Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/524/103
Timestamp: 2014-04-17 22:00:25
Document Index: 669470186

Matched Legal Cases: ['§331', '§348', '§6', '§349', '§6', '§3', '§4', '§6']

CASS COUNTY v. LEECH LAKE BAND OF CHIPPEWAINDIANS | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews CASS COUNTY v. LEECH LAKE BAND OF CHIPPEWAINDIANS
CASS COUNTY, MINNESOTA, et al.
We granted certiorari in this case to resolve whether state and local governments may tax reservation land that was made alienable by Congress and sold to non-Indians by the Federal Government, but was later repurchased by a tribe. We hold that ad valorem taxes may be imposed upon such land because, under the test established by our precedents, Congress has made unmistakably clear its intent to allow such taxation.
During the late 19th century, the Federal Government changed its policy of setting aside reservation lands exclusively for Indian tribes under federal supervision. The new allotment policy removed significant portions of reservation land from tribal ownership and federal protection, allotting some parcels to individual Indians in fee simple and providing for other parcels to be sold to non-Indians. See County of Yakima
502 U. S. 251, 253254 (1992)
; F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law 127138 (1982). The purpose of the policy was to assimilate Indians into American society and to open reservation lands to ownership by non-Indians. Id., at 128.
Most of the allotments made by the Federal Government were implemented pursuant to the General Allotment Act of 1887 (GAA), 24Stat.
388, as amended, 25 U. S. C. §331
Section 5 of the GAA provided that parcels of tribal land would be patented to individual Indians and held in trust by the United States for a 25-year period, after which the Federal Government would convey title to the individual allottees
in fee, discharged of said trust and free of all charge or incumbrance whatsoever. . . . And if any conveyance shall be made of the lands set apart and allotted as herein provided, or any contract made touching the same, before the expiration of the time above mentioned, such conveyance or contract shall be absolutely null and void. . . . 25 U. S. C. §348.
Section 6 of the GAA, as originally enacted in 1887, provided that each and every member of the respective bands or tribes of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside. 24Stat.
388. In 1905, this Court interpreted §6 to mean that Indian allottees were subject to plenary state jurisdiction immediately upon issuance of the trust patent. See In re Heff,
197 U. S. 488 (1905)
Heff by passing the Burke Act, 34Stat.
182, 25 U. S. C. §349, which amended §6 of the GAA to provide that state jurisdiction did not attach until the end of the 25-year trust period, when the lands were conveyed to the Indians in fee. The Burke Act also contained a proviso to the effect that the Secretary of the Interior could, if satisfied that any Indian allottee is competent and capable of managing his or her affairs, authorize issuance of a fee simple patent to the land before the end of the usual trust period, and thereafter all restrictions as to sale, incumbrance, or taxation of said land shall be removed . . . . Ibid.
For the Leech Lake Band and other Chippewa tribes in Minnesota, the allotment policy was implemented through the Nelson Act of 1889. 25Stat.
642. The Nelson Act provided for the complete cession and relinquishment of tribal title to all reservation land in the state of Minnesota, except for parts of two reservations, to the United States. After such complete cession and relinquishment, which operate[d] as a complete extinguishment of Indian title, the lands were to be disposed of in one of three ways: under §3, the United States would allot parcels to individual tribe members as provided in the GAA; under §§4 and 5, so-called pine lands (surveyed 40-acre lots with standing or growing pine timber) were to be sold by the United States at public auction to the highest bidder; and under §6, the remainder of the reservation land (called agricultural lands) was to be sold by the United States to non-Indian settlers under the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862, 12