Domestic includes Indigenous tribes and reservations

The word "domestic" means "pertaining, belonging, or relating to a home, a domicile, 159*159 or to the place of birth, origin, creation or transaction."[14] A government is "that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions."[15] So a domestic government would be a group within the lands of the United States that operates through some form of ruling principles. The main body of § 101(27)[16] embraces virtually every form of domestic government including, municipalities, States and their instrumentalities, and the federal government.[17] After examining the statute, the question remains: To what does the phrase following the semicolon "other . . . domestic government" refer? An important statutory maxim of interpretation requires a court to give operative effect to every word Congress used.[18] Because in § 101(27) all other forms of domestic government prior to the semicolon are enumerated, if the phrase following the semicolon is not read as referring to Indian tribes and other indigenous peoples, the phrase becomes meaningless. There are no other forms of domestic government that have not already been specified. Reading "other . . . domestic government" as referring to [Indigenous] Indian tribes is not without precedent. Historically, [Indigenous] Indian tribes have also been called "domestic dependent nations" by both the judiciary and the executive branch.[19] The Supreme Court has characterized [Indigenous] Indian tribes as "domestic dependent nations."