Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Vote

In several democracies, Indigenous peoples gained voting rights long after others. In the United States, the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 made Native Americans citizens, yet states such as Arizona and New Mexico barred them from voting until 1948. In Canada, most First Nations people could vote federally only if they gave up their legal 'Indian' status, until the law changed in 1960.

In Australia, the Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 gave women the federal vote but excluded most Aboriginal people; the law was changed in 1962 to give all Aboriginal people the right to enrol. A common misconception holds that Australia's 1967 referendum gave Aboriginal people the vote; in fact it allowed them to be counted in the census and let the federal government make laws for them. These histories show how citizenship and voting could be granted unequally, and how Indigenous activists campaigned to be included on equal terms.