Indians, Tribes, and (Federal) Jurisdiction
Indians, Tribes, and (Federal) Jurisdiction William Wood* I. INTRODUCTION Land, and controlling what happens on it and the revenues from it, has always been the focal point of relations between Indigenous peoples and non-Natives in North America.1 Today, as many Indian tribes re- build their land bases after centuries of dispossession, with the result that state and local governments generally lose jurisdiction over the land, the politics around tribal land (re)acquisitions2 are among the most conten- tious in Indian-white relations and federal Indian policy. Conflicts over tribal land reacquisitions exist throughout the United States, from New England across the Great Lakes and Great Plains regions to California, and in the suburbs of some of America’s largest cities and the capital cit- ies of several states.3 And though the overwhelming majority of tribal * Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School; Visiting Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law. I thank Gregory Ablavsky, Kirsten Carlson, Carole Goldberg, Matthew Fletcher, Angela Riley, and Addie Rolnick for their comments on earlier drafts, and Lilit Arabyan, Rosio Flores, and Tamara Honrado for their research assistance. I also thank the librarians at Southwestern Law School, particularly David McFadden, and UCLA School of Law, as well as Lau- ren Benton, Drea Douglas, Heather McMillan-Nakai, and Helen Rountree, for their help locating and providing sources. And I thank Andrew Kershen, Erica McCabe, and the other editors and staff members of the Kansas Law Review for their work to improve this article. 1. This article uses the terms “Indigenous,” “Indian,” and “Native,” and “peoples,” “nations,” and “tribes,” interchangeably, with acknowledgment that none of these words is from a language indigenous to what is now called North America that people indigenous to this continent use to de- scribe themselves.
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