The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1906-04-13
INDIAN AS VOTER
ATTORNEY GENERAL CRAW-
FORD RENDERS OPINION.
The Status of Socalled Indians,
Namely Half and Quarter Bloods
at the Polls.

Answering questions propounded by
M. f. Parker. of the klamath Indian
agency, Attorney General Crawford
has issued the following opinion:
Replying to yours of the 4th inst,
relative to the status of socalled In
dians, namely, half, quarter, etc..
blood, at the polls, permit me to say
that the question really is whether
they are considered Indians or whites,
and If held to be Indians, they have
the right to vote if they have served
their tribal relations and have adopt
ed the habits of civilization, or if
they have received allotments of land
under the United States allotment
laws relative to Indians. My opinion
to J. w. Evans, assistant superin-
tendent of the Klamath Indian re-
servation, under date of March 4,
1905, answers the question and holds,
in substance, that all Indians who
have received land by allotment are
citizens of the United States, and en-
titled to the right to vote, together
with all other rights, privileges and
immunities of such citizens, ETC., and
Isscited authorities in said opinion
which cover the point
AS to the status of one-fourth bloods
and half -bloods, / am of the opinion
that one-fourth blood would be con-
sidered white person and citizen,
and entitled to vote, while half
blood, if his mother was an Indian
woman and his father white man,
would be considered an Indian, the
child taking the status of its mother.
I have not time to thoroughly ex-
anime this matter, but in the case of
United States VS.. Sanders, United
States, 27 federal cases, $50, 951, it
is held a child partakes of the com
ditions of the mother, and if the
mother is an Indian, the child will be
SO considered within the provisions
of the act of 1884, section 25, de-
claring that the laws of the United
States for the punishment of crime
in the Indian Territory shall not ex-
tend to the crimes committed by an
Indian against the person or property
of another. The child of white
woman by an Indian father shall, for
the purpose of that act be deemed OF
the white race, the conditions of the
mother and not the quantum of Indian
| blood in the veins determining the
condition of the offspring, this stand
ard following the common-law rule,
which was borrowed from the CIVIL
law.
In the case in er. Camille United
States Federal, 256, the court holds
that "agperson of half white and half
Indian blood is not white person
within the meaning Of this phrase as
used in the naturalization laws, but
an Indian" In the Virginia code
section 40, it is provided that "every
person, not colored person, having
one fourth or more Indian blood, shall
be deemed an Indian. =
However, our statutes contain nc
provisions upon the question, and
therefore I am of the opinion that
the courts would hold that any per
son who has less than one-half Indian
blood would be considered white
person. The state of Indiana has held
that all persons recognized as Indians
by the Indians themselves and who
are stamped as such by birth, educa-
tion and Language and have three
eights Indian blood, are Indians.
1 Tn Keith va TJnited States 58 ma
cific, 507, Oklahoma, 446, it is held
that person that was born from a
marriage between a white father ad-
opted into an Indian tribe and half
breed woman is not an Indian within
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