The topic of sovereignty and Native American government is very interesting to me. There are so many different aspects to the governing system. On one hand, the tribes are sovereign meaning the individual tribes have their own government. However, on the other hand, the state governments have major control as well. What upsets me is how unreasonable the state governments can be. How they can try people in court twice for the same crime seems ridiculous. I also don’t understand why the state government wants control over the police force. Why can’t the Native Americans handle that? I don’t see why they government can’t simply just intercede when necessary. The Native Americans have never broken a treaty without proper reasoning, and yet the government still doesn’t trust them?
They have also highly decreased their financial support for the tribes which means decreased education, social service systems, and health care. What is frustrating is that Native Americans are citizens too. Many services are continually to low-income non-Natives like health care, welfare, and multiple social systems. As the chapter noted, gambling is a source of income, however the income isn’t profitable enough to provided for the whole tribe without other financial aid. The government can’t simply stop the funding for their citizens.
I completely support the Native’s ongoing battle to maintain and regain control. I think they are making headway to stopping these ridiculous restrictions put on their people and I hope they can continue to make strides towards sovereignty.
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I agree with what you have to say. The Reservations are half on their own, half controlled by the government. I feel like as time passes they have less control of their own Reservation. For example, on the Lower Sioux Reservation there was a seperate police force that handled everything just fine. For some reason the Redwood Falls PD (the town near the Rez) is now able to patrol there, even without a Rez officer's assistance. They recently just fired a few LS Police Officers which I guess they don't think will matter since the Redwood PD can "help out." I think that is rather annoying!
ReplyDeleteThe issue of sovereignty is one that dates back 1831 with the Supreme Court case Worchester v. Georgia (1831) when tribal courts were given the right to handle internal affairs. Since then however, there have been numerous other cases including ex Parte Crow Dog, which lead to the passing of the Major Crimes Act giving the Federal Government jurisdiction over 16 specific crimes even on tribal lands, among others debating sovereignty. It is an issue that continues to be debated and overturned, as recently as 1994 with the Tribal Justice Act passage.
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