History Of Alaska's Long & Rocky Road To Freedom: Native Right To Vote In 1915 Required Turning Your Back On Tribal Life

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

Ahtna Natives in Valdez in front of a photography shop several years before the 1915 Territorial ruling on Native voting.  (Alaska's Digital Archives) 

 Alaska Native Voting Rights: It Took Until 1965 For Full Access To Voting 

In 1915, Alaska Natives Could Vote Only If They Were Proved To Have Become "Civilized"

They Needed 5 White Sponsors, & Had To Take An Oath To Abandon Tribal Customs, Traditions, Friends, Relatives & Their Homes 

In 1915, when Alaska was still a territory, the Alaska Territorial Legislature decided that indigenous Alaska Natives could vote – but only if they gave up their tribal customs and traditions and renounced their culture and people. 

The territory passed an act that said Natives could vote only if they "severed all tribal relationships and adopted the habits of a civilized life". 

To vote, an Alaska Native had to obtain a certificate and pass an exam that proved they had "abandoned all tribal customs" and relationships. They also had to find at least five white people to formally endorse them, who would vouch that the person wanting to vote had "abandoned all tribal customs" and "adopted the ways and habits of a civilized life." 

Once they were accepted, the Native Alaskan who hoped to vote had to take an oath to "renounce" all tribal customs – and "relationships".

Even worse, Native Americans also had to take up "residence separate and apart from any tribe of Indians". 

In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act was passed by Congress 

By 1924, all Alaska Natives and American Indians were allowed to become U.S. citizens automatically. Under this act – unlike the one of 1915 – they did not have to give up their tribal citizenship. However, the states could throw up barriers to Native voting – such as "literacy tests" in order to keep Natives from voting. 

In 1924, the Juneau Empire wrote about this law as a huge affront. The literacy test had been voted down by the Alaska Legislature, but the Daily Empire assured its readers that the test would be brought up again. 

The Empire told its white readers that this test was not "radical propaganda, not a new thing." The literacy test, it told Juneau people. was highly targeted "to reach a particular class of voters" including "largely illiterate" black people. And Native Americans. 

The paper decried Alaska's "alarming" problem of thousands of Native Americans who couldn't read. Here's a clip from the 1924 story on the Library of Congress website:

The 1965 Voting Rights Act 

In August, 1965, President Johnson outlawed literacy tests. At that time many Alaska Natives still mainly spoke traditional languages of their home lands.