Denial of Sovereignty
American Indian voting rights, as a concept, is not as simple as “a group of people fighting for the right to vote” (like, for example, women). As we have read, American Indians were living on this land before European settlers decided to claim it as theirs. Why, then, would American Indians have fought for the right to be included in “American” society? Most didn’t.
The history of “voting rights” for American Indians would be more accurately named “the historical struggle of American Indian nations to preserve their sovereignty The ability and authority to self-govern without interference and humanity, which required direct legal interactions with the United States.”