Charles Curtis Family Tree | Native American Vice President

Kamala Harris's election as vice president in 2020 marked several historic firsts. Following the Electoral College's confirmation of Joe Biden's victory, Harris was set to become the first woman, first Black person, and first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president of the United States.

Harris was not the first nonwhite American elected vice president. That distinction belonged to Charles Curtis, a politician of mixed European and Native American ancestry who was elected alongside Herbert Hoover in 1928 and took office in 1929.

Harris's ancestry reflects two immigrant family backgrounds. Her father was a Black Jamaican who immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, while her mother, who had died before Harris became vice president, was originally from India.

Charles Curtis was described as half Native American and half white. His family history connected him to several Indigenous nations, making his election especially significant in the context of American expansion and Native American displacement.

Millions of Indigenous people inhabited North America before Christopher Columbus arrived. The presenter rejects the traditional description of Columbus as having discovered America because the continent already supported numerous established populations.

Indigenous peoples of North America were never one unified ethnic or cultural group. They belonged to hundreds of distinct communities with different languages, territories, histories, and identities, many of which continue to exist.

Canada and the United States commonly use different terminology for Indigenous populations. The presenter notes that Canada frequently uses the term First Nations, while Native American is more commonly used in the United States.

The episode organizes precolonial Indigenous populations primarily by language families and individual tribes. Unlike the European system of centralized nation-states, the political geography of Indigenous North America cannot be adequately represented through modern national boundaries. The linguistic map presented is explicitly incomplete because hundreds of individual tribes existed.

Algonquian-speaking peoples occupied extensive territories in eastern North America. Their communities stretched along the northeastern Atlantic coast and around the Great Lakes, making them the largest of the three principal eastern language groupings shown on the map by geographical area.

Iroquoian-speaking peoples included communities around present-day New York and the Cherokee farther south. The Cherokee's inclusion illustrates how peoples sharing a broad language family could inhabit geographically separated regions.

Muskogean-speaking peoples included the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole. These four groups were concentrated in the southeastern part of North America and formed another major eastern linguistic grouping.

European settlers grouped the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole under the label Five Civilized Tribes. The presenter identifies this as a heavily Eurocentric classification because it judged Indigenous societies according to European ideas of civilization.

Siouan-speaking peoples formed one of the major language groupings of the Great Plains. The Kaw and Osage, two nations appearing in Charles Curtis's ancestry, belonged to this linguistic family.

Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples were associated with the Great Basin. They represented another major western linguistic grouping in the presenter's simplified classification of Indigenous North America.

Na-Dené-speaking peoples occupied areas of the American Southwest and regions near Alaska. The Navajo belonged to this linguistic family and were described as the second-largest Native American tribe at the time of the episode, after the Cherokee.

The Pacific coast exhibited greater Indigenous linguistic diversity than the eastern regions depicted. The presenter explains that this region contained too many separate language families to represent individually on the simplified map.

The presenter connects western linguistic diversity to the direction of early human settlement. He suggests that Indigenous populations generally spread across North America from west to east, opposite to the later east-to-west expansion of European settlers. He presents this as a likely explanation rather than an established certainty.

Charles Curtis descended from three Native American nations: the Potawatomi, Kaw, and Osage. The Potawatomi were Algonquian-speaking, while the Kaw and Osage belonged to the Siouan language family. His ancestry therefore crossed both tribal and linguistic boundaries.

Curtis's family history begins with Pahuska, an Osage chief living around the American Revolution. When the United States declared independence, its western boundary extended approximately to the Mississippi River, leaving the Osage homeland outside the new country's territory.

Several Indigenous nations formed a loose military confederacy against the expanding United States. The alliance included communities from both sides of the Mississippi River and was intended to resist American military and territorial expansion.

Pahuska and several Osage warriors participated in the Battle of the Wabash in 1791. The battle occurred in present-day Ohio and is also known as St. Clair's Defeat, after American commander General Arthur St. Clair.

The Battle of the Wabash was one of the worst defeats in United States military history. The presenter describes it as the country's worst military defeat against Native American forces, with nearly 1,000 American casualties and comparatively few Indigenous casualties.

Pahuska reportedly acquired the nickname White Hair during the battle. According to a story recounted in the episode, he removed a white wig from a fallen American soldier and kept it as a trophy. The presenter introduces this as a traditional account rather than a verified incident.

Pahuska's daughter Mina married Nampawara, the chief of the Kaw or Kansa people. Nampawara was also known as White Plume. Their marriage was intended to strengthen an alliance between the Osage and Kaw communities.

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 fundamentally changed the position of Indigenous nations west of the Mississippi. The United States purchased France's territorial claims over a vast region, although much of the land was inhabited by Native American peoples rather than actually controlled by France.

The Kaw and Osage were among the Indigenous nations affected by the Louisiana Purchase. American territorial expansion brought increasing pressure through military conflict and treaties that required Indigenous communities to surrender their lands.

Nampawara chose treaty negotiations rather than direct military confrontation with the United States. His decision illustrates one response Indigenous leaders adopted as American expansion increasingly threatened their territories.

The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled from St. Louis toward the Pacific between 1803 and 1806. The expedition surveyed the western continent as the United States sought greater knowledge of the territories it claimed and the peoples living there.

William Clark subsequently became superintendent of Indian affairs. In 1821, he brought a delegation of Indigenous leaders to Washington to meet President James Monroe.

Nampawara participated in the 1821 delegation to President Monroe. Several years after this meeting, he signed a treaty surrendering Kaw land to the United States, connecting Curtis's ancestry directly to the history of American territorial acquisition.

Nampawara had two daughters who married men of mixed French and Native American ancestry. These marriages reflected the established relationships between Indigenous communities and people descended from French settlers and traders.

One of Nampawara's sons-in-law was Joe Jim Sr. He worked as an interpreter for the United States government and also served as a guide for Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy.

Isaac McCoy supported the federal policy known as Indian Removal. The policy sought to relocate Indigenous communities from their existing homelands to territories farther west, linking missionary activity in the region to the broader history of forced displacement.

Indian Removal forced numerous Indigenous nations toward what became Oklahoma. The destination was then known as Indian Territory, and the policy affected the five southeastern nations collectively labeled the Five Civilized Tribes.

The forced migrations became associated with the Trail of Tears. The presenter states that approximately 15,000 Indigenous people died as a direct result of these removals and describes the policy as an act of genocide.

The Potawatomi, Kaw, and Osage were also eventually relocated to Oklahoma. These were the same three nations represented in Charles Curtis's family history, making forced displacement a central part of his ancestral experience.

Nampawara's daughter Waiheisi married Louis Gonville. Gonville's father was a French fur trader, while his mother belonged to the Potawatomi nation. This marriage joined Kaw, Osage, Potawatomi, and French family connections.

Waiheisi and Louis Gonville had a daughter named Julie Gonville. Julie represented the next generation in the family line leading to Charles Curtis.

Julie Gonville married Louis Pappan, another man of mixed French and Potawatomi ancestry. Both Julie's father and her husband had French and Potawatomi parentage, reflecting continuing marriages across these communities.

Julie Gonville and Louis Pappan were the parents of Ellen Pappan. Ellen subsequently married Oren Curtis, a man of British descent, bringing the Curtis surname into the family.

Charles Curtis was born in Kansas Territory before Kansas became a state. His birthplace was located on land that had previously belonged to the Kaw people, connecting his childhood geography to the earlier dispossession of his ancestors.

The United States extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the time Curtis was born, but western statehood remained incomplete. Kansas was still a federally organized territory rather than a state, illustrating the continuing political transformation of the western United States.

Kansas became a state when Charles Curtis was approximately one year old. The new state aligned with the Union during the American Civil War.

Curtis's father, Oren Curtis, served in the Union Army. He eventually attained the rank of captain, while his young son remained at home with his mother.

Charles Curtis's first languages were French and Kansa rather than English. His childhood household reflected his maternal family's Indigenous and French cultural background.

Curtis's mother, Ellen Pappan Curtis, died in 1863. Following her death, he was raised by his maternal grandparents, Louis Pappan and Julie Gonville, who lived on a Kaw reservation in Kansas.

Curtis experienced intertribal violence during childhood. When he was eight years old, a rival tribe attacked the reservation where he lived.

Curtis escaped the reservation attack with Joe Jim Jr. They fled to Topeka, the capital of Kansas, marking a major change in Curtis's living circumstances.

Curtis became known in Topeka as Indian Charlie. The nickname reflected how his Native American ancestry distinguished him within the surrounding community.

Curtis subsequently lived with his paternal grandparents, William Curtis and Permelia Hubbard. This moved him from the household of his Indigenous maternal relatives into the household of his father's family.

Curtis eventually trained as a lawyer. His education and legal career established the professional foundation for his later entry into state and national politics.

Curtis maintained a formal connection to his Indigenous ancestry despite living in Topeka. After the Kaw people had been relocated to Oklahoma, he registered as a member of the Kaw Nation there.

Curtis married Annie Baird, a woman of European descent. The couple established their family in Topeka and had three children: Permelia, Harry, and Leona.

Curtis entered national politics in 1893 as a Republican congressman from Kansas. He began his federal legislative career in the House of Representatives and subsequently advanced to the Senate.

Curtis introduced legislation that became known as the Curtis Act. The legislation was an amendment to the earlier Dawes Act and became one of the most controversial elements of his political legacy.

The Dawes Act and Curtis Act undermined traditional Indigenous communal landholding. They enabled federal authorities to replace land held collectively by tribes with allotments assigned to individual Native Americans.

The land-allotment system attempted to impose an individual-property model on Indigenous communities. The presenter explains that this approach proved destructive to Native American cultural identity, collective sovereignty, and traditional ways of life.

The consequences of the Curtis Act created a particular historical irony. A politician of substantial Native American ancestry had helped initiate legislation that ultimately damaged the rights and institutions of Indigenous nations, including communities connected to his own family.

Curtis wrote the original draft of the Curtis Act but did not control its final wording. The bill underwent numerous revisions and accumulated additional amendments before becoming law.

Curtis later stated in his autobiography that he was dissatisfied with the legislation as enacted. The presenter considers this distinction important because the final act cannot be attributed entirely to Curtis's original intentions.

The presenter rejects the simple characterization of Curtis as a traitor to Native Americans. Although the legislation bearing his name had damaging consequences, the presenter argues that its later revisions and Curtis's broader political record make such a judgment unfair.

Curtis also advocated for Native American rights during his congressional career. The presenter particularly emphasizes his efforts on behalf of Indigenous women, presenting them as an important qualification to criticism of his legislative legacy.

Curtis rose to some of the most powerful positions in the United States Senate. He served as Senate majority leader and president pro tempore, demonstrating his considerable influence within the Republican Party and the federal legislature.

Curtis sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1928. His attempt to become president was unsuccessful because Herbert Hoover secured the nomination.

Hoover selected Curtis as his vice-presidential running mate. Although Curtis failed to win the presidential nomination, he remained on the Republican national ticket in the second-highest position.

Hoover and Curtis won the 1928 presidential election by a landslide. Their victory made Curtis the first person of Native American ancestry elected to the American vice presidency.

Curtis took office as vice president in 1929. He became the first biracial individual to hold the position, a distinction that predated Kamala Harris's election by more than nine decades.

Curtis's wife Annie died before he became vice president. Consequently, he entered office without a wife to perform the ceremonial and social responsibilities traditionally associated with the second lady.

Curtis's half-sister Dolly frequently fulfilled the vice president's family-hosting role. She attended social functions in the capacity ordinarily occupied by the second lady, illustrating an unusual arrangement within the Hoover administration.

Curtis officially opened the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This ceremonial appearance was one of the prominent public duties he performed during his vice presidency.

Hoover and Curtis suffered a decisive electoral defeat in 1932. The Democratic ticket of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Garner defeated the Republican incumbents by a substantial margin.

Curtis retired from politics following the 1932 defeat. His career had taken him from Kansas congressional politics through Senate leadership to the vice presidency, but he did not pursue another major political position after leaving office.

Curtis died approximately three years after retiring from politics, aged 76. His death ended a career that had spanned several important periods of American political and Indigenous history.

Curtis remained the only person of Native American ancestry to have served as United States vice president at the time of the episode. His political achievements and controversial legislative record reflect the complicated position of an Indigenous-descended politician within a government responsible for the dispossession of Native American nations.

Curtis's family tree connects the founding of the United States, Indigenous resistance, territorial expansion, forced removal, the Civil War, and twentieth-century national politics. His direct maternal ancestry runs from Osage chief Pahuska through Mina and Kaw chief Nampawara, then Waiheisi and Louis Gonville, Julie Gonville and Louis Pappan, and finally Ellen Pappan and Oren Curtis. Across these generations, the family experienced the transformation of Indigenous homelands into American territory while one descendant ultimately reached the country's second-highest elected office.