In 1907 he moved to the US Senate, becoming the first Republican whip with American Indian ancestry in 1915. In 1892 he gained national prominence with his election to the US House of Representatives. At 21, he was admitted to the bar, soon rising to county attorney. There he became integrated into the white world. As the US government prepared to remove the Kaw from their reservation to what’s now Oklahoma, young Curtis moved to Topeka, Kansas, to live with his paternal grandmother. The battle ended quickly but was the beginning of a period of great change for Curtis. His life was peaceful for a time, but in 1868 a group of neighboring Cheyenne and a small number of Kiowa and Arapaho warriors raided the reservation. The reservation was near Council Grove, Kansas, an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail. Following the death of his mother, three-year-old Curtis went to live with his maternal grandmother on the Kaw Indian Reservation. Nor that he would become the first with American Indian ancestry to hold the second highest office in the nation.Ĭurtis was 1/8th American Indian and a descendent of Kaw Chief White Plume and Osage Chief Pawhuska. When Charles Curtis was born in 1860, no one could have known that he was destined for a career in national politics.
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