ABSTRACT
On August 13, 2010, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg offered advice to the New York state governor, David Paterson, on how to collect state excise taxes on cigarettes sold to non-Indians on Indian reservations. In response to the impending attempt at cigarette tax enforcement as well as fairly unveiled threats such as the one earlier, Native peoples around New York state engaged in protests and demonstrations, initiated lawsuits, and began to prepare for another battle in what had already been a very lengthy conflict. In New York state, the ongoing conflict was severe enough in the mid-1990s to result in protest, a blockade of the New York State Thruway, violent clashes with police, and years of heavy trooper presence on reservations. Native nations have a particular place in federal intergovernmental relations because of their sovereign status as nations. The nation-to-nation relationship between Native nations and the federal government is due to the sovereign status of Native nations.
