Rupert Costo was a Cahuilla writer, activist, publisher, and philanthropist.
13 Facts About Rupert Costo
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Rupert Costo was a co-founder of the American Indian Historical Society and the Indian Historian Press publishing company.
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Rupert Costo served as an engineer for the California Division of Highways for nearly 20 years.
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Rupert Costo was born in Hemet, California, and was raised on the nearby Cahuilla Reservation.
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Rupert Costo attended Riverside City College in the 1920s along with classmate John Gabbert, who ultimately became a Superior Court Judge.
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Rupert Costo was key in the establishment of the Anza Soil Conservation District, now known as the Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza Resource Conservation District.
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Rupert Costo served as a member of the governing board of Cahuilla Reservation for more than 20 years and its spokesman for 8 years.
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Rupert Costo served as a lobbyist fighting for Native American land rights for two years in Washington, DC and was a member of the American Indian Federation in the late 1930s.
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Rupert Costo co-founded the American Indian Historical Society in 1950, 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.
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Rupert Costo was married to Jeannette Henry Costo, a reporter for The New York Times, the Detroit Free Press, and The Plain Dealer, in 1954.
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Mrs Rupert Costo identified as being of Eastern Cherokee descent and was an activist for Native American causes in her own right.
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Rupert Costo was named the Riverside Community College Alumni of the Year.
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Rupert Costo died on October 20,1989, at his home in San Francisco, California.