"The Iroquois Confederacy, having declared war on Germany in 1917, had never made peace and so automatically became party to World War II," what exactly does this mean? Were the Iroquois granted or hold some sort of recognized sovereignty capable of independently waging war?

by stufosta

the source of the quote is this recent TIL: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/5bmesj/til_that_so_many_american_indians_joined_the/

Did the Confederacy have a recognized authority by the US government to declare war on another country. And how did they commit to this war? Was it simply by enlisting in the US army? Were they then not capable of declaring war on a nation that the US is already at war with?

I am also why they declared war on Germany. Was it for the same reason as the US, the sinking of the Lusitania?

Maybe I am spending too much time on this.

repugnantcow

Law student here. Indian tribes are not the equivalent of foreign nations with the ability to declare war on other nations. Tribes are considered "domestic dependent nations," and being a "member" of a tribe is a political status similar to citizenship. The law flows from Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, a SCOTUS case from 1831. At a very basic level, their sovereign authority is similar to states in that they have authority to govern, but their authority is limited by the federal gov't. I say very basic, though, because tribes are restricted to an almost unimaginable degree compared to states.