Indian Citizenship Act

Common card · No. 250448

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (43 Stat. 253, enacted June 2, 1924) was an act of the United States Congress that declared Native Americans born within the United States are US citizens. Although the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that any person born in the United States is a citizen, there is an exception for persons not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the federal government. This language was generally taken to mean members of various tribes that were treated as separate sovereignties: they were citizens of their tribal nations. The act was proposed by U.S. Representative Homer P. Snyder (R-N.Y.), and signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Native Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War I.

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