Elk v. Wilkins: "a despised and rejected class" (Omaha, Nebraska / US Supreme Court, 3 Nov. 1884)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1884
SUMMARY10. Elk v. Wilkins: "a despised and rejected class" (Omaha, Nebraska / US Supreme Court, 3 Nov. 1884) [Connections: Who decided who's Indian, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDJohn Elk, born into a tribe, left it and lived among white citizens in Omaha; he tried to register to vote. The Court (Justice Gray) held he was "not a citizen of the United States within the meaning of the first section" of the Fourteenth Amendment, reasoning that "Indians not taxed are still excluded from the count for the reason that they are not citizens." Justice Harlan, dissenting (with Woods): "there is still in this country a despised and rejected class of persons with no nationality whatever."
PATTERNSixteen years after the Fourteenth Amendment made formerly enslaved people citizens, the Court said a Native man who left his nation was not one. Under the Fourteenth Amendment a person counted as "colored" was a citizen, while this Native man was held not to be one
LENS (WW9)The paper offered citizenship to "colored" and refused it to "Indian"; that gave families a reason to let the label stand
OPENThe idea that families chose "colored" status for citizenship or land rights is an inference; needs deep research with named family cases