In the early years of military occupation in the southwest, young Indian boys were taken from their villages, sometimes against their wishes, and brought to what were called Indian Schools run by the United States government. There, the young men were militarized at an early age and eventually sent off to war.
Indians have the right to vote on the same basis as other citizens of their respective states. In 1948 the Arizona Supreme Court declared disenfranchising interpretations of the Arizona Constitutions unconstitutional and Indians were permitted to vote as they were in most other states. A 1953 Utah State law declared that persons living on Indian reservations were not residents of the state and could not vote. That law was repealed several years later. In 1954, Indians in Maine who were not under federal jurisdiction were given the right to vote, and in 1962, New Mexico extended the right to vote to Indians.
Qualification for voting in Indian tribal elections has no relationship to the right of the Indian to vote in national, state, or local elections. Each tribe determines which of its members is eligible to vote.