The ICA was part of a greater campaign of assimilation that followed America's failed military genocide of the Indigenous peoples of North America.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy rejected imposed US citizenship as treasonous, and even now considers it a violation of international law.

It took decades for all 50 states to actually recognize the voting rights that supposedly came with US citizenship, and even now Native communities face rampant voter suppression and obstacles to participation.

azmirror.com/2024/07/31/my-fir…

My firsthand experience with the unique barriers to voting that face Indigenous Arizonans

Covering elections as a journalist on the Navajo Nation can be challenging due to the sheer size of their tribal land in Arizona.

^{Shondiin Silversmith (Arizona Mirror)}

And not all Natives want to vote. Some argue that the two US parties are virtually indistinguishable on Indigenous issues like resource extraction. Diné anarchist Klee Benally wrote that "no matter who you vote for, settler colonialism wins."

detritusbooks.com/products/no-…

No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred by

The new printing has arrived, I'm slowly working my way through the backlog of orders.No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred is a searing anti-colonial analysis rooted in frontline experience.

^{Detritus Books}

Benally rejected voting as a form of consent to be governed. Voting, he reasoned, is maintaining our own colonization.

But other Natives in political spaces question the assumption that voting is an expression of consent, viewing it instead as a tactic.

ndncollective.org/voting-like-…

Voting Like a Radical and Honoring the Complexities of Organizing for Justice - NDN COLLECTIVE

NOTE: In the days leading up to the election, NDN Collective was invited to participate and contribute to a video...

^{Sarah Manning (NDN COLLECTIVE)}

Native voters are one of the least partisan voting blocs. When you think and plan according to a seven generation timeline, white hand wringing over US elections every few years can be amusing. We were here before America, the saying goes, and we'll be here long after.

ictnews.org/politics/a-century…

Nevertheless, Natives tend to vote Democrat, and the Native vote sometimes gets credit for swinging the 2020 election for Biden. It could swing this election, too, and Democrats know that.

hcn.org/articles/indigenous-af…

How Indigenous voters swung the 2020 election

In Arizona and Wisconsin, Native turnout — which often leans liberal — made the difference in Biden’s slim but winning margin.

^{Anna V. Smith (High Country News)}

Republicans, on the other hand, seem to be overlooking Native voters almost entirely. Project 2025 barely mentions tribes, a miscalculation that shows how the right underestimates Indigenous sovereignty, tribes’ legal rights and political power, according to one expert.

hcn.org/articles/what-project-…

What Project 2025 has to say about Native communities

The initiative focuses heavily on resource extraction of tribal lands but lacks detail on other key issues.

^{Anna V. Smith (High Country News)}