Preston Allen, Vice-President of the Affiliated Ute Citizens of the State of Utah and a resident of the Uinta Valley Reservation (Uinta(h) & Ouray Agency), courageously challenged a discriminatory Utah law that barred Native Americans living on reservations from voting. Under Utah’s election code at that time—specifically, paragraph 11, section 20-2-14 of the Utah Code Annotated (1953)—“any person living upon any Indian or military reservation shall not be deemed a resident of Utah ... unless such person had acquired a residence in some county in Utah prior to taking up his residence upon such Indian or military reservation.” This effectively disqualified on-reservation Native Americans from voting. Justia
Allen asserted that this exclusion violated both the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection under the law) and the Fifteenth Amendment (prohibiting denial of voting rights based on race) of the U.S. Constitution. JustiaUtah Women's History - Better Days
In December 1956, the Utah Supreme Court ruled against Allen. The court justified the law by asserting that:
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Native Americans living on reservations are members of sovereign tribal communities, thus somewhat independent of state authority.
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The federal government, not the state, is primarily responsible for their welfare and exercises significant control over them.
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Residents of reservations were presumed to be less concerned with state government, including paying taxes or participating in local civic affairs. Utah Women's History - Better Days
Allen then appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, before the Court could issue a decision, the Utah Legislature in 1957 removed the prohibitory language from state law, effectively granting full voting rights to on-reservation Native Americans and rendering further judicial review unnecessary. Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSupreme CourtIlluminative
Thanks to Preston Allen’s tenacity, all Native Americans residing in Utah—including those on reservations—were finally recognized as voting-eligible citizens.
