On the case of Elk v. Wilkins, the US Supreme Court rules on November 3, 1884 that Native Americans can be barred from voting in the U.S. Writing for the majority, Justice Horace Gray said Elk had no claim to citizenship because he had never been naturalized as an American citizen through a treaty or statute.
Even though he was born within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, the 14th Amendment didn’t apply to Elk, Gray said, because Elk was born as a subject of an Indian nation that was an alien power. The issue of American Indian birthright citizenship wouldn’t fully be settled until 1924 when Congress conferred citizenship on all American Indians under the Indian Citizenship Act. More
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