{{short description|Native American leader}} {{use mdy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Rupert Costo | birth_date = 1906 | birth_place = Hemet, California, U.S. | death_date = October 20, {{death year and age|1989|1906}} | death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | citizenship = Cahuilla Band of Indians and U.S. | education = Riverside City College,<br/> Whittier College,<br/> University of Nevada | occupation = Writer, activist, publisher, philanthropist, farmer, cattle rancher, surveyor, mineralogist, engineer | spouse = Jeannette Henry Costo }} '''Rupert Costo''' (1906 &ndash; 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.<ref name="la_times_1986-05-02">{{cite news |last=Sahagun |first=Louis |date=May 2, 1986 |title=Indians Pull Up Scholarly Chair at UC Riverside |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-05-02-mn-3073-story.html |quote=the American Indian Historical Society, which was founded by the Costos in 1950}}</ref><ref name="sb_sun">{{cite news |last=Yetzer |first=Carl |date=May 10, 1986 |title=UCR receives Indian library at ceremony |newspaper=The San Bernardino Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108390793/ucr-receives-indian-library-at-ceremony/ |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Waugh |first=Dexter |date=1995-08-15 |title=Writing a longtime native Indian wrong |pages=43 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108388400/writing-a-longtime-native-indian-wrong/ |access-date=2022-08-27 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Costo had many careers and avocations throughout his life, including farmer, cattle rancher, surveyor, and mineralogist.<ref name=sb_sun /> He also served as an engineer for the California Division of Highways for nearly 20 years.<ref name=sb_sun />

== Early life and education == Costo was born in Hemet, California, and was raised on the nearby Cahuilla Reservation.<ref name=sb_sun />

He attended Riverside City College in the 1920s along with classmate John Gabbert, who ultimately became a Superior Court Judge.<ref name="sb_sun" /> Following his time at Riverside Community College (now Riverside City College), he attended Whittier College and then the University of Nevada.<ref name="la_times_1989-10-23" />

== Career ==

===Soil conservation=== Costo was key in the establishment of the Anza Soil Conservation District, now known as the Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza Resource Conservation District.<ref name=sb_sun_1985-10-29>{{cite news|title=Indian books and artifacts donated to UC Riverside|newspaper=The San Bernardino Sun|date=October 29, 1985}}</ref>

=== Native American advocacy === Costo served as a member of the governing board of Cahuilla Reservation for more than 20 years<ref name=sb_sun_1985-10-29 /> and its spokesman for 8 years.<ref name=sb_sun /> He also served as a lobbyist fighting for Native American land rights for two years in Washington, D.C.<ref name=sb_sun /> and was a member of the American Indian Federation in the late 1930s.<ref> {{cite journal|last1=Hauptman|first1=Laurence M.|title=The American Indian Federation and the Indian New Deal: A Reinterpretation |journal=Pacific Historical Review|date=November 1983|volume=52|issue=4|page=384|doi=10.2307/3639073|jstor=3639073}}</ref>

He co-founded the American Indian Historical Society in 1950,<ref name=la_times_1986-05-02 /><ref name=sb_sun /> 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.<ref name=la_times_1989-10-23 /> 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''.<ref name=sb_sun />

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.<ref name="chambers_2001">{{cite journal |last=Chambers |first=Ian |year=2001 |title=The History of Native American Studies at the University of California Riverside |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5773 |journal=Indigenous Nations Studies Journal |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=83–94|hdl=1808/5773 }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> The Indian Historian Press published some 59 book titles.<ref name=":1" />

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.<ref name="pe_1986-05-08">{{cite news |date=May 8, 1986 |title=American Indian historians will speak at UCR today |newspaper=The Press-Enterprise |location=Riverside, Calif}}</ref>

===University of California, Riverside advocacy=== 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.<ref name=chambers_2001 />

== Personal life == 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.<ref name=pe_1986-05-08 /> Mrs. Costo identified as being of Eastern Cherokee descent and was an activist for Native American causes in her own right.<ref name=sb_sun />

Costo was named the Riverside Community College Alumni of the Year.<ref name="sb_sun" />

== Death and legacy == Rupert Costo died on October 20, 1989, at his home in San Francisco, California.<ref name=la_times_1989-10-23>{{cite news|title=Rupert Costo; American Indian Scholar Who Fought Stereotypes|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-23-mn-322-story.html|access-date=November 24, 2013|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 23, 1989}}</ref>

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.<ref name="sb_sun" /> The Costo Chair in American Indian History at the University of California, Riverside, was named in his honor.<ref name="sb_sun" />

==Publications== *''Textbooks and the American Indian'' (1970)<ref name=chambers_2001 /> *''Indian Voices: the Native American Today'' (1974)<ref name=chambers_2001 /> *''Indian Treaties: Two Centuries of Dishonor'' (1977)<ref name=chambers_2001 /> *''A Thousand Years of American Indian Storytelling'' (1981)<ref name=chambers_2001 /> *{{Cite book |last1=Costo |first1=Rupert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u18MAAAAYAAJ |title=The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide |last2=Henry Costo |first2=Jeannette |publisher=The Indian Historian Press |year=1987 |isbn=9780317645392}}<ref name="chambers_2001" /> *{{Cite book |last1=Costo |first1=Rupert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_WpxAAAAMAAJ |title=Natives of the Golden State: The California Indians |last2=Henry Costo |first2=Jeannette |publisher=The Indian Historian Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780713436266}}<ref name="pe_1986-05-08" />

==Bibliography==

* Erickson, Jan. [http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/costo.pdf ''Transcription of an Oral History Interview with Jeannette Costo''], University of California, Riverside, July 27, 1998. Retrieved November 23, 2013 * Starr, Raymond. [http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/89summer/br-missions.htm "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== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.emarcd.org/index.html Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza Resource Conservation District] *[http://www.coyotepress.com/ihp.html Indian Historian Press] *[http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A126 Rupert Costo, 1906-1989 on Native American Authors] on [http://www.ipl.org IPL website] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvNc8jfHmsI Rupert and Jeannette Costo Story] on [https://www.youtube.com Youtube.com]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Costo, Rupert}} Category:Cahuilla people Category:20th-century Native American writers Category:Activists for Native American rights Category:American Indigenous rights activists Category:1906 births Category:1989 deaths Category:Riverside City College alumni Category:Whittier College alumni Category:American anti-communists