Indigenous Governance Database
federal government
Native Report: Season 5: Episode 4
Come with us as we visit the Embassy of Tribal Nations in Washington, D.C., and talk with National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel about its significance. We'll also meet Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Larry Echohawk about his first year in office. Then we'll sit down…
Tribal Nations - The Story of Federal Indian Law
"Tribal Nations - The Story of Federal Indian Law" and discusses how the U.S. Supreme Court has handled Indian sovereignty over the past 50 years.
Rethinking Rewriting: Tribal Constitutional Amendment and Reform
This essay examines the recent wave of American Indian tribal constitutional change through the framework of subnational constitutional theory. When tribes rewrite their constitutions, they not only address internal tribal questions and communicate tribal values, but also engage with other…
An Essay on the Federal Origins of Disenrollment
Disenrollment is not indigenous to Native America. It is a creature of the United States. The origins of disenrollment are traced to the United States’ paternalistic assimilation policies of the 1930s. In 1934 the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act (“IRA”), wherein the federal…
Legal Pluralism and Tribal Constitutions
What do pigs roaming the streets of New York City during the first half of the nineteenth century and tribal constitutions have in common? The most obvious (and often the most correct) answer is, undoubtedly, “absolutely nothing.” However, tribal advocates, particularly those concerned with the…