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NowThis World
Since European settlement began in 1492, Native Americans in the United States have seen their
cultures wiped out, their land taken, and even what some have called a genocide of their
people. Millions of deaths, alongside a subhuman legal status crippled the Native American
population, and contributed to high rates of substance abuse, poverty, and suicide.
But in recent years, the US government has made efforts to grant Native Americans some
level of autonomy, by classing tribal land as a separate, self-governing government.
So, just how independent are native american reservations?
Well, throughout the 19th century, Native Americans were rounded up and sent to specific
plots of land known as “reservations”, as per the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As
the US government fine tuned their relationship with the many tribes, a series of court cases
named after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, delegated sovereign authority to
these reservations. What this means is that under federal law, each reservation is it’s
own distinct nation, with limited dependence on the US government and the state within
which they’re located.
This domestic dependency relationship gives these independent tribes control over their
territory. They can levy taxes on tribal members and even hold court cases with legal punishments.
They also have to pay federal US income taxes, but not necessarily state sales tax, depending
on the reservation. In return, the US government is tasked with protecting and upholding tribal
resources and self-governance. This separated but dependent relationship explains how some
reservations are federally allowed to build casinos and grow marijuana, as they are considered
distinct from their surrounding state. However, out of a total population of about 5 million
Native Americans in the US, only about 22% live on reservations.
Still, despite existing as sovereign nations, the land those reservations are on is still
technically owned by either the federal or state government. It is held in a trust on
behalf of whichever tribe lives on it. Additionally, because these tribes are both subject to federal
law, and benefit from special concessions within it, it would be hard to say that tribal
reservations have unlimited sovereign power. For example, the 1978 American Indian Religious
Freedom Act acknowledged that the federal government had long infringed on Native American’s
freedom of religion, as delegated in the First Amendment. In an effort to fix this, special
rights were granted allowing access to historical religious sites, and the use of sacred objects
which may be legally prohibited or regulated otherwise. In fact, a 1994 addendum to the
Act specifically approved the use of peyote, an illegal hallucinogenic drug, in spiritual
ceremonies.
In the end, it is difficult to say how independent Native American reservations are from the
United States. The process by which tribes first received any form of rights, continuing
onto special concessions, and eventually quasi-sovereignty is narrow and complicated. By some measures,
tribal reservations are not only subject to the United States, but federally owned by
them. In other ways, they are intentionally, and distinctly treated as foreign autonomous
territories. So which is it?
Realistically, both.
The U.S. federal government has taken some measures to help Native Americans counteract
centuries of injustice
