Did You Know?
- The Five Civilized Tribes also referred to as The Five Native American tribes – the Seminole, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek (Muscogee) resided within the present boundaries of Alabama prior to statehood, December 15, 1819. Anglo-European people generally considered these tribes as “civilized” because these five nations embraced qualities of the colonists’ culture such as the Christianity, literacy, centralized governments, market participation, written constitutions and intermarriage with white Americans.
- In 1829 gold was discovered near Dahlonega, Georgia on Cherokee lands, white prospectors flooded over the border onto their lands and the state of Georgia used this as a pretext for declaring all treaties with Indian nations to be null and void.
- President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) the nation’s seventh president (1829-1837) had the most profound influence on Indians. His legacy is tarnished by his role in the Indian Removal Act of 1830 “Trail of Tears” – the forced relocation of Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi.
- The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defines a citizen as any person born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction; however, this amendment was interpreted to not apply to Native people.
- American Indians became citizens of the USA in 1924 by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full citizenship to the indigenous peoples of the United States called “Indians” in this Act. The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge.