Steve Russell: What happens if federal Indian law collapses?

Federal Indian control law is a house of cards, built with one bad idea balanced upon another. It could collapse if a solid majority of the US Supreme Court ever heaved a frustrated sigh and gave it up as impossible to fix.

Then what?

Do Indian nations become social clubs revolving around historical grievances and genealogy?

Do Indian nations assert their free and independent status in the quickly becoming obsolete form of the nation-state with a modern Ghost Dance where the opposing weapon will no longer be bullets but more likely bemused tolerance?

Or do we plunge into a political war to define the role of tribal governments within a federal system that was left undefined in the Constitution because we were outside both the process and the authority? Understanding that the outcome will be hotly contested and therefore uncertain? And understanding that lots of people might get put in jail before it’s over?