ABSTRACT
"Tribe" among the North American Indians originally meant a body of persons bound together by blood ties who were socially, politically, and religiously organized, and who lived together, occupying a definite territory and speaking a common language or dialect. There are full-blooded Indians that are fully acculturated to the dominant society and no longer operate in a tribal group. In contrast, there are persons with but a trace of Indian blood who are in every sense culturally Indian. Tribal purity is also diminishing due to the increasing frequency of intermarriage between members of different tribes. Indian reservations were originally areas of land with specific boundaries for Indian use. They were created through treaties, congressional acts, executive orders, and agreements. Tribal governments have authority over tribal members, other Indian residents, and for some types of civil cases, non-Indians, the area of tribal government jurisdiction is generally the land that lies within the exterior boundary of a reservation.
