Sovereignty For justice to exist for Native Americans, the sovereignty of Native tribes must be respected. The MCC Washington Office urges the U.S. government to address past infringements on tribal sovereignty, and to make policy changes that would respect the governing authority of American Indian Tribes. The United States has long acknowledged the sovereignty – or right of self-governance – of American Indian Nations, even as it has enacted policies that infringe upon that sovereignty. The U.S. Constitution itself includes an acknowledgement of Native Sovereignty: Article I, Section 8 refers to government-to-government commerce between the United States and “Indian Tribes.” Congress ratifies treaties with American Indian nations in the same manner as other nations. Nevertheless, the actions of the national and state governments of the United States have rarely reflected a respect for Native sovereignty. In the name of “Manifest Destiny,” the U.S. military and state militias often ignored treaties when convenient, or forced Native tribes to sign new and less favorable treaties. Other infringements on tribal sovereignty have occurred as well and continue to this day. One of the most notable has been the trust system passed by Congress in 1887 and managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In an effort to assimilate Native Americans, legislators voted to split up tribal land and allot parcels to individual Native Americans. After parceling out this land into individual allotments, the rest was sold to white settlers as “surplus.” From 1887 to 1934, 2/3 of all Native land was taken in this manner, in direct violation of many treaties. In addition, the U.S. government put the land American Indians retained in trust, managing the revenue from the natural resources – oil, timber, minerals, etc. – contained on the properties. In the years since this trust system has been implemented, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has mismanaged the trust accounts and has misplaced billions of dollars of Native wealth. By some estimates, the total amount of mismanaged funds exceeds $150 billion. This injustice is currently being challenged in one of the largest class-action lawsuits in history: Cobell v. Kempthorne. For more information regarding this case, please visit www.indiantrust.com. Another case of sovereignty infringement involves tribal courts. In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe that tribal courts have limited jurisdiction over non-Natives. As a result, tribal governments have been unable to enforce laws within their borders, since non-Natives can often commit crimes with legal impunity. Crimes like assault and rape of American Indians by non-Natives often go unpunished because the tribal courts can only fine a trivial amount, regardless of the severity of the case.
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