SOUTHERN UTE RESERVATION — On June 2, the 100th anniversary of the day the United States granted all Native Americans citizenship, tribes in Colorado weren’t actually celebrating.
That history, tribal members say, is complicated. In some ways, tribal nations have flourished more in spite of the U.S. than because of it. But it is important history to acknowledge, said Crystal Rizzo, cultural preservation director for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. She co-created an exhibit, which opened Friday, to educate Southern Ute tribal members about the history of the Indian Citizenship Act.
“This is an important — it’s an historical moment that happened,” said Rizzo, who is a Southern Ute tribal member. “There is still a patronizing relationship that the United States government has … with tribal governments that I think is important.”
On June 2, 1924, Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act, a one-page document that grants citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S.
The act was part of a long series of treaties, legal agreements, land deals and more that laid the foundation for relations between the tribes and U.S. government, modern reservations and tribal governance structures.
By 1924, some Native Americans had already gained citizenship through other means, like military service during World War I or by accepting land allotments under the 1887 Dawes Act.
Prior to the citizenship act, also called the Snyder Act, tribal members faced barriers working within nontribal systems, like banking, that required citizenship. For example, they had a hard time getting credit to make large purchases, such as homes or expensive farming equipment, said Summer Begay, spokesperson for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and a member of the Navajo Nation.
“It’s hard, if you’re a stateless person essentially, to try to navigate,” Begay said. “You were ultimately set up for failure.”
However, the act was not accepted by all tribal nations. Some saw it as another effort to assimilate Native Americans into American culture and erase their cultural practices. Others were concerned that U.S. citizenship would infringe on the sovereign status of tribal nations.
“We’re the first of this country — before this country was even a country — and we’re the last ones to be recognized as citizens of the United States,” Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe Chairman Manuel Heart said. “It’s kind of sad, and that’s probably why tribes don’t really celebrate it.”
Tribal nations with land in Colorado chose to mark the day in different ways. The Ute Mountain Ute tribe did not have a special event to commemorate the anniversary. The history was too fraught to warrant a “celebration,” Heart said.
Native Americans had endured the westward expansion of settlers into their lands and the violent assaults on their communities and cultures. Native children were forced into boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their language and endured conditions that resulted in deaths that are just now being uncovered.
Some states continued to bar Native Americans from voting until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, despite their status as citizens and even while tribal members were defending the country in the U.S. military.
Tribes are still advocating for inclusion and equality, Heart said. In May, school officials confiscated a Native American student’s beaded graduation cap in Farmington, New Mexico, he said. The move sparked an outcry among the Indigenous community in the city.
“Even today, the United States and states still have this mentality of not recognizing who we are,” Heart said.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s temporary exhibit that opened last week is intended to share the history of the act and the tribe’s growth with people visiting an administrative building named after prominent tribal leader Leonard C. Burch.
The exhibit, a series of panels on stands framing the entrance to building, describes how the act fits into decades of legal agreements that impacted tribal land, governance, communities and culture.
It also outlines how the Southern Ute tribe has grown. Today, the tribe’s economic activity generates millions of dollars per year for La Plata County. Tribal leaders have worked for decades to quantify and settle the tribe’s water rights and continue to advocate for the tribe in the midst of negotiations over the Colorado River’s future.
The exhibit also provides details on new programs to teach the Ute language and provide access to reliable broadband — efforts that Rizzo hopes will support widespread fluency and economic opportunities among tribal members over the next 100 years.
Showing the tribe’s growth was key, Rizzo said.
“This does commemorate that (act). It also does celebrate what Southern Ute has done, and I think that’s important,” she said. “I don’t want us to seem like we’re on the struggle all of this time. Actually, we’ve thrived in the face of so much.”