Profile America: Native American Vice President

Charles Curtis, US Senate Majority Leader, 1925. (Wikipedia)

Charles Curtis, US Senate Majority Leader, 1925. (Wikipedia)

Tuesday, November 8 — This day in 1892 was, like today, an election day.  Winning his first Federal office then as a Representative was Charles Curtis of Kansas.  Curtis, who spent much of his youth on his mother’s reservation, was possibly the first person of Native American heritage to be elected to Congress, and definitely the first in the Senate.  There, he rose to Senate Majority Leader in 1925.  He sought the presidential nomination in 1928, but wound up his career as Herbert Hoover’s Vice President.  There are about 5.4 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives of single or mixed race, as was Vice President Curtis. Of the 199-million U.S. residents of voting age in 2014, 3.8 million were of American Indian and Alaska Native heritage.

Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

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