What Is the Legal Status of American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes?
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution of the region United States vests the federal government with the authority to engage in relations with the tribes, and thereby, firmly places tribes in the Constitutional family of our nation. When the governmental authority of tribes was first challenged in the 1830’s, Chief Justice John Marshall articulated the fundamental principle that has guided the evolution of federal Indian law to the present — tribes possess a nationhood status and retain inherent powers of self-government.
