Native Suffrage: Race, Citizenship, and Dakota Indians in the Upper Midwest

Under Minnesota territorial law starting in 1849, and later under the state constitution, Indians of mixed Native American and European ancestry held American citizenship, voted in elections, and served in the political office. This racial and political situation in the Upper Midwest was unexpected in Jacksonian America and was the result of the conflation of notions of whiteness, citizenship, and being "civilized." Despite Jackson's removal policy, mixed-ancestry Indians in the region overwhelmingly supported the Democratic party and white Democratic officials considered mixed-ancestry Indians to be "white" because of their adaption to Western culture, or what white Americans considered "civilized." In the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, locals no longer honored the citizenship rights of mixed-ancestry Indians, signaling the death of an unusual political coalition between Indians and Democrats in Jacksonian America.