Indigenous sovereignty

Indigenous sovereignty is the inherent authority of Indigenous peoples to govern themselves, maintain political communities, and determine their relationships with lands, laws, and other governments.

Indigenous law: Legal orders developed and maintained by Indigenous peoples to govern their communities and relationships. Indigenous sovereignty is exercised through legal traditions that do not depend on state law for their existence.
Doctrine of discovery: A colonial legal doctrine used to justify European claims to lands inhabited by non-Christian peoples. It supplied a rationale for denying Indigenous political authority and dispossessing Indigenous nations.
Indigenous peoples: Distinct peoples with historical continuity and political, cultural, or territorial ties predating colonization or state formation. Sovereignty belongs to peoples and their political communities, not merely to individuals with Indigenous ancestry.
State sovereignty: A state’s supreme authority over its territory and independence from external control. Indigenous sovereignty may coexist with state sovereignty without deriving its legitimacy from the state.
Tribal sovereignty in the United States: The retained self-governing authority of federally recognized tribes within the United States. It shows how inherent Indigenous authority operates within a specific settler-state constitutional system.
Johnson v. M’Intosh: An 1823 United States Supreme Court decision that limited Indigenous land rights under the doctrine of discovery. The decision illustrates how U.S. law subordinated Indigenous land authority to colonial claims.
Nationhood: The condition of being a political community understood as a nation, often through shared history and institutions. Indigenous claims to sovereignty are grounded in continuing nationhood, not only cultural identity.
自治: A degree of self-rule or independent decision-making within a larger political or legal system. Autonomy is often granted or bounded by states, unlike sovereignty understood as an inherent authority.
Treaty rights: Rights and obligations established by agreements between Indigenous peoples and states or colonial governments. Treaties can recognize political relationships and preserve powers that sovereignty makes possible.
Royal Proclamation of 1763: A British proclamation that reserved certain lands for Indigenous peoples and regulated colonial settlement and land purchases. It recognized limits on settler acquisition while placing Indigenous lands within imperial control.

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