 Indian Child Welfare Act |
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An Act intended "to protect the best interests of Indian Children," the Indian Child Welfare Act supports tribal sovereignty and tribal involvement in the welfare of its children. The Indian Child Welfare Act was upheld in the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Haaland v. Brackeen.
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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 Civil Rights Act |
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The Indian Civil Rights Act ensured that constitutional rights were extended to Native Americans while also ensuring tribal sovereignty.
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| Indian Major Crimes Act |
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The Indian Major Crimes Act brought certain crimes committed on tribal lands under the jurisdiction of the United States federal government, weakening tribal sovereignty.
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| Indian Removal Act |
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The Indian Removal Act outlined the intent and plan by the federal government to forcibly remove Native Americans "residing in any of the states or territories" and relocate them west of the Mississippi River.
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| Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act |
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This act gave tribal nations increased funding and decision-making power over education systems on reservations. This law signified an increase in tribal sovereignty.
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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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 Indian Territory with Part of the Adjoining State of Kansas &c. |
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The map shows the treaty-designated territories of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole Nations after the conclusion of the Civil War and the signing of each tribe’s 1866 Treaty. Notably, the territories of each nation were significantly reduced.
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| Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790 |
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The Trade and Intercourse Acts had important economic and political implications in the Early Republic. A key feature of the legislation was the recognition of tribal sovereignty and legal jurisdiction.
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| Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1796 |
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The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act had important economic, legal and political implications in the Early Republic. A key feature of the legislation was the recognition of tribal sovereignty and legal jurisdiction.
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| Iroquois Confederacy and Indian Nations—Recognizing Contributions to the United States |
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In this resolution, Congress acknowledged the contributions of the Iroquois Confederacy and other Native nations to the formation and development of the United States and reaffirmed the federal government's responsibilities and obligations to Native Americans.
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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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| Letter from Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Superintendent, Round Valley, California |
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This letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Superintendent of the Round Valley Reservation in California reveals the connections between appearance and progress towards civilization in the eyes of federal Indian policymakers during the Progressive Era. This federal document is an example of policies restricting Native American identity for the purpose of furthering assimilation. In it, racialized presumptions about civilization are tied to hair, Native practices of face painting, and clothing. The agent is encouraged to get his wards to wear their hair short, as it will "hasten their progress towards civilization." Hair is especially seen as an agent of regression for former boarding school students, who return to the reservation, let their hair grow long, and subsequently "adopts all the old habits and customs which his education in our industrial schools had tried to eradicate." Dancing and feasts are prohibited because of their effects on morality. The Commissioner suggests withholding employment and supplies from Native Americans who do not comply with these orders.
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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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| Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock |
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After Congress attempted to pass legislation that violated the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, Kiowa chief Lone Wolf filed a complaint on behalf of the tribes who had signed the treaty. The Supreme Court sided with Congress and upheld the violation of the treaty.
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| Louisiana Purchase Treaty |
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The Louisiana Purchase Treaty reflected United States ambitions toward empire, while ignoring critical issues regarding the incorporation of Native nations.
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| Loving v. Virginia |
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In this landmark civil rights case, the Supreme Court ruled that laws banning interracial marriage were unconstitutional for violating the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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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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| McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission |
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In McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that the state did not have the right to tax Native Americans living and earning income on tribal land.
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| McGirt v. Oklahoma |
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In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court found that the lands in eastern Oklahoma were under the legal jurisdiction of the tribal nations. This decision reestablished tribal sovereignty for the Five Tribes, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole.
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| Medicine Lodge Treaty |
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Signed between the United States government and several of the Great Plains Native American tribes, the Medicine Lodge Treaties were a series of treaties relocating these Native American groups to Indian Territory. The October 21, 1867 treaty relocated the Kiowa and Comanche people.
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| Meriam Report: General Summary of Findings and Recommendations |
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The Meriam Report highlighted the failures of allotment while advocating for reform.
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| Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones |
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In Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that the state could tax tribal business that is off-reservation, but not business that took place on the reservation.
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| Message from the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy |
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This message from the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy addresses members of the Continental Army after they were sent to New York City from Albany by General Philip John Schuyler. After New York, they traveled to Philadelphia where they addressed the Continental Congress. This document reflects the involvement of Native Americans in the American War for Independence.
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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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