A 2020 Supreme Court ruling affirmed that nearly half of Oklahoma remains tribal land

Tribal courts handle justice on reservations, but face strict limits on whom they can prosecute

Reservation-based courts handle civil and criminal cases, but federal law sharply limits their authority over non-tribal members. As a result, non-Native individuals who commit crimes on reservations often fall outside tribal jurisdiction, creating potential gaps in accountability.

The reservation system gives tribes limited self-governance while keeping them under federal control.

In the 1950s, the federal government tried to dissolve tribal nations and end their sovereignty

A federal policy called "termination" withdrew official recognition from more than 100 tribes in the 1950s, cutting off federal services and subjecting reservation land to state taxes and sale.

The US has 575 federally recognized tribal nations, each a sovereign government.

Some tribes push for national parks to be under Indigenous control

Ojibwe author and academic David Treuer talks about his push for 80 million acres of American national park land to be returned to Indigenous stewards. Treuer proposes the government grant control of this land to a consortium of tribes, which would maintain and manage it for use by all Americans.

The Dawes Act of 1887 broke up communally held tribal lands

Sometimes called the General Allotment Act, the Dawes Act divided reservation land into individual plots assigned to Native Americans, while "surplus" land was sold to white settlers. The policy led to Native tribes losing roughly 90 million acres, about two-thirds of their remaining land.

Native Americans built democratic systems of governance

Indigenous nations, such as the Muscogee, a confederacy of towns in the present-day Southeast, practiced participatory governance centered on communal decision-making and the consent of the governed.

One Native leader tried to save his people's land by building a nation

As the US pushed westward in the 19th century, one leader of the Ojibwe people fought back not with arms but with politics, seeking to preserve his people's territory and way of life by building a formal Native nation capable of negotiating on equal footing with the US government.

How the Navajo nation works

Tribal reservations control over 89,000 square miles of land in the US, roughly 2.5% of all US land. While individual tribes are recognized as sovereigns, they are not viewed as countries by the US government. Learn how the Navajo nation in...

A 1990 law forced museums and federal agencies to return Native remains and sacred objects

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act required federally funded institutions to inventory and return Native American human remains and sacred items to descendant tribes.

Native American tribes still are waiting for museums to return the remains of their ancestors

The remains of more than 100,000 Native Americans are held by prestigious US institutions, despite a 1990 law meant to return them to tribal nations. Here’s how their ancestors were stolen—and how tribes are working to get them back.

A 1975 law let tribes run their own programs instead of relying on federal bureaucracies

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act allowed tribes to contract directly with the federal government to administer their own health, education, and social services—reversing policies from the "termination era."

Tribal casinos have generated billions in revenue

After Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988, granting tribes the legal right to operate casinos on reservation land, tribal gaming expanded dramatically. Today, tribal gaming ranks among the largest revenue sources for participating tribes.

Cases during John Marshall's tenure defined the principles of federal Indian law

During Marshall's tenure, three landmark rulings—Johnson v. M'Intosh, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, and Worcester v. Georgia—established foundational doctrines of federal Indian law, defining tribal sovereignty, limiting state authority, and placing primary responsibility for Native affairs in the federal government.

The Trail of Tears killed thousands of Native Americans forced from their homelands

After the Indian Removal Act passed, the US Army marched the Cherokee and other nations hundreds of miles to the designated "Indian Territory" in present-day Oklahoma. Thousands died from starvation and disease along the way.

This American Life explored Ohio's gerrymandering battle

In 2022, Ohio lawmakers repeatedly drew congressional districts that the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. This defiance violated a voter-approved reform intended to prohibit partisan gerrymandering.

Employment Division v. Smith (1990) reaffirmed the Reynolds decision that the law applies to everyone, regardless of faith

The Supreme Court ruled that the government does not have to grant religious exemptions from laws that apply to everyone. The case involved Native American church members fired for using peyote in a religious ceremony.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans

Signed by President Andrew Jackson, the act authorized the federal government to negotiate treaties relocating Native nations from their Southeastern homelands to lands west of the Mississippi, often by force.

Can courts end partisan gerrymandering?

This podcast explored whether courts can rein in partisan map-drawing, focusing on North Carolina's 2023 redistricting battle, the Moore v. Harper case, and the controversial "independent state legislature" theory.

Native religious practices were suppressed for centuries before receiving federal protection in 1978

During the first two centuries of American history, the government frequently banned Native ceremonial dances, took sacred sites, and enrolled children in boarding schools where they were prevented from practicing their faith. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 committed the federal government to safeguarding Native spiritual practices.

A 2013 Supreme Court case weakened federal oversight of redistricting

In Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act's preclearance formula, reducing federal oversight of voting laws—including redistricting—and allowing changes to take effect without prior approval.

Gibbons v. Ogden expanded federal power over interstate commerce

In 1824, the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated a New York steamboat monopoly, ruling that navigation between states constitutes interstate commerce. Chief Justice John Marshall held that Congress has authority over such commerce and that conflicting state laws are void under the supremacy clause.

The creation of the parks often involved displacing Native tribes

Early parks like Yellowstone, Glacier, and Yosemite involved the removal of tribal communities like the Shoshone, Crow, and Nez Percé, undermining the popular narrative that parks preserved an uninhabited wilderness.

The Red Power movement pushed back against poverty and broken treaty rights in the 1960s and 1970s

Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Indigenous activists founded the American Indian Movement, a national advocacy organization, to protest excessive police violence and federal violations of treaty rights, drawing national attention to conditions on reservations.

An 1873 Supreme Court case about slaughterhouses weakened parts of the 14th Amendment

In 1873, the Supreme Court's Slaughterhouse Cases ruled that the 14th Amendment's "privileges or immunities" clause protected only federal—not state—citizenship rights, greatly limiting the amendment's power to safeguard enslaved people from state discrimination.

True crime content can influence the justice system

The 2014 podcast "Serial" inspired national doubt about the outcome and quality of a 1999 Baltimore murder case, resulting in overturned convictions (that were then reinstated). The series "In the Dark," whose second season pored over the murder trials of a Black Mississippi man, revealed crucial testimony was recanted, provided evidence of racial discrimination in jury selection, and was cited in case filings.

An adultery and poisoning case examined whether federal treaty power supersedes state law

This Radiolab podcast unpacks Bond v. United States, where a local love-triangle assault became a federal case under an international treaty—forcing the Supreme Court to confront a founding question: How far can federal power reach into crimes traditionally handled by the states?

Native Americans were not granted US citizenship until 1924

The Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the US, more than 130 years after the Constitution's ratification. Even then, some states continued to deny Native Americans the right to vote for decades.

The Supreme Court has never definitively settled federal war powers

Despite more than two centuries of conflict over war powers, the Supreme Court has consistently avoided defining the precise boundary between congressional and executive authority, leaving that boundary to be contested by the political branches.

Courts have blocked the Trump administration's 2025 executive order limiting birthright citizenship

In June 2025, the Supreme Court declined to rule on the constitutionality of the order. Since then, two federal appellate courts have found the order unconstitutional, halting its enforcement nationwide.

The Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not granted to the federal government to the states or the people

Any powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or to the people. It has been cited in legal battles over healthcare, marijuana, and environmental regulation.

Experts believe a Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship is likely in 2026

In September 2025, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to review lower court rulings striking down its executive order on birthright citizenship. If the court takes the case, a decision is expected by mid-2026.

A tense standoff with the Teton Sioux nearly ended the expedition

In 1804, the Teton Sioux seized a Corps of Discovery boat during a Missouri River meeting, sparking a dangerous standoff. The conflict eased only after careful diplomacy.

Pontiac's Rebellion prompted Britain to draw a line between colonists and Native lands in 1763

After the French and Indian War, a coalition of Indigenous nations—led by Odawa leader Pontiac—launched a major uprising against British forts. In response, Britain issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which reserved lands west of the Appalachian Mountains for Native peoples.

All states did not require a unanimous jury verdict to convict until a 2020 Supreme Court case

In Ramos v. Louisiana, the court ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous jury verdicts to convict in criminal cases, overturning laws in Louisiana and Oregon that had allowed convictions with only 10 of 12 jurors in agreement.

The Supreme Court limited federal judges' power to issue nationwide injunctions in 2025

In a 2025 decision arising from litigation over a presidential order on birthright citizenship, the Supreme Court held that individual federal judges may not nationwide block executive policies—curbing the use of sweeping injunctions and reshaping how constitutional challenges proceed through the courts.

The 10th Amendment affirms that most undelegated powers remain with the states

Adopted to reassure skeptics of an overly powerful federal government, the amendment was meant to curb federal overreach and preserve state control over most everyday governance decisions.

The 1948 Supreme Court ruling was overturned in 2020

In 2020, US District Court Judge Analisa Torres overturned the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that broke up the studio system—effectively allowing the film industry to become vertically integrated once again—with companies like Amazon and Disney taking advantage of the relaxed regulations.

The Standing Rock Sioux led a nationwide protest movement against an oil pipeline crossing their land

Beginning in 2016, thousands gathered at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to block a crude oil pipeline that would run beneath Lake Oahe, the tribe's source of drinking water, and through a Sioux burial ground. The Obama administration halted construction, but Trump revived it weeks after taking office.

The Iroquois Confederacy's political structure may have shaped the US Constitution

Centuries before the US existed, six Indigenous nations—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora—united under a shared constitution known as the Great Law of Peace. Some historians argue that the framework of federalism and representative councils influenced the American founders.

The EPA works directly with Indigenous nations to protect native lands

Through the National EPA-Tribal Science Council, the agency works directly with federally recognized tribes, supporting air and water monitoring, pollution cleanup, and environmental restoration. Special grant programs also exist to enable tribes to develop their own environmental programs and enhance their technical capacity.

'All My Relations' is a podcast by 2 Native women exploring what it means to be Indigenous today

Hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Temryss Lane (Lummi Nation), the show explores topics ranging from sovereignty and identity to food, fashion, and climate justice from a personal Indigenous lens.

Tribal lenders have charged up to 600% APR on short-term loans

Some Native American tribes use their exemption from state legislation to bypass regulations on usury laws. Similar to payday lending, some tribal lenders have charged up to 600% APR on short-term loans.

The US government ran boarding schools designed to erase Native American identity

From the late 19th century into the 20th century, the federal government sent Native children to boarding schools under the philosophy of "kill the Indian, save the man." Children were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures, and many endured abuse.

Uncovering corruption in rural Mississippi

In 1997, Curtis Flowers was convicted of murdering four furniture store employees. The Black Mississippi native was tried in the 1996 crime six times over 21 years, during which he maintained his innocence and continued to appeal his case. This is the first episode in a 2018 investigative podcast series that heavily contributed to Flowers' conviction being overturned and all charges dropped.

A court designed to be the least powerful branch of government became one of the most influential institutions in America.

The US Army massacred close to 300 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in 1890

Fearing the Ghost Dance—a spiritual movement spreading across starving reservations—the Army surrounded a Lakota encampment at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. When a shot was fired during an attempted disarmament, it sparked chaos, and soldiers killed nearly 300 people.

A Mississippi man was tried six times for the same crime, each time before an all-white or nearly all-white jury

This podcast investigates how prosecutor Doug Evans systematically struck Black jurors across decades of cases. The team built a database of every jury strike Evans made over 20 years, uncovering a racial pattern that was later cited by the Supreme Court when it overturned Curtis Flowers' conviction in 2019.

The 2025-26 Supreme Court docket is poised to reshape presidential power

As the Supreme Court begins a new term, several major cases could define the scope of presidential authority. The court may rule on President Trump's efforts to control state National Guard units, fire independent officials, impose tariffs, and cut congressionally mandated federal spending.

The Dred Scott decision denied citizenship to people of African descent

In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black Americans could not be US citizens. The decision heightened an already brewing conflict and became a key factor in pushing the nation toward civil war.