Indigenous Citizens. Sovereignty, Land, and the Fight for Native Rights #TheBlackTable

Native Americans developed a concept of dual citizenship, recognizing their American citizenship (often unwillingly granted by the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act) as a means to protect their primary tribal citizenship. This allowed them to use tools like voting and protest to defend their sovereign nations, despite initial resistance to the act due to historical mistreatment.

Professor Rosier's research for 'Serving Their Country' revealed native activists discussing American citizenship as a force for gaining access and using tools like voting and protest to protect tribal citizenship. The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to all Native people, whether they wanted it or not.

The U.S. government consistently broke treaties with Native American nations, often when new resources were discovered. Despite Native people holding these treaties as binding international contracts, the U.S. Congress asserted 'plenary power,' claiming the right to abrogate any treaty if deemed in the nation's best interest, leading to massive land and wealth transfers.

Satank, a Kiowa leader, noted in 1869 that 'We make but few contracts... and them we remember well. The whites make so many they are liable to forget them.' The U.S. Congress established plenary power, deciding they could abrogate any treaty if it was in the nation's best interest.

The General Allotment Act of 1887 (Dawes Act) was a federal policy designed to break up treaty-protected reservations into individual homestead plots. This policy, driven by evangelical and 'liberal' reformers, aimed to assimilate Native people into Christian capitalists but resulted in the largest transfer of wealth in modern history, stripping Native people of millions of acres of land and destroying communal farming practices, leading to widespread poverty.

Senator Henry Dawes was the engine behind the General Allotment Act of 1887, which divided reservations into individual homestead plots. Native people often received the worst farmland and least water, and mineral-rich allotments were reserved for white settlers, leading to billions of dollars transferred from Native to white ownership.

Even after gaining U.S. citizenship, Native Americans faced widespread voter suppression, particularly in states with large indigenous populations. States passed laws and used Jim Crow tactics to prevent Native people from voting for their interests, a struggle that continues today, often aggravated by geographical challenges on reservations.

After 1924, states like Alaska (1925) passed laws 'to keep the Indian in his place,' making it difficult to vote. Gertrude Bonan (Zit Kalisa) organized efforts to encourage Native people to vote. Modern efforts in states like North Dakota saw new laws passed to make voting more difficult for Native people after successful elections.