On this day: 90 years ago Indians were “given” “citizenship” to their native land.

On this day in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States, thousands of whom had served in the armed forces during World War I.

While the 14th Amendment had defined citizens as any person born in the United States, it only covered persons “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” That clause had been interpreted as excluding indigenous peoples.

By the late 1930s, however, seven states were still refusing to grant Indians voting rights. Their reasons, they said, were that Indians were exempt from paying real estate taxes and lived on lands controlled by the federal government. By 1947, all states with large Indian populations, save Arizona and New Mexico, had extended voting rights to Native Americans who had qualified under the 1924 Act. Finally, in 1948, the last two holdouts were obliged to withdraw their bans on Indian voting in light of federal court rulings.

The paternalistic Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 also continued to shape U.S. policy toward Native Americans. Under this act, the federal government redistributed tribal lands to heads of families in 160-acre allotments. The proceeds from these sales were used to establish Indian schools. By 1932, the sale of both unclaimed land and allotted acreage resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the 138 million acres that Native Americans had held prior to enactment of the Dawes Act.

Abject poverty among Native Americans spurred passage of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. This legislation promoted Native American autonomy by barring further allotment of tribal lands. It returned some lands to tribes while encouraging them to govern themselves. Individual tribes were permitted to vote on whether to accept or reject the provisions of the 1934 act.

SOURCE: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS