Indian Citizenship Act (1924)

Reinterpretation of Indian Nation Status

In the early 19th century, in landmark Cherokee cases, the Supreme Court reinterpreted the status of Indian nations as independent sovereign nations in the context of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee Nation sued the state of Georgia in the Supreme Court in 1831, using its prerogative as a foreign state to challenge the enforcement of Georgia's jurisdiction within the Cherokee Nation. The Supreme Court declined to recognize the Cherokee Nation's right to sue, as a foreign nation, under the court's doctrine of original jurisdiction.

In the case Worcester v. Georgia, from 1832, the Supreme Court ruled that Indian nations were “domestic dependent nations,” establishing a relation of wardship between the federal government and the Indian tribes, which Chief Justice [Page 1170]John Marshall called that of a ward to his guardian. In Justice Marshall's paternalistic description, Indian people looked to the U.S. government for protection. Although legally foreign to the United States, Indian tribes became a matter or domestic concern in 1871, when Congress discontinued the practice of treaty-making, denying the further recognition of Indian nations as sovereign entities.

About two-thirds of American Indians were already citizens by the time that the Indian Citizenship Act was passed in 1924. By 1906, approximately 166,000 Indians had been naturalized as U.S. citizens. Before 1924, the sources of naturalization included (1) previous treaty provisions, land allotments, and statutory measures; the stipulations of the Allotment Act of 1887 (which held that Indian allottees would become citizens of the United States and of the state in which they resided, if they adopted the habits of “civilized” life, for which they received certificates of citizenship); (2) after 1906, the granting of a patent in fee simple to Indians deemed competent; (3) Indian children born to United States citizens, as well as children whose mother was Indian and whose father was a white male citizen; (4) special acts of Congress, including provisions in 1901 for Indians in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to become citizens, and in 1921 for members of the Osage tribe to become citizens; (5) after Indian soldiers served in World War I, a congressional act in 1919 providing that Indian soldiers and sailors could become citizens; and (6) before 1922, marriage (Indian women who married U.S. citizens).

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