Speech #450005934

President. what is the Constitution. the celebrated fourteenth article of amendment I AIlpersons born or anturalizedin the United States. and subject to the Jurisdiction thereof. are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. As I understand this bill. which I never saw and only know by its reading at the desk. it proposes to make citizens of Indians who are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and who retain their membership in the tribes to which they belong. Iholdthatunder that first clause in the fourteenth amendment every Indian in the country who did not belong to some tribal organization. and was therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. is a citizen of the United States. for "All persons." says the amendment." born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." What is it. then. that keeps a body of Indians from being citizens of the United States? Simply because their tribal relation. their tribal organization. that autonomy which we have so far recognized as to hold that they are capable of making treaties with us. determines that they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States within the meaning of this clause of the Constitution. We really make them subject to our jurisdiction whenever we see fit to do it. but within the meaning of this clause of the Constitution. they being a quasinatiou and a quasiindependent autonomy capable of making treaties with us. are not supposed to be subject to our jurisdiction. and therefore the members of that tribe are not members of the United States.