Centennial Anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Law: Protecting Native Rights
Source: National Photo Company, President Coolidge Meets with Committee of One Hundred, ca. December 12-13, 1923, Library of Congress, and the White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/fotoware?id=EDD0DA4619B34ACE%20ABE69D2B007FBD8A
On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law. The two-paragraph long act authorized “certificates of citizenship” for Native Americans in the United States1. It upset nearly 150 years of precedent, federal policy, and practice. Although imperfect, the act did change the legal standing of many Native Americans in the United States and provided the basis from which numerous further legislations could be created to better protect the rights and sovereignty of Native nations.
Uncovering the complexities between the government and indigenous people
The legal history of the Indigenous peoples within the bounds of what is now the United States is varied and complex. What has been clear, throughout history, is that Native nations possess their inherent sovereignty irrespective of official federal recognition. Tribes and Nations have always had sovereignty and autonomy to elect their own representatives and decide their own laws. However, the US government recognized very few of these government agencies and standing as legal entities. Even after the Citizenship Act, many laws and practices throughout the United States continued to pointedly infringe upon the rights of Indigenous peoples. This is still happening today. Indigenous peoples have fought these infringements for hundreds of years and continue to do so.
Looking at the past legal standing of Native nations, many treaties and language in official documents—such as article three of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787—recognizes the sovereignty of Indigenous communities and place them in equal standing to the United States.2 However, official US policies and practices did not reflect this official designation. Often, a lack of citizenship was utilized as a basis for removal and armed conflict with civilian populations.3
What predated the Indian Citizenship Act
By 1924, the United States has set almost 150 years of precedent for the rights of Native Americans under the federal government. People who were already recognized citizens of the United States still had difficulties exercising their rights, especially their right to vote. Citizens who had secured the right to vote were often subject to poll taxes, which would not be removed from federal elections until the 24th amendment in 1964, and to literacy tests, which would not be banned until the 1965 Voting Rights Act.4 Women had been awarded the right to vote in 1920 across all states, although in practice this amendment only secured the right to vote for White women.5 Black Americans across the US were unlawfully prevented from voting and attempts to vote were often met with threats of violence .6
Who was able to obtain citizenship?
Native Americans did have some paths to citizenship prior to the act’s passage in June of 1924. Veterans who had served in World War One could obtain citizenship but had to surrender their citizenship to their respective tribe or nation.7 Marriage was also a common path to citizenship but again required a surrendering of citizenship and assimilation.8 Another recognized path to citizenship for Native Americans was assimilation and acceptance of individual allotments.9 Through these and other paths, about two thirds of the Native American population of the United States were already citizens prior to the act.
Why was it important to be a US citizen?
However, the citizenship act of 1924 differed in an important way from these other routes. The act explicitly says, “. . . Provided that the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.”10 This provision maintains the tribal nation citizenship of Native Americans while adding US citizenship, effectively allowing for dual citizenship. It also allows the retention of communally held property, not requiring the switch to an allotment system.
The citizenship granted by the act does not displace any allegiance to tribal governments, unlike all other available paths to citizenship available at the time. This precedent upended nearly 150 years of demanding exclusive singular citizenship from Native Americans within the bounds of the United States. Citizenship, as granted by the 1924 act, supposedly grants the rights, protections, and responsibilities guaranteed under the US Constitution, although enforcement does not always align with verbatim legislation.11 Per the verbiage of the act, citizenship is granted to American Indians within the territorial limits of the United States. In 1924, this included 48 states and the incorporated territories of Alaska and Hawai’i and only partially to the unincorporated territories of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Hawai’i’, Alaska, Panama Canal Zone, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Midway and Brooks, Howland and Baker, Wake Island, Corn Island, Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island, etc.12
Fighting for the right to citizenship
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 would likely not have included this new precedent if not for the hard work of numerous Native American organizations, activists, and advocates. Many of those who fought for the rights implied by citizenship were members of groups such as the Committee of One Hundred and Society of American Indians (SAI) .13 The Secretary of the Interior, Hubert Work, was particularly sympathetic to the arguments of these organizations despite his paternalistic view of Native Americans.14
President Calvin Coolidge was also not unfamiliar with these organizations nor Native Americans in general. He purposefully posed for photographs to be published in numerous newspapers, indicating that he saw it beneficial to promote a pro-Native American image to the public.15 Although both Coolidge and his Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work met and worked with Native American leaders and activists, they also maintained a paternalistic attitude towards Native Americans as a whole.16 Coolidge also approved federal funding for the Mount Rushmore monument, carved into the side of a mountain sacred to the Lakota Sioux.17 Hubert Work prevented the passing of bills which would have allowed Native nations to assert land claims and sue for reparations. 18 Coolidge was a proponent of assimilation, the policy that Native Americans had to dress, behave, and partake in Anglo-American culture. Coolidge and his contemporaries were not the originators of this ideology but continued to implement it in all aspects during his tenure as President.
The pushback
Not all Nations felt that Congress and the federal government had a right to impose regulations and laws onto their citizens.
The Ononodaga Nation lodged a formal objection to the act.19 The act had numerous flaws; it did not explicitly protect the rights of Native Americans to practice their religions, to speak their own languages, to raise and educate their own children as they saw fit, to maintain their own cultural and traditional practices, to own either their own or communal property without the paternalistic supervision of white men, to enact their own governments without the permission and recognition of the United States, and perhaps most egregiously- the right to vote. Each of these issues became further points of contention as state governments and the federal government passed legislations to infringe upon these rights.
Many critics of the 1924 act point to the absence of the explicitly stated right to vote as a major hurdle to agency and sovereignty. Numerous states at the time had laws in place which prevented Native Americans from voting at all, citizens or not.20 Arizona used the act to justify the prevention of suffrage to Native Americans since the state considered them to be wards of the federal government. Numerous suits and attempts to rectify the lack of a right to suffrage took place over the next two and a half decades. In 1948, the final state law preventing Native Americans from registering to vote was overruled by the Arizona supreme court.21 Despite this ruling, continual efforts to limit suffrage for Native Americans appeared at both the state and federal level again and again.22
Since the 1924 Citizenship Act, many Native American activists and advocates have fought hard to further protect their rights explicitly written in federal and state laws. Some notable examples include The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, and many more.23
Transcript of the Indian Citizenship Act, June 2, 1924:
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.”24
Further Reading:
https://aacimotaatiiyankwi.org/
https://guides.loc.gov/american-indian-law/Legislation
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/reconstruction/voting-rights
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/calvin-coolidge-and-native-americans
https://www.onondaganation.org/news/2018/the-citizenship-act-of-1924/
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/right-to-vote/voting-rights-for-native-americans/
Footnotes
1. NCC Staff, “On this day, all American Indians made United States Citizens”, National Constitution Center, June 2nd, 2023, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-in-1924-all-indians-made-united-states-citizens
2. “The Northwest Ordinance of 1787”, National Archives, May 10th, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/northwest-ordinance
3. Alysa Landry, “Thomas Jefferson: Architect of Indian Removal Policy”, ICT News, September 13th, 2018, https://ictnews.org/archive/thomas-jefferson-architect-of-indian-removal-policy ; Jeff Wallenfeldt, “Worcester v. Georgia”, Encyclopedia Britannica, Accessed May 2nd, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Worcester-v-Georgia ; “American Indians and Westward Expansion”, State Historical Society of Iowa, Accessed May 2nd, 2024, https://history.iowa.gov/history/education/educator-resources/primary-source-sets/westward-expansion-and-native-americans
4. “Voting Rights Act (1965)”, National Archives, February 8th, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act ; “Abolition of Poll Taxes : 24th Amendment”, National Constitution Center, May 2nd, 2024, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxiv
5. “19th Amendment to the US Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote (1920)”, National Archives, February 8th, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment ; “Not All Women Gained the Vote in 1920”, PBS American Experience, July 6th, 2020, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/vote-not-all-women-gained-right-to-vote-in-1920/
6. “Not All Women Gained the Vote in 1920”, PBS American Experience, July 6th, 2020, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/vote-not-all-women-gained-right-to-vote-in-1920/ ; “Black Americans and the Vote”, National Archives, June 9, 2021, https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/vote ; “Make Good the Promises: 150 years and Counting”, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Accessed May 2nd, 2024, https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/reconstruction/voting-rights
7. Joseph Bauerkemper, “Chapter 14 Federalism Reconfigured: Native Narrations and the Indian New Deal” in The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature, ed. Deborah L. Madsen (New York City: Routledge of Taylor and Francis Group, 2015) 168. https://books.google.com/books?id=-AapCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false
8. Joseph Bauerkemper, “Chapter 14 Federalism Reconfigured: Native Narrations and the Indian New Deal” in The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature, ed. Deborah L. Madsen (New York City: Routledge of Taylor and Francis Group, 2015) 168. https://books.google.com/books?id=-AapCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false
9. Joseph Bauerkemper, “Chapter 14 Federalism Reconfigured: Native Narrations and the Indian New Deal” in The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature, ed. Deborah L. Madsen (New York City: Routledge of Taylor and Francis Group, 2015) 168. https://books.google.com/books?id=-AapCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false
10. Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Public Law Number 68-175, 43 STAT 253. Act of June 2, 1924. Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1996, General Records of the U.S. Government, Record Group 11, National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/files/historical-docs/doc-content/images/indian-citizenship-act-1924.pdf
11. Mattew A. McIntosh, “The Indian Citizenship Act and the Right to Vote in 1924”, Brewminate, March 31, 2022, https://brewminate.com/the-indian-citizenship-act-and-the-right-to-vote-in-1924/ ; NCC Staff, “On this day, all American Indians made United States Citizens”, National Constitution Center, June 2nd, 2023, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-in-1924-all-indians-made-united-states-citizens ; “The War After the War: The American Indian Fight for the Vote After WWII”, National Archives blog The Text Message, November 12th, 2019, https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2019/11/12/the-war-after-the-war-the-american-indian-fight-for-the-vote-after-wwii/
12. Daniel Immerwahr, The Greater United States: Territory and Empire in U.S. History , Diplomatic History, Volume 40, Issue 3, June 2016, Pages 373–391, https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhw009
13. K. Tsianina Lomawaima, “The Society of American Indians.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. 4 May. 2015; Accessed 2 May. 2024. https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-31. ; ”Society of American Indians”, National Archives, June 3rd, 2019, https://www.archives.gov/nhprc/projects/catalog/society-of-american-indians ; Committee of 100 on Indian Affaires. , 1923. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/93506281/.
14. Colleen Shogan, “Calvin Coolidge and Native Americans: A Complex History”, The White House Historical Association, October 26th, 2021, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/calvin-coolidge-and-native-americans
15. Colleen Shogan, “Calvin Coolidge and Native Americans: A Complex History”, The White House Historical Association, October 26th, 2021, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/calvin-coolidge-and-native-americans
16. Colleen Shogan, “Calvin Coolidge and Native Americans: A Complex History”, The White House Historical Association, October 26th, 2021, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/calvin-coolidge-and-native-americans
17. Ömür Harmanşah, ”Chapter2 Archaeology of Place”, Place, Memory, and Healing: An Archaeology of Anatolian Rock Monuments, (New York City : Routledge, 2015):16-28. https://books.google.com/books?id=0U22BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT44#v=onepage&q&f=false
18. Colleen Shogan, “Calvin Coolidge and Native Americans: A Complex History”, The White House Historical Association, October 26th, 2021, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/calvin-coolidge-and-native-americans
19. Joseph Heath, Esq., “The Citizenship Act of 1924”, Onondaga Nation, June 7th, 2018, https://www.onondaganation.org/news/2018/the-citizenship-act-of-1924/
20. Mattew A. McIntosh, “The Indian Citizenship Act and the Right to Vote in 1924”, Brewminate, March 31, 2022, https://brewminate.com/the-indian-citizenship-act-and-the-right-to-vote-in-1924/ ; Joseph Bauerkemper, “Chapter 14 Federalism Reconfigured: Native Narrations and the Indian New Deal” in The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature, ed. Deborah L. Madsen (New York City: Routledge of Taylor and Francis Group, 2015) 168. https://books.google.com/books?id=-AapCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false
21. Debra Utacia Krol, ”Native People Won the Right to Vote in 1948, but the Road to the Ballot Box is Still Bumpy”, Pulitzer Center, November 4th, 2022, https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/native-people-won-right-vote-1948-road-ballot-box-still-bumpy
22. ”Voting Rights for Native Americans”, Library of Congress, Accessed May 2nd, 2024, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/right-to-vote/voting-rights-for-native-americans/
23. “American Indian Law: A Beginner’s Guide”, Library of Congress, Accessed May 2nd, 2024, https://guides.loc.gov/american-indian-law/Legislation
24. Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Public Law Number 68-175, 43 STAT 253. Act of June 2, 1924. Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1996, General Records of the U.S. Government, Record Group 11, National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/files/historical-docs/doc-content/images/indian-citizenship-act-1924.pdf
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About the Author
Sara Schumacher, Curator of Native American History and Life at Conner Prairie, graduated Indiana University Bloomington with her masters in Curatorship in May 2022. She also acquired her bachelors from IU in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology with a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies. She provides research on Native American history and is responsible for engaging and maintaining relationships with Indigenous communities. Learn more about her here.