Native American Civil Rights - Traveling Rights

Traveling Rights

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S. government attempted to control the travel of Native Americans off Indian reservations. Since Native Americans did not obtain U.S. citizenship until 1924, they were considered wards of the state and were denied various basic rights, including the right to travel. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) discouraged off-reservation activities, including the right to hunt, fish, or visit other tribes. As a result, the BIA instituted a “pass system” designed to control movement of the Indians. This system required Indians living on reservations to obtain a pass from an Indian agent before they could leave the reservation. In addition, agents were often ordered to limit the number of passes they issued for off-reservation travel. The reasons cited for this limitation were that Indians with passes often overstayed the time limits imposed, and many times Indians left without requesting passes. When this occurred, the military was frequently called to help return the Indians to their reservations. For example, in April 1863, Superintendent J. W. Perit Huntington recovered 500 Native Americans from the Willamette Valley who had violated the pass system, and estimated that up to 300 escaped Indians were still in the area.

While attempting to implement this pass system, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) received numerous complaints regarding Indians who traveled without permission. Many complained that Native Americans were killing game merely for the sport and were taking the hides. Other settlers complained that Indians overstayed their visits at neighboring reservations while neglecting their farming duties at home. For example, in December, 1893, Governor John E. Osborne of Wyoming wrote a letter to the BIA protesting that Indians from Fort Hall, Lemhi, Wind River, and Crow Reservations were leaving illegally. In response, the commissioner sent a note to all Indian agents stating that Indians who disobeyed the pass system would be arrested and punished by state officials. Additional rules were also implemented at this time. For example, the Indian agents were now required to notify other reservations of the departure time of Indians, names of Indians, and the route they intended to follow.

In addition to these concerns, many white settlers were unhappy with the travel of Native Americans on the railroads. For example, the Central Pacific Railroad in Nevada had granted Indians the privilege of riding on the roof and flatbeds of rail cars without tickets, in exchange for the right-of-way through their reservations. Other railroad lines, including the Carson and the Colorado allowed free railroad travel to the Indians. Paiute Indians, for example, frequently rode the trains to their traditional hunting and fishing grounds. "Paiutes would pack up their gathering baskets and hop on the rails, take off a day or two to gather seeds, and bring their harvest back home again, on the car roofs. Men and women used free passes to travel into town or to ranches farther in the hinterlands for jobs." Angry Indian agents, who wanted the Paiutes to stay under their jurisdiction, wrote letters urging the BIA to stop this free travel. According to one Indian agent, "The injurious effects of this freedom from restraint, and continual change of place, on the Indian, can not be overestimated."

The loss of the right to free movement across the country was difficult for Native Americans, especially since many tribes traditionally traveled to hunt, fish, and visit other tribes. The passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924 granted citizenship to all Indians born in America. As a result, American Indians were finally granted free travel in the United States. At the present time, Native Americans who live on reservations are free to travel as they wish.