Tribal Sovereignty, Language, and Aesthetics/Literature

Tribal sovereignty, native languages, and literature's have played an important role in the preservation of Native American identity. The right to govern oneself, speak ones own language, and write in ones own cultural context is key to maintaining a firm grasp on cultural identity.
Tribal sovereignty is a Native American tribes right to govern itself. A tribe is set apart as a separate nation within the United States. They possess the “right to determine membership, the right to tax their members, the right to regulate internal civil and criminal matters, and the right of sovereign immunity” (Kidwell 61). However, the United States government, the earlier colonizers, and the Native American tribes have had a number of legal disagreements over how much sovereignty should be allowed. Through treatises and trials, the Native Americans have struggled to maintain their sovereignty over their own people. A major defining moment in the issue of tribal sovereignty was in the Marshall Trilogy (Kidwell 63). The Marshall Trilogy is the three Supreme Court decisions, made by John Marshall in the mid-1800’s that helped to originally define tribal sovereignty in relation to the US government (Kidwell 63-64). With Johnson and Graham’s Lessee v. M’Intosh, Marshall established the “Doctrine of Discovery” and the “Doctrine of Conquest,” establishing that Native American’s could only occupy the land, rather than hold a title for the land and that conqueror has the right to take the land from the conquered (Kidwell 64). With Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Marshall established that Indian Nations were indeed self governing entities, but that now they were also dependent on the US government, making them “a ward to it’s guardian” (Kidwell 64). This gave the Native American tribes the right to govern themselves in a “trust relationship” with the US government (Kidwell 64). Finally, in the decision of Worcester v. Georgia, Marshall gave the Native American tribes the right to enforce their own laws, giving them jurisdiction over themselves (Kidwell 64). These three Supreme Court decisions were paramount in establishing the relationship between Native American tribes and the US government, legally establishing Native American tribes as their own governing entity.
Language is also a major issue in maintaining cultural identity. When the Europeans first came to America, there were about 500 different Native American languages spoken (Kidwell 92). Today, most of these languages have disappeared or are in the process of dying out. Language is an important part of belonging. In Native American languages there are certain linguistic factors that establish what’s important to the speakers and even their spiritual beliefs and understandings. For example, the Eskimos have fifty different words for snow (Kidwell 89). The existence of these different words expresses what the “cultural priorities” are of the native speakers (Kidwell 89). In the case of the Eskimos, snow plays a huge factor in their survival and existence. Depending on the condition of the snow, whether it be “light and fluffy, or heavy and wet,” impacts the Eskimo’s ability to travel across the Arctic (Kidwell 89). If a native speaker were to lose their language, or they were forced away from it, as happened in the boarding school’s system, they would lose their grasp of what was culturally important to that tribe since the words to define their importance was gone.
Literature is important as well to cultural identity. Many Native American writers incorporate words from their native languages as well as certain myths, legends, and characters from their tribes. By writing about their culture and the people and stories with whom they grew up, they unite their identity with the tribal culture their writing from. For example, Louise Erdrich, a Chippewa, incorporated a Chippewa trickster into her stories as the main character and often the hero (Kidwell 109). The trickster, named Gerry Nanapush, is the “archetypal Trickster [that] plays tricks, and is the victim of tricks” (Kidwell 109). She also uses Chippewa words and passages in her stories in addition to the traditional Chippewa trickster (Kidwell 110). The use of the trickster from her culture and the language helps to define her story has a tale of a Chippewa Indian. Through the story, Erdrich, as well as her Native American readers, can identify with the culture she’s writing from. Native American stories can also tell the stories of Native American’s struggling in their new found environment, characters struggling to find their identity. For example, John Joseph Matthews, an Osage, wrote the story Sundown, which follows the path of Chal, an Osage Indian struggling to find his place in the world and discovering his true cultural identity (Kidwell 102). Sundown offers modern day Native American’s a character they can relate too, a displaced character who’s trying to discover his purpose and place in the world.
The issues of tribal sovereignty, languages, and literature's are constantly being influenced by the ever growing and changing world around them. The US government is continually trying to define how much sovereignty should be allowed to Native American tribes. For example, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 complicated the issue of tribal sovereignty. When certain tribes began to earn a significant amount of money from gaming, the federal government became concerned (Kidwell 74). They were worried that organized crime would begin to take advantage of the Native American’s gaming activities (Kidwell 74). In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that the tribes had to give a percentage of their profit to the state. Also, if tribal members are allotted a certain amount of the earnings, then that is also subject to state and federal taxation (Kidwell 74). The issue of IGRA is that it seems to have hampered certain aspects of tribal sovereignty.
Native American languages are constantly at risk for disappearing. For so long, the US government tried to erase the native languages threw literacy requirements and boarding schools. However, today, the government seems to be taking an interest in preserving languages that have survived. Language programs are being established for Native American’s to study the languages they may or may not speak. It’s an attempt to salvage the languages that are so embedded in Native American cultural identity.
Literature has been a newer form of cultural identity in the past four decades (Kidwell 114). Though Native American’s had an extensive oral culture dating back before the arrival of Europeans, it is a more recent event that Native American’s are writing their traditions and cultures down. It is a new method for establishing and maintaining cultural identity among the authors and the readers of Native American tribes while also educating non-Native American peoples in the traditions and cultural values of Native Americans.


Kidwell, Clara Sue & Alan Velie. Native American Studies. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.