On June 2, 1924, Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act, also known as the Snyder Act — which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. However, the actual right and ability to vote depended on state law, and as a result it was not until after 1957 that some states finally removed laws that barred Native Americans from voting. In Colorado, a recently enacted Senate Bill 276, allows tribal councils to provide a list of eligible tribal members to be automatically registered to vote or have their voter registration information updated. The bill also allows tribal councils to request two or four days of in-person voting in the reservation on or before election day.

Committee of 100 on Indian Affairs, December 13, 1923, Courtesy of the Library of Congress — Committee of 100 on Indian Affairs, December 13, 1923
Pictured with President Calvin Coolidge, the Committee of 100 members advocated for Native American Rights
*Courtesy of the Library of Congress*

Southern Ute Tribal Council Vice Chair Lorelei Cloud, June 28, 2024
*Courtesy of CPR, Photograph by Tom Hesse*

In a June 2024 interview with Tom Hesse of Colorado Public Radio on the 100th Anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act, Southern Ute Tribal Council Vice Chair Lorelei Cloud addressed the significance of the Snyder Act at an anniversary exhibit on display in the Leonard C. Burch building on the Southern Ute Reservation. “We should have been citizens long before 1924, and so it’s a bittersweet moment because we’re finally getting recognition even a hundred years.” As Hesse recorded, “Cloud notes the Tribe’s successes in graduating Ute language teacher to keep the Tribal language alive, the tribe’s AAA credit rating (‘better than the United States’ government credit rating’ has been…) and progress on water negotiations. The history of those goals is important context for conversations about the citizenship act, Cloud said.” (© and Courtesy of Colorado Public Radio)

When asked about what people don’t understand about the Indian Citizenship Act, Cloud replied, “One misconception is that Native Americans received citizenship and they were afforded rights, and they were recognized immediately. That’s incorrect. My reservation was established in 1868 by a treaty, and the Southern Ute Tribe is made up of two Ute bands: The Mouache and Caputa bands. Our first tribal government wasn’t allowed to form until 1937, so years after becoming citizens… Even though we’ve come a long way, there’s still a lot more work to do. Most of my work…is in water and we’re trying to normalize Tribal voices being part of the conversations. We’ve been excluded for such a long time. When the Colorado Water Compact was signed, it was two years prior to us being citizens, and so tribes weren’t even really mentioned in the compact. We’re playing catch up to be equal to what everybody else has. If you’re not able to have the same opportunities as everyone else and your constantly struggling, it’s very, very difficult for you to catch up.” (© and Courtesy of Colorado Public Radio)

Group of Southern Ute Men, Names Once Known, at the office of New Mexico Congressman Jonathan Monroe, 1925
*Courtesy of the Library of Congress*

Raymond Baker, a member of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Colorado’s first tribal registration and voting education coordinator, October 16, 2024
*Courtesy of Collective Colorado, Photograph by Corey Robinson, Special to the Colorado Trust*

“In order…to buy a house, to get a bank account, to do anything, you need to be a United States citizen. We didn’t have that until 1924. The 14th Amendment was put into place in (1868), which gave everyone citizenship that were born in the United States, except for Tribes. And so there’s a large gap of time when we didn’t have anything… although Native Americans contributed a lot to this country. We are the largest ethnicity to participated in any type of military in the different branches… Before 1924, if you were in the military, after your service, you could have citizenship. If you were Native American and you accept an allotment, then you can have citizenship. If you’re a female Indigenous person and married a white male, then you can have citizenship…And so once we got citizenship, that didn’t really fix everything because you still didn’t have the right to vote. If you didn’t have the right to vote, how are you going to participate in what was going on in your government? So now again, tribes are still trying to catch up. (© and Courtesy of Colorado Public Radio)

When asked why voter turnout is on the rise on the Southern Ute Reservation, Cloud replied, “That is a great question, and I’m very grateful that we’ve had a big increase in our voting.. in 1965 when we had the Voting Rights Act, that gave us the right to vote, but it wasn’t until late 1970s that we actually were able to vote. That was because of several different things. It was because voter centers would not recognize Tribal ID cards. You had to take a literacy test in order to vote, or that you had to have a regular address, you couldn’t have a post office box, which is kind of unheard of across Indian Country. Another one was that they moved the voting centers far away from reservation lands, so it became an even longer, bigger hardship for Tribes… Now under our new secretary (Jena Griswold), she allowed us to have voting centers on the reservation for us. We had our voting center at our Southern Ute museum, which allowed access to our Tribal members to vote and also the rest of our community to also vote…” (© and Courtesy of Colorado Public Radio)