Federal Recognition
 

Such a relationship or federal recognition by the U.S. implies responsibilities to Native Americans in exchange for their land and ways of life that were given up when treaties were signed.  The U.S. also acknowledges certain rights of self-government that were not given up by the Native Americans when a foreign government, the U.S., was established on North American soil.
Throughout the 19th Century and much of the 20th Century, the Wabanaki People of Maine were considered "state Indians", because they had never signed any treaties with the federal government.  As a result of legal action brought by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, they finally received federal recognition during the late 1970s. 

This victory of federal recognition would once have been considered a defeat.  It was not the aim of Wabanaki diplomacy in the 17th and 18th centuries to become a ward of the United States (a domestic dependent nation), but to continue to exercise complete sovereignty.

Federal recognition of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Indian Nation meant that the reservations fell under federal law and not state law, and that both groups could begin to exercise some of the rights that the State of Maine had never recognized, e.g., the right to have their own court systems.  There were other rights, too, such as control and regulation of hunting and fishing on the reservation, jurisdiction over foster care for Passamaquoddy and Penobscot children, and the right to establish air quality standards on the reservations that would be upheld by surrounding towns.  It also meant that they were entitled to health services and other federal programs for Native Americans.