On this day in 1883 - US Supreme Court decides Native Americans can't be Americans. Under the constitution of the United States, the "Indian tribes, being within the territorial limits of the United States, were not, strictly speaking, foreign states"; but "they were alien nations, distinct political communities", with whom the United States dealt with through treaties and acts of Congress. The members of those tribes owed immediate allegiance to their several tribes, and were not part of the people of the United States. The exclusion of Native Americans from citizenship was eventually eliminated by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.