Tribal Governance

Excerpt from:
National Congress of American Indians
http://www.ncai.org/Tribal_Governance.27.0.html

The Congress shall have power to . . . regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes . . .
(Article I, Section 8, United States Constitution)

The U.S. Constitution recognizes that Indian tribes are independent governmental entities. Like state governments and foreign governments, Indian tribes have the inherent power to govern their people and their lands.
A fundamental contract was created in the treaties. Indian tribes ceded millions of acres that make the United States what it is today; in return, tribes received the guarantee that the federal government would protect the tribes' right to govern their own people and their reservations as homelands for tribal cultures, religions, languages, and ways of life.

Since the time of the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the fundamental principle that Indian tribes retain their government powers unless specifically limited by treaty or by federal law.

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