Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 154

524US1

Unit: $U77

[09-06-00 18:33:45] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 103 (1998)

109

Opinion of the Court

In 1992, we held in County of Yakima v. Confederated
Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, supra, that a county
could assess ad valorem taxes on reservation land owned in
fee by individual Indians or the tribe and originally made
alienable when patented in fee simple under the GAA.

In 1993, Cass County began assessing ad valorem taxes on
21 parcels of reservation land that had been alienated from
tribal control under the various provisions of the Nelson Act
and later reacquired by the Leech Lake Band. Thirteen of
the parcels had been allotted to individual Indians under § 3;
seven had been sold to non-Indians as pine lands under §§ 4
and 5 for commercial timber harvest; and one parcel had
been distributed to a non-Indian under § 6 as a homestead
plot. Under protest and to avoid foreclosure, the Leech
Lake Band paid more than $64,000 in taxes, interest, and
penalties.

In 1995, the Band ﬁled suit in federal court seeking a de-
claratory judgment that Cass County could not tax the 21
parcels.1 The District Court granted summary judgment in
favor of Cass County, holding that all of the land that had
been alienated from tribal ownership under the Nelson Act
was taxable.
908 F. Supp. 689 (Minn. 1995). The District
Court interpreted our decision in Yakima to mean that “if
Congress has made Indian land freely alienable, states may
908
tax the land”—that is, “alienability equals taxability.”
F. Supp., at 693.

A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Eighth Circuit afﬁrmed in part and reversed in part.
108 F. 3d 820 (1997). Noting that Yakima reafﬁrmed prior
statements by this Court indicating that Congress must
make “unmistakably clear” its intent to subject reservation
lands to state or local taxation, 108 F. 3d, at 826, the panel

1 Also in 1995, the Band successfully applied, pursuant to § 465 of the
Indian Reorganization Act, 25 U. S. C. § 465, to restore 11 of the parcels
to federal trust status. See infra, at 114–115; App. to Pet. for Cert. 56;
Tr. of Oral Arg. 9.