Literacy tests, 1924

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also called the Snyder Act, was passed by Congress in 1924 and admitted Native Americans born in the U.S. to full U.S. citizenship. Even with the passing of that citizenship bill, Native Americans were often prevented from participating in elections, because the Constitution left it up to the states to decide who has the right to vote. Native Americans suffered from some of the same mechanisms and strategies that kept African Americans from exercising the right to vote.

This news article on literacy tests was published in the Alaska Daily Empire soon after the passage of the 1924 Synder Act.

Source Analysis

• What can you learn about the author’s point of view on Native American voting rights from this article? What phrases, terms, or words stand out?
• What claims does the author make about the impact that Native voters would have for the state of Alaska? What evidence does the author use to support his claims? Do you find the evidence compelling? Why or why not?
• What parallels can you find between challenges to Native voting and challenges other groups faced to exercise the right to vote?

Voter qualifications, 1960

Tribes, as Native nations, run their own elections for tribal government and thus have their own set of requirements for voting in tribal elections. However, because the U.S. Constitution leaves the process of voting in U.S. local, state, and national elections up to each state, Native Americans long faced a range of complex rules and regulations for voting in state and federal elections. This complexity was sometimes purposefully used to limit Native American participation in U.S. elections. Native news outlets worked to inform their readership about the landscape of voting requirements and responsibilities—both for tribal and non-tribal elections.

Published in Sells, Arizona, in the mid-20th century, the Papago Indian News covered all corners of the Tohono O'odham Reservation. The newspaper's title refers to the name that Spanish explorers gave this Native American tribe, a designation used until 1986, when the tribe officially changed its name to Tohono O'odham, as they called themselves in their own language. The Native nation is located in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, with Sells as its capital.

Source Analysis

• How does this article help to show the differences between tribal elections and U.S. elections? What information could a reader gain from reading this publication that a non-Native newspaper might not offer?
• What point of view or perspective does this article give on voting access for Native Americans?
• How does this news article contribute to an understanding of the challenges Native Americans faced in voting in off reservation elections?

Native American voting case, 1962

Almost forty years after the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, access to vote in United States elections was still contested for many Native Americans. Some states used address requirements to try and limit Native voting in U.S. local, state, and national elections. For example, in 1960 the losing candidate for Arizona’s Lt. Governor, Joseph Montoya, claimed that votes from the Navajo Nation should not be counted because those voters lived on the Navajo reservation, outside the state’s boundaries. Montoya brought his argument before the state courts. Eighteen months after the election, the Arizona State Supreme Court rejected his claim and upheld Native voting rights in this case.

It wasn’t however, until the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the question of Native voting rights was addressed at the federal level. Even more federal legislation was later passed to further reaffirm and strengthen access to U.S. elections for Native Americans.

The Navajo Times started in 1959 as a monthly newsletter. The publication suspended for a few months in 1960 before re-emerging in August of that year as the Navajo Times, a twice-monthly newspaper run by the Navajo Tribe, with "Voice of Scenic Navajoland" printed under its masthead. The paper reported news of interest to the Navajo community, with the slogan "Published for…owned by…The Navajo People" appearing for many years.

Source Analysis

• Note the date of the publication. What else is happening at the time related to voting rights for other groups, not just Native Americans?
• What clues can you learn from this article about the state of voting rights for Native Americans at the time of this article?
• What is significant about having a Navajo-owned newspaper report on voting rights for Native Americans as opposed to a non-Native publication? Why might a Native news publication be important?

Forming Conclusions: Native American Voting Rights

Think about the sources you examined in this section.

• What patterns did you notice about the challenges to voting that Native Americans have faced?
• How did the sources you study support or challenge what you already understood about Native American suffrage?
• Based on the sources you reviewed, what conclusions can you make about the challenges that Native Americans have faced in exercising voting rights? What additional information do you still want to know?