The Corpus Juris of (Alaska Native) Inherent Tribal Sovereignty

<p>The inherent Tribal sovereignty of Native nations predates the formation of the United States and is reflected in the constitutional vision of tripartite sovereignty. Yet their sovereignty is oft diminished explicitly by federal law or implicitly by federal courts. This implicit divestiture is often the result of the federal judiciary’s inconsistent interpretations of Indigenous Peoples law. This Article argues that a more principled and coherent approach for federal judges would be to consistently make use of the corpus juris, or whole body of law, including the in pari materia or affiliated statutes canon. The Article posits that the corpus juris of inherent Tribal sovereignty requires understanding whether any federal laws have explicitly abrogated or diminished a specific Native nation’s rights to traditional self-governance and understanding traditional Tribal law. The corpus juris inherent Tribal sovereignty approach illustrates how, where the Supreme Court has utilized the in pari materia canon, the consistency and coherence of Indigenous Peoples law increases. Through an analysis of select cases, involving Native nation traditional land and ways of life, I illustrate how Alaska Native nations have been particularly impacted by the explicit and implicit diminishment of traditional ways of life. However, through traditionally informed governance systems, Alaska Native nations continue to assert their inherent Tribal sovereignty, especially when faced with Alaska’s “sole state sovereignty” arguments in federal courts. The Article utilizes the corpus juris of inherent Tribal sovereignty argument and the constitutional vision of tripartite sovereignty to illustrate how the State of Alaska’s “sole state sovereignty” arguments must fail when utilizing this more coherent approach.&nbsp;</p>