The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. (The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to persons born in the U.S., but only if "subject to the jurisdiction thereof"; this latter clause excludes certain indigenes.) The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2.
The text of the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act (43 U.S. Stats. At Large, Ch. 233, p. 253 (1924)) reads as follows:
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."
Approved, June 2, 1924. June 2, 1924. [H. R. 6355.] [Public, No. 175.]
SIXTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. CHS. 233. 1924.
See House Report No. 222, Certificates of Citizenship to Indians, 68th Congress, 1st Session, Feb. 22, 1924.
Note: This statute has been codified in the United States Code at Title 8, Sec. 1401(a)(2).
The history of U.S. citizenship for American Indians is inextricably intertwined with the history of the Indian treaties. From time to time, certain Indian tribes were granted citizenship, but they often lost significant land in the exchange, which might not have been voluntary.
By the early 1920s, some 30 years after the cessation of the 19th century wars, most indigenous people (Native Americans) had gained U.S. citizenship through marriage—or through military service, allotments, treaties or special laws. But some were not citizens, and they were barred from naturalization.
Citizenship was granted in this Act as part of a desire by some U.S. leaders to see Native Americans absorbed or assimilated into the American mainstream. This was echoed in the Termination era of the 1950s. Success seemed possible after the World War I service of many Native Americans, who were usually not segregated into special units, the way African Americans were.
One active assimilation proponent of the early 20th century, Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, wrote:
"The Indian, though a man without a country, the Indian who has suffered a thousand wrongs considered the white man's burden and from mountains, plains and divides, the Indian threw himself into the struggle to help throttle the unthinkable tyranny of the Hun. The Indian helped to free Belgium, helped to free all the small nations, helped to give victory to the Stars and Stripes. The Indian went to France to help avenge the ravages of autocracy. Now, shall we not redeem ourselves by redeeming all the tribes?"