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As baddog wisely posted in an earlier reply, let me preface this by saying that I'm not a lawyer, and this certainly doesn't represent legal advice.
That said, I believe the answer to this question is relatively simple, and lies in something called the "The Congressional Plenary Power Doctrine", which limits the extent of American Indian tribal sovereignty.
In a nutshell, the Doctrine states that Congress has plenary power (plenary essentially means "unlimited") over sovereign nations that exist within the borders of the United States.
In other words, should Congress decide that they want to the various US tribes to be required to follow a given law or set of regulations, they can force compliance upon the tribes under the terms of the Doctrine.
Now, it's not *quite* as cut and dry as that, because there are areas of overlap with the Indian Civil Rights Act, and the Indian Reorganization Act. As a practical matter, however, the tribes essentially get as much sovereignty as the US Congress allows them to have. It's a very curious application of the term "sovereignty", indeed.
- Q.
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