Indian country

Indian country is a legal category describing land governed by the self governing Native American or American Indian communities of the United States, encompassing territory controlled by both federally recognized and state recognized tribes. It rests on the doctrine of tribal sovereignty, which treats Native American tribes as distinct, semi independent nations existing within the borders of the United States rather than as ordinary subdivisions of state or federal government. As a formal legal category, Indian country covers all land within the boundaries of an Indian reservation, all dependent Indian communities located within United States borders, and Indian allotments whose original Indian title has not been extinguished. Tribes that lost federal recognition through past termination policies, and have not since regained it, generally fall outside the legal protections the category provides. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/