Description
<p>George F. Custalow Jr., the son of Mattaponi Chief George F. “Thundercloud” Custalow, filled out this draft registration card on June 3, 1917, at the age of twenty-four. At the time, male members of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Indian Tribes were legally eligible for the draft—Custalow indicated that he was a U.S. Citizen on this card. However, the Virginia attorney general ruled in December of 1917 that Pamunkey men who lived on the reservation were wards of the state and could not be drafted. In 1918, draft registration cards allowed one to register as a noncitizen Indian.</p>
