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4.3.6.wavNative groups were learning how to organize and use the power of organizations to advance their cause during this time. The Presbyterian missionaries in Southeast Alaska formed the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and Sisterhood (ANS) organizations to promote white American culture among the Natives. The by-laws of these organizations prohibited participation in potlatches, the speaking of Native languages, or the practicing of Native religions. However, once these organizations were in place, the Tlingits and Haidas took advantage of this Western tool and shifted the agenda to promote the interests of Native peoples in ways not anticipated by the missionary groups.
The ANB and ANS organizations helped many Natives in the Southeast become citizens under the 1915 law. In 1923, William Paul, an attorney and leader of the Alaskan Native Brotherhood, became the first Alaskan Native elected to the legislature, mainly on the strength of the Tlingit vote in the villages of Southeast.
The following year, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which made all Native Americans born in the U.S. citizens. In the wake of Paul's success, legislators feared widespread Native citizenship would bring many more Alaskan Natives into power. To keep Natives from voting, they adopted a requirement that all voters pass a literacy test. In a compromise worked out by William Paul, it was amended before final passage to allow "grandfather rights" to illiterate Natives who had voted in the previous election. But like laws that restricted African Americans from voting in the South, the 1924 territorial law prevented many Alaskan Natives from voting.
William Paul
Alaska Native Brotherhood Founding Fathers in 1912
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