Rupert Costo
Rupert Costo (1906–1989) was a Native American author, publisher, philanthropist, and lobbyist for Native American land rights. He was also a cattle rancher, engineer, and surveyor.
Born in Hemet, California, and raised on the Cahuilla Reservation in Anza, he was educated at Riverside City College, Whittier College, and the University of Nevada. Costo served for more than twenty years on the governing board of Cahuilla Reservation and as its spokesman for eight years. In the late 1930s, he was a member of the American Indian Federation. In 1950, he cofounded the American Indian Historical Society with his wife, Jeannette Henry Costo. Together they founded a scholarly journal, The Indian Historian, as well as a popular press periodical Wassaja. They also established the Indian Historian Press, a for-profit publishing house dedicated to publishing titles about the Native American experience in the United States.
Alongside his scholarly activities, Costo worked as an engineer for the California Division of Highways (now Caltrans) for nearly twenty years, and played a key role in establishing the Anza Soil Conservation District, today known as the Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza Resource Conservation District.
Costo was a strong supporter of higher education and Native studies. In the early 1950s, he lobbied for the creation of a University of California campus in Riverside. University of California, Riverside’s undergraduate College of Letters and Science opened in 1954. In 1986, he and his wife donated their library to the university, creating the Rupert Costo Library for the American Indian. Believing in the power of the printed word and the importance of history, Costo also endowed the Costo Chair in American Indian History (now the Rupert Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs) at the University of California, Riverside to support Indigenous scholarship and help Native communities reclaim control of their historical narratives. Costo Hall at the University of California, Riverside is named in honor of Rupert and Jeannette Costo.
The photo of Rupert Costo is from the Rupert and Jeannette Costo Papers (MS 170).
Special Collections and University Archives, University of California, Riverside