B2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 , 2020
BY GILLIAN BROCKELLVice President-elect Kamala D.
Harris is a trailblazer in many
ways. She is the first female vice
president. The first Black vice
president. The first South Asian
vice president. And, perhaps, the
first vice president to sport Chuck
Taylors.
But, as some have mistakenly
claimed, she is not the first multi-
racial vice president or the first
one of color. That distinction be-
longs to Charles Curtis, who
served as vice president to Her-
bert Hoover from 1929 to 1933.
Curtis’s mother was a Native
American who belonged to the
Kaw Nation, and he was raised on
a reservation by his maternal
grandparents, where he spoke the
Indigenous language and lived in
a tepee.
Kaw territory originally
spanned across what is now east-
ern and northern Kansas. The
state got its name from “Kanza,”
what European explorers and
traders called the Kaw, according
to the Kaw Nation website. As
White settlers moved West and
disease decimated the Kaw, a s e-
ries of treaties shrank Kaw terri-
tory by 99 percent.
Kaw people who were classified
by Whites as “full bloods” and
“half-breeds” were assigned dif-
ferent allotments of land. Curtis’s
mother and maternal grandpar-
ents were on “Half Breed Reserva-
tion No. Four,” directly across the
river from Topeka, where they ran
a ferry business, according to a
Senate biography. His father was a
White man who didn’t provide a
particularly stable home for his
son; he left altogether after Cur-
tis’s mother died when he was 3.
Curtis moved with his grand-
parents to the main reservation,
where he lived until he was 9 or 10.
His first language was Kanza, and
he recalled later, “I had my bows
and arrows and joined the other
boys in shooting arrows at nickels,
dimes, and quarters which visi-
tors would place in split sticks.”
In his teen years, he was sent
back to Topeka to live with his
paternal grandparents, who
wanted to “civilize” him, but he
rebelled. Having spent his youth
riding bareback, he soon became
a locally famous horse jockey,
called “The Indian Boy” or “Indi-
an Charley.”
“His mounts made a lot of mon-
ey for the local gamblers and
prostitutes who bet on him,” ac-
cording to the Senate biography,
“and he recalled that after one
race a madam bought him ‘a new
suit of clothes, boots, hat and all,’
and had a new jockey suit made
for him.”
Then the Kaw, whose popula-
tion had shrunk to about 500,
were forced to move to a reserva-
tion in Oklahoma. Curtis was still
on the tribal rolls and tried to
rejoin his grandparents on the
journey, but his grandmother dis-
couraged it. She wanted him to go
to school and assimilate into
White society.
“I took her splendid advice,” helater recounted, “and the next
morning as the wagons pulled out
for the south, bound for Indian
Territory, I m ounted my pony and
with my belongings in a flour
sack, returned to Topeka and
school.”
It was a turning point, and
though Curtis never hid his ances-
try or tried to “pass” for White, he
spent the rest of his life pushing
Native American assimilation
plans, for himself and for all In-
digenous people.
He studied law and by 21 was
admitted to the Kansas bar. He
sold the “half-breed” land he had
inherited from his mother into
plots for houses. He married, had
three kids and then entered the
world of politics — first as a coun-
ty attorney and then as a member
of the House.In Washington, Curtis was
known for his winning personal-
ity. He wrote down and memo-
rized the names and families of
everyone he met, so he could al-
ways ask about a colleague’s wife
or children by name. His col-
leagues just called him “Indian.” A
1900 Washington Post article
used offensive language to de-
scribe Kaw men and women cel-
ebrating his reelection as “Big
Chief Charles.” They would
“dance for hours” around a p hoto
of Curtis, the article claimed.
He was also on the House Indi-
an Affairs Committee and drafted
multiple bills to “protect” Native
Americans that actually further
eroded their sovereignty. He con-
tinued to support the assimilation
policies of the era and advocated
for Native American boardingschools. In 1902, he wrote the very
bill that “legally obliterated the
[Kaw] tribe,” according to the Kaw
Nation website.
Curtis was first appointed to
the Senate in 1907. At the time,
senators were chosen by state leg-
islatures, and he lost renomina-
tion after a dispute over tariffs.
But with the passage of the 17th
Amendment, which changed Sen-
ate election to the popular vote, he
was reelected in 1914.
By the 1920s, Curtis was the
Senate majority leader. He sup-
ported prohibition, high tariffs
and women’s suffrage. To the pub-
lic, he was known for his quiet
demeanor, but in Senate back-
rooms he could negotiate any deal
his party needed.
In 1928, he put himself forward
as a candidate for president buthad to settle for Hoover’s running
mate. As vice president, he deco-
rated his office with Native Ameri-
can artifacts and regularly met
with tribal leaders.
Hoover and Curtis were not
close — Curtis was only picked to
unite different factions of the Re-
publican Party of the day — and he
was rarely invited to Cabinet
meetings or public appearances
with the president. In the 1932
musical “Of Thee I Sing,” a c harac-
ter based on Curtis can get into
the White House only by taking a
public tour.
It may be just as well he didn’t
play an important role, since
Hoover is largely remembered as
one of the worst presidents in
American history. His feckless re-
sponse to the 1929 stock market
crash undoubtedly made the en-
suing Great Depression worse.
Hoover, and Curtis along with
him, were voted out after one
term. Curtis spent the rest of his
life practicing law in Washington.
He died in 1936 and was buried in
Topeka.
At its lowest, the Kaw Nation
dwindled to fewer than 200 peo-
ple. In 1960, its Oklahoma reser-
vation was lost when it was inun-
dated with water to form a reser-
voir. In 2000, the last “full-blood-
ed” Kaw died; the Kanza language
almost died with him.
But the Kaw Nation has perse-
vered. The tribe is once again
federally recognized and now
numbers nearly 3,600 people.
Kaw children are no longer
pushed to “assimilate” the way
Curtis was but instead take les-
sons to revive the Kanza language.
When asked on the phone how
members of the Kaw Nation feel
about Curtis today, a r epresenta-
tive said it wasn’t her place to say.
Then she hung up.
[email protected] F rom Retropolis, a b log about the
past, rediscovered, at
washingtonpost.com/retropolisRETROPOLIS
In 1929, the first U.S. vice president of color took o∞ce
Before Harris, a Native
American from Kansas
left a complicated legacyHARRIS & EWING COLLECTION/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Charles Curtis, pictured at center in late 1929, served f or one term under President Herbert Hoover. Though he never hid his ancestry, he
pushed for Native American assimilation policies and while in the House wrote a bill that “legally obliterated” his tribe, the Kaw Nation.LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Curtis united party factions as
the vice-presidential candidate.“We could be totally off base.”
She said a few months ago
gorilla keeper Carly Hornberger
called her and reported that Bara-
ka had turned down his after-
noon fruit snack and was not
acting like himself.
“He is a big guy” and usually
eats five or more meals a day,
Malinsky said.
And it’s troubling when any
animal turns down a favorite
food, she said.
Gorillas are vegetarians and
eat lots of le ttuce, broccoli,
squash and cabbage. They love
treats such as apples, oranges and
pears.
“He normally shovels the food
in,” Malinsky said.
Malinsky took a look and
agreed with Hornberger. Baraka
would not approach the mesh at
the gorilla enclosure to take any
food, and his body language sug-
gested that he was having a stom-
ach problem.
But he seemed fine the next day
and remained so for several
weeks.
When the symptoms reap-
peared about a month ago, the
tests were arranged before there
was an emergency, Malinsky s aid.
“Most animals are pretty stoic
and tend to hide discomfort and
pain,” she said. And when they
show it, attention must be paid.
“He really, really is a gentle
giant,” she said, adding that “he is
an incredibly gentle silverback...
[with] a very laid-back demean-
or” — and is a fair judge of
conduct within his troop of the
zoo’s six lowland gorillas.
Said Stromberg, one of the
keepers: “I always say he’s a s im-
ple man.”
[email protected]hands are done shaking,” she said.
He had been trained to present
her his left arm.
The shot seemed to hurt — he
rubbed the spot afterward, she
said. He was asleep in five to 10
minutes and was transported in a
van to the hospital on the zoo
grounds.
Chest and abdominal X-rays
were taken, along with an
echocardiogram of his heart.
Gorillas can live into their 50s
and develop heart disease, Steeil
said. Baraka is nearing middle
age, and males “are under exten-
sive pressure,” he said.
Because they are the “troop
maintainers,” Steeil said, “they
tend to succumb earlier than the
females.”
But his heart looked fine.
A gastroscopy, where a tube
bearing a tiny camera is inserted
down the throat to see the stom-
ach and environs, was done. An
endoscopic ultrasound, a similar
procedure to see the pancreas,
gallbladder and various ducts,
followed.
“This might be the first endo-
scopic ultrasound ever in a goril-
la,” said George Washington Uni-
versity’s Steven Zeddun, the doc-
tor who did the procedure.
Baraka is 28. He was born at
the zoo in 1992. Standing, he is
about 6 feet tall, said Becky Mal-
insky, assistant curator of pri-
mates.
As a t eenager he lived for about
two years at Omaha’s Henry“This is the best-case scenario,”
he said, adding, “All great things.”
So what’s causing his stomach
distress?
“It’s one of these [things] in zoo
medicine that sometimes you
never find the answer,” Steeil said.
“But as long as the problem
does n’t continue to recur, you’re
still okay with that.”
But some worrisome gum in-
flammation was found around
several teeth, and that tissue was
biopsied for analysis.
“This swelling in his mouth,”
he said, “could be inflammation.
It could be an infection. Or it
could be a tumor.”
“We don’t brush their teeth,”
Steeil said. “His oral care is done
by him by chewing on various
things.”
The biopsy results should be
back in about a week or so, he
said.
“It is likely that he will need a
second procedure,” Steeil said.
“Whether it’s multiple teeth that
need to be extracted or it’s strictly
related to a tumor that we...
have to determine what to do
with.”
“The goal will be to give him
the best quality of life that we
can,” he said.
The day began at 7:30 a.m. in
the Great Ape House when pri-
mate keeper Erin Stromberg gave
Baraka an injection of anesthesia
in his left biceps. “I think my
GORILLA FROM B1
The 400-pound gorilla
in the room stays asleep
Doorly Zoo. He is the father of
2-year-old Moke.
Baraka is called a silverback
because of the silver/gray hair
that all males develop in maturity.
Malinsky said she had not been
sure what was ailing him. “Based
on the symptoms that we’ve seen
him exhibit we are suspicious
that it could be something gastro-
intestinal,” she said Wednesday.PHOTOS BY MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POSTBaraka, a silverback gorill a,
gets a m edical checkup
Thursday at the National Zoo
after showing signs of
abdominal distress in recent
months. The procedures
included a r are — for gorillas —
endoscopic ultrasound.Subscriber Exclusives“Tee-riffic”: Save 15% and Score Free Shipping on Orders Over $29in the Store at The Washington Post
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