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course soldiers could be moved in in great numbers and conceivably would have some bearing upon the vote if a group of soldiers were moved in here and take residence for a short time, and so the statute which was enacted in 1898 provided that for the purposes of the regulation of voting, [[crossed out]]the working[[/crossed out]] tge place of residence of any person must be governered by the following rules as far as their applicability. And the one that pertains to is [[crossed out]]the[[/crossed out]] a [[crossed out]]weapon[[/crossed out]] resident and that is the statute that we have in question here. That statute simply says this: Any person living upon an Indian or military reservation shall not be deemed a resident of this state within the meaning of this chapter unless that person had acquired such residence apon said Indian or military reservation. Thats incorrect there, it isn't written correctly, its unless that person had acquired such residence before moving upon said reservation. And so you see the soldiers came here and simply moved in, or if Indians [[crossed-out]] moved in and[[/crossed-out]] came here that had not resided in this state, we had a situation entirely different from the one that we have at the present time. Now, whatever might have been the purpose of the statute at that time, we go to the substance of the thing, for the right to do what they did anyway. I believe that we will have no trouble about this because even if the Supreme Court will say that this statute is valid, I believe that our legislature is sympathetic and [[crossed-out]] will say that[[/crossed-out]] that we can have this statute repealed now that someone has saw fit to bring it into play again and the Indians will have their rights restored. But the only way that the may be done is by vigilance and by doing what the National Congress of American Indians is doing and by doing what the Ute Indian Tribe and the Associated Utes are doing. That is, letting them know that we are being aggrieved and we want something done about it, and I am sure that if we pursue this diligently, that we are going to be successful in one way or the other. Now, after that statute had been enforced for a long time and some of the Indians had been allowed to vote and some had not been allowed to vote, this question was raised beofre the Attorney General 16 years ago and the Attorney General said that under the Fifteenth Amendment the Federal Constitution, Section 1, the right of an American citizen to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-11-27 14:53:20