Editor:
Good job on “To Celebrate Our Sovereignty” about Ray Matz and the Yurok Tribe, which was published June 8. However, there is one statement in the article which I believe is not true. Here’s that statement:
“The ruling paved the way for so much of what has followed, from other rulings upholding the tribe’s fishing rights to the passage of the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act, which paved the way for the Yurok Tribe adopting its constitution in 1993, formalizing its traditional form of government.”
The Yurok Tribe does not have a “traditional form of government” and, indeed, as far as anyone knows, never did have such an institution. The villages were politically independent. Like almost every other federal tribe (the Pit River Tribe is the only exception I know of), federal tribal governments are organized according to the U.S. federal model as prescribed in the federal Indian Reorganization and Self-Determination Acts.
What this means is that the federal government continues to dominate and control federal tribes, mainly via the control and doling out of federal funding. It also tells us that “tribal sovereignty” in the U.S. is, at best, a poor type of sovereignty, one not really worthy of the name. Ironically, the myth of tribal sovereignty is an integral part of how the feds control tribal governments.
Federal tribes have and continue to help Indigenous Native peoples and their cultures survive. That is a very good thing. But they also are a tool the federal government uses to keep tribes within bounds demarcated by the federal government and federal law. And that’s why “tribal sovereignty” is a poor example of true sovereignty.
Felice Pace, Klamath
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‘To Celebrate Our Sovereignty’
This article appears in ‘Unapologetically’.
Factual errors aside, I disagree completely with this post on its merits. The notion that the federal government controls tribes is uninformed and disrespectful to the work tribes have gone through to remain viable nations. Yes, the federal govt has suppressed tribes for two centuries or more, but in 2023, tribes are exerting real sovereignty over their lands, their resources, and working hard to support their communities, with success. And yes, it is imperfect, but maintaining a traditional culture and building a modern tribal nation amidst the mess of technology and economy that is 2023 is a more difficult endeavor than simply seeking growth and prosperity at any cost. The dismissive and conclusive attitude the author expresses is blind to the current state of Indian Country and should be ignored.
Actually, the Federal Government exerts control over all of us in the USA. Any divisive points really don’t matter – Black, Asian, Indian tribes, Women, Men…. etc. etc. etc. For the most part, Federal rules and regulations are not law-based, but instead are institution based – set in place by unelected officials, but requiring us all to adhere. I worked for the Yuroks, right after their constitution was finalized, for about 4 years. It was an interesting experience. The tribe itself was almost more like the 48 states brought together by a common language, common financial aspects, common goals and inter-marrying between the various groups along the river. All of the recognized tribes in the USA definitely have certain advantages that (mostly) equal those of the states within the USA, but they do not override the federal requirements or mandates. Good or BAD, those are imposed upon us all