Today in History

June 2, 1924: Indian Citizenship Act is passed.

Before the Civil War, citizenship was often limited to Native Americans of one-half or less Indian blood. In the Reconstruction period, progressive Republicans in Congress sought to accelerate the granting of citizenship to friendly tribes, though state support for these measures was often limited. In 1888, most Native American women married to U.S. citizens were conferred with citizenship, and in 1919 Native American veterans of World War I were offered citizenship.

By the early 1920s, some 30 years after the cessation of the 19th century wars, most indigenous people (Native Americans) had gained U.S. citizenship through marriage — or through military service, allotments, treaties or special laws. But some were not citizens, and they were barred from naturalization.

Citizenship was granted in this Act as part of a desire by some U.S. leaders to see Native Americans absorbed or assimilated into the American mainstream. This was echoed in the Termination era of the 1950s. Success seemed possible after the World War I service of many Native Americans, who were usually not, unlike African Americans, segregated into special units.
One active assimilation proponent of the early 20th century, Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, wrote:

"The Indian, though a man without a country, the Indian who has suffered a thousand wrongs considered the white man's burden and from mountains, plains and divides, the Indian threw himself into the struggle to help throttle the unthinkable tyranny of the Hun. The Indian helped to free Belgium, helped to free all the small nations, helped to give victory to the Stars and Stripes. The Indian went to France to help avenge the ravages of autocracy. Now, shall we not redeem ourselves by redeeming all the tribes?"

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. (The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to persons born in the U.S., but only if "subject to the jurisdiction thereof"; this latter clause excludes certain indigenes.) The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2.

The right to vote, however, was governed by state law; until 1957, some states barred Native Americans from voting. In a WPA interview from the 1930s, Henry Mitchell describes the attitude toward Native Americans in Maine, one of the last states to comply with the Indian Citizenship Act:

One of the Indians went over to Old Town once to see some official in the city hall about voting. I don't know just what position that official had over there, but he said to the Indian, 'We don't want you people over here. You have your own elections over on the island, and if you want to vote, go over there.'