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35 Times the US Trampled on Native American Rights

Trista June 6, 2019 16 min

Plimoth Patuxet Museums - Thanksgiving — Jennie A. Brownscombe's "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" from 1914. Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain.

28. This Recognition Also Prevented Native Americans From Gaining Citizenship

Jacob M. Howard was the U.S. Senator from Michigan who authored of the Citizenship Clause. Mathew Brady – Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division / Brady-Handy Photograph Collection / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain.

Following the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment allowed anyone born or naturalized in the United States, whether slave or free, to become a citizen. Because the native peoples were sovereign, they were not allowed to become citizens until a new law was passed in 1924. When they did become citizens, it was primarily so that the US government could tax them.

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Trista

28. This Recognition Also Prevented Native Americans From Gaining Citizenship

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