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human
ELI5: The Tribal sovreignty/Indian reservation system in the US

Hi everyone. As a Brit this has always confused me somewhat. How does the Tribal sovreignty system work in the US. 

Adding to that, how does one prove that they're Native American to be able to claim such rights. Is there a certain % DNA that needs to be Native American? 

Thanks, genuinely curious and interested in finding out more.
gpt
Okay first of all it's important to mention that it differs from state to state and tribe to tribe. The reservation system is more or less an effect of the conflict early setters had with the local residents.

Basically the American Indians are sort of duel citizens, one of their tribal nations and the United States. Under U.S. laws this is referred to as domestic dependent nations. (But not all the time)

This allows the Tribe to have different laws then the state that they are in. This allows them to have local courts or Tribal courts that may maintain criminal jurisdiction over the member of the tribe. But the Indian Civil Rights Act placed limits on the level of punishment to a year in jail or $5,000 and has no jurisdiction over non Indians (Again depending on state.) Major crimes may bypass the Tribal court systems and go with the federal court.

The main advantages to this system come from the ability to bypass state regulation involving hunting, fishing and gaming. This allows some Indians to have Casino's on their land, but not in all states. And it allows them to hunt with out a license as they are beholden to the tribal government and not the federal government.

Again this all depends on state, and tribe. Some states have extremely different cultures, and some are basically just a normal USA town with a different form of town council. Almost half of Indian are married to white people for instance.

DNA wise it's an extremely small amount and assuming you keep up the paper work, there are people that are 1/64 who still claim to be Indian and their 1/128 children will be Indian as well.