Topeka ? A federal judge’s decision affirming the right of Kansas’ largest Indian tribe to issue its own license plates is an important reinforcement of Indian sovereignty, a tribal official said Thursday.

In a 41-page ruling issued late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson permanently barred the state from imposing its vehicle registration laws on the Prairie Band Potawatomi.

The tribe sued the Kansas Department of Revenue in September 1999 after a member was ticketed on a state highway in a vehicle with a Potawatomi plate. The plate has black numbers on a yellow background with the tribe’s logo of a multicolored shield. At the top is “Prairie Band” and the bottom “Potawatomi.”

Gary Mitchell, the tribe’s vice chairman, called the judge’s ruling “an important victory supporting the inherent sovereign authority of Indian tribes in Kansas and everywhere.”

“It’s unfortunate it has taken nearly four years of litigation to have these federal rights recognized by the state of Kansas,” he said.

The Tribal Council has not decided when its motor vehicle division will make license plates available for tribal government vehicles and tribal members living on the 121-square-mile reservation.

Kansas Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon, who took office in January, said Thursday that she was reviewing the judge’s decision and that no decision had been made on whether to appeal it.