 In re Halladjian et al. |
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In this case, a Massachusetts circuit court ruled that people from West Asia were so intermixed with Europeans that the Armenian plaintiffs should be considered white and admitted to U.S. citizenship.
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| In the Matter of the Application of Standing Bear et al. for a Writ of Habeas Corpus |
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Standing Bear's writ of habeas corpus showed implications for citizenship, land dispossession, and human rights.
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| Indian Citizenship Act |
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The Indian Citizenship Act granted automatic United States citizenship to all Native American people while allowing them to maintain their tribal citizenship.
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| Indian Territory Citizenship Act |
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This act amended section six of the Dawes Act to give United States citizenship to all Native Americans residing in Indian Territory.
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| John Heo v. Robert H. Milroy |
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In this habeas suit, John Heo was arrested by an Indian agent after he refused to reside on the reservation with his wife and children. Heo argued that he had severed his tribal relations, as had his parents, and that they never lived on a reservation or accepted government annuities. Despite "constantly living with the whites engaged in the pursuits of civilized life" and having "at no time lived with any tribe of Indians" or "acknowledged himself a member of any Indian tribe," the judge ruled in favor of the Indian agent, and Heo remained in custody.
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| Jones–Shafroth Act |
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This act granted U.S. citizenship to anyone born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899, reformed the Puerto Rican government, and included a bill of rights that paralleled the rights and privileges available to U.S. citizens in the states and territories.
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| Korematsu v. United States (1944) |
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In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that war-time exclusion against Japanese-Americans was valid.
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| Korematsu v. United States (1984) |
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In this case, Korematsu challenged his 1942 conviction by filing a writ of coram nobis, which asserted that his original conviction was so flawed as to represent a grave injustice and should be reversed. The judge granted the writ, thereby voiding Korematsu's conviction.
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| Letters of Application for Fee Patent |
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Three applications sent to the Secretary of the Interior for admission to full American citizenship through the competency process. These applications summarized the main assets and qualities of the Native American individual that qualified them for U.S. citizenship. Some applications were written by the Native American applicant, but the majority were composed by a reservation agent. Together, these three applications reveal the changes brought upon Native American landholdings and personal identity as a result of the Allotment and Assimilation era. They emphasize how legal schemes, such as the competency commissions, upheld racialized legal benchmarks as indicators of a Native person's readiness for citizenship.
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| Lum Jung Luke and E. M. Allen v. C. E. Yingling and H. W. Applegate |
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Lum Jung Luke and his business partner, E. M. Allen, applied for an injunction against Arkansas Attorney General H. W. Applegate and prosecutor C. E. Yingling, who had threatened to begin an escheat proceeding (the process of transferring assets to the state) against Lum due to his status as an alien ineligible for citizenship. Chancery Judge A. L. Hutchins ruled in Lum's favor, not only enjoining the attorney general, but also striking down the Alien Land Act of 1925 as "unconstitutional and void."
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| Lum Jung Luke's Deed of Transfer |
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This deed of transfer between Lum Jung Luke (spelled Luke Lum Jung) and the Harrison Lumber Company was filed while the Chancery Court decision on Arkansas' alien land law was still pending.
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| Making A Sioux Indian Into An American Citizen |
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In this newspaper article, Secretary of Interior Franklin Lane gives an account of a naturalization ritual that took place on the Yankton Reservation, South Dakota, in 1916. This article highlights the lived experience of naturalization processes for Native American individuals becoming U.S. citizens, revealing the involvement of other participants at the ceremony. This account highlights the complexities with receiving allotment for Native individuals and some of the effects citizenship had on legal and political rights. With a photograph of the event, this document provides a glimpse into the symbolic nature of the event, where the restructuring of Native identity encouraged in Allotment and Assimilation era policies is performed.
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| Martin v. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
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The Martin case sets precedent that women have the same legal status as their husbands.
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| Native American Citizenship and Competency During the Allotment and Assimilationist Era |
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This teaching module explores how citizenship featured in Native American policy during the Allotment and Assimilation Era. It highlights the first formal naturalization process for individuals on a national scale. Focusing on competency commissions from 1915 to 1920, this unit guides students in analyzing how legal assessments of "competency" in the context of citizenship were shaped by race, gender, and settler values. Using primary documents— including applications, inspection reports, and naturalization rituals—this module examines how federal policies enforced whiteness and domestic norms as criteria for inclusion. The module also encourages discussion about the dual role of citizenship as both a tool of assimilation and a potential resource for Native resistance and legal agency.
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| Naturalization Act of 1798 |
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This is one of four acts known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts were passed by a Federalist-controlled Congress applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the U.S. They were highly controversial and contributed to the Federalist defeat in the election of 1800. The Naturalization Act increased the residency requirement for citizenship from 5 to 15 years and the notice time from 3 to 5 years. While passed with the aim of protecting national security, it also decreased the number of new citizens and voters who disagreed with the Federalists.
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| Naturalization Act of 1870 |
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The 1870 Naturalization Act extended paths to United States citizenship for African descended people while excluding Chinese immigrants.
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| Proclamation 4417 - An American Promise |
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This proclamation issued by President Gerald Ford confirmed the termination of Executive Order 9066, which had authorized the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
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| Proclamation of King Ferdinand of Spain |
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This proclamation to the Taino and Arawak peoples of the New World informs them of new rule by Spain and the Catholic Church.
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| Ritual on Admission of Indians to Full American Citizenship |
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This set of instructions for conducting the Ritual on Admission of Indians to Full American Citizenship was produced by the Department of the Interior in 1918 so that such ceremonies could take place across the Western reservations. It includes the opening remarks from the Representative of the Department, followed by instructions for each participant to undergo to receive U.S. citizenship. There are separate instructions for men and women. The document reveals the centrality of performance during naturalization events for Native Americans.
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| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |
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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reset the southern border between Mexico and the United States. Implications of the treaty included issues of citizenship, land, and legal status.
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| Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw |
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The 1866 Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw was one of a series of treaties between the United States government and each of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole Nations) at the end of the Civil War. The treaty details the stipulations for the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to re-establish their allegiance with the U.S. after allying with the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Among other provisions, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of 1866 included articles that outlawed slavery within both nations (except as a punishment for crime), provided a pathway for citizenship and civil rights for the Freedmen of both nations, and ceded lands to the United States.
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| United States v. Cartozian |
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In this case, the District Court of Oregon debated whether an Armenian immigrant was white enough to be naturalized. Just two years after the Supreme Court ruled that Ozawa, a Japanese man, and Thind, a South Asian man, were not white enough for naturalization, the Oregon court ruled that people from Asia Minor were close enough to European descent to be naturalized.
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| United States v. Joseph |
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In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Pueblo people were not Indians within the meaning of the Indian Nonintercourse Act in part because they had received full legal title to their land from the Spanish.
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| United States v. Sandoval |
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In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Pueblo people were Indians, repudiating the earlier United States v. Joseph decision which had held that they were not. The title to Pueblo lands was now seen as held by tribes instead of in fee simple, meaning that Congressional approval was needed in order to make land sales. This undermined the legitimacy of non-Indian land titles across New Mexico.
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| United States v. Wong Kim Ark |
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In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court solidified the principle of birthright citizenship, affirming that anyone born in the U.S., regardless of their parents' citizenship, is a U.S. citizen.
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