So-called leaders diminish integrity of tribal sovereignty when they ‘waive’ it good-bye

True Native leadership requires protection of the land, people and quality of life

Tribal sovereignty is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit these days. Tribal politicians, usually around election time, like to pound the table and act like they know what it means.

But do they?    

Tribal sovereignty means different things to different people. The leadership and citizenry of a land-based treaty tribe located in a “fly-over country” where I live might see things differently from a gaming tribe located on one of the coasts.

Even there, tribal sovereignty might mean something different to a state-recognized coastal tribe from New Jersey compared to a federally-recognized tribe in Connecticut. Priorities and need often dictate the definition of the word. 

Some basic principles of sovereignty are readily presented and exercised throughout Indian Country. Self-determination, through self-governance, is a standard sovereignty pillar that provides for the safety, protection, health, and well-being of a tribal nation, its resources, and its citizenry.

The so-called leaders are too busy playing a whale in a minnow bucket to worry about things such as teachings of the elders, culture, heritage, and the future.

TODD HALL, THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES CITIZEN

Big fancy office buildings do not make a tribe or a nation. Individual Indians make a tribe. A tribal government is not a tribal nation. Tribal affiliations make a tribal nation, and a tribal government is supposed to be nothing more than a function of a tribal nation. But sometimes, that is just not the case. More often than not, so-called “tribal leaders” are elected and have no idea what their job actually is. 

Some, not all, have no idea what sovereignty is, nor could they spell it out freehand if their life depended on it. To make matters worse, the “so-called” tribal leaders may have never read a treaty that they proclaim to be enforcing and/or protecting. Nor have they ever delved into educating themselves in their own tribal constitution, federal statute or policy, and judicial precedent, which will aid them to actually do a good job representing their own people. 

The so-called leaders are too busy playing a whale in a minnow bucket to worry about things such as the teachings of the elders, culture, heritage, and the future. Their drunkenness on false power leads to their own misguidance, a misguidance that leads to the diminishment of sovereignty. Dirty business and unclean hands playing with tribal public money gets in the way of sound judgment. 

Small minds think being “enrolled” makes you an Indian. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Being an American Indian is in the genes, right down to the blood, bones, self, and soul.

A great warrior and an elder of mine once said, “True tribal leaders work for a better quality of life for themselves and their people, individually and collectively.

They protect their people, what belongs to them, and the land that they belong to. Being a leader does not mean an official’s primary responsibility is to waive precious tribal sovereignty in an effort to incur debt, especially bad debt, and call it economic development.” 

But that is what some of them do. The only time they think about sovereignty is when they wave it goodbye.