Where does the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 take place?
The ICRA was intended to apply to governments of American First Nations (what we unfortunately call “tribal governments”). The Act nearly mirrors the federal Bill of Rights except in three or four instances. 1) The ICRA has no counterpart provision for the federal Establishment Clause, which prohibits the federal government from taking actions that serve to establish an official religion. The reason the ICRA does not have the couterpart provision is that some tribes in 1968 were theocratic (governed by religious leaders), so those tribes lobbied against including that provision in the ICRA. Theocracratic government in Indian Country is declining for a variety of reasons. 2) The ICRA has no counterpart to the federal “right to counsel” provision. This provision was excluded from the ICRA simply because many, if not most, tribes could not have afforded to provide public defenders. This also is changing for a variety of reasons. 3) The ICRA does not include a “right to bear arms” provisio
