Item Detail
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30997
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1
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6
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English
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Utah’s Denial of the Vote to Reservation Indians, 1956–57
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Utah in the Twentieth Century
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Logan, UT
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Utah State University Press
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245-262
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"Following World War II, the denial of voting rights to racial minorities galvanized activists across the nation to fight for civil rights. In Utah voting rights for racial minorities were a particularly volatile issue in San Juan, Uintah, and Duchesne Counties, where large numbers of Ute and Navajo residents created potentially signifi cant political blocs. Many Anglos and Native Americans in these counties eyed one another with apprehension. In the following chapter, Brian Q. Cannon discusses Utah’s decision in 1956 to uphold a nineteenth-century statute by denying Indians on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation the right to vote. The legal battle that ensued reveals the indifference of Utah’s governor and general populace to racial injustice, the conservatism of Utah’s Supreme Court and attorney general, and the importance of old-stock legal talent and nationally based Pan-Indian organizations in the campaign for Indian voting rights in Utah. Although voting rights were restored, interracial suspicion and misunderstanding persisted and resurfaced many times during the rest of the century.' [Author]