Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-543_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 41.0

10 

YELLEN v. CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF CHEHALIS 
RESERVATION 
GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

(11th  ed.  2005))).    It’s  undisputed  too  that,  while  ANSCA 
provided  certain  compensation  to  ANCs,  Congress  has 
never made those entities “eligible for the full range of fed-
eral services and benefits available to [recognized] Indian 
tribes.”  Brief for Federal Petitioner 48. 
  Rather than confront this last problem, the Court elides 
it.    In  its  opinion  “the  special  programs  and  services”  be-
comes “federal Indian programs and services,” ante, at 10, 
14.  Nor, even if one were to (re)interpret “the special pro-
grams”  as  “some  special  programs,”  is  it  clear  whether 
ANCSA qualifies.  See ante, at 10.  On what account is set-
tling a dispute over land title a “program” or “service”?  See 
43 U. S. C. §1626(a) (“The payments and grants authorized 
under  this  chapter  constitute  compensation  for  the  extin-
guishment  of  claims  to  land,  and  shall  not  be  deemed  to 
substitute for any governmental programs otherwise avail-
able  to  the  Native  people  of  Alaska”).    Beyond  even  that, 
ANCSA  extended  specific  compensation  to  ANCs—money 
and  title—in  exchange  for  settling  land  claims.    ANCSA 
provided ANCs nothing in the way of health, education, eco-
nomic,  and  social  services  of  the  sort  that  ISDA  allows 
tribes to contract with the federal government to provide. 
  The Court’s reply creates another anomaly too.  If receiv-
ing any federal money really is enough to satisfy the recog-
nition  clause,  many  other  Indian  groups  might  now  sud-
denly  qualify  as  tribes  under  the  CARES  Act,  ISDA,  and 
other  federal  statutes.    A  2012  GAO  study,  for  example, 
identified approximately 400 nonfederally recognized tribes 
in  the  lower  48  States,  of  which  26  had  recently  received 
direct funding from federal programs.  GAO, Indian Issues: 
Federal  Funding  for  Non-Federally  Recognized  Tribes 
(GAO–12–348, Apr. 2012).  This number does not include 
additional entities that may have received federal benefits 
in  the  form  of  loans,  procurement  contracts,  tax  expendi-
tures, or amounts received by individual members.  Id., at 
35.  And still other groups may have federal rights secured