Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-543_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

distribution of ANC profits.  §1606(i).  ANCSA further en-
trusts  ANCs  to  “hold,  invest,  manage  and/or  distribute 
lands, property, funds, and other rights and assets for and 
on behalf ” of Alaska Natives, who are the ANCs’ sharehold-
ers,  as  well  as  to  distribute  dividends  to  them.  See 
§§1602(j), 1606(j).  Moreover, ANCs and their shareholders 
are “eligible for the benefits of ” ANCSA, §1606(d), precisely 
because of their status as Indians.  See §1626(e)(1) (“For all 
purposes of Federal law, a Native Corporation shall be con-
sidered  to  be  a  corporation  owned  and  controlled  by  Na-
tives”);  note  following  §1601,  p. 1136  (ANCSA  is  “ ‘Indian 
legislation enacted by Congress pursuant to its plenary au-
thority under the Constitution of the United States to reg-
ulate Indian affairs’ ”).

Respondents do not deny that the benefits of ANCSA are
“a” special program or service provided by the United States 
to Indians.  According to respondents, however, such bene-
fits are not “the” special programs and services provided to
Indians  (e.g.,  healthcare,  education,  and  other  social  ser-
vices provided by federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs and the Indian Health Service).  “The” special pro-
grams and services, respondents assert, are available only 
to federally recognized tribes (or, more precisely, to mem-
bers of such tribes).  In respondents’ view, ANCs are thus
“includ[ed]” in the “Indian tribe” definition’s Alaska clause 
only  to  be  excluded  en  masse  from  that  definition  by  the
recognized-as-eligible clause.

That would certainly be an odd result.  Fortunately, the 
text  does  not  produce  it.  ISDA’s  “Indian  tribe”  definition 
does  not  specify  the  particular  programs  and  services  an
entity  must  be  eligible  for  to  satisfy  the  recognized-as-
eligible clause.  Given that ANCSA is the only statute the 
“Indian tribe” definition mentions by name, the best read-
ing of the definition is that being eligible for ANCSA’s ben-
efits by itself satisfies the recognized-as-eligible clause.