Pommershein: A new tribal-federal relationship

FROM THE ARCHIVE

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2003

"At one time, treaties between Indian tribes and the U.S. government formed the cornerstone of Indian law. A cornerstone laid with care and dignity in order to establish a diplomatic and legal structure that guaranteed the vitality and endurance of these mutually exchanged promises and undertakings. Yet today this treaty cornerstone appears to be eroding, perhaps even on the brink of collapse. Why? The answer points to a growing historical disregard - even amnesia - manifested by Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court about this shared heritage and foundational understanding.

. . .

The critical point is not simply to point out - as others already have - the Supreme Court’s waivering, perhaps fatally fading, recognition of tribal sovereignty involving non-Indians, but rather to challenge tribes and the Indian law community to undertake new and creative ways of renovating the meaning and importance of treaties for contemporary Indian law and politics. In other words, the goal is not to employ a taxonomy of finger-pointing, but to engage in a process of translation that seeks to contemporize the core commitments of treaties to tribal sovereignty, to a beneficial "trust" relationship and to the provision of bargained-for services. For example, what exactly do those "old" treaty promises to education and health care mean today? What does a more balanced trust relationship mean? What does the government-to-government relationship mean? In all this, there is perhaps a "new" treaty agenda to establish reliable and enduring benchmarks for a new era."

Get the Story:
Frank Pommershein: Federal Indian law and treaties: friend or foe? (Indian Country Today 2/18)