Editors
Ryan D. Dreveskracht* Galanda Broadman, PLLC | Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier† Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. |
Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. |
|
§ 1.1. Tribal Litigation & The Third Sovereign
We have been writing this annual update of cases relevant to tribal litigation for years. Recognizing that the average practitioner consulting this volume may not have much experience with federal Indian law, we have endeavored to provide historical context and citations to most relevant circuit and even district court cases in every volume. This resulted in a chapter that had grown to almost seventy pages in length and had increasingly made it difficult for the reader to identify the most recent cases.
Beginning with the 2019 Edition, we decided to change the format of this chapter to both be more consistent with the other chapters in this volume, and to focus on the cases decided in the last year. This chapter continues with that format and focuses on cases decided between Oct. 1, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2021. While other chapters have arranged themselves by circuit, we begin with a Supreme Court overview and then structure this chapter’s subsections around sovereigns: Indian Tribes, the United States, and the fifty sister States. Within each subsection we provide a concise overview with more limited and deliberate citation, followed by longer and more intentional discussion of recent cases. We hope the reader appreciates the change in format, and we welcome comments via email to any of the chapter authors.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has aptly referred to tribal governments as the “third sovereign” within the United States.[1] Much like federal and state governments, tribal governments are elaborate entities often consisting of executive, legislative, and judicial branches.[2] Tribes are typically governed pursuant to a federal treaty, presidential executive order, tribal constitution and bylaws, and/or tribal code of laws, implemented by an executive authority such as a tribal chairperson, governor, chief, or president (similar to the U.S. president or a state’s governor), and a tribal council or senate (the legislative body). Tribal courts adjudicate most matters arising from the reservation or under tribal law.[3]
Indian tribes are “distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural rights” in matters of local self-government.[4] Thus, state laws generally “have no force” in Indian Country.[5] While in the eyes of federal and state government, tribes no longer possess “the full attributes of sovereignty,” they remain a “separate people, with the power of regulating their internal and social relations.”[6]
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