I find myself in the curious position of trying to thread a needle here.

I looked up this article yesterday after the way Donald Trump acted a fool at a ceremony honoring Navajo Code Talkers made the news. The article concludes with the telling of how Congress finally and unequivocally granted American Citizenship to Native Americans, conferring the right to vote and the obligation to serve if drafted.

I put that fact in the headline and was accused of creating a misleading headline. (Sigh.)

The 1940 date jumps off the page and makes one immediately think of WWII. I don't dispute that. I didn't create the coincidence. I didn't manipulate the article to put those two facts together. They are in the same close proximity in the article as they are in my TIL headline.

When I defend the headline, I get downvotes piled on top of me.

When I back away from the idea that Native Americans were granted citizenship in 1940 partly to put the arm on them to fight in the gathering storm of WWII, I get downvotes piled on top of me.

It could have been possible to grant the right to vote without the obligation to serve in the military. That's not the way people thought back in 1940, but it's a way people think now.

The article also covers how different ideas to give Native Americans representation in Federal Government were considered. Native Americans could have been given a Senator or two and some congress members, but they weren't.