"We Can do What We Want to," Wrong!

In the ongoing controversy between tribal government and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Principal Chief Michell Hicks has made the suggestion that the organization be banned from tribal land. I of course oppose such a proposal because I support freedom of speech, and such a ban is a blatant violation of not only PETA's civil rights, but the civil rights of those tribal members who may choose to associate with PETA.
What caught my eye was this statement made by Incumbent Cherokee County/Snowbird Tribal Council Rep. Angie Kephart to Smoky Mountain News, and it was this mentality that inspired me to run in the first place.
“This is the tribe. We are a sovereign nation. We can do what we want to.”
Actually, no "we" can't. Here's a refresher.
"No Indian tribe in exercising powers of self-government shall - make or enforce any law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition for a redress of grievances." 25 U.S. Code Section 1302.
This is federal law, created by the Indian Civil Rights Act. And while there are some, Kephart included, who've argued that a select group of tribal officials' interpretation of tribal sovereignty should trump federal law, tribal government itself, through a Council resolution ratified by the principal chief, recognizes the Indian Civil Rights Act. That means that federal law protecting freedom of expression is also tribal law protecting freedom of expression.
When we talk about the tribe being a sovereign, its elected leaders need to realize that it's not the government who is sovereign, it's the constituents. And as much as some tribal leaders may scoff as such a notion, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians members are American citizens.
The chief and Tribal Council have every right to call Bob Barker and PETA full of crap or whatever response they may have to what PETA is alleging. They have every right to condemn their calls for a boycott of Cherokee, but they do not have a right to pass any legislation or order that tramples upon First Amendment rights, and they certainly cannot do "what they want to." To do so profanes what men like Charles George gave their lives to protect.