The United States is actually governed by over 230 distinct constitutions, not just 50.
April 14, 2026
Original Paper
Indigenous Constitutionalism
SSRN · 6560178
The Takeaway
There is a massive, parallel legal architecture of Native nation constitutions that operates independently of the US federal system. This tradition of Indigenous constitutionalism has been largely erased from American history despite governing vast territories and populations.
From the abstract
By standard accounts, there are fifty-four constitutions across the federal, state, and territorial governments of the United States. But in fact, there are 230 other governmental constitutions that currently govern peoples and territories within the United States. These constitutions not only flow from a sovereignty that existed prior to the United States but also came out of a legal movement that asserted its independence from both the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions. <br><br>This Ar