Indians were eventually granted US citizenship after the First World War, but they were treated as naturalized immigrants. The rationale was both simple and profound: Indians belonged to a different political community, variously called a tribe or nation. To become a citizen by virtue of native birth, as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, one must already have been accepted in the political community. Thus one could reside within the borders of the nation-state while being excluded from it politically, rendered a permanent minority without rights.
