Indian History: The courts did not affirm the right of reservation Indians in Arizona and New Mexico to vote until 1948. The laws in those two states fell to the anger of Miguel Trujillo, a member of the Pueblo of Isleta in New Mexico and a veteran of the Marine Corps during World War II, and Frank Harrison, another Marine veteran and member of the Yavapai tribe in Arizona. Both had gone to register to vote in their respective counties and were told that because they were Indians living on tribal land they werent allowed to vote. They sued and won. From the founding of the Republic, American Indians had been denied citizenship except when they became naturalized, or under special statute or treaty. But to become a citizen and exercise the franchise required Indians to renounce their tribal citizenship, give up their culture and language and assimilate into the dominant culture. In other words, they had to stop being Indians. The Fourteenth Amendment, which gave citizenship and the vote to any male born in the territory of the United States, specifically excluded Indians, just as the original Constitution had done. But the phrase Indians not taxed was taken by many legal scholars and politicians at the time the amendment was ratified to exclude only tribal Indians. That is, those whose land was held in trust by the U.S. government and therefore not taxed. But, in the case of Elk v. Wilkins (1884), the Supreme Court held that Indians who voluntarily severed all ties to their tribes and paid taxes did not automatically gain citizenship. It was not until after World War I that the situation began to change. More than 7,000 Indians served in the military during the war. In recognition of that, in 1919, Congress passed legislation that all Indians who had served honorably in the armed forces were granted American citizenship. That, plus the suffragists hard-won success at gaining the vote for women, spurred a movement to extend the franchise to all Indians. And under the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, all Indians were theoretically granted citizenship. That should have ended debate on the subject. But it didnt. Some states continued to deny Indians the right to vote by means of poll taxes, literacy tests and pure intimidation, much like the Jim Crow laws of the South were used to keep blacks from voting. dailykos/story/2013/06/23/1218267/-American-Indians-won-the-right-to-vote-in-1924-but-some-officials-still-haven-t-gotten-the-message#
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 14:48:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015