Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Lead photo via NuWu Cannabis Marketplace
Less than four months into Nevada’s tenure as a haven for legal weed, relationships have already grown contentious between the state’s Native American tribes and the federal government.
With independent sovereignty on tribal lands and an approved piece of state legislature, SB 375, granting Nevada’s tribes a place in the cannabis industry, the state’s Native American population has a unique opportunity to create jobs and stability in their communities with the profits from legal weed.
But before any of Nevada’s 32 tribal reservations or colonies officially joined the green rush, the Paiute Tribe and their peers received some less than encouraging news from an official with the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. According to Laurie Thom, the council chair of the Yerington Paiute Tribe, the law enforcement liason essentially threatened a specific federal crackdown on tribal grounds if the Paiutes got into the weed game.
“[We] would enforce federal law on Nevada tribes, because the US Attorney General would provide the necessary warrants,” Thom recalled, quoting the federal official. “‘Don’t do it,’…
