Native American Citizenship, Suffrage, & Sovereignty through History - NA Suffrage Symposium
Historians provided a comprehensive analysis of Native American citizenship, suffrage, and sovereignty in the context of and beyond the Snyder Act. Dr. David Silverman, a History professor at George Washington University, detailed how, even before the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act, there were numerous efforts to "civilize" and dispossess Native Americans. Citizenship often seemed like an "empty promise," even by 1924. Dr. Lila Teeters Knolle, History lecturer at Harvard University, added that opponents of citizenship feared the imposition of a foreign cultural and political system, while proponents saw it as a “simple act of justice to render to the Indian that which has long been due.”