One of the most significant omissions from early U.S. citizenship laws was the exclusion of Native American peoples from birthright citizenship. The federal government viewed tribal membership as allegiance to another nation, the United States recognized tribal governments as sovereign nations, disqualifying tribal members from U.S. citizenship at birth. This meant that Native Americans were unable to vote or hold political office and remained unrepresented in the federal government. Some tribal nations made treaties with the United States to seek a pathway to citizenship for their members, but each treaty was independently negotiated. This issue was brought to the Supreme Court in 1884 through Elk v. Wilkins, which upheld the idea that tribal membership ruled out U.S. citizenship. Later, the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 would address this, with a special focus on members of Native American tribes who served in World War I.

Document D

An excerpt from the Supreme Court opinion from Elk v. Wilkins, decided November 3, 1884.

“The plaintiff is an Indian, and… clearly implies that he was born a member of one of the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States... He does not allege… that he has ever been naturalized… The question then is, whether an Indian, born a member of one of the Indian tribes within the United States, is, merely by reason of his birth within the United States… a citizen of the United States, within the meaning of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Under the Constitution… Indian tribes, being within the territorial limits of the United States, were not, strictly speaking, foreign States; but they were alien nations, distinct political communities… The members of those tribes owed immediate allegiance to their several tribes, and were not part of the people of the United States…They were never deemed citizens of the United States…

Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States… although in a geographical sense born in the United States, are no more "born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," within the meaning of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, than the children of subjects of any foreign government…”

Document E

An excerpt from the Indian Citizenship Act, effective June 2, 1924.

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided, That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.”