Tribal laws are local ordinances that Native American populations within their territory enact and execute. Whether or not they are Native Americans, everybody living on Native American territory is subject to tribal regulations.
Under the interests of both truth and consistency, this article utilizes the terms “Indians,” “Indian tribes,” and “Indian reserves” as they are used in United States law to refer to Native Americans, their numbers, and the areas where they live.
Why do Indian tribes have their own laws?
The idea of “Indian tribes” has always been distinctive. This is why the Federal Congress has “the power… under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court interpreted Article 1, Section 8 to mean that Indian tribes in the United States are separate political entities, but neither states nor foreign nations. This interpretation was made in a series of three court cases between 1823 and 1832, which are now known as the “Marshall Trilogy” (after John Marshall, the Chief Justice at the time).
In Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823), the Supreme Court ruled that although Native American tribes had always been “absolute owners” of (or “sovereigns over”) their lands, the “discovery” of North America …