Reviewed by Patrice H. Kunesh | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.4

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Reviewed by Patrice H. Kunesh | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.4 | The History Cooperative

Reviews

On the Drafting of Tribal Constitutions. By Felix S. Cohen. Edited by David E. Wilkins. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. xxxii + 200 pp. Appendices, bibliography, and index. $34.95 (cloth).

The most basic principle in federal Indian law is that those powers which are lawfully vested in an Indian tribe are neither delegated nor an affirmative grant of power by Congress but are inherently sovereign. The essential element of tribal sovereignty—the authority of each tribe to make its own laws according to its own form of government—has never been extinguished but has been notably eroded over time through Supreme Court decisions that diminished tribal status and federal policies leading to sweeping losses of Indian land ownership and the irreparable breakup of Indian families. To halt further erosion of tribal sovereignty and to help revitalize tribal governments and promote cultural and economic self-determination, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934. To shore up weakened and destabilized tribal governments, the IRA provided that tribes could adopt constitutions that would, after approval by the secretary of the interior, be formally recognized by the federal government. Within ten years, scores of tribes had adopted IRA constitutions.

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