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Early California Laws and Policies Related to California Indians (2002) (51 pages)
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Page: of 51
The creation of the first California Constitution and its governing framework set the stage
for early laws related to California’s justice system, and California Indians.
In late 1849, the delegates to the California Constitutional Convention mefto form the
first constitution of California. At the Convention, the delegates debated the issue of
whether California Indians should have the right to vote. A minority advocated that the
Indians should have the right to vote, as was recognized by the prior Mexican regime,
especially if the Indians were going to be taxed. The minority delegates cited principles
in the Declaration of Independence declaring that taxation and representation go together.
However, other delegates in the majority argued that certain influential white persons
who controlled Indians would “march hundreds [of wild Indians] up to the polls” to cast
votes in compliance with such persons’ wishes.’
In the end, the majority prevailed and the Convention agreed to the following
constitutional provisions regarding suffrage and California Indians:
Every white male citizen of the United States, and every white male
citizen of Mexico, who shall have elected to become a citizen of the
United States, under the treaty of peace exchanged and ratified at
Queretaro, on the 30" day of May, 1848, of the age of twenty-one years,
who shall have been a resident of the State six months...shall be entitled
to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may be authorized by
law:
Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the
Legislature, by a two thirds concurrent vote, from admitting to the nght of
suffrage, Indians or the descendants of Indians, in such special cases as
such a proportion of the legislative body may deem just and proper.‘
The California Legislature never passed legislation that allowed California
Indians to vote.
In 1870, Congress ratified the 15" Amendment of the U.S. Constitution affirming
the nght of all U.S. citizens to vote:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or
previous conditions of servitude.
However, even after the 15" Amendment was ratified, most American Indians,
including California Indians, did not have the right to vote until the federal
Citizenship Act of 1924 was passed.*
California Research Bureau, California State Library