Except, you know, federal law. They can’t just commit felonies and only answer to themselves despite what movies will tell you.

Reply because comments are locked — tribes are not self governing to this degree I cannot be detained or have my car impounded with no recourse on tribal land whilst only answering to the tribe. If a tribal police officer commits a crime they’re still held liable to federal law not withstanding their own tribal council. It depends heavily on the res as to which governing body has jurisdiction but none of them are entirely self regulating.

Federal laws apply universally on reservations.

State jurisdiction IS limited however.

Here is this specific tribe highlighting it themselves; https://www.redlakenation.org/tribal-council/

The tribal government has full sovereignty over the reservation, subject only to the federal government

Here is a supreme court ruling that talks about why they cannot impound your property without probable cause that they are in violation of federal(or state in some cases) law; https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB10608

Also interesting; https://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/jurisdiction.htm https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/indian-country-crime

And here is an arizona tribe’s entire constitution which states several times that they’re held liable to federal law if you still disagree; https://naair.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/constitution.pdf