From the Reservation to Washington: The Rise of Charles Curtis

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.

Deb Goodrich is the Garvey Texas Foundation Historian in Residence at the Fort Wallace Museum, Wallace, KS. She has co-hosted a syndicated weekly television show for over ten years and had a radio talk show prior to that. She is chair of the Santa Fe Trail 200, commemorated from 2021-2025. She serves on the boards of: The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Western Writers of America, and the Smoky Hill Trail Association. She previously served as president of the Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Kansas and the Kansas City Civil War Roundtable, and past board member of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. She has spoken to hundreds of groups around the country on topics ranging from John Brown to the Lincolns to Jesse James. She has appeared as a talking head in numerous documentaries including: American Experience: Jesse James; Aftershock; AHC’s Gunslinger Series on Wild Bill Hickok; The Road to Valhalla (winner of the Wrangler Award); and American Artist: George Caleb Bingham (winner of an Emmy).

She is co-writer and co-executive producer of The Contested Plains, a docudrama set in the American West in the 1870s. It is set for release in September 2022.