Navajo times. [volume] (Window Rock, Ariz.) 1960-1984, 1963-09-05
Tribal Self Government
CONTINUED from Page 11l

the CONSTITUTION dQOplCO NY ooA0
tribe shall also vest in such tribe
or its tribal council the following
rights and powers: to employ legal
counsel, the choice of counsel and
the fixing of fees to be subject
to the approval of the Secretary
of the Interior: to prevent the sale,
disposition, lease or encumbrance
of tribal lands, interests in lands,
or other tribal assets without the
consent of the tribe; and to ne
gotiate with the federal, state and
local governm ent ST. Thus, in
1884, the right of Indian tribal
groups to establish and operate
constitutional governments within
their reservation boundaries was
given formal rec ognition and ex-
preston by our Congress. The In
dian Reorganization Act applied
only to those tribes which, by
majority vote, chose to accept it,
although those that rejected it did
not lose the right to Self-goV-
eminent.
The tribal constitutions adopt
ed pur suant TO the terms of the
Indian Reorganization Act were
by no means the first such foun-
dations of government establish
ed by Indian tribes. In fact, the
constitution governing the Iroquois
Confederat ion--the Cayaneshago-
wa--was a very highly sophis-
ticated constitutional agreement
binding together the five (later siX)
segments of the Iroquois Coincide
racy, and some students of Amer
lean history believe that this con-
stitution, developed before the dis
covery and colonization of Amer
lea, exercised a heavy influence
on the drafters of our own national
institution. Subsequently, the
Cherokee, Greek, Choctaw and
other tribal groups developed COM
pick, highly organized tribal
governments which operated under
constitutions.
BY virtue of the fact that the
constitutions adopted pur suant to
the Indian Reorganization Act had
to be accepted by the Indian ele-
ctorate, they clearly took the form
of agreements through which tribal
members delegated specific pow
erS of government to their tribal
councils or other governing bodies.
Approval ofthese Documents by the
Secretary of the Interior, following
their adoption by the Indian cleo
torate, also gave the tribal gov
erning bodies formal recognition
by our federal government. Cen
orally speaking, constitutions did
not give to tribal groups powers
they did not already have by vir-
tue of their residual sovereignty,
although certain limitations pre-
viously imposed by Congress af-
fecting the powers of Indian tribes
were lifted or modified; nor did
such constitutions endoW the Sc
cretary of the Interior, as the rep
resentative of the federal govern
ment, with powers that he did
not already have, Stemming from
statutes ofCongress. Constitution
al government has many advant-
ages for Indian groups, in view of
the fact that it Symbolizes the
principle of government by con-
sent of the governed; not only do
tribal members define in detail
the powers they are willing that
their governing bodies exercise in
their behalf, but they place Ii
mutations upon those powers, in
GLIDING provisions for initiative and
referendum. Thus, if the electorate
disagrees with an ordinance adopt
ed by its governing body, it can
subject such enactment TO a vote