Opinion ID: 726058
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Proper Mode of Analysis

Text: 24 It cannot be gainsaid that Indian tribes are recognized as distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural rights. Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515, 559, 8 L.Ed. 483 (1832); see Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1, 16, 8 L.Ed. 25 (1831). Those rights are retained in the sense that they are not granted by the federal government, but are a function of the tribe's unique status as an aboriginal entity. See Felix S. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law 122 (1988 ed.). 25 Courts sometimes refer to this bundle of natural retained rights as the power of self-government or inherent sovereignty. But this is not to imply that Indian sovereignty is exclusive, any more than the sovereignty of a state is. The tribes' retained sovereignty reaches only that power needed to control ... internal relations[,] ... preserve their own unique customs and social order[, and] .... prescribe and enforce rules of conduct for [their] own members. Duro v. Reina, 495 U.S. 676, 685-86, 110 S.Ct. 2053, 2060, 109 L.Ed.2d 693 (1990); see also LaPlante, 480 U.S. 9, 107 S.Ct. 971, 94 L.Ed.2d 10 (1987). Toward this end, the Supreme Court has recognized that a tribe may regulate any internal conduct which threatens the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of the tribe. Montana v. United States, 450 U.S. 544, 566, 101 S.Ct. 1245, 1258, 67 L.Ed.2d 493 (1981); See Coeur d'Alene, 751 F.2d at 1115. 26 Recognizing that Indian tribes have sovereign power to regulate conduct affecting tribal political integrity, economic stability, and general health and welfare, it is not difficult to see how MSG's approach goes a step too far. MSG contends that no federal statute affecting sovereignty applies to Indians, unless it expressly so provides or the legislative intent is clear. Almost every federal statute, however, no matter how innocuous on its face, affects tribal sovereignty as broadly interpreted by MSG. 27 This is too grandiose a concept of tribal sovereignty. Tribal sovereignty is dependent on, and subordinate to, the federal government. Washington v. Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation, 447 U.S. 134, 154, 100 S.Ct. 2069, 2081, 65 L.Ed.2d 10 (1980). It is of such a unique and limited character that it exists only at the sufferance of Congress. United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313, 323, 98 S.Ct. 1079, 1086, 55 L.Ed.2d 303 (1978). Hence, tribal power, even regarding exclusively internal conflicts, may be limited by treaty or federal statute, Poodry v. Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians, 85 F.3d 874, 880 n.6 (2d Cir.1996), including statutes that are silent as to Indians. See, e.g., Smart v. State Farm Ins. Co., 868 F.2d 929, 935 (7th Cir.1989) (citing F. Cohen, Handbook on Federal Indian Law 399 (1982 ed.) ([T]here can be little doubt that tribes are subject to [federal employment withholding taxes].... Tribes and Indians have in fact complied with this law, and there seems no controversy over it.)); Navajo Tribe v. Nat'l Labor Relations Bd., 288 F.2d 162 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 366 U.S. 928, 81 S.Ct. 1649, 6 L.Ed.2d 387 (1961). Nobody questions that an Indian tribe may, in the absence of a federal statute, act on its inherent sovereign power to adopt regulations for its tribe. It is quite different to hold, however, that this broad sovereign power essentially preempts the application of a federal regulatory scheme which is silent on its application to Indians.
28 The Coeur d'Alene test does not raise the spectre of overbreadth to the degree that MSG's proposed test does. The Coeur d'Alene court recognized that a statute of general application presumably applies to Indian tribes unless it affects exclusive rights of governance over purely intramural matters. This test is more accommodating to notions of federal and tribal sovereignty. Purely intramural matters generally involve matters such as tribal membership, inheritance rules, and domestic relations. Coeur d'Alene, 751 F.2d at 1116. Unlike MSG's test, the Coeur d'Alene intramural exception does not include all aspects of sovereignty. See Smart, 868 F.2d at 935 n.5; see also Farris, 624 F.2d at 893. 29 The Seventh Circuit has come to a similar conclusion. In Smart v. State Farm Ins. Co., a tribe argued that ERISA did not apply to Indians because it affected tribal sovereignty. The Seventh Circuit, following Coeur d'Alene, reasoned that ERISA applied to tribes despite its effect on sovereignty in general: 30 Any federal statute applied to an Indian on a reservation or to a Tribe has the arguable effect of eviscerating self-governance since it amounts to a subordination of the Indian government. But Indian Tribes are not possessed of absolute sovereignty.... Statutes of general application are already applied to Indian Tribes which have the same arguable effect of interfering with the Tribe's ability of self-governance ... for example federal employment withholding taxes.... 31 868 F.2d at 935 (citations omitted). The court concluded that [a] statute of general application will not be applied to an Indian Tribe when the statute threatens the Tribe's ability to govern its intramural affairs, but not simply whenever it merely affects self-governance as broadly conceived. Id. 32 We therefore reject MSG's proposed test as casting too wide a net. When taken to its logical limits, it would preclude the application of any federal legislation, silent as to Indians, that in some way affects the political integrity, economic security, or health and welfare of a tribe. Such a test greatly expands the niche the federal government has carved out for Indian tribes: that of a sovereign with limited powers, dependent on, and subordinate to the federal government. See Colville, 447 U.S. at 154, 100 S.Ct. at 2081.