This year marks the 100th year since the Indian Citizenship Act was passed.

Before the Snyder Act, or the Indian Citizenship Act, was passed in 1924, Native Americans were largely considered non-citizens because they owed their political loyalties to their Tribal Nations.

Last week, Torey Dolan held a presentation through the Madison Public Library’s Teejop and Beyond: Celebrating Native Nations series.

Dolan is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

She reflected on the role that Native Americans play as voters, candidates, and organizers in the modern political landscape.

Dolan explained that as early as 1817, some tribes began signing treaties that negotiated provisions for citizenship, dependent on people leaving their Tribal communities and living within the United States. In many ways, citizenship and assimilation were tied together.

After World War 1, lots of Native people were drafted and then returned to a country that still didn’t recognize them as citizens.

The Society of American Indians, an intertribal organization, was a leader in pointing out this hypocrisy and pushing for citizenship for all Native people.

On June 2nd, 1924, Congress passed the Snyder Act, which declared that all non-citizen Native people born within the territorial limits of the United States officially citizens.

Dolan explains that reactions were mixed. Some Native people were pushing for it and politically organizing around it, so they pivoted their attention to making these rights actionable and putting them to use.

“In contrast, the Onondaga Nation, which is a part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, sent a letter to President Coolidge, I think, December of that year, and they said, ‘We reject your citizenship. It’s an infringement on our sovereignty. It violates our treaty,’” said Dolan.

As citizens, Native people then qualified to vote and access welfare programs, but many state governments tried to stop them from being able to use those funds.

Throughout the 1930s, Dolan says Native leaders had to fight hard to access New Deal era programs they were legally entitled to.

“I think it can kind of be a comfortable false logical fallacy that we’re on a steady progressive march towards justice and equality, but it’s not always that linear or that simple,” said Dolan.

Araia Breedlove, Public Relations Director for the Lac du Flambeau tribe, said that while citizenship was a key step, the tribe continues to face many hardships- from protecting lands and resources to preserving language and culture.

She said that the tribe honors the strength and resilience of the Indigenous people before her.

“This milestone is a reminder of our ongoing journey towards true justice and equality, and we stand united in that fight today,” she said.

She says that they remain committed to fighting for the rights, sovereignty, and a better future for her people.