Domination Chronicles: Tribal Sovereignty 101

In this episode, Newcomb and d’Errico unpack the phrase “tribal sovereignty” and argue that it often functions as a language trap. If sovereignty means a claim of unlimited power, then “limited sovereignty” becomes an oxymoron. Federal anti-Indian law uses that contradiction to make domination sound like recognition.

The conversation examines how Native nations are encouraged to speak in terms that already accept U.S. authority as the defining frame. Phrases such as “sovereignty that the United States has not extinguished” reveal the claim of domination hidden inside apparently supportive legal language. The hosts also discuss contemporary land-rights arguments that can unintentionally reproduce the framework they seek to resist. This episode is important because it challenges one of the most common vocabularies in Native law and advocacy. It asks whether a language of limited sovereignty can ever fully express original free existence.

Direct link