"Trump wants to deprive Native Americans of their citizenship!"
That's what I've heard from a number of people since yesterday, so I looked into it.
Yes, it's true: per the strictest interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment at that time, indigenous Americas were not counted as citizens of the United States. They were instead citizens of their respective tribal reservations.
So the attorneys et al on Trump's side are literally correct. Up to the time that the Fourteenth was adopted, at least.
But the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 clarified that Native Americans who were tribal citizens were also American citizens, to be counted and taxed as much as any other citizen.
I doubt that anyone in this administration has even a passive thought to deprive any legal citizen in the United States of their citizenship. Congress has already stated through legislation that indigenous Americans are fully American citizens.
President Trump just gave federal recognition to the Lumbee tribe. Something that particular demographic has wanted for a very long time. That doesn't sound very "Indian exterminationist" to me.
Unless someone can thoroughly persuade me otherwise, my stance remains as it already long has been: illegal aliens are already citizens of their countries of origin. And unless they have become naturalized citizens, per an originalist interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, their children are likewise citizens of those countries also.
Yours Truly,
Robert Christopher Knight
1/16th Tsalagi and proud of it
3 comments:
Thank you for doing research on this. I had been hearing that too.
It's stuff like this which makes me such a devoted reader of yours. I'm glad that you're blogging more and your op eds lately are VERY good too!
Thanks Stosh. I'm trying to get my chops as a writer back. For more than two years I've been "keeping your head above water" as the theme song from Good Times said. I lost a lot of mojo in that time, while trying to stay afloat. And I missed doing that kind of writing.
But things are looking up now. I start a new job in a few weeks, back in the mental health field which I *loved* being involved in. And finishing my book two months ago was a significant personal achievement too. I'm hoping it can get published.
So I'm throwing myself back into my life's calling. What I've been doing ever since my freshman-year English teacher in high school told me was my gift. Going to see how far it might yet take me.
And today is National Compliment Day. So I am going to thank you for being a regular reader and putting up with me :-)
Liberals have their vision so distorted by ideology that they can't realize how ludicrous their assertions are. "Republicans are out to take away Indian citizenship," that is too ridiculous to almost merit commenting on. I suppose next they'll say that conservatives don't want black people to count as real citizens. Oops, they're already doing that.
Thank you for setting the record straight.
Aaron in Kansas
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