American federalism and intergovernmental innovation in state-tribal relations

Abstract

Relations between American Indian tribes and state governments are poorly understood; they have been inaccurately portrayed as exclusively or increasingly conflictual. This study balances such perceptions and identifies constructive patterns of state-tribal relations that developed between 1970 and 2003. President Richard M. Nixon's 1970 policy of Indian self-determination affirmed Indian tribes' survival; yet it failed, in the context of tribes' extraconstitutional status, to clarify their relationship to state governments. Since then, entrepreneurial tribal leaders have asserted sovereign governmental status while advocating practical and substantive cooperation with state governments in place of adversarial and legalistic relations. The partial success of these efforts has produced new intergovernmental mechanisms and the development of state-tribal relations as an ongoing and increasingly normalized category of intergovernmental relations, even amidst conflict over tribal gaming and a shifting political and legal environment.