RE: Tribal Limitations

[Dean Suagee <dsuagee@vermontlaw.edu>]

Mr. O'Hara needs Indian law 101.  As the Supreme Court said in 1974 in Morton v. Mancari, being an Indian is not a racial classification, it is a political classification. Well, the Court probably should have said more than that; it's probably more accurate to say that it's a political classification with a racial dimension taht is constitutionally permissible. 

Indian tribes have more than two hundred years of a special relationship with the United States. Tribal governments are the third kind of sovereign in our federal system.  They do not derive their powers of government from the states, and, for a variety of reasons, there is often friction between tribes and states because (from my perspective) states often intrude into spheres of governmental activity that tribes believe should be exclusively theirs.  

It's too bad, I suppose, that some non-Indians take offense at this and regard it as racist.  I wish that they would learn to appreciate that it is this special relationship that has made it possible for tribes to survive as distinct, self-governing cultures.  I wish that they would learn to appreciate that the continued existence of Indian tribes is an essential aspect of what makes the USA the great nations that it is.

Sincerely,
Dean Suagee