‘Committee of 100 on Indian Affairs, Washington D.C., Dec. 13, 1923.’ Columbia River treaty tribes had reserved their fishing rights just 68 years earlier in Walla Walla. U.S. citizenship came six months after this committee meeting. Photo by National Photo Company Collection. Prints & Photographs Division
On this date 102 years ago, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. Despite the fact that a Native idea and governance model was the inspiration behind the US Constitution, the actual Natives were denied citizenship to the country that Constitution created.
Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph noted this injustice in a 1879 speech delivered in Washington DC:
Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.
…
We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.
…
Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike — brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers’ hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.
It would take another 45 years and after their dedicated service to the country in WWI before Native Americans were finally granted citizenship.While a milestone, this was not the end for the goal that Chief Joseph called for, as it would take decades more for Native Americans be granted the right to vote in all 50 states.Idaho was one of the last states to guarantee that right with the Idaho Indian Right to Vote Amendment, passed in 1950
The 1924 Act added U.S. citizenship to tribal members’ legal identity, a legal identity that already included citizenship in their tribe. As dual citizens, tribal members are subject to tribal laws and sovereign authority as well as have a voice in both governments.
Citizenship in 1924 was long overdue. But for the Columbia River treaty tribes, the more foundational truth has never changed: the river, the land, and our relatives, the fish are part of who they are, ‘We are Salmon People.’ Wy-Kan-Ish-Mi Wa-Kish-Wit
As they had done since time immemorial, the Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Nez Perce ( the four treaty tribes of the Columbia River that make up the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission), used their voices, benefits, and duties as citizens of both their tribes as well as the United States to fight for their rights, lands, sovereignty, and natural resources throughout the Columbia Basin.
This truth is protected by our treaties, recognized under federal law as the supreme law of the land in perpetuity, and rooted in a relationship with this place that no act of Congress granted and none can extinguish.
— CRITFC