1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,959 Speaker 1: show that proves it's never too late to make history. 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:18,479 Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesiery, and today we're reflecting on the grim 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,119 Speaker 1: irony of the Indian Citizenship Act, a US policy that 6 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:26,560 Speaker 1: conferred citizen status from the people who had lived there 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 1: longer than anyone else. The day was June two, nineteen 8 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:42,559 Speaker 1: twenty four. President Calvin Coolidge signed into law the Indian 9 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: Citizenship Act, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in 10 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:52,239 Speaker 1: the United States. Although the Fourteenth Amendment had declared that 11 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:55,760 Speaker 1: any person born in the US was a citizen, it 12 00:00:55,880 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: defined the term as anyone quote subject to the jurisdiction thereof. 13 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: Interpretations of that clause consistently excluded indigenous peoples, arguing that 14 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: since many of them lived in separate nations within the 15 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: US on designated reservation land, they were not subject to 16 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: US jurisdiction and therefore not citizens. That view informed the 17 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: nation's policy for the better part of fifty years, but 18 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,320 Speaker 1: was finally done away with through the passage of the 19 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:31,400 Speaker 1: Indian Citizenship Act. Prior to the American Civil War, the 20 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: federal government used what's known as a blood quantum to 21 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 1: evaluate whether or not a Native American could become a U. 22 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: S citizen. The highly controversial system limited citizenship based on ancestry, 23 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: or the amount of Indian blood that a person had. 24 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: Only those of one half or less Indian blood were 25 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: eligible to become US citizens. The rules on that front 26 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:00,560 Speaker 1: began to loosen ever so slightly during the reconstruc Duction era, 27 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: as progressive Republican lawmakers began pushing for more paths to 28 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: citizenship for members of friendly tribes. Those new avenues included 29 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,960 Speaker 1: serving in the military, marrying a US citizen, or accepting 30 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: a land allotment offered by the DAWs Act, enacted in 31 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,079 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven. The DAWs Act was meant to encourage 32 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: the assimilation of Native Americans by offering full citizenship to 33 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: those who agreed to leave their tribal lands and become farmers. 34 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: The heads of families who accepted the terms were given 35 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: free one hundred and sixty acre allotments to live and 36 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: work on parcels of land which at once belonged to 37 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: their tribes in the first place. In addition, the government 38 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: established Indian schools where Native American children were taught to 39 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: abandon their cultural traditions in order to better fit in 40 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,800 Speaker 1: with white Americans. By the late eighteen hundreds, roughly eight 41 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,919 Speaker 1: per cent of Native people had qualified for US citizenship, 42 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:06,959 Speaker 1: either through marriage, military service, or most commonly, through the 43 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 1: DAWs Act. The vast majority remained ineligible, but even for 44 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:16,640 Speaker 1: those who qualified, citizenship came at a high cost. In 45 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties, the Institute for Government Research assessed 46 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: the impact of the DAWs Act, and its conclusion, as 47 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: summarized in the Merriam Report, was decidedly negative. It was 48 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: determined that government policy had oppressed Native American families and 49 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 1: wreaked havoc on their culture and society. Many lived in 50 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: abject poverty, as the redistribution of tribal lands through allotments 51 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: had left the Native population with only about a third 52 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: of the acreage it had held prior to the DAWs Act. 53 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: The failures of the policy eventually led to the passage 54 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: of the nineteen thirty four Indian Reorganization Act, which promoted 55 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: Native American autonomy and self government. In between the DAWs 56 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 1: Act and the Reorganization Act was the Indian Citizenship Act 57 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty four. The catalyst for its enactment was 58 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:14,400 Speaker 1: the First World War. More than twelve thousand Native Americans 59 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,840 Speaker 1: had served in the U. S. Army during World War One, 60 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,760 Speaker 1: and all of them were later offered citizenship in nineteen nineteen, 61 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:24,840 Speaker 1: but Congress and President Coolidge felt that the high rate 62 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: of enlistment deserved a more inclusive reward, the extension of U. 63 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: S citizenship to all Native Americans who had not already 64 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: claimed it by other means. Of course, the government's aim 65 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: may not have been entirely altruistic. Roughly sixty percent of 66 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: the three hundred thousand or so Native Americans in the 67 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: country were already US citizens by nineteen twenty four. Granting 68 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:52,479 Speaker 1: citizenship to the rest of them may have been a 69 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: way to break up the remaining Native nations and hurry 70 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 1: along the assimilation process. Whatever the true mode of aim, 71 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: on June second, nineteen twenty four, the federal government granted 72 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:08,599 Speaker 1: US citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial 73 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:12,280 Speaker 1: limits of the country. The number of people affected by 74 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,480 Speaker 1: the law was about one hundred and twenty five thousand, 75 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: or zero point one percent of the total US population 76 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,479 Speaker 1: at the time. Well intentioned or not The law was 77 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: deeply divisive among tribes. Some were in favor of the Act, 78 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: believing it would grant them more protections and better opportunities. 79 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 1: Others argued it would only lead to the further erosion 80 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: of Native American identity and land rights. After all, the 81 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,160 Speaker 1: government behind it was the same one that had stolen 82 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: their land and left their communities in disarray. What reason 83 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,559 Speaker 1: did they have to think the new law would result 84 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: in anything different. Part of the problem was that no 85 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:55,479 Speaker 1: one had asked for tribal input when crafting the law. 86 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: Progressive senators and activists, the majority of whom were white, 87 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,559 Speaker 1: had shaped the policy all on their own. That made 88 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,279 Speaker 1: many Native Americans feel as if citizenship was being forced 89 00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:10,040 Speaker 1: on them whether they wanted it or not, and in 90 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:14,240 Speaker 1: some cases, at the expense of previous treaties. For example, 91 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: Iroquois leaders argued that the US government had already recognized 92 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: them as a separate and sovereign nation, meaning that the 93 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 1: decision to become US citizens should have been theirs to make, 94 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: not the federal government. The Act also met with mixed 95 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: reception because it failed to secure the full privileges of 96 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: citizenship for Native Americans. Most notably, it didn't guarantee them 97 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 1: the right to vote. In the early twentieth century, voting 98 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:44,920 Speaker 1: rights were still mostly governed by state law, and as 99 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 1: a result, Native Americans and states like Arizona, New Mexico, 100 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:53,480 Speaker 1: and South Dakota were refused access to the polls. Most 101 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,320 Speaker 1: states relented in the following decades, but the final holdouts 102 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: didn't withdraw their bans on Native American voting until the 103 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. In that way, the US government proved all 104 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: too consistent in its treatment of Native Americans. They were 105 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: the first peoples of this country, but the last to 106 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 1: be recognized as its citizens. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully 107 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,880 Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than 108 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: you did yesterday. You can learn even more about history 109 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI 110 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, 111 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:38,160 Speaker 1: feel free to pass them along by writing to this 112 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and 113 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,440 Speaker 1: Ben Hackett for producing the show, and thanks to you 114 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again soon for 115 00:07:48,520 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: another Day in History class.