Moving toward exclusive tribal autonomy over lands and natural resources

Tribal governments and individual American Indians lack autonomy over their lands and natural resources. Rather than owning their lands outright and enjoying the autonomy that property ownership ensures, tribes are relegated to a beneficiary status beholden to the federal government as the trustee over tribal lands. This article, by advocating a return to tribal control, provides new alternatives to the out-dated federal policies controlling the tribal land tenure system.