The Forgotten Sovereigns

• Author: Bella Sewall Wolitz
• Position: Counsel at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. The views expressed are exclusively hers
• Pages: 34-39

34 | THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, January/February 2022.

Copyright © 2022, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

CENTERPIECE

The

Forgotten

Sovereigns

Tribes have unique legal authorities

and a seat at the table for some of the

hardest decisions facing our country,

which means that working with them to

achieve desired outcomes can be pivotal

to success in resources management

Bella Sewall Wolitz

is of counsel at B rownstein

Hyatt Far ber Schreck. The views

expressed are exclusively hers.

WHEN most Americans, even

lawyers, are asked about

sovereigns under U.S. law,

they focus initially on the

federal government and the

50 states. Pressed, lawyers

would probably observe that

U.S. territories and foreign governments are sovereign

as well. Yet Indian tribes, the peoples who have been on

this continent practicing self-government by right and

necessity since time immemorial, and thus the United

States’ rst sovereigns, are all too often forgotten. Tribes

are an afterthought –– if they are remembered at all. is

has to change. It is my hope that after learning about the

crucial role tribes play in natural resource governance,

environmental professionals will never forget these sov-

ereigns as potential allies.

is article discusses the legal authorities, and po-

litical capacities, of Indian tribes in the United States to

manage natural resources. For lawyers and other profes-

sionals who are involved in projects on or near Indian

lands, understanding of tribal powers is the rst step to-

ward developing the knowledge, skills, and relationships

needed to collaborate successfully with Indian tribes on

joint projects. Tribes have unique legal authorities and a

seat at the table for some of the hardest decisions facing

our country, which means that working with them to

achieve desired outcomes can be pivotal to success.

If I could make one change in the U.S. law school,

forestry school, and general environmental policy cur-

ricula, it would be to require every student to take a class

on federal Indian law. is course of study looks seri-

ously at questions of sovereign control over natural re-

sources, from hunting and shing rights to minerals and

sites for renewable energy development. While it must

be acknowledged that the history of Indians in the Unit-

ed States involves policies of violent removal of many

tribal communities from their ancestral homelands,

tribes have long demanded and today receive signicant

recognition as decisionmakers under the law of environ-

mental stewardship. It is good policy as well as smart

politics for environmental professionals to consider the

potential tribal role, and to collaborate with tribes in ad-

vocacy and implementation of projects. Tribes have the

capacity to become major players in the natural resource

policy of this century. is is the case because of treaties

protecting their prerogatives, as well as executive branch

policies that are increasingly inuenced by eective trib-

al political advocacy.

e starting point is essential to understand: tribes

are sovereigns. American Indian tribes are unique among

the United States’ many ethnic and racial groups because