The Sovereign Status of Native American Indigenous People’s Nations in the United States

Today, the legal and sovereign status of Native American indigenous people’s nations has come under increasing scrutiny. As gaming on Native American reservations continues to draw fire from all sides, as border enforcement issues become thrust onto the national stage, and as resource issues continue to be controversial, the sovereign status of Native American nations has risen to the forefront in many circles. This has resulted in questions centering on the sovereign immunity of Native American indigenous people’s nations vis-à-vis federal and state sovereignties.

For example, are Native American tribes, as sovereign governments, immune to certain kinds of legal prosecution, and if so, which types? Often this issue arises in the struggle over Native American tribal sovereign immunity such as tribal-state relations and the status of non-natives who reside or do business on reservations. However, what if the Native American tribe is not federally recognized? Historically, Native American tribes have been granted federal recognition through treaties, by the Congress, or through administrative decisions within the executive branch. In 1978, the Bureau of Indian Affairs established a regulatory process for recognizing tribes. The current process for federal recognition, found in 25 C.F.R. 83, is a rigorous process requiring the petitioning tribe to satisfy seven mandatory criteria, including historical and continuous Native American identity in a distinct community. Each of the criteria demands exceptional anthropological, historical, and genealogical research and presentation of evidence. The vast majority of petitioners do not meet these strict standards, and far more petitions have been denied than accepted. In fact, since 1960 only about 8 percent of the total number of federally recognized tribes have been individually recognized through this process. As such, if a Native American tribe is not currently federally recognized, then the tribe and individuals enrolled in the tribe are not entitled to certain privileges, such as sovereign immunity.

Sovereign immunity in terms of Native American indigenous people’s nations means that a citizen cannot sue the Native American government, unless Congress specifies otherwise or the Native American government specifically waives its immunity. State and local governments also possess sovereign immunity. Federally recognized Native American tribal governments as inherent sovereigns possess sovereign immunity as well. Non-federally recognized Native American tribal governments do not possess sovereign immunity.

The sovereign immunity of federally recognized Native American tribes has been continuously challenged in both legal and political fields. Beyond the federal termination policy of the 1940s and 1950s, one of the most recent affronts on Native American tribal sovereignty came in 1998 when Senator Gordon introduced the “American Indian Equal Justice Act” (S. 1691), which argued tribal sovereign immunity was inappropriate for five reasons: torts, contracts, taxation, environmental law, and alleged civil rights violations. Another reason for the introduction of this bill was that non-Native Americans complained that they have no legal recourse in civil disputes with Native American tribes. Ultimately, the bill did not successfully pass, primarily because of the longstanding recognition of Native American indigenous people’s sovereign immunity.

Dating back to the treaty period of the 1800s, Native American sovereign immunity has been upheld in several court cases. In Turner v. United States and Creek Nation of Indians, 248 U.S. 354, 357-358 (1919), the Court noted that “the Creek Nation [whose political structure had been terminated by Congress in 1906] was recognized by the United States as a distinct political community, with which it made treaties and which within its own territory administered its internal affairs. Like other governments, municipal as well as state, the Creek Nation was free from liability for injuries to persons or property…. Such liability is frequently imposed by statute upon cities and counties… but neither Congress nor the Creek nation had dealt with the subject by any legislation prior to 1908.”

In 1991 Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justice John Paul Stevens ruled in Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe, 498 U.S. 505 that Native American tribes were domestic-dependent nations “which exercise inherent sovereign authority over their members and territories. Suits against Indian tribes are thus barred by sovereign immunity absent a clear waiver by the tribe or congressional abrogation” (509).

As such, indigenous Native American tribes are sovereign nations that retain many of their pre-colonial traditional indigenous rights. Sovereign immunity is one of those rights. Because of this right, Native Americans are afforded an equal voice along with other government entities, and they are also free from prosecution by individuals. Although the United States has failed to respect Native American’s and their rights on numerous fronts, the sovereign status of Native American nations has been established and should be upheld.

Further Reading

Brown, Brian E. (1999) Religion, Law, and the Land: Native Americans and the Judicial Interpretation of Sacred Land. Greenwood Press.

Duthu, N. Bruce, and Calloway, Colin. (2008) American Indians and the Law: The Penguin Library of American Indian History. Viking Press. 

Royster, Judith V., and Blumm, Michael C. (2007) Native American Natural Resources Law: Cases and Materials. Carolina Academic Press. 

Wunder, John R. (1999) Native American Sovereignty. London, UK: Routledge.