omission all barriers growing out of race, color or condition were broken down, and the equality of man was recognized in its broadest and most liberal meaning and significance in the naturalization laws of the country (1).

Congress corrected the error, however, on February 18, 1875, by making the provisions of the "Naturalization" title of the Revised Statutes "apply to aliens, being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent.” During the interval between the dates mentioned-June 22, 1874, and February 18, 1875-Chinese were held to be eligible to become citizens of the United States (2), and any Chinaman who may have been admitted to Federal citizenship by any court of competent jurisdiction, between those dates, cannot now be disturbed in the enjoyment of "the immunities and privileges" which admission to citizenship gave him. The action taken by Congress on the 18th of February, 1875, renewed, however, the ineligibility of all persons not white or black, and a native of China, of Mongolian race, has since been denied admission to citizenship by the courts, for the reason that he is not a white person within the meaning of the act (3). This interpretation of the language of the act was clearly in harmony with the intent of Congress; and to set aside all doubt on the subject, Congress subsequently forbid the naturalization o Chinese by either State or Federal

(1) Some of the courts expres ed doubt as to the status of the Indian, being inclined to believe that the omission removed his disabilities also.

courts (1). A native of China, of Mongolian race, is, therefore, now absolutely ineligible to citizenship in the United States.

Indians Ineligible.

The Indian, or red man, occupies an anomalous position as regards citizenship. Although a native of the soil, he is not a citizen; nor is he eligible to citizenship in his normal condition; nor can he acquire citizenship when brought within the range of eligibility, by any of the ordinary methods of acquiring it. Being within the territorial limits of the United States, the Indian tribes. are not really foreigners. They are, for all that, alien nations and distinct political communities, with whom the United States deal as they see fit, either by treaty (2) made by the President and Senate, or by act of Congress in the ordinary forms of legislation. They are in a state of pupilage, resembling that of a ward to his guardian. (3), and as a ward of the nation, the member of an Indian tribe is entitled to a share of the protection which the Federal government casts around all the native tribes. domiciled within its dominions. If an Indian shall have severed his tribal relations and assumed the habits and

(1) "Hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship."--Act of Congress, May 6, 1882, 22 Stats. 51.

Congress was, no doubt, influenced to embrace this prohibition in the act, because some judges had rendered decisions adverse to that of United States Circuit Judge Lorenzo Sawyer in the Ah Yup case.

(2) The United States have ceased to make treaties with Indian tribes. (3) 5 Pet. 1; 6 Pet. 515 5 Wall. 737, 761; 21 How., 370; 3 Wall. 407; "cr of a provisional government to the nation,"-18 How., 100; 1 McLean, 254; 102 U. S., 147. "Indian tribes are States, in a certain sense, although not foreign States, or States of the United States, within the meaning of the statutes. 17 Wall., 211.

customs of civilized society, he is entitled to many of the rights of a Federal citizen without being one, and without having the power, like other persons (Chinese excepted), of becoming one in the ordinary way. The line of separation between the Indian population and other inhabitants of the United States, is so clear and distinct, that general acts of Congress do not apply to them, unless so expressed as to clearly manifest an intention to include them (1). And this alien and independent condition of the Indian cannot be put off by them at their own will, no matter how strongly and earnestly they may desire it, without the consent of the United States. Prior to 1871, the United States Government dealt with the native tribes as independent nations, and contracted with them by. treaty. But on March 3, 1871, Congress passed an act declaring that "no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be recognized as an independent nation, tribe or person with whom the United States may contract by treaty (2)." This act did not,` however, invalidate or impair any treaty lawfully made and ratified before that date. The impairment or invalidating of an Indian treaty obligation depends on the performance of some act of hostility toward the United States by the tribe with whom the treaty was made, and a sub

(1) 5 Peters, 1; 6 Peters, 515; 4 How., 567; 3 Wallace, 407; 5 Wallace, 761; II Wallace, 616: 103 U. S., 44; 109 U. S., 556.

(2) No Indian tribe or n tion within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty; but no obligation of any treaty law, fully made and ratified with any such Indian uation or tribe prior to March 3, 1871, shall be hereby invalidated or impaired.--Rev. Stats. Ū. S., Sec. 2079.

sequent proclamation by the President (1). The dis. tinctive status of an Indian tribe, as compared with any other class or race of inhabitants in the United States, is forcibly illustrated in the fact that an individual State within whose boundaries the tribe may be settled, has no power over it, nor over any of its members maintaining their tribal relations. Nor do such Indians owe the State any allegiance, and the State can give them no protection (2). How far in the line of descent and admixture with other races the corruption of Indian blood carries with it ineligibility to Federal citizenship, has not been determined. It is certain that a person of half white and half Indian blood is not a "white person" within the meaning of the phrase used in the naturalization laws, and ineligibility to become a citizen of the United States remains in such a person as completely as if he were an Indian of full blood (3).

The adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which brought political relief to the negro race, brought no relief to the Indian tribes, for “ an Indian tribe within the territory of the United States, is an independent political community, in such a sense, that a child who is a member thereof, though born within the limits of the United States, is not a citizen thereof, because not born subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and therefore, is not a citizen within the meaning of the

(1) Rev. Stats. U. S., Sec. 2080.

(2) 118 U. S., 375.

(3) 4 Ohio, 353 II Id., 372, 377; 12 Id., 23; 6 Fed. Rep, 256; 6 Sawyer, 541; 2 Kent, Com., 72; I Sand. Ch., 583; 9 Atty. Gen. op., 353; 7 Atty. Gen. op, 746; 112 U.S., 94.

Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution (1)." The Circuit Court of the Western District of Arkansas laid down this principle: "It has been decided that when members of a tribe of Indians scatter themselves among the citizens of the United States, and live among the people of the United States, they are merged in the mass of our people, owing complete allegiance to the government of the United States and of the State where they reside, and equally with the citizens of the United States and of the several States, subject to the jurisdiction of the courts thereof (2). But the application of this principle in this particular case related only to the right of protection of person or property, and not to the broader interpretation of citizenship. Through an abandonment of his tribe, an Indian becomes a member of the body politic known as citizens of the United States only for the purposes of jurisdiction. Senator Carpenter, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which had been instructed to inquire into the effect of the Fourteenth Amendment upon Indian tribes and treaties, reported to the United States Senate, December 14, 1870, that the Committee was of the opinion "that the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States and the individual members of such tribes, while they adhere to and form part of the tribes to which they belong, are not, within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; and, therefore, that such In(1) 2 Sawyer, 118; 1 Dill., 348.

(2) 5 Dillon, 386.