Issue Native American Rights

THE ISSUE: Current state policy does not grant equitable rights and obligations to American Indian populations; the state is either disenfranchising a sovereign people, or it is granting special privileges such as casino gambling to a particular class of American citizens based on racial criteria. The state makes no clear commitment to either scenario. Arizona citizens are unable to enforce contractual, property and other legal rights against American Indian tribes, on the basis of those tribes being sovereign nations and exempt from normal legal redress. Alternatively, tribes receive aid and privileges that they should not be receiving as a sovereign nation, but which they are granted as American minorities.

THE PRINCIPLE: Rights granted under the Constitution should be granted equally to all citizens, or if an individual is the citizen of a sovereign foreign nation, then that should be recognized along with the treatment appropriate to any citizen of any foreign nation.

LIBERTARIAN SOLUTIONS: The American Indian nations should be given back the land that was forcibly taken from them under the policies of "Manifest Destiny" and recognized as sovereign nations. Specific legal procedures and diplomatic relations must be recognized as with any foreign nation, and due process established by treaty.

LIBERTARIAN ACTION/TRANSITION: Casino gambling should be made legal for all Arizona citizens on Arizona state land. At the same time, the State of Arizona should have no authority whatsoever over Indian casinos. In particular, Proposition 202, which was passed in 2002, should be repealed since it is nothing more than a tax on a sovereign nation. But as sovereign Indian nations are being restored to full sovereignty, the financial aid to those nations must be decreased accordingly.