Did you not read the article?

American citizenship was not an aspiration for the first peoples of the United States, whose primary political allegiance was to their own nations.

Meanwhile, as I’ve covered in my research and teaching on federal Indian law, the Indian Citizenship Act was not a gift or benefit to Native Americans. It was part of a coercive larger effort to assimilate Native Americans into U.S. society.

From nation to assimilation For centuries after Europeans colonized North America in the 16th century, Native Americans sought to remain separate and distinct from the settlers.