Tribes are subject to the political whims of the federal government like no other people at any time in our history. First, all lands that make up reservations are held in trust by the federal government. That means Congress has the right to change its policies about tribes at any time and sell that property, like what happened in the 1950s with tribal termination. Then 109 tribes nationally were terminated, 63 tribes in Oregon, the hardest area hit by the change in federal Indian policy. Tribes are beholden on the federal government for their own sovereignty, which is why they are labelled Domestic dependent sovereign nations since the 1820s-1830s Marshall Court decisions. The land is again in trust to the federal government, making it federal land and normally not subject to state jurisdictions, taxes and laws. That is normally true, unless tribes in the 1930s or 1940s accepted the Public Law 280 and state application of their laws onto tribal lands. Many tribes accepted this change in status. 280 does not address tax issues, and tribal governments still are outside state taxes if the lands they operate on are federal trust lands and not state lands. Indian law is quite complex, and I am not a lawyer, but still this is generally the situation tribes live with today. There are changes in different areas-in gaming-states have some rights to agree or not to tribal gaming-which seems like it takes away from tribal sovereign rights- but this is the deal the feds made with the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory act (1988).
These federal trust issues with tribal lands and rights make tribes really vulnerable to changes in politics. Which is the main issue I take with the whole system of tribal law. The President and Congress can at any time change Tribal policy, and tribes have no representation in federal government. Tribes do not have representatives to Congress, other than those from the states who tribes pay and support to help them pass laws and support them. Tribes have to hire lobbyists and literally keep Congressmen and women happy to support them by donating to their reelection bids, or support policies that help the states in some way.
This is where we have a real problem in the 2nd age of a Trump regime. Trump has a record of hating tribal rights. He famously testified before Congress that tribes were not native looking enough, to own casinos. He envied tribal rights to gaming and must have been incredibly jealous of tribal successes in gaming. His own Taj Mahal Casino failed and went bankrupt. In Trump’s first term as President, he tried to defund tribes and tribal programs. He also did not allocate enough medical aid or supplies to tribes when covid hit.
In his now second term, Trump has already questioned whether tribal people on reservations could be disallowed US citizenship based on a very outdated 1866 case. Apparently, Trump’s team failed to note or notice the 1924 American Indian citizenship act, which “trumps” the 1866 case. I don’t know most people understand that tribal citizens have dual citizenship since their birth, in the tribe and in the federal government. I also don’t know the legalese of tribal dual citizenship, perhaps it’s a gray area in the law, but I have never heard it questioned before. For now this challenge has been quashed in the media, perhaps just another outrageous claim by the Trump regime, that must be covered by the media, but will likely go nowhere fast. This is their modus operandi: to constantly make outrageous comments and claims to constantly draw the attention of the media to the outrageous statements of the most powerful leader in the world, so to take away from any other media worthy events in the world. The media only have so much time and space to report occurrences, and Trump’s regime owns all of their space and time. It does not matter if they are serious, only that they “may be serious” and so the statements and political movements have to be covered.
This regime is already making good on the transactional promises of the election. The Lumbee tribe, Trump ordered that the tribe be looked at to be federally recognized, because they were outspoken supporters of Trump’s election. Perhaps a brilliant strategic plan on their part to be federally recognized, a status that some tribes have tried to get for some 80 years and failed. The Lumbees have had a long history of working for recognition. But they have some problems. Many of their citizens have been heavily critiqued by tribal scholars as not having Native bloodlines at all. Scholars have even suggested that they are not a Native tribe at all, but a group of white people who want the rights of federal recognition. I have seen many of the genealogical research reports on their members and there is legitimacy to the reports that many of their members have no Native blood at all going back centuries. What will this recognition do to Federal Indian status recognition processes in the years to come if a strict standard of proof is not adhered to and recognition is purely transactional? How many more Transactional Pretendian Tribes are out there waiting to pay the right Congresspersons, or president for their status? I am guessing there are many. And if so, how will this effect Federal Indian Policy in the future? How will this effect our present networks and associations of tribes in their work on solidarity Indian law issues in the National Congress of American Indians or other similar organizations? Perhaps I am naive and this is how it has always worked anyway! And, I am not suggesting the federal recognition process is fair to all tribes who deserve restoration or recognition (ex: Chinook Nation), but I am saying that if the process is transactional, it is then meaningless, tribal status could be deemed meaningless in later years.
Tribal status is one of the few ways for the tribe to continue to preserve the culture and traditions. When tribes were terminated, people were cast to the winds and many languages went extinct, and cultures are heavily effected. Tribes need a land base and protection to keep their communities together, or they will fall victim to predatory and illicit schemes of politicians and colonizers of all kinds who think they do not deserve to be a people. As the first people on this continent we have thousands of years of history here and much of our rights and land were originally taken illegally even after colonizers and settlers made treaties and said we would be protected by the laws and the constitution. Unless there is a permanent place carved out for us to be a people and cultures, inside the law and protected by the law, we will eventually cease to exist.
I fully expect there to be more effects on tribes in this regime. National parks are slated to be disrupted, reduced or destroyed. Oil drilling is now on the table in a big way as the regime works to figure out how to destroy or make ineffectual environmental laws and agreements. The Tribal name for Denali is now under attack, as the regime tries to force Alaska to return the name Mt. McKinley. DEI elimination clearly has an effect on tribal representation in the workplace. Then looking forward, we can expect the regime to try to destroy tribal trust status, perhaps begin a new Tribal termination proceedings, try again to defund all tribal federal payments, and work to eliminate tribes as a political opponent to the Republican Party. Tribal people voted for Democrats more, at 57%, as opposed to 39% for Republicans (Brookings Institute) yet in some states, tribes vote more for republicans than democrats. The state races in the next election may be more important than ever. The national vote numbers are sometimes meaningless because we do not vote for president with the popular vote. Natives really need to reassess their priorities, or 39% of them do, because if their issues were the economy, that is the wrong set of issues for tribes. Our issues are to constantly work to maintain our sovereignty inside the colonial settler state, a country which has now handed all the reigns of government to a colonizer regime.