Answer to Question 1
Sovereignty in the context of American Indians refers to tribal self-rule. Supported by every U.S. president since the 1960s, sovereignty is recognition that tribes have vibrant economic and cultural lives. At the same time, numerous legal cases, including many at the Supreme Court level, continue to clarify to what extent a recognized tribe may rule itself and to what degree it is subject to state and federal laws.
This legal relationship can be quite complex. For example, tribal members always pay federal income, Social Security, unemployment, and property taxes but do not pay state income tax if they live and work only on the reservation. Whether tribal members on reservations pay sales, gasoline, cigarette, or motor vehicle taxes has been negotiated on a reservation-by-reservation basis in many states.
Focused on the tribal group, sovereignty remains linked to both the actions of the federal government and the actions of individual American Indians. The government ultimately determines which tribes are recognized, and although tribal groups may argue publicly for their recognition, self-declaration carries no legal recognition.
The federal government takes the gatekeeping role of sovereignty very seriouslythe irony of the conquering people determining who are Indians in the continental United States is not lost on many tribal activists. In 1978, the Department of the Interior established what it called the acknowledgment process to decide whether any more tribes should have a government-to-government relationship. They must show that they were a distinct group and trace continuity since 1900 .
Answer to Question 2
b