Indian tribes, too, have benefited for generations through the idea — codified in federal statutes and strengthened by the courts — that acknowledges their sovereign authority to change its individuals and tasks on tribal lands. It is that sovereign recognition that led tribes such as for instance Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to begin gambling enterprises on tribal lands despite many states’ fundamental bans on gambling.
Tribal sovereignty
In the ruling, Pitkin rejected the tribe’s claims that their division’s actions had been “an effort to circumvent the defenses of tribal sovereign immunity” and “an affront to tribal sovereignty.