Facebook Twitter Email
JULY 6, 2000

An commentary written by Richard Wesnick and published in The Billings Gazette talks about the history of tribal sovereignty and the struggle against attempts to limit it, including the recent resolution passed by the Washington State Republican Party.

Wesnick writes that today, tribal soveriegnty is limited by Congress' plenary power over tribes as well as the concept of "domestic dependent nations" first elucidated by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshal in the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia decision of 1831.

Wesnick warns that speaking about "soveriegnty" involves noting the semantic difference between absolute sovereignty and limited sovereignty.

Get the Story:
The semantics of Indian sovereignty (The Billings Gazette 7/7)
Republicans resolve against tribes (The Talking Circle 7/5)