Present Bush makes understanding tribal sovereignty easy . . . uh, well . . .

Thank goodness Jesse Jackson can explain what he said !

Sneak peak: At a Journalists of Color conference in Washington, D.C., in 2004, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Page Editor Mark Trahant, a Shoshone-Bannock Indian, asked President Bush his views on what tribal sovereignty meant.

Question: What do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century, and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal and the state governments?

President Bush: Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. You're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.