Tribal Sovereignty Is Political, Not Racial

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is working on plans for a juvenile detention center which could house both tribal and non-tribal offenders while creating jobs for tribal members.

It’s just one example of how Idaho Indian tribes can work with state and local agencies, said Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman Ernie Stensgar.

Stensgar and other Idaho tribal leaders spent the day Monday meeting here with legislators and state officials. Monday evening, they were hosts to lawmakers at a reception designed to educate them about tribal sovereignty.

“I think we’ve come quite a ways in respecting one another,” Shoshone-Paiute Tribal Chairman Lindsay Manning told lawmakers.

Tribal leaders had just presented Gov. Phil Batt with a multicolored blanket, which he draped around his shoulders as he joined in an honor song.

Tribal members, including children who danced in costumes adorned with feathers, beads and bells, joined in a long, winding line to shake the governor’s hand.

Some people confuse tribal sovereignty with minority rights, but they are unrelated, Manning said. “Our standing is a political standing, not a racial standing. We exchanged real estate for real services.”

Stensgar noted that Idaho’s tribes and the U.S. government fought wars that were settled with treaties. The tribes ceded most of their ancestral lands in exchange for small reservations and promises of health care, education and economic development.

Tribal sovereignty is unique. Over the years, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that tribes don’t have authority to make treaties with foreign nations. But they do have authority to establish their own governments, determine tribal membership, levy taxes, regulate commerce and exercise police powers over their members.

Bernadine Boychief of the Kootenai Tribe told lawmakers that tribes appreciate the Legislature’s recognition of their sovereignty.

“The government-to-government relationship does exist here in Idaho,” she said.

, DataTimes