Thomas Jensen’s article in ICT (available here) identifying a possible “silver lining for tribal sovereignty” in the context of shrinking federal and state budgets seems, on first glance, to be counterintuitive, but the thinking is dead-on.
All around Michigan, anyway, tribes and local governments have become more and more interconnected and interdependent. Since 1993, when the first Class III compacts came into being, and where the tribes agreed to share two percent of their net win the local units of government, local governments have grown used to (and even dependent upon) tribal revenue sharing. The two percent payments fill needs in local government budgets, and generate more and more cooperation between governments.
Similarly, and on a broader scale, the settlement of a major reservation boundaries case at Saginaw Chippewa has provided models on how tribes and local governments can cooperate on everything from tax collection to hot pursuits to environmental protection.
The theme for the 21st century in Indian country should be about exercising good governance (in Angela Riley’s words), or Native Nation building or just plain intergovernmental cooperation. Local governments need Indian country, and vice versa.
Jensen’s point is well taken. State and local governments are losing the capacity to govern. Tribal capacity to govern is growing. Helping local (and even state) governments fill needs is an important way to help tribes grow into mature sovereigns.
Turtle Talk 
In Oklahoma, the Osage Nation has plans to take over a state park that the state was going to abandon. I hope the Osage’s plans work out. It’s an absolutely beautiful state park.
http://www.osagenews.org/article/osage-nation-announces-plans-assume-control-wah-sha-she-state-park?page=5
Spot on Matt.
I believe the successes of tribal gov’ts should be attributed to the native principles that tribes still retain, and not to the governance models of city and county and even state governments. Unwritten laws and principles that are passed on from generation to generation that show up in tribal governance models are whats being followed. The idea of “sharing-the-deer” is not a non-Indian logic taught in the study of good governance, but Tribe’s are using not that they have the chance, and on their own terms.
correction to previous comment: “but Tribe’s are using NOW that they have the chance,”…
It’s a good analysis of the growing role of intergovernmental cooperation and the effect of shrinking state and local budgets. However I’m not sure that shrinking federal budgets are going to help tribes, especially those tribes that do not have significant revenue from gaming or natural resources. Particularly in areas like law enforcement and transportation, it is the federal dollars that build tribal capacity and create the possibility of tribal-state partnerships.