Title: Tribal Sovereignty | Pauma Tribe
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Content: The Marshall trilogy, a series of three Supreme Court cases decided by Chief Justice John Marshall beginning in the 1830’s, set forth the legal framework for defining Tribal sovereignty. In defining tribal sovereign powers, Justice Marshall described tribes as “domestic dependent nations,” meaning that although tribes were “distinct independent political communities,” they remained subject to the paternalistic powers of the United States. Thus, Indian tribes possess internal governmental power over all affairs within the tribe, but lack external authorities to engage in relationships with foreign nations. It is important to note that state governments do not possess authority over tribes and the powers to “expand” or “contract” tribal sovereign authority rests solely within the power of the federal government. Thus, sovereignty also means that states are precluded from interfering with the tribes in their self-governance, while at the same time the United States congress reserves plenary power to change the scope and definition of tribal sovereignty. Over the past 170 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed tribal sovereignty in numerous court decisions. The 1832 Supreme Court decision Cherokee Nation v. Georgia ruled that Indian nations had the full legal right to manage their own affairs, govern themselves internally and engage in legal and political relationships with the federal government and its subdivisions. State governments, nonetheless, have historically been hostile to the concept of tribal sovereignty, often in their attempt to control native lands, resources and assets for their own advantage. In California v. Cabazon (1987), the Supreme Court ruled that tribes have the right, as sovereign nations, to conduct gaming on Indian lands, free of state control when similar gaming outside the reservation is permitted by the state for any purpose. Following the Cabazon ruling, congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act compacts.” (