Today is the 100th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. The legislation was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on this day in 1924, granting full citizenship to American Indians and Alaska Native Americans. Though the Fifteenth Amendment, passed in 1870, granted all U.S. citizens the right to vote regardless of race, it wasn't until 1924 that American Indians and Alaska Natives could fully enjoy this right. #IndianCitizenshipAct #NativeAmericanRights
Most tribes opposed the Act. Learn about the meetings our People had across the U.S. to oppose the Act. The People viewed the Act as an effort to interfere with tribes sovereignty as independent sovereign Nations.
Nathan Lefthand
1mo
Pretty sad stuff. Euroamericans not recognizing us.
Bill Kalogeros
1mo
While the act gave Native Americans citizenship, IPR sociologist Beth Redbird says that it wasn’t out of generosity. “They [the government] thought, generally, if they substituted U.S. citizenship for tribal citizenship, then they could terminate tribes,” she said. “By and large, it was not given out of goodwill, and tribes knew it.” To this day, some tribes still refuse U.S. citizenship, Redbird said. And, Kiel explains, the act did not immediately give Native Americans full rights as citizens, nor did it give Native Americans complete autonomy over their lives. Jim Crow-style restrictions denied Native Americans the right to vote in several states for decades. They only fully received their right to vote after passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Even today, voting remains difficult for Native communities living on reservations because of the lack of voting resources and strict voter ID laws. “Citizenship does not prevent Native children from being forcibly removed from their families by way of adoption,” Kiel said. “Citizenship does also not prevent the forced sterilization of Native women, a practice that continued up until the 1970s through the Indian Health Service.”
Several states did not provide Native American women with the right to vote for another 50 years. This post needs to be updated.
Is it just me, or do others also find this outrageous? Shouldn't it have been the other way around, where the native people granted the incoming people citizenship. God! History really does show how savage the Western World was and, in many ways, remains.
Invade country, adopt a false sense of intellectual superiority, convince themselves their improving conditions, take over and regulate the land, resources, and lives of the people, change the fundamental aspects of native life, create irreparable damage to the entire population and the enviroment, grant “indigenous” people citizenship in their homeland, allow them to petition for tribsl “sovereignty”, determine whether they “qualify” and if their self-determined familial and political association meets the standard of legitimacy, provide funding to be used for specific pre determined purposes that must be adminstered, spent, and documented by imposed rules, and then on day the people were granted citizenship in their own country declare a it cause to celebrate. Unapologetic…just oblivious and oddly unaware. 😳🤷🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️👩🏽💻 Jesus, I think if there was ever a time to return, it’s now.
Katie Anthony
1mo
I think if we can reform our understanding of what needs to be in these acts with Native Americans rights corrected with amendments to this very day and the 21st century. Start the amendment process somewhere.
Alfreda D.
1mo
Why can't I, an American Indian speak on my thoughts and feelings of WHAT I DO NOT care for? Waiting for 100 year celebration for AI to vote. Outlandish!
Experienced CIO | Motivational Leader | Strategic Thinker | Change Agent | Enterprise Transformer | Public Servant | USA
1moIt was my honor to have served as the first Indian-American CIO at Bureau of Indian Affairs serving 562 (now 574) Native American, American-Indian and indigenous tribes of the United States. When I came in, I informed them that I was Indian-American and not Native -American. They said we can see from your soul and heart that you are here to serve and help - come in! We did some great things together while I served. But my most cherished memory is especially when I got to see native America - such great people who’ve endured so much pain and suffering in our country. I met so many who served as brave warriors (+ the Navajo code talkers). I felt connected with my Native American brothers and sisters as an Indian-American. When I visited reservations and talked to tribes and elders, I was heartbroken and so angry many times to see 3rd world living conditions, what they’ve endured in USA in their history, and I was so uplifted to see their great spirit (albeit broken in areas). May they rise back to their glory, roam free, and may we learn, honor their traditions with acknowledgment. We are a great country 🇺🇸 and we can go forward together but need give native America and the great indigenous people full RESPECT ✊🏼.