What is the legal status of American Indians and Alaska Native Tribes?
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States vests the Congress with the authority to engage in relations with the Tribes. When the governmental authority of Tribes was first challenged in the 1830’s, Chief Justice John Marshall articulated a fundamental principle that has guided the evolution of federal Indian law — Tribes retain certain inherent powers of self-government as “domestic dependent nations.
