Jack of Harts

The new Second Great Depression-era Constitution allowed local areas to formally leave the States they were part of to form their own States. They would need Federal recognition, which generally came swiftly if they had a large enough population base. The Indian Tribes of the time did not have enough population to match the requirements, in individual terms. They were certainly large enough as a whole, though, and the Indian Nations quickly joined the America Federal government as a non-contiguous Nation State with small enclaves all over America. Many have become States in their own right as their populations increased in the centuries that followed, and The Indian Nations command immense wealth and power in Jack’s day. They are certainly one of the great “State alliances” of the time, even if they never use the term State in their own internal documentation. They are Nations, and proud of it. They are simply allied with other nations to promote the common security of all.

Various Indian Tribes all over America became functionally independent during the Second Great Depression. They had long inhabited an odd grey area in the law where they were considered sovereign nations while being controlled by the Federal government. The loss of Federal cohesion resulted in the better run Indian Tribes stepping outside that grey area and taking effective control of their destiny. Most of these had successful casinos or other Indian-owned businesses that allowed them to hire tribal police forces and exert order in their sphere’s of influence. Those sphere’s often went outside their official borders, and resulted in some interesting political quandaries when the various States reformed the Federal government. Most of them were solved without bloodshed.

The Second Great Depression and the reformed Federal government saw many States making official what circumstances on the ground had already made clear. It took very little time for Minnesota to eject the Twin Cities from the State entirely. Most Minnesotans outside the Metro area disliked that hive of scum and villainy, and were perfectly happy to see it go away. New York did the same with what is known as Old New York City in Jack’s time. They did not eject the rest of Long Island, but the Long Islanders chose to join Old New York City in forming the new Empire State. Chicago. San Francisco. Detroit. Numerous big cities surrounded by rural regions suddenly found themselves utterly ignored by the counties they used to order around. But make no mistake. They were still major population centers, with high concentrations of industrial and economic power. A nation cannot survive without rural areas. It also cannot survive without cities. There will always be friction between them. In most cases, the cities were almost immediately accepted as States of their own, with their own Senators that they didn’t have to share with the local yokels. There were protestw and court cases that went on for years over the issue of State divorces like that, but most of them ended without too many firearms used against the other side.