Dan Schwartz at Connecticut Employment Law Blog has provided solid coverage of the dispute between the National Labor Relations Board and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation over the applicability of the National Labor Relations Act to Foxwoods Resort Casino.

In an editorial entitled Work With Tribe, Avoid Turf War published today, Timothy “Quietbear” Walker, a citizen of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation , shares some insight from the perspective of a Tribal member:

The current legal battle being fought at Mashantucket over the National Labor Relations Board exercising jurisdiction on the reservation has very little to do with whether the employees of Foxwoods Resort Casino can organize in a union. The battle is over the NLRB reversing 30 years of federal policy because of the actions of one small tribal group in California.

Mr. Walker refers to the NLRB’s sudden decision to exercise jurisdiction over tribal enterprises in certain circumstances after declining to do so for decades. He argues that Tribes have the legal right to govern labor relations on tribal lands:

Each tribal nation has the inherent authority to pass its own laws, tax its citizens, and determine the structure and operation of its government.

This authority of self-governance predates the formation of the United States and was recognized by the Marshall Trilogy of U.S. Supreme Court decisions as the inherent sovereignty of the tribal nations.

Mr. Walker also points to the U.S. Department of Justice Policy on Indian Sovereignty and Government to Government Relations with Indian Tribes, which discussed the U.S. policy of requiring Executive branch agencies to:

1) operate within a government-to-government relationship with federally recognized Indian tribes;

2) consult, to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, with Indian tribal governments before taking actions that affect federally recognized Indian tribes;

3) assess the impact of agency activities on tribal trust resources and assure that tribal interests are considered before the activities are undertaken;

4) remove procedural impediments to working directly with tribal governments on activities that affect trust property or governmental rights of the tribes; and

5) work cooperatively with other agencies to accomplish these goals established by the President.

Mr. Walker understands that most American citizens do not understand tribal sovereignty principles:

The vast majority of United States citizens receive an incomplete education concerning the status and history of the Native Americans. The schools teach that the Indian nations were conquered and the students are left to infer that these nations no longer exist. Until the media buzz surrounding the proliferation of Indian gaming, most Americans still had no real understanding that the Native Americans were still around.

He makes a good point.