American Indians Are Granted U.S. Citizenship
On June 2, 1924, the U.S. government granted American Indians full citizenship through the Indian Citizenship Act, signed by President Calvin Coolidge. This landmark legislation followed a long history of European contact that had devastating effects on native populations, including warfare, displacement, and disease. The indigenous peoples had originally resisted colonization efforts, leveraging their knowledge and alliances, but over time, numerous government policies subjugated them, often leading to loss of land and cultural autonomy. Prior to this citizenship act, policies like the Dawes Severalty Act of 1886 had further fragmented tribal lands, pushing American Indians into poverty and dependence. With citizenship, American Indians gained the right to vote and improved their legal standing in dealings with federal agencies, notably the Bureau of Indian Affairs. By the late 20th century, several tribes began to experience economic benefits from resources on their lands and capitalized on their unique legal status to engage in enterprises such as casino gaming. While significant challenges remain, the citizenship granted in 1924 marked a crucial step towards recognizing the rights and identity of American Indians within the United States.
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American Indians Are Granted U.S. Citizenship
American Indians Are Granted U.S. Citizenship
On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting American Indians full rights as citizens of the United States. The legislation had passed Congress on May 14 of that year, but Coolidge waited until a signing ceremony could be arranged with him and four Osage tribespeople so that pictures could be taken of the event.
The many problems stemming from European contact with the native peoples of the New World began long before the formation of the United States. Almost every contact between the Spanish and native peoples, beginning with Columbus's first encounter with them in 1492, resulted in disaster for the natives. Ancient civilizations, including those of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas, were destroyed and the populations enslaved. Far more dangerous than the Spanish conquistadors, however, were European diseases to which the natives had no previous exposure. Smallpox in particular killed more natives than the Spanish soldiers and explorers ever did, and in many cases preceded them on their journeys of conquest. Of the tens of millions of native peoples who once inhabited the Americas, only a fraction were left by the time the English began to colonize the eastern seaboard of the United States. The settlers often found entire native villages decimated by disease and simply moved into vacant lands.
The remaining American Indians were still strong enough to mount considerable resistance to the new settlements. By military alliances and by trade with Europeans up and down the seaboard, American Indians acquired guns and learned to use them effectively. The colonists thus had to treat the tribes with respect: they negotiated with them as with sovereign nations and signed formal treaties. This attitude was embodied in the United States Constitution of 1787, which in Article I, section 8, reserved the following powers to the new Federal government: “The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”
This official stance was undercut, however, by popular fear and hatred, generated in part by the European practice of using American Indian auxiliaries in wartime—the French had encouraged tribesmen to attack English settlements during the Seven Years' War, and the English, during the Revolution, had sponsored more than one massacre of colonists. In addition, many settlers thought they had a God-given right to any land they could clear; some even doubted that American Indians had souls. Therefore, despite some efforts to regulate and control the westward migration of American settlers and their interaction with the American Indians, Congress and the federal government largely turned a blind eye to the plight of native peoples. The value and temptation of the lands to be settled was too great, while popular concern and respect for the American Indians was too low. President Andrew Jackson could even openly defy decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of tribal treaty rights and force the Cherokee to migrate west in such treks as the infamous Trail of Tears. As the West was settled and native peoples were forced onto reservations—typically the least desirable lands—their numbers shrank rapidly. Compounding the problem for many western tribes was that, in the late 19th century, hunters drove the buffalo, a major source of food, to near extinction and forced many American Indians to depend on handouts from the federal government. Another blow came in 1871, when Congress decided to abandon the treaty process and simply treat the tribes as wards of the government. This later led to the passage in 1886 of the disastrous Dawes Severalty Act, which divided communal tribal lands into individual 160-acre allotments to encourage private ownership and the adoption of an agricultural and entrepreneurial lifestyle. The result was the loss of millions of acres of American Indian lands to white settlers and land barons who took advantage of the tribal peoples' inexperience and poverty.
By the 20th century, the remaining population of American Indians had dwindled to only a quarter of a million, and Congress finally began to take some positive actions. It restored communal tribal property laws, imposed restrictions on the transfer of tribal lands to whites, and granted American Indians full citizenship rights in June 1924. Not only did the latter act empower the tribal peoples with the right to vote, but it also gave them greater authority in dealing with Federal agencies, most notably the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which supervises many activities and has come to fund many programs for the benefit of American Indians. The result has been steadily improving conditions for native peoples and an increasing population, although they still face many problems. Two positive trends in particular had developed by the late 20th century: (1) meaningful participation by the tribes in the profits derived from their lands' natural resources, particularly oil and gas reserves, and (2) shrewd exploitation by the tribes of their semi-autonomous status to permit casino gambling, lotteries, and other enterprises otherwise forbidden by local law.