EBCI citizenship was not a settled issue, however. With American entry into the First World War and the implementation of Selective Service, the Indian Bureau commissioner for the Eastern Band Cherokee intentionally allowed notices announcing the requirement to register for the conscription program throughout the area. The Selective Service law, as written, excluded non-citizens from the requirement to register. (Finger 35) Scores of Eastern Band Cherokee Indians would ultimately register for selective service and some 68 would serve in the military during the war. 36 men were drafted, even though their citizenship status was unsettled. (Finger 40)
In their service records, the Eastern Band soldiers were apparently just as confused about their own citizenship status. Responses to the direct question of their own citizenship ranged from simple “Yes” and “No” to one soldier who simply wrote in a question mark. (Finger 39) After the war Congress allowed for non-citizen veterans across the country to apply for citizenship. No Eastern Band Cherokee apparently took advantage of the offer. (Finger 44-45)
Tension over disenfranchisement would boil over in 1920.
A First World War Selective Service registration card from Texas. The citizenship box for “Indian” registrants is visible in the “Race” section. This image in the public domain. Credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.