Tribal Constitutions: Constructing Power by Developing Structures of Self-Governance

There are 345 federally recognized tribes within the continental United States, and tribal sovereignty—its genesis, expanse, interconnection with the U.S. federal government, and distinction from U.S. state governments—is a contested and complicated topic. Beyond its legal ramifications, its definition impacts tribal culture, member well-being, and even tribal survival.

Tribal constitutions serve as a component of tribal sovereignty, and many tribal governments regard their constitutions as a cornerstone of self-determination. But constitutions do not develop in a vacuum; they are the result of historical trajectories and power processes that shape modern states. The decision to constitutionalize, and the content of a constitution, give insight into how a society thinks about self-determination, self-governance, and justice.

This relationship is complicated in the context of tribal constitutions because tribes, as sovereign-dependent nations, developed their claims to self-governance in the shadow of empire.

The investigators have compiled a comprehensive database of 1,053 tribal constitutions or amendments from 304 tribes (88% of the currently 345 federally recognized Indian tribes in the continental U.S.), representing nearly 150-years of tribal constitutional history. They have developed a comprehensive coding scheme to map constitutional provisions and track historical change over time.

Using this database, they will study four constitutional areas closely connected to sovereignty: (1) tribal constitutional origins; (2) citizenship and rights; (3) tribal courts; and (4) legislative power. Each area of research raises questions of how power is constructed, whether through coercion, resistance, economic development, institutional structures, etc.

Finding answers to these questions will depend on comparison of numerous institutions, a reading of complex constitutional documents with interacting institutional forms, and methods which allow visualization of changes over time. The investigators will use a multi-methodological approach, combining computational social science methods, causal analysis, and qualitative legal analysis.

This research exploring the documents and institutions of tribal governance will expand our understanding of tribal power today and its development over time. The findings will contribute to discussions of tribal sovereignty and the relationship between tribes and the federal government and will bring tribal governance into the rich field of constitutionalism and comparative constitutionalism.

Centering the experience of tribes in constitutional studies will not only advance work on colonialism and self-determination, it will provide concrete insights into the ways in which constitutional language shapes political discourse.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.