Native American Nations are in a very particular position when it comes to the issue of citizenship. This is still very much the case today, but it was far more striking an issue during the early 20th century. What are the rights of the citizens? What is a citizen’s due? In French, the saying is “les droits et les devoirs du citoyen”. The “rights and dues of the citizen”, these things are intrinsically linked. Both must be in effect. This is not the case in what was studied this week. The 12,000 Native American soldiers who, at least according to the slideshow presented on October 14th, served in WWI, were most certainly paying their dues, but, according to my personal definition of it, were not being given their rights of citizenship. Voting rights, in my opinion, are one of the most substantial indicators of citizenship. Without them, especially if suffrage is widespread throughout the country this hypothetical individual is living in, one is not a true citizen. In the case of these 12,000 Native American Soldiers, there is an unfair balance. The correct remedy to this sort of unbalance is according to voting, and other, rights to these soldiers, but, I ask myself, is that the right thing to do? It truly isn’t my place to be questioning this sort of thing but, wouldn’t the extension of the rights of american citizenship be detrimental to the tribal citizenship that most of these individuals are prescribed to? I am, naturally, not the correct person to be giving an answer to that question, but, if I were to be that person, I’d say that the answer is no. In truth, I would say that the only appropriate way to solve this imbalance would be to remove the dues of this false citizenship. Of course, this is just my personal take on this matter.