In 1924, native-born Indians were finally granted American citizenship, and many were allowed to vote at that point.
However, in some states they were forbidden from voting until as late as 1954.
The struggles of women and African Americans point out the fact that citizenship does not automatically ensure voting rights.
Throughout the 1800s, native tribes gradually lost claim to the lands they had inhabited. And it was not until the 1879 Standing Bear trial that American Indians were even recognized as persons in the eyes of the white man’s law.
The journey by Native Americans to obtaining citizenship in the U.S. has been a maze of U.S. Federal Indian polices that left the Indian nations frustrated and nearly extinct by the time they were given citizenship.
The irony is that the Native American people were the first people to live in the continent.
