The transition of Brazil to the condition of independent nation induced a revision of the colonial Indian policy with the objective of defining the parameters that the Empire had to adopt regarding the Indian population. An important actor in this process was José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva who presented a detailed proposal on this issue to the 1823 Constituent Assembly. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly interrupted the debate, but the 1824 Constitution opened the possibility of considering Indians as citizens of the empire. This articles means to analyze the strategies of the Indians and of the State in the process of defining the rights and obligations inherent to the condition of citizen, immediately after the Independence, studying the Constituent period and the experience of the Indians of Itaguaí Village in Rio de Janeiro.
Indian population; citizenship; Indian policy; First Reign; Jose Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva