Photos courtesy Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Frank Harrison holds a plaque recognizing his legal fight over voting rights for American Indians. The plaque was given by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona and the Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs in 1982.

American Indians could fight in World War II but couldn’t vote. Meet the local man who helped rewrite the rules.

Yavapai Indian Frank Harrison served his country during World War II, but when he returned home to Arizona, he found much less than a hero’s welcome.

The discrimination and injustices that had plagued American Indians for generations hadn’t gone away, even as he and thousands of other Indians dutifully went off to fight alongside white soldiers.

Outraged, Harrison launched a battle for American Indian rights that began with a simple act: attempting to register to vote. He was told by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office that he didn’t have the legal right to vote. He answered back with a lawsuit in Phoenix that would be closely followed by civil libertarians and activists around the country. It would ultimately give American Indians the right to vote in Arizona.

Years after the landmark case, Harrison said in a documentary by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, “Well, that’s one thing we all look for – freedom…. My only hope is to help each other and get along.”’

The fight for American Indian voting rights dates back to the late 1880s, when Indian John Elk attempted to vote in Omaha and was turned away. His legal battle made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Indians had allegiances to their own “alien nations” and couldn’t be considered loyal Americans.

The ruling was a sign of things to come for activists. “The important decision cast a long shadow over attempts by Indians to vote,” according to Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights, published in 2007 by the National Park Service.

Indeed, it took two world wars and a national civil rights movement to help end the fight for voting rights.

When the United States entered World War I, American Indians were not considered legal citizens of the country and not eligible for the draft. Still, more than 16,000 men and women volunteered to serve. After that, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, making American Indians citizens but not eligible voters.

Four years later, Peter Porter, a Pima Indian from the Gila River Reservation southeast of Phoenix, decided to challenge that legislation. But his lawsuit was struck down by the Arizona Supreme Court, which ruled that Indians were under federal guardianship, and the state constitution barred such “wards” from voting.

Porter wasn’t alone in his fight. American Indians in other states were challenging the system, and World War II would only strengthen their efforts.

In the run-up to the war, the country faced the need for a universal draft because it needed more soldiers. Congress reaffirmed the citizenship of American Indians, who overwhelmingly answered the call, according to the National Park Service report.

Fort McDowell Tribal Chairman Harry Austin

Roughly 25,000 American Indian men and women served in the armed forces, earning a slew of awards including hundreds of Purple Hearts and two Congressional Medals of Honor. Navajo Indians in particular played a critical role as the now-famous Code Talkers in the Pacific campaign. And one Arizona soldier, Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian, went on to receive national fame after a photographer captured him raising the United States flag at Iwo Jima.

Away from the battle lines, thousands of American Indians took jobs in war-related industries. They also bought $17,000 in war bonds, according to the National Park Service.

When the war ended, American Indian veterans came home to reservations and cities, and Frank Harrison was no different. He returned to the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation northeast of Phoenix and was struck by the difficulties facing his parents and other elderly residents, who were doing heavy labor just to earn a living, according to the documentary by the Phoenix-based Inter Tribal Council of Arizona.

They were paying taxes but, unlike other Americans, were denied “Old Age Assistance” and other federal benefits that would have eased their burdens.

Harrison rallied Democratic Arizona Congressmen Richard Harless, who was a former Maricopa County Attorney, and lawyers Lemuel and Ben Mathews to help him fight for American Indian rights, including the right to vote. Harrison’s feelings largely mirrored those of other tribes around the country who had returned home from the war to find that discrimination against American Indians still existed.

“Given their [war time] experiences… they just assumed that they had that right and pursued it,” says ITCA executive director John Lewis.

Fort McDowell Tribal Chairman Harry Austin joined Harrison’s fight and in 1947, the pair attempted to register to vote at the Maricopa County Recorder’s office. In ITCA’s documentary, Harrison recalled, “A young man, he refused to register us, [saying], ‘You’re under the ward of [the] government.’”

The legal battle ensued, with support from organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

On July 15, 1948, the Arizona Supreme Court overruled previous legal opinions. Judge Levi S. Udall quoted Indian law scholar Felix Cohen and wrote that, “In a democracy, suffrage is the most basic civil right…. To deny the right to vote where one is legally entitled to do so, is to do violence to the principles of freedom and equality.”

The next day, a banner headline on The Arizona Republic’s front page read “Court Grants Indian Vote.” Harless didn’t mince words in the story. “If a person can be called upon to fight for his country, then he certainly has the right to take an active part in the government of that country,” he told the newspaper.

Despite the landmark ruling, it took decades for American Indians to fully realize the right to vote. Some tribal members were uncertain about the newly won rights because the state and federal processes weren’t viewed as their processes, according to ITCA. They also worried that taking part in the electoral process would lead to things like new taxes or further loss of their reservation lands.

There was a legal hurdle, too. American Indians who wanted to vote needed to pass state literacy requirements. But the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated such discrimination, and the civil rights movement further increased voting rights for all disenfranchised groups.

Though Harrison and Austin won the landmark court ruling more than 60 years ago, today’s generation has an annual reminder. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, where Harrison and Austin lived and died, hosts a commemoration ceremony every July 15 to honor the men and their two daughters still living at Fort McDowell.