Federally recognized Indian tribes are “ward” states that, by treaty and statute recieve federal funds, but they are owed a lot more for funds that have supposedly been kept in trust (but like all gov’t money, doesn’t really exist).
But if you want to play hardball with money that already belongs to them, they can always make good on their promise to grow and sell pot, or lots of other projects. Unregulated abortion clinics comes to mind (a tribe in South Dakota once threatened this).
The history of America’s treatment of the Native American is not one where the Indians have had an advantage and have gotten one over on the US. The opposite is true.
Perhaps rather than growing dope, or opening casinos, they could create something that actually adds value to society