What is American Indian tribal sovereignty?
Black’s Law Dictionary defines “sovereignty” as follows: The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which any independent state is governed; supreme political authority; paramount control of the constitution and frame of government and its administration; the self-sufficient source of political power, from which all specific political powers are derived, the international independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign dictation; also a political society, or state, which is sovereign and independent. The power to do everything in a state without accountability, – to make laws, to execute and to apply them, to impose and collect taxes and levy contributions, to make war or peace, to form treaties of alliance or of commerce and foreign nations, and the like.(41) American Indian tribal sovereignty includes some of the attributes included in the general definition of “sovereignty,” but with some limitations and modificat
