Australia set to recognise Aborigines as first people of continent

[whathehell]

46. Wrong..Legal precedents granting Native American sovereignty go back to the 19th century

and beyond and the legal history is a series of advances and withdrawls over the years, so it is hard to compare. Some recognition of tribal sovereignty is recognized in our constitution:

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution states that “Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes"

This infers that Indian tribes are comparable to states and nations. Other laws were passed in the 19th and 20th centuries that formalized tribal courts and property rights.

Now we have the situation where Native Americans have constructed gambling casinos on their land and sucessfully withstood legal challenges by the adjoining state governments where gambling was illegal or strictly licensed. The courts sided with the tibes, affirming that they were not subject to such legal constraints by state governments on their tribal land. Casinos are now flourishing across the US on tribal land.