Rupert Costo | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1906 Hemet, Riverside County, California, U.S. |
| Died | October 20, 1989 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Education | Riverside City College, Whittier College, University of Nevada |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, activist, publisher, philanthropist, farmer, cattle rancher, surveyor, mineralogist, engineer |
| Spouse | Jeannette Henry Costo |
Rupert Costo (1906 – October 20, 1989) was a Cahuilla writer, activist, publisher, and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the American Indian Historical Society (AIHS) and the Indian Historian Press publishing company.[1][2][3] Costo had many careers and avocations throughout his life, including farmer, cattle rancher, surveyor, and mineralogist.[2] He also served as an engineer for the California Division of Highways for nearly 20 years.[2]
Early life and education[edit]
Costo was born in Hemet, California, and was raised on the nearby Cahuilla Reservation.[2]
He attended Riverside City College in the 1920s along with classmate John Gabbert, who ultimately became a Superior Court Judge.[2] Following his time at Riverside Community College (now Riverside City College), he attended Whittier College and then the University of Nevada.[4]
Career[edit]
Soil conservation[edit]
Costo was key in the establishment of the Anza Soil Conservation District, now known as the Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza Resource Conservation District.[5]
Native American advocacy[edit]
Costo served as a member of the governing board of Cahuilla Reservation for more than 20 years[5] and its spokesman for 8 years.[2] He also served as a lobbyist fighting for Native American land rights for two years in Washington, D.C.[2] and was a member of the American Indian Federation in the late 1930s.[6]
He co-founded the American Indian Historical Society in 1950,[1][2] in an effort to ensure scholarly examination of Native American lives as opposed to the stereotypes so prevalent in United States' society at the time.[4] As part of the same efforts, he and his wife, Jeannette Costo, founded the scholarly journal The Indian Historian as well as the popular press periodical Wassaja.[2]
The Costos founded the Indian Historian Press, a for-profit publishing house dedicated to publishing titles documenting or related to the Native American experience in the United States.[7][3] The Indian Historian Press published some 59 book titles.[3]
Costo and his wife Jeannette opposed the efforts within the Catholic Church to name Father Junipero Serra a saint based on the claim that he treated Native Americans in an inhumane fashion.[8]
University of California, Riverside advocacy[edit]
Rupert Costo and his lifelong friend, Superior Court Judge John Gabbert, were key players in lobbying the University of California to establish a university in Riverside, California.[7]
Personal life[edit]
Rupert Costo was married to Jeannette Henry Costo (1908–2001), a reporter for The New York Times, the Detroit Free Press, and The Plain Dealer, in 1954.[8] Mrs. Costo identified as being of Eastern Cherokee descent and was an activist for Native American causes in her own right.[2]
Costo was named the Riverside Community College Alumni of the Year.[2]
Death and legacy[edit]
Rupert Costo died on October 20, 1989, at his home in San Francisco, California.[4]
The Costo's extensive personal library documenting the Native American experience in the United States was donated to the University of California Riverside Libraries in May 1986.[2] The Costo Chair in American Indian History at the University of California, Riverside, was named in his honor.[2]
Publications[edit]
- Textbooks and the American Indian (1970)[7]
- Indian Voices: the Native American Today (1974)[7]
- Indian Treaties: Two Centuries of Dishonor (1977)[7]
- A Thousand Years of American Indian Storytelling (1981)[7]
- Costo, Rupert; Henry Costo, Jeannette (1987). The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide. The Indian Historian Press. ISBN 9780317645392.[7]
- Costo, Rupert; Henry Costo, Jeannette (1995). Natives of the Golden State: The California Indians. The Indian Historian Press. ISBN 9780713436266.[8]
Bibliography[edit]
- Erickson, Jan. Transcription of an Oral History Interview with Jeannette Costo, University of California, Riverside, July 27, 1998. Retrieved November 23, 2013
- Starr, Raymond. "The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide. Book Review." The Journal of San Diego History, Volume 35, Number 3, Summer 1989. Retrieved 1989
References[edit]
- ^ a b Sahagun, Louis (May 2, 1986). "Indians Pull Up Scholarly Chair at UC Riverside". Los Angeles Times.
the American Indian Historical Society, which was founded by the Costos in 1950
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Yetzer, Carl (May 10, 1986). "UCR receives Indian library at ceremony". The San Bernardino Sun – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Waugh, Dexter (August 15, 1995). "Writing a longtime native Indian wrong". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 43. Retrieved August 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Rupert Costo; American Indian Scholar Who Fought Stereotypes". Los Angeles Times. October 23, 1989. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
- ^ a b "Indian books and artifacts donated to UC Riverside". The San Bernardino Sun. October 29, 1985.
- ^ Hauptman, Laurence M. (November 1983). "The American Indian Federation and the Indian New Deal: A Reinterpretation". Pacific Historical Review. 52 (4): 384. doi:10.2307/3639073. JSTOR 3639073.
- ^ a b c d e f g Chambers, Ian (2001). "The History of Native American Studies at the University of California Riverside". Indigenous Nations Studies Journal. 2 (2): 83–94. hdl:1808/5773.
- ^ a b c "American Indian historians will speak at UCR today". The Press-Enterprise. Riverside, Calif. May 8, 1986.
External links[edit]
- Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza Resource Conservation District
- Indian Historian Press
- Rupert Costo, 1906-1989 on Native American Authors on IPL website
- Rupert and Jeannette Costo Story on Youtube.com
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