}</ref>

== Books ==
* {{Cite book |last=Curtis |first=Charles |editor-last=Frank |editor-first=Kitty |year=2019 |title=In His Own Words |url= |url-access= |edition= |others=Illustrator: Hailey East |location=[Kansas] |publisher=Kitty Frank |pages= |isbn=9781542782661 |oclc=1097606389 |access-date=}} Unfinished autobiography confirmed by the Kansas State Historical Society.

== See also ==
* [[Curtis Act of 1898]]
* [[List of Chairpersons of the College Republicans]]
* [[List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s|List of people on the cover of ''Time'' magazine: 1920s]] – December 20, 1926, and June 18, 1928
* [[List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1930s|List of people on the cover of ''Time'' magazine: 1930s]] – December 5, 1932

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite web |last1=Andrews |first1=Ann |title=Genealogy of Vice President Charles Curtis |url=http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net/ksstudies/ccfamily.html |url-status=dead |access-date=December 2, 2021 |website=VPCharlesCurtis.net |date=February 9, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020305211630/http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net:80/ksstudies/ccfamily.html |archive-date=March 5, 2002 |language=en}}
* {{cite web |last1=Andrews |first1=Ann |url=http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net/ksstudies/ccfamily.html |title=Genealogy of Vice President Charles Curtis – Mother's side: Pappans (of Charles Curtis) |work=VPCharlesCurtis.net |date=March 12, 2012 |access-date=July 19, 2010 |archive-date=July 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717085201/http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net/ksstudies/ccfamily.html |url-status=dead |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last1=Blackmar |first1=Frank Wilson |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o8X5krq3fP8C |title=Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc. |publisher=Standard Publishing Company |year=1912 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o8X5krq3fP8C/page/n483 487] |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Samuel J. |title=Kansas in the Sixties |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028875222 |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=A.C. McClurg |year=1911 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028875222/page/289 289] |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last1=Unrau |first1=William E. |title=Mixed Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity |location=Norman, OK |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=1971 |language=en}}{{ISBN?}}
* {{cite book |last1=Warren |first1=Harris Gaylord |title=Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression |date=1959 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-313-22659-5 |page=38 |language=en}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last1=Seitz |first1=Don Carlos |title=From Kaw Teepee to Capitol: The Life Story of Charles Curtis, Indian, who Has Risen to High Estate |date=1928 |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Company |language=en}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Ewy |first1=Marvin |title=Charles Curtis of Kansas: Vice President of the United States, 1929–1933 |journal=Emporia State Research Studies |volume=10 |issue=2 |year=1961 |url=https://esirc.emporia.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/490/69.pdf?sequence=1 |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last1=Unrau |first1=William E. |title=Mixed-Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Charles Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity |date=1989 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-0395-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mixedbloodstriba0000unra |language=en}}
* {{cite news |last1=Hauser |first1=Christine |title=Before Harris, This Vice President Broke a Racial Barrier |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/charles-curtis-vice-president.html |work=The New York Times |date=November 10, 2020 |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Goodrich |first1=Debra |title=From the Reservation to Washington: the Rise of Charles Curtis |date=2024 |publisher=[[The Globe Pequot Publishing Group|TwoDot]] |location=Essex, Connecticut |isbn=9781493075355|oclc=1433149653}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
{{CongBio|C001008}}
* [http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net/ "Charles Curtis; Native-American Indian Vice-president; a biography"] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813145801/http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net/ |date=August 13, 2021 }}), Vice President Charles Curtis Website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110714115355/http://www.morofilms.com/index_sub_whispers.html ''Whispers Like Thunder''], Moro Films official movie web site
* [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000773986 Don C. Seitz, ''From Kaw Teepee to Capitol; The Life Story of Charles Curtis, Indian, Who Has Risen to High Estate''], full text, HathiTrust Digital Library
* [http://www.charlescurtismuseum.com/ Charles Curtis House Museum] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202121018/http://www.charlescurtismuseum.com/ |date=February 2, 2011 }}), official website
* {{PM20|FID=pe/003602}}
* [https://www.historynet.com/charley-curtis-tepee-capitol-dome.htm "Charley Curtis: From Teepee to Capitol Dome"] by Deb Goodrich
* [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002dcnbb Image of Vice-president Charles Curtis at a banquet on board a military ship, Los Angeles (?), 1932]. ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, [[Charles E. Young Research Library]], [[University of California, Los Angeles]].

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