Only Native American Vice President so far, Charles Curtis

[renard_ruse]

The first and only President or Vice President affiliated with an American Indian tribe, and the first with significant non-European ancestry, was Republican Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover's Vice President.

Why did I not learn about this in school? Why is this not celebrated by the civil rights agenda crowd?

Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was the 31st Vice President of the United States (1929–1933).

After serving as a United States Representative, and then a longtime United States Senator from Kansas, Curtis was chosen as Senate Majority Leader by his Republican colleagues. A Kaw Nation Native American Indian, he was the first person with significant acknowledged Native American ancestry and the first person with significant acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis

 

[renard_ruse]

Curtis' not only grew up on the Kaw Reservation, he spoke the native Kansa language before he learned English. Culturally he was the real deal...

... Curtis was a descendant of the chiefs White Plume and Pawhuska, of the Kaw and Osage, respectively.

From his mother, Curtis first learned French and Kansa. As a boy living with his mother and her family on the Kaw reservation, he started racing horses. Curtis was a highly successful jockey in prairie horse races...

 

[KingOrfeo]

The first and only President or Vice President affiliated with an American Indian tribe, and the first with significant non-European ancestry, was Republican Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover's Vice President.

Why did I not learn about this in school? Why is this not celebrated by the civil rights agenda crowd?

Same reason nobody remembers who Millard Fillmore's Veep was.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Same reason nobody remembers who Millard Fillmore's Veep was.

Fillmore didn't have a VP. He succeeded to the office of POTUS on the death of Zachary Taylor and was not reelected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore

 

[KingOrfeo]

Fillmore didn't have a VP. He succeeded to the office of POTUS on the death of Zachary Taylor and was not reelected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore

See? I didn't remember that, and you had to look it up (yes, you did, don't even try to deny it). Which answers the OP.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Interesting, I never actually paid attention to that. I just assumed that if the PotUS died and the VP took over that the Speaker moves on up. Guess everybody agrees that the VP is such an unimportant job that it can remain vacant for a while. I wonder what the longest we've gone without one was.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Interesting, I never actually paid attention to that. I just assumed that if the PotUS died and the VP took over that the Speaker moves on up. Guess everybody agrees that the VP is such an unimportant job that it can remain vacant for a while. I wonder what the longest we've gone without one was.

I did look up Fillmore, but I won't look this one up. It has to be the Tyler administration, because he took office upon the death of W. H. Harrison, who served only about a month, the shortest time in history. Second was probably Truman's administration between the time FDR died only a few months into his fourth term and the swearing-in of Barkley after the 1948 election.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Interesting, I never actually paid attention to that. I just assumed that if the PotUS died and the VP took over that the Speaker moves on up. Guess everybody agrees that the VP is such an unimportant job that it can remain vacant for a while.

That was the case until 1967, when the 25th Amendment was ratified, authorizing the president to appoint a new veep if the office should become vacant. Thus, when Agnew resigned, Nixon was able to appoint Ford in his place.