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By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Native Americans have long suffered the effects of segregation and discrimination imposed by the U.S. government and the larger white society. Ironically, Native Americans were not granted the full rights and protections of U.S. citizenship until long after African Americans and women were, with many having to wait until the Nationality Act of 1940 to become citizens.
Theodore Haas. 1957. “The Legal Aspects of Indian Affairs from 1887 to 1957,”
American Academy of Political Science 311, 12–22. This was long after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which granted citizenship to African Americans but not, the Supreme Court decided in
Elk v. Wilkins (1884), to Native Americans.
Elk v. Wilkins , (1884)112 U.S. 94. White women had been citizens of the United States since its very beginning even though they were not granted the full rights of citizenship. Furthermore, Native Americans are the only group of Americans who were forcibly removed en masse from the lands on which they and their ancestors had lived so that others could claim this land and its resources. This issue remains relevant today as can be seen in the recent protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which have led to intense confrontations between those in charge of the pipeline and Native Americans.
From the very beginning of European settlement in North America, Native Americans were abused and exploited. Early British settlers attempted to enslave the members of various tribes, especially in the southern colonies and states.
See Alan Gallay. 2009.
Indian Slavery in Colonial America . Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Following the American Revolution, the U.S. government assumed responsibility for conducting negotiations with Indian tribes, all of which were designated as sovereign nations, and regulating commerce with them. Because Indians were officially regarded as citizens of other nations, they were denied U.S. citizenship.
See James Wilson. 1998.
The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America . New York: Grove Press.
As white settlement spread westward over the course of the nineteenth century, Indian tribes were forced to move from their homelands. Although the federal government signed numerous treaties guaranteeing Indians the right to live in the places where they had traditionally farmed, hunted, or fished, land-hungry white settlers routinely violated these agreements and the federal government did little to enforce them.
Ibid; Gloria Jahoda. 1975.
Trail of Tears: The Story of American Indian Removal, 1813–1855 .
New York: Henry Holt.
In 1830, Congress passed the
Indian Removal Act , which forced Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River.
See Wilson. 1998.
The Earth Shall Weep . Not all tribes were willing to leave their land, however. The Cherokee in particular resisted, and in the 1820s, the state of Georgia tried numerous tactics to force them from their territory. Efforts intensified in 1829 after gold was discovered there. Wishing to remain where they were, the tribe sued the state of Georgia.
See John Ehle. 1988.
Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation . New York: Doubleday; Theda Perdue and Michael Green. 2007.
The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears . New York: Penguin Books. In 1831, the Supreme Court decided in
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia that Indian tribes were not sovereign nations, but also that tribes were entitled to their ancestral lands and could not be forced to move from them.
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia , 30 U.S. 1 (1831).
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