Description
<p>Opechancanough Miles, a resident of Lester Manor Lane in King William County, filled out this draft registration card on September 12, 1918, at the age of twenty. The card asked all those registering to identify their race, including a section for citizen or noncitizen Indians. Miles, most likely a member of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, marked that he was a noncitizen Indian. The King William County Registrar, under a section which asked him to certify that the answers on the card were true, added the note: “I consider him a citizen.” This shows how arbitrary factors such as one’s exact address and the political mood of the U.S. could affect an Indigenous person’s legal protections.</p>
