Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-429_8o6a.pdf
Page Number: 44

16 

OKLAHOMA v. CASTRO-HUERTA 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

and most recently reenacted in 1948.  The GCA provides: 

“Except  as  otherwise  expressly  provided  by  law,  the
general laws of the United States as to the punishment 
of offenses committed in any place within the sole and ex-
clusive jurisdiction of the United States, except the Dis-
trict of Columbia, shall extend to Indian Country. 

This section shall not extend to offenses committed by
one Indian against the person or property of another In-
dian, nor to any Indian committing any offense in the In-
dian country who has been punished by the local law of 
the tribe, or to any case where, by treaty stipulations, the 
exclusive jurisdiction over such offenses is or may be se-
cured  to  the  Indian  tribes  respectively.”  18  U. S. C. 
§ 1152. 

As recounted above, Congress adopted the GCA in the af-
termath of Worcester’s holding that the federal government
alone may regulate tribal affairs and States do not possess
inherent  authority  to  apply  their  criminal  laws  on  tribal
lands.  Responding to that decision, Congress did not choose 
to exercise its authority to allow state jurisdiction on tribal 
lands.  Far from it.  Congress chose only to extend federal 
law to tribal lands—and even then only for certain crimes 
involving non-Indian settlers.  Otherwise, Congress recog-
nized, those settlers might be subject to tribal criminal ju-
risdiction alone.  See Part I–B, supra.  Several features of 
the law confirm this understanding.  Take just three. 

First,  the  GCA  compares  “Indian  country”  to  “place[s] 
within  the  sole  and  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States.”  § 1152.  The latter category refers to federal en-
claves like national parks and military bases that the Con-
stitution places under exclusive federal control.  See Art. I, 
§ 8,  cl.  17; United  States  v.  Cowboy,  694  F. 2d  1228,  1234 
(CA10 1982); see also Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U. S. 556, 567