By Dr. Frank Garcia Berumen – 8/13/2020
In the euphoria of the moment, to celebrate Kamala Harris’s nomination for vice-president by Joe Biden, the media, as usual, has once again manifested its ignorance of Native American history.
The first person of color to be selected to serve as Vice-President of the United States; and to actually serve as such, was Charles Curtis, who was part Osage, Kaw, Potawatomi, and Euro-American. Curtis was elected as a Republican congressman (1893-1907) and then U.S. Senator (1907-1913, 1915-1929), for the state of Kansas.
However, Curtis believed in indigenous assimilation. During his term in office in the U.S. Congress, he helped pass the Curtis Act of 1898. The latter act extended the Dawes Act to the Five Civilized Tribes. [1] The law ended Native American self-government and communal land; and allowed the surplus land to be sold to non-indigenous persons.
Curtis would go on to serve as vice-president of the United States under Republican president Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. He was the first and only person with significant indigenous blood to serve in such position of power and influence.
Curtis’s political rise in politics was facilitated by the overdue granting of citizenship. In 1919, citizenship was granted to Native Americans, who had been called to service during World War I. More than 10,000 native persons had served in the armed forces, and large numbers had fought and died.
On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law. It officially made all Native Americans born within the United States and its territories U.S. citizens. However, the law did not include the hundreds of thousands of Mexican indigenous people who had lived in the Southwest before the U.S. takeover after the Mexican American War (1846-1848); and/or the thousands who had moved to the United States since that time. In addition, it did nothing to classify these indigenous people as legitimate native people.
Charles Curtis was the first person with significant indigenous blood to serve as vice-president of the United States. Unfortunately, Curtis is an example of person of color, who did not necessarily serve the interests of his people.
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Dr. Frank Garcia Berumen has a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is an educator and writer. He has written extensively on the Native American and Mexican American experience. His books include Latino Image Makers of Hollywood (McFarland & Co., Inc.); Edward R. Roybal: The Struggle for Mexican American Political Empowerment (Bilingual Educational Services, Inc.); and American Indian Image Makers of Hollywood (McFarland & Co., Inc.).
This article is copyrighted 2020. No part of this article may be duplicated or reproduced without the written permission of the author. All rights are reserved by Frank Garcia Berumen.
[1] The Five Civilized Tribes included the Seminole, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Chickasaw. They lived in what today in the southern part of Untied States. They were so-called because they had assimilated into living like Euro-Americans, in houses, dress, religion, and even owning Black slaves. They had hoped that this would protect them from their land been stolen by Euro-Americans.
However, it did not. Between 1830 to 1850, the five tribes were forcefully moved to Oklahoma. The forced removal has become known as the Trail of Tears. Tens of thousands died of starvation, disease, brutality, and exposure. The man behind the removal was President Andrew Jackson, a white supremist, land speculator and slave owner. In 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush permitted Euro-American settler to take two million acres from the impoverished five tribes.
