The Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance

For centuries, Federal Indian policy has diminished tribal nations’ capacity to govern and weakened the ancient confederacies and alliances that once bound Indian Country together. Situated in this historical context, this Article asserts that legal sovereignty alone is not sufficient to enable the self-determination of Indigenous peoples. When the capacity of tribal nations is diminished relative to local, state, and federal power, traditions of Indigenous confederalism and coalition-building offer a solution for tribes to facilitate mutual sovereign capacity-building by reviving diplomatic networks of reciprocity and cooperation. This Article presents case studies that capture the successes of modern intertribal confederalism and coalition-building in economic, cultural, and legal or political contexts to demonstrate how tribal governments can benefit from engaging in further cooperation with neighboring tribes and those tribes with overlapping interests.