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Texas "Yorimea" Band of Yaqui Indians, State Recognized Tribal Government

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Texas Band of Yaqui Indians Historical Origins, State Recognition

Texas Band of Yaqui Indians
Lamar University Texas Band of Yaqui Indians

Historical Continuity, State Recognition, and Transnational Indigenous Sovereignty

This article examines the legal and historical status of the Texas Yorimea Band of Yaqui Indians (Texas Band of Yaqui Indians, TBYI), a Yaqui state-recognized tribe whose ancestors fled 19th-century violence in Sonora and reconstituted in Texas. Drawing on archival documentation, the Nation’s Constitution, Texas legislative records, federal agency correspondence, and letters from traditional Yaqui pueblos in Sonora, it argues that TBYI is properly characterized as a state-recognized tribe under Texas law and as a transnational Indigenous polity recognized within the Yaqui Nation. Although not federally recognized, TBYI operates a functioning tribal government and tribal court whose orders have been honored by other U.S. courts and agencies. The Texas Governor’s Office, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, a member of Congress, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission all explicitly refer to TBYI as a “state recognized” tribe. Courts and policymakers should therefore treat TBYI as a state-recognized tribal government in all contexts where federal or state law recognizes or defers to state-recognized tribes, and should regard contrary characterizations by non-governmental sources as misconstruing “legal recognition” by equating it exclusively with federal acknowledgment.

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https://tamoanchan.space/?p=1925

Texas Band of Yaqui Indians

STATE RECOGNIZED TRIBAL GOVERNMENT

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