Title: Tribal sovereign immunity: An obstacle for non-Indians doing business in Indian Country? | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Headings: Tribal sovereign immunity: An obstacle for non-Indians doing business in Indian Country?
Tribal sovereign immunity: An obstacle for non-Indians doing business in Indian Country?
What is sovereign immunity, and what does it mean in the tribal context?
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Tribal sovereign immunity: An obstacle for non-Indians doing business in Indian Country?
Defining tribal sovereignty?
Obscuring boundaries
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Content: 1/ Contrast this rather broad interpretation with the Supreme Court's later assertion in 1978 that Native American nations are only quasi-sovereign authorities whose powers are restricted consistent with their domestic dependent status. 2/
Without need to discuss further the merits of either theory, the law of tribal sovereignty as it has developed in the federal courts and by federal statutes, executive orders and treaties over the last two centuries now rests on several fairly well-settled tenets: 1) tribes have virtually unlimited authority over internal tribal affairs; 2) tribes are subject to the plenary, or absolute, power that Congress has over them; 3) tribes are presumptively immune from state law; 4) tribes cannot be sued absent their express consent or a waiver of their immunity; and 5) tribal sovereign immunity does not extend to individual tribal members except to the extent that tribal officials act within the scope of their official capacities. Although these principles are well-established, how they (or any exceptions to them) apply in any given situation often is not clear, whether with respect to regulatory or taxation authority matters or to criminal or civil jurisdiction. The interests of the tribes, states and federal government all factor into any analysis, the variables of which make any determination of jurisdiction dependent on the specific case. Some of the uncertainty regarding the relationship between tribes and states, in particular, and thus the reluctance on the part of many nontribal entities to conduct business with tribes, can be attributed in part to the confusion surrounding the various legal roles a tribe may play or the legal status of a tribe.