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| Around the Capital (detail), engraving, Thomas Fleming, 1902, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives |
BURKE, Charles Henry, a Representative from South Dakota; born on a farm near Batavia,
Genesee County, N.Y., April 1, 1861; attended the public schools of Batavia,
N.Y.; moved to the Territory of Dakota in 1882 and settled on a homestead in
Beadle County; moved to Hughes County in 1883; studied law; was admitted to the
bar in 1886; engaged in the real estate investment business in Pierre, S.Dak.;
member of the State house of representatives in 1895 and 1897; elected as a
Republican to the Fifty-sixth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4,
1899-March 3, 1907); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1906 to the
Sixtieth Congress; elected to the Sixty-first, Sixty-second, and Sixty-third
Congresses (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1915); chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs
(Sixty-first Congress); minority whip (Sixty-third Congress); did not seek
renomination in 1914 having received the Republican nomination for United
States Senator, but was unsuccessful for election; resumed the investment
business; appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C., on April
1, 1921, and served until his resignation on June 30, 1929; engaged in the real
estate and loan business in Pierre S. Dak., and also worked in the interest of
Indians in Washington, D.C.; died in Washington, D.C., April 7, 1944; interment
in Riverside Cemetery, Pierre, S.Dak.
BibliographySchlup, Leonard. Charles Henry Burke and the Department of
Indian Affairs in the Harding and Coolidge Administrations,
International Review of History and Political Science 17
(1980): 1-14.
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