Did you know that despite passage of the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1870, which allowed all citizens to vote "regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude," that Native Americans were prohibited from voting for at least five more decades? In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. After recognition of our citizenship was mandated by Congress, it was still 1948 before Arizona allowed Indian people to cast their ballots, and it wasn't until 1962 when the state of New Mexico became the last state to recognize our right to be heard at the polls.
There is irony in this historical fact because US history and federal Indian law teach us that native people were here centuries before the Europeans arrived, and yet we were the last to be considered for citizenship and the right to have our voices heard.
There is irony in this historical fact because US history and federal Indian law teach us that native people were here centuries before the Europeans arrived, and yet we were the last to be considered for citizenship and the right to have our voices heard.
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