[EL] Legal Treatment of Native American Tribes

[Gaddie, Ronald K.]

Indian tribes are indigenous nations of limited sovereignty.  And, American Indians are citizens of the United States.  They enjoy special tax status and also special regulatory and police status. But, they are also political and economic actors who behave as firms. Sometimes the tribes donate directly, sometimes through committees. Such political activity is probably governed by the business council of the respective tribe. Unfortunately, we know very little about the inner functioning of tribal business council politics.


Ronald Keith Gaddie
Professor of Political Science
Editor, Social Science Quarterly
The University of Oklahoma
455 West Lindsey Street, Room 222
Norman, OK  73019-2001
Phone 405-325-4989
Fax 405-325-0718
E-mail: rkgaddie at ou.edu
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/G/Ronald.K.Gaddie-1
http://socialsciencequarterly.org

________________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of PETER BRUSOE, BLOOMBERG BGOV: WASH [pbrusoe at bloomberg.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 11:08 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] Legal Treatment of Native American Tribes

Hello-

I was wondering if anyone on the list-serve had some background on the treatment of Native American Tribes as "individuals" for contribution limits.  I've reviewed AO 1978-51 and AO 1995-11 and it seems to also apply to partnerships and LLCs.

Does anyone know why Congress decided to treat these entities this way?

When a tribe donates is it something that the chief executive does on his or her own?

Does the donation need the approval of the governing council of the tribe? (This could be an interesting comparison with Boards of Directors approving corporate political activity)

Was there or is there concern about Native American Tribes attempting to curry favor with the Federal Government? (Tribes are in some respect sovereign nations, and we would not allow Germany or Pakistan to directly donate to our elections)

Thanks,
Peter



------------------------------------------------------------

********
Peter W. Brusoe
BGov Data Team
1101 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
PBrusoe at bloomberg.net
202.416.3464
_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election