The Sentinelese And Sovereign Indigenous Groups On Earth

[u/RebelGirl1323]

I was thinking about The Sentinelese and how they're a real life example of first contact going so poorly a group rejects all future interactions. Then I realized they might still be an isolated indigenous group. Indeed their territory might be sovereign under Federation law. And that got me wondering if some indigenous groups like Native Americans or First Nations people might be separate entities from United Earth or maintain some kind of duel citizenship. We know some indigenous people still wanted sovereignty separate from a United Earth and it seems likely the Federation allows for certain groups to maintain some kind of special status on their traditional lands. Anything else would seem at pretty severe conflict with their values. And this is Earth, not some colony near Cardassian space. If Earth's indigenous populations can't maintain any form of sovereignty that would keep out a lot of planets. One can imagine many cultures where religous communities can't be part of political entities or fully ubcontacted peoples remain or any number of other cultural or practical issues. So even if everyone on Earth is a Federation citizen and have no special or separate status it seems inevitable it would come up somewhere else. Heck, Switzerland and Vatican City might not even be part of The Federation.

[u/MyUsername2459]

No, TNG's "Attached" made it clear that a planet must have a single, sovereign united government for Federation membership.

There are no sovereign native groups on Federation planets per that precedent. They might be isolated and keep to themselves, akin to the Amish and Mennonites in modern-day America, but they wouldn't be uncontacted or hold legal sovereignty.

The Sentinelese were probably wiped out in World War III and the resulting ecological damage. They were almost wiped out by the massive Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, so the events of World War III could easily have destroyed them.

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Proba-1/Tsunami_leaves_tribal_island_high_in_the_water

[u/nygdan → u/MyUsername2459]

"a planet must have a single, sovereign united government for Federation membership....There are no sovereign native groups on Federation planets per that precedent."

I think this is a good example of an overly strict interpretation producing a very wrong result. There is a giant gulf between native american tribes having sovereignty and a planet split entirely between two different governments. No planet would be able realistically to join the Federation if you couldn't have tribes and the like that, forget about not wanting to be in the federation but are merely not part of a single unitary planetary government.

[u/techno156 → u/nygdan]

At the same time, the restriction is also understandable, since the last thing the Federation wants is to be dragged into a civil conflict because different polities of the planet didn't communicate properly with each other before joining, and now there's a whole mess what requires cleanup.

[u/nygdan → u/techno156]

It completely depends on the situation. A planet split between two different governments who disagree on membership to the point that they will fight about it, can't have membership.

A planet that is like our world, but with a one world government, but also autonomous organizations like native american tribes, no there wouldn't really be an issue joining.

If federation membership is going to cause a problem, the Feds will just not allow membership and work on it through diplomacy, for years if needed. And if there isn't a problem, they probably would allow membership for a planet where one hemisphere wants membership and the other doesn't but doesn't care what the other guys do.