Brigadier General James Monroe Williams

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Voting Rights Section

I'd like to add the following in bold as another example of states/territories attempting to prevent Native voting. However, I'm also looking for clarification on whether an entire section from the Tillie Paul article could be copied and reproduced (along with all the citations) here in the Native American Civil rights>Voting Rights or it it's more appropriate to summarize and link to the Tillie Paul article for more info?


Piece by piece, more acts were created that added Natives to the citizenship rolls.[55] When the Native Territory (what is now Oklahoma) was abolished in 1907, all Natives who lived in that territory were made citizens through the Oklahoma Enabling Act.[55] The Alaska Citizenship Act of 1915 recognized Natives as citizens pending endorsement by five white men and proof they had "adopted the habits of civilization." [CITE: Tucker, James Thomas (2016). The Battle Over Bilingual Ballots: Language Minorities and Political Access. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0754675723.]

Furthermore, after World War I, any Native who had fought with honorable discharge was also considered a citizen through the Act of November 6, 1919.[58] As Native Vote states, "The underlying assumption of this act was that these particular Indians had demonstrated that they had become part of the larger Anglo culture and were no longer wholly Indian".[58]

By the early 1920s, Congress was considering a bill to make the remainder of Native Americans citizens in their aim to have them "adopt Anglo culture".[58] In November 1922, Tillie Paul assisted a Tlingit relative, Charlie Jones, to vote, after he was refused by election officials in Wrangell, Alaska. Both were charged with felonies: Charlie Jones for "falsely swearing to be a citizen" and voting illegally and Tillie for aiding and abetting him.[CITE: Kiffer, Dave (February 16, 2009). "William Paul Was The "Father of Native Land Claims"". http://www.sitnews.us/Kiffer/WilliamLewisPaul/021609_william_paul.html] Attorney William Paul defended them both at a trial that took place in Ketchikan, Alaska in 1923. Paul argued that Jones fulfilled the requirements of citizenship under the Dawes Act of 1887, insofar as he owned a house, paid taxes, made charitable contributions, and, generally "lived like a white person." Judge Thomas Reed ruled that Dawes preempted the 1915 Citizenship Act. and Tillie Paul Tamaree and Charlie Jones were acquitted.[CITE: Daley, Patrick J. and Beverly A. James (2004). Cultural Politics and the Mass Media: Alaska Native Voices. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252029387.]

This finally was stated with the Indian Citizenship Act which was created on June 2, 1924. This act showed progress in that Natives would not have to give up being a Native to be a citizen of the United States. This included being an enrolled member of a tribe, living on a federally recognized reservation, or practicing his or her culture.[58] However, this did not create the right to vote automatically.

Furthermore, after World War I, any Native who had fought with honorable discharge was also considered a citizen through the Act of November 6, 1919.[58] As Native Vote states, "The underlying assumption of this act was that these particular Indians had demonstrated that they had become part of the larger Anglo culture and were no longer wholly Indian".[58] Shackpoet (talk) 00:01, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Crimes against humanity by the United States Government

Restrictions placed and treaties violated.

Restrictions on movement, theft, torture, imprisonment, and stripping fundamental GUARANTEED rights in the constitution by agents of the United States, denying native Americans citizenship was, and is, still a crime against humanity.

The United States government is complicit and guilty of racist, systematic genocide against native Americans.

Even the basic denying freedom of the right to travel was a crime against humanity in each case.

The lack of that FACT, undeniable in its nature, listed explicitly in this article is appalling.

The way they stripped them of their rights is written over like it was nothing, like it wasnt a heinous crime and series of organized crimes against native peoples. This must be rewritten.

The United States even made it illegal to speak in their native languages.

They kidnapped and tortured their children in boarding schools.

Today the disappearance of modern native women still goes unanswered.

There are still schemes to strip them of their treaty lands continuously.

They used wardship to steal property from individual native americans also. This information is all missing in this article.

Northtexasfossilguy (talk) 08:41, 10 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]