Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was a United States Representative, a longtime United States Senator from Kansas later chosen as Senate Majority Leader by his Republican colleagues, and the 31st Vice President of the United States. He was the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch. Most of Curtis' maternal ancestry was ...
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Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was a United States Representative, a longtime United States Senator from Kansas later chosen as Senate Majority Leader by his Republican colleagues, and the 31st Vice President of the United States. He was the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch. Most of Curtis' maternal ancestry was Native American, and he spent years of childhood living with his maternal grandparents on their Kaw reservation.
As an attorney, Curtis entered political life early, winning multiple terms starting in 1892 as a Republican to the US House of Representatives from his district in Topeka, Kansas. He was elected to the US Senate first by the Kansas Legislature (in 1906 and 1914), and then by popular vote (in 1920 and 1926), serving one six-year term from 1907 to 1913, and then most of three terms from 1915 to 1929 (when he became Vice President)....
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