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March 9, 2010
Some Clarification On Sovereignty
I've often wondered just where the lines were drawn on Native American sovereignty. I know, for example, that you can smoke in a casino, and they are exempt from state Workers Comp laws, but do you have to wear a seatbelt while driving on their roads? Here's a more important question: what if you are Native American, live on an Indian reservation and derive income from Indian gaming. Do you pay state income tax on that? The answer is a clear "maybe." Some people say no, but the Fourth District of the California Court of Appeals says yes, if the reservation you live on is of a different tribe than the one that provides the income.
The money in question in this case came from the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. I don't know exactly where their reservation boundaries are, but off the top of my head I would guess there aren't any developed residential properties in their reservation...except for the casino hotel, of course.
Filed under Coachella Valley | permalink | March 9, 2010 at 09:52 AM
