US citizenship was forced on Native Americans 100 years ago − its promise remains elusive

Indian boarding schools intentionally separated Native children from their families and taught them to be ‘model American citizens.’ Humboldt County Collection Photos. Special Collections, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt Library, CC BY-ND by Kerri Malloy, San José State University The 100th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act has garnered little fanfare. Only a handful of news articles and events have commemorated the centennial of the law giving U.S. citizenship to Native Americans. Perhaps that’s unsurprising. The legislation has little relevance to most American citizens, and many Native Americans were dismayed when President Calvin Coolidge signed it into law in June 1924. American citizenship was not an aspiration for the first peoples of the United States, whose primary political allegiance was to their own nations. Meanwhile, as I’ve covered in my research and teaching on federal Indian law, the Indian Citizenship Act was not a gift or benefit to Native Americans. It was part of a coercive larger effort to assimilate Native Americans into U.S. society. From nation to assimilation For centuries after Europeans colonized North America in the 16th century, Native Americans sought to remain separate and distinct from the settlers. For a while, the U.S. government reinforced that intentional...