Court Opinion

ID: 9431835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:33:18.201699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:30.463542
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
joined by Justice O’Connor, delivered an opinion announcing the judgment of the Court in No. 87-1622 and concurring in the judgment in Nos. 87-1697 and 87-1711.
The United States has granted to many Indian tribes, including the Yakima Nation — “a power unknown to any other sovereignty in this Nation: a power to exclude nonmembers entirely from territory reserved for the tribe.” Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 455 U. S. 130, 160 (1982) (Stevens, J., dissenting). That power necessarily must include the lesser power to regulate land use in the interest of protecting the tribal community. Thus, the proper resolution of these cases depends on the extent to which the Tribe’s virtually absolute power to exclude has been either diminished by federal statute or voluntarily surrendered by the Tribe itself. The facts of record, which are summarized in Justice White’s opinion, ante, at, 414-421, dictate a different answer as to the two tracts of land at issue.
I
Zoning is the process whereby a community defines its essential character. Whether driven by a concern for health and safety, esthetics, or other public values, zoning provides the mechanism by which the polity ensures that neighboring uses of land are not mutually — or more often unilaterally— destructive. As Justice Sutherland observed for the Court in the landmark case of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U. S. 365 (1926), the power to zone closely parallels the common law of nuisance and thus finds guidance in “the maxim *434sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas” — use your own property in such a manner as not to injure that of another. Id., at 387. Hence, a community reasonably might conclude that a factory has no place in an otherwise exclusively residential section or that an amusement park does not belong in an area devoted to quiet parks, libraries, and schools. As in nuisance law, the issue is ultimately one of whether the proposed land use is — “like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard” — “merely a right thing in the wrong place.” Id., at 388.
An Indian tribe’s power to exclude nonmembers from a defined geographical area obviously includes the lesser power to define the character of that area. In New Mexico v. Mes-calero Apache Tribe, 462 U. S. 324 (1983), a unanimous Court recognized that “[a] tribe’s power to exclude nonmembers entirely or to condition their presence on the reservation is ... well established.” Id., at 333. Likewise, in Merrion, the Court wrote:
“Nonmembers who lawfully enter tribal lands remain subject to the tribe’s power to exclude them. This power necessarily includes the lesser power to place conditions on entry, on continued presence, or on reservation conduct .... When a tribe grants a non-Indian the right to be on Indian land, the tribe agrees not to exercise its ultimate power to oust the non-Indian as long as the non-Indian complies with the initial conditions of entry. However, it does not follow that the lawful property right to be on Indian land also immunizes the non-Indian from the tribe’s exercise of its lesser-included power ... to place . . . conditions on the non-Indian’s conduct or continued presence on the reservation.” 455 U. S., at 144-145 (footnote omitted) (emphasis in original).
It is difficult to imagine a power that follows more forcefully from the power to exclude than the power to require *435that nonmembers, as a condition of entry, not disturb the traditional character of the reserved area.
At one time, the Yakima Nation’s power to exclude nonmembers from its reservation was near absolute. This power derived from two sources: The Tribe’s aboriginal sovereignty over vast reaches of land in the Pacific Northwest and the express provisions of its 1855 treaty with the United States. Even in the absence of a treaty provision expressly granting such authority, Indian tribes maintain the sovereign power of exclusion unless otherwise curtailed. See Worcester v. Georgia, 6 Pet. 515, 561 (1832); F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law 252 (1982) (hereinafter Cohen); 1 Op. Atty. Gen. 465, 465-467 (1821). As is the case with many tribes, see, e. g., Montana v. United States, 450 U. S. 544, 548 (1981); Puyallup Tribe, Inc. v. Washington Game Dept., 433 U. S. 165, 174 (1977), the Yakima Nation’s power to exclude was confirmed through an express treaty provision. Through the 1855 treaty, which was ratified by the Senate and proclaimed by President Buchanan in 1859, the Yakima Nation ceded to the United States millions of acres of land east of the main ridge of the Cascade Mountains in exchange for the guarantee that a defined area of approximately 1.3 million acres would be reserved from the ceded lands “for the use and occupation of the aforesaid confederated tribes and bands of Indians.” Treaty between the United States and the Yakima Nation of Indians, 12 Stat. 951-952. The treaty provided that the entire “tract shall be set apart. . . for the exclusive use and benefit of said confederated tribes and bands of Indians, as an Indian reservation,” and that no “white man, excepting those in the employment of the Indian Department, [shall] be permitted to reside upon said reservation without permission of the tribe and the superintendent and agent.” Id., at 952. Thus, as of 1859, the Tribe’s power to exclude was firmly established. The power to regulate land use ran parallel to the power to exclude. Just as the Tribe had authority to limit absolutely access to the reserva*436tion, so it could also limit access to persons whose activities would conform to the Tribe’s general plan for land use.
In 1887, however, the Indian General Allotment Act (Dawes Act), 24 Stat. 388, as amended, 25 U. S. C. §331 et seq., to some extent reworked fundamental notions of Indian sovereignty. Under the Dawes Act, the President was authorized to allot reservation lands in severalty to resident Indians. Allotted lands were held in trust for members of the Tribe for a period of at least 25 years, after which the members received fee patents and could freely transfer the land to nonmembers. “When all the lands had been allotted and the trusts expired, the reservation could be abolished.” Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S. 481, 496 (1973). See also Moe v. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, 425 U. S. 463, 478-479 (1976). In this manner, the Dawes Act was designed ultimately to abolish Indian reservations while attempting to bring “security and civilization to the Indian.” D. Otis, The Dawes Act and the Allotment of Indian Lands 32 (1973). But, not long after the Act took effect it became apparent that its beneficent purpose had failed, and, in 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act, 48 Stat. 984, repudiated the allotment policy. See Cohen 614. In the interim, however, large portions of reservation lands were conveyed to nonmembers such as petitioners Wilkinson and Brendale.1
The Dawes Act did not itself transfer any regulatory power from the Tribe to any state or local governmental authority. See Moe v. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, supra; Mattz v. Arnett, supra. Nonetheless, by providing for the allotment and ultimate alienation of reservation land, the Act in some respects diminished tribal authority. As we recognized in Montana v. United States, “treaty *437rights with respect to reservation lands must.be read in light of the subsequent alienation of those lands.” 450 U. S., at 561. A statute that authorizes the sale of a parcel of land in a reservation must implicitly grant the purchaser access to that property. In addition, to the extent that large portions of reservation land were sold in fee, such that the Tribe could no longer determine the essential character of the region by setting conditions on entry to those parcels, the Tribe’s legitimate interest in land-use regulation was also diminished. Although it is inconceivable that Congress would have intended that the sale of a few lots would divest the Tribe of the power to determine the character of the tribal community, it is equally improbable that Congress envisioned that the Tribe would retain its interest in regulating the use of vast ranges of land sold'in fee to nonmembers who lack any voice in setting tribal policy.
Since the Dawes Act provided that individual allotments would be held in trust by the United States for members of the Tribe for a period of at least 25 years, it is evident that the tribal authority over land use within the reservation remained undiminished during that period and at least until actual transfers of land to nonmembers began to occur. The record does not contain a chronology of conveyances of trust lands to nonmembers of the Tribe, but it does disclose the extent of fee ownership of reservation lands at the time these lawsuits began. Most significantly, it establishes that as early as 1954 the Tribe had divided its reservation into two parts, which the parties and the District Court consistently described as the “closed area” and the “open area,” and that it continues to maintain the closed area as a separate community. That division, which was made many years before either petitioner Brendale or petitioner Wilkinson acquired title to reservation land, is of critical importance and requires a different disposition of their respective cases.2
*438rH HH
Resolutions adopted by the Tribal Council of the Yakima Nation have created what is known officially as the “reservation restricted area,” and commonly referred to as the “closed area.” Relying on language in the 1855 treaty assuring the Tribe “exclusive use and benefit” of reservation lands, the Council in a 1954 resolution declared “that the open range and forested area of the Yakima Indian Reservation is to remain closed to the general public” to protect the area’s “grazing, forest, and wildlife resources.” Resolution of Yakima Tribal Council (Aug. 4, 1954) (emphasis supplied). Under the 1954 resolution, entry into this area was “restricted to enrolled members of the Yakima Tribe, official agency employees, persons with bona fide property or business interests,” close relatives of enrolled members, members of certain other Tribes, and certain permittees. Ibid. In addition, the resolution provided that “[e]ntry into closed areas is forbidden all persons while under the influence of liquor.” Ibid.
Although the closed area occupies about 807,000 acres, consisting of almost two-thirds of the entire reservation, only 25,000 acres are owned in fee. Yakima Indian Nation v. Whiteside, 617 F. Supp. 735, 741 (ED Wash. 1985). For the most part this area consists of forests, which provide the major source of income to the Tribe. Virtually all of the fee land is owned by lumber companies whose operations are subject to regulation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Ibid. Cf. White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U. S. 136 (1980). Excluding the land owned by these lumber companies, the remaining fee land constitutes less than one percent of the closed area. 617 F. Supp., at 741. There are no permanent inhabitants of the Yakima County portion of the closed area. Id., at 742. One state-maintained highway *439traverses a portion of the area, and several roads maintained by the BIA provide access to the closed area’s interior. Id., at 737-738. Apparently, however, the county does not maintain any roads in this portion of the reservation. Cf. Yakima Indian Nation v. Whiteside, 617 F. Supp. 750, 755 (ED Wash. 1985).
The Tribe operates a “courtesy permit system” that allows selected groups of visitors access to the closed area. In order to protect the area’s “‘natural foods, medicines,”’ and other natural resources, the activities of visitors “are limited to sightseeing, hiking, camping and tribal, BIA or family related business or activity.” 617 F. Supp., at 738. Visitors are expressly “prohibited from hunting, fishing, boating, drinking, operating vehicles off established roads, camping at other than designated campsites and removing flora, fauna, petrified wood, other valuable-rocks or minerals or artifacts.” Ibid. Tribal police and game officers enforce the courtesy permit system by monitoring ingress and egress at four guard stations and by patrolling the interior of the closed area. Ibid.
Until recently the BIA supported the Tribe’s policy of denying entry into the closed area by restricting use of BIA roads to members of the Tribe and a narrowly defined class of permittees. See ibid. In litigation with the Government, petitioner Brendale eventually succeeded in establishing a right of access to his own property over BIA roads. See Brendale v. Olney, No. C-78-145 (ED Wash., Mar. 3, 1981). Moreover, in 1988 the BIA ultimately decided to allow the public to use BIA roads because they had been constructed with public funds. See Letter from James S. Bergmann, Acting Assistant Secretary, Indian Affairs, of April 8, 1988, reprinted in App. to Brief for Petitioner in No. 87-1622, p. la. Contrary to the suggestion in Justice White’s opinion, see ante, at 415-416, n. 2, however, the fact that nonmembers may now drive on these roads does not change the basic character of the closed area or undermine the Tribe’s *440historic and consistent interest in preserving the pristine character of this vast, uninhabited portion of its reservation.
Petitioner Brendale’s property is located in the heart of this closed portion of the reservation. He inherited the property in 1972 from his mother, who had been an enrolled member of the Yakima Nation. In 1982, Brendale filed a proposal with the Yakima County zoning authorities for the development of a 20-acre subdivision consisting of 10 2-acre lots. BIA roads provide the only access to the property, the nearest county road being more than 20 miles away. The proposal contemplates the construction of recreational summer cabins, on-site sewage disposal systems, and interior access roads that would be maintained by a homeowners’ association. 617 P. Supp., at 741. The District Court found that the proposal would have a number of adverse environmental consequences and that the only interest that Yakima County possessed in overseeing the use of the Brendale property was that of “providing regulatory functions to its taxpaying citizens.” Id., at 741-743. The county did not appeal from the District Court’s decision holding that the Tribe has the exclusive authority to regulate land use in the closed area.3
*441Although the logging operations, the construction of BIA roads, and the transfer of ownership of a relatively insignificant amount of land in the closed area unquestionably has diminished the Tribe’s power to exclude non-Indians from that portion of its reservation, this does not justify the conclusion that the Tribe has surrendered its historic right to regulate land use in the restricted portion of the reservation. By maintaining the power to exclude nonmembers from entering all but a small portion of the closed area, the Tribe has preserved the power to define the essential character of that area. In fact, the Tribe has exercised this power, taking care that the closed area remains an undeveloped refuge of cultural and religious significance, a place where tribal members “may camp, hunt, fish, and gather roots and berries in the tradition of their culture.” Amended Zoning Regulations of the Yakima Indian Nation, Resolution No. 1-98-72, § 23 (1972), reprinted App. 64.
The question is then whether the Tribe has authority to prevent the few individuals who own portions of the closed area in fee from undermining its general plan to preserve the character of this unique resource by developing their isolated parcels without regard to an otherwise common scheme. More simply, the question is whether the owners of the small amount of fee land may bring a pig into the parlor. In my opinion, just as Congress could not possibly have intended in enacting the Dawes Act that tribes would maintain the power to exclude bona fide purchasers of reservation land from that property, it could not have intended that tribes would lose control over the character of their reservations upon the sale of a few, relatively small parcels of land. Neither proposition is explicit in the Dawes Act, yet both appear necessary to a reasonable operation of the allotment process. Cf. Seymour v. Superintendent of Washington State Penitentiary, 368 U. S. 351, 356 (1962) (allotment “did no more than open *442the way for non-Indian settlers to own land on the reservation in a manner which the Federal Government, acting as guardian and trustee for the Indians, regarded as beneficial to the development of its wards”); Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S., at 497 (same). In this sense, the Tribe’s power to zone is like an equitable servitude; the burden of complying with the Tribe’s zoning rules runs with the land without regard to how a particular estate is transferred. Cf. R. Cunningham, W. Stoebuck, & D. Whitman, Law of Property §§8.22-8.32, pp. 485-506 (1984) (hereinafter Cunningham). Indeed, there is strong authority for the proposition that equitable servi-tudes fall within the same family of property law as easements. See C. Clark, Real Covenants and Other Interests Which “Run with Land” 174-175 (1947); Pound, The Progress of the Law, 1918-1919, Equity, 33 Harv. L. Rev. 813 (1920). There is no basis for concluding that the allotted property carried the benefit of one type of “servitude” and not the burden of the other.
In the Merrion case, a majority of this Court went a step beyond this narrow recognition of reserved power. There, the Court held that a tribe’s power to impose an oil and gas severance tax on non-Indian lessees of reservation land can be derived from the power to exclude. 455 U. S., at 144-148. In reaching this conclusion, the Court rejected the lessee’s contention that in leasing the land to the non-Indians the Tribe relinquished the power to exclude and thus the lesser included power to tax. Id., at 146-148. It is not necessary to go this far, however, to decide the present case. Rather, it is enough to recognize that notwithstanding the transfer of a small percentage of allotted land the Tribe retains its legitimate interest in the preservation of the character of the reservation. The Tribe’s power to control the use of discrete, fee parcels of the land is simply incidental to its power to preserve the character of what remains almost entirely a region reserved for the exclusive benefit of the Tribe.
*443Nor does the Court’s decision in Montana v. United States, 450 U. S. 544 (1981), require a different result. First, the Montana case involved a discriminatory land-use regulation. Id., at 549. The Tribe’s regulation prohibited non-Indians from hunting or fishing on their own property while members of the Tribe were free to engage in those activities. In contrast, petitioners do not suggest that a member of the Tribe would be allowed to undertake the development Brendale proposes. It is Brendale who seeks a special, privileged status. Second, in the Montana case we were careful to point out that the conduct of the non-Indians on their fee lands posed no threat to the welfare of the Tribe. Id., at 566. In sharp contrast, in this case the District Court expressly found that Brendale’s
“planned development of recreational housing places critical assets of the Closed Area in jeopardy. . . . [0]f paramount concern to this court is the threat to the Closed Area’s cultural and spiritual values. To allow development in this unique and undeveloped area would drastically diminish those intangible values. That in turn would undoubtedly negatively affect the general health and welfare of the Yakima Nation and its members. This court must conclude therefore that the Yakima Nation may regulate the use that Brendale makes of his fee land within the Reservation’s Closed Area.” 617 F. Supp., at 744.
Finally, in holding in the Montana case that the Tribe could not regulate non-Indian fishing and hunting on fee land within the reservation, we stressed that the State of Montana, and not the Tribe, stocked the river with fish and provided a portion of the game found on the reservation. 450 U. S., at 548. In addition, we held that the State owned the bed of the Big Horn River and thus rejected the Tribe’s contention that it was entitled to regulate fishing and duck hunting in the river based on its purported ownership interest. *444Id., at 550, n. 1, 556-557. No such state or county interest is asserted in this case.
In my view, the fact that a very small proportion of the closed area is owned in fee does not deprive the Tribe of the right to ensure that this area maintains its unadulterated character. This is particularly so in a case such as this in which the zoning rule at issue is neutrally applied, is necessary to protect the welfare of the Tribe, and does not interfere with any significant state or county interest. Although application of the pre-emption analysis advocated by Justice White provides some assurance that the reservation will not be overrun by various uses inconsistent with important tribal interests, it does not provide a means by which the Tribe can continue to define the character of the restricted area. The incremental shifts in the texture and quality of the surrounding environment occasioned by discrete land-use decisions within an expansive territory are not readily monitored or regulated by considering “whether the uses that were actually authorized on [the relevant] property imperiled the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of the Tribe.” Ante, at 431.
I therefore agree with Justice Blackmun that the Tribe may zone the Brendale property. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is accordingly affirmed in No. 87-1622.
► — I I — I
The authority of the Tribe to enact and enforce zoning ordinances applicable in the open area — where petitioner Wilkinson’s property is located — requires a different analysis. Although the Tribe originally had the power to exclude non-Indians from the entire reservation, the “subsequent alienation” of about half of the property in the open area has produced an integrated community that is not economically or culturally delimited by reservation boundaries. Because the Tribe no longer has the power to exclude nonmembers from a large portion of this area, it also lacks the power to *445define the essential character of the territory. As a result, the Tribe’s interest in preventing inconsistent uses is dramatically curtailed. For this reason, I agree with Justice White that the Tribe lacks authority to regulate the use of Wilkinson’s property. So long as the land is not used in a manner that is pre-empted by federal law, the Tribe has no special claim to relief. It, of course, retains authority to regulate the use of trust land, and the county does not contend otherwise. See Brief for Petitioners in No. 87-1711, p. 12.
Unlike the closed area, the Tribe makes no attempt to control access to the open area. In this respect, the District Court found that “access to the area is not limited by the Yakima Nation and non-tribal members move freely throughout the area.” 617 F. Supp., at 752. The county has constructed and maintained 487 miles of road, all of which are equally accessible to reservation residents and the general public. App. to Pet. for Cert, in No. 87-1697, p. 87a. Although the Tribe has asserted that it has the authority to regulate land use in the three incorporated towns, it has never attempted to do so. In “sharp contrast to the pristine, wilderness-like character of the ‘Closed Area,’ ” the open area is marked by “residential and commercial development].” 617 F. Supp., at 752.
Members of the Yakima Nation represent less than 20 percent of the open area’s total population.4 Id., at 755. Indians and non-Indians alike are eligible to vote in county elections. Only enrolled members of the Tribe, however, are entitled to participate in tribal elections. 2 Tr. 167. Similarly, while the county provides police protection, public education, and other social services to both Indians and non-Indians, App. to Pet. for Cert, in No. 87-1697, p. 88a; 4 Tr. 546-547, government services provided by the Tribe— *446although theoretically available to all residents — are in practice generally used only by members of the Tribe. 2 Tr. 143-144. Furthermore, the District Court found that the county has a substantial interest in regulating land use in the open area — and in particular in protecting “the county’s valuable agricultural land” — and that the open area lacks “a unique religious or spiritual significance to the members of the Yakima Nation.” 617 F. Supp., at 755.
In contrast to the closed area, almost half of the land in the open area is owned in fee. Id., at 752. The majority of the fee land is located in three incorporated towns in the open area, where approximately 10,000 of the open area’s 25,000 residents live. Id., at 752, 755. The remaining portion of the open area, which includes approximately 143,000 acres of irrigated farm land, is largely devoted to agriculture. 3 Tr. 416. About 63,179 acres of this farm land are owned in fee by nonmembers. Id., at 422. Another 67,466 acres of this land are owned by the Yakima Nation or its members, but are leased to non-Indians. Ibid. Only 12,355 acres are farmed by tribal members. Petitioner “Wilkinson’s property is bordered to the north by trust land and to the east, south and west by fee land.” 617 F. Supp., at 754. The 40-acre lot overlooks the Yakima Municipal Airport and is composed of unfarmed, sagebrush land. Ibid,
Given that a large percentage of the land in the open area is owned in fee by nonmembers — and that an additional portion is leased to nonmembers — even if the Tribe had exercised its power to exclude nonmembers from trust land, it would have been unable thereby to establish the essential character of the region. In such circumstances, allowing a nonmember to use his or her land in a manner that might not be approved by the tribal council does not upset an otherwise coherent scheme of land use. The Tribe cannot complain that the nonmember seeks to bring a pig into the parlor, for, unlike the closed area, the Tribe no longer possesses the power to determine the basic character of the area. More*447over, it is unlikely that Congress intended to give the Tribe the power to determine the character of an area that is predominantly owned and populated by nonmembers, who represent 80 percent of the population yet lack a voice in tribal governance. Finally, to the extent the open area has lost its character as an exclusive tribal resource, and has become, as a practical matter, an integrated portion of the county, the Tribe has also lost any claim to an interest analogous to an equitable servitude. Under the “change of neighborhood” doctrine, an equitable servitude lapses when the restriction, as applied to “the general vicinity and not merely a few parcels,” has “become outmoded,” has “lost its usefulness,” or has become “‘inequitable’ to enforce.” Cunningham §8.20, pp. 482-483. See also Restatement of Property § 564 (1944). Because the open area no longer maintains the character of a unique tribal asset and because the Tribe accordingly lacks a substantial interest in governing land use, the power to zone has “become outmoded.”
I therefore agree with Justice White’s conclusion that the Tribe lacks authority to zone the Wilkinson property.
<1
My conclusion that the dramatically different facts of these two cases should produce different results is subject to the obvious criticism that it does not identify a bright-line rule. The primary responsibility for line-drawing, however, is vested in the legislature. Moreover, line-drawing is inherent in the continuum that exists between those reservations that still maintain their status as distinct social structures and those that have become integrated in other local polities. Any difficulty courts may encounter in drawing the line between “closed” and “open” portions of reservations simply reflects that the factual predicate to these cases is itself complicated. Indeed, Justice White’s rule does little to avoid the difficulty of drawing lines and making subtle distinctions. Just as it is neither possible nor appropriate in these cases to set *448a fixed percentage of fee ownership that will govern every case that may arise, so is it impossible to articulate precise rules that will govern whenever a tribe asserts that a land use approved by a county board is pre-empted by federal law. And although the rule that Justice Blackmun proposes would provide an obvious answer in most cases, he recognizes that “[i]t may be that on some reservations, including the Yakima Reservation, there are essentially self-contained, definable, areas in which non-Indian fee lands so predominate that the tribe has no significant interest in controlling land use.” Post, at 467, n. 9. Finally, it would be fundamentally unfair to deny appropriate relief to either party in these cases, which involves no difficulty in discerning the proper line, simply because a future case may be more difficult.
Accordingly, in No. 87-1622, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. I concur in the judgment in Nos. 87-1697 and 87-1711 reversing the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
The judgment in No. 87-1622 is

Affirmed.

 About 90 million acres of tribal land were alienated through allotment and sale of surplus lands by 1934, amounting to approximately two-thirds of the total land held by Indian tribes in 1887. See Cohen 614 (citing Office of Indian Affairs, Dept, of Interior, Indian Land Tenure, Economic Status, and Population Trends (1935)).

 The labels “closed area” and “open area” are, of course, irrelevant to my analysis. What is important is that the Tribe has maintained a defined *438area in which only a very small percentage of the land is held in fee and another defined area in which approximately half of the land is held in fee.

 Because the county did not appeal, we are not presented with the question whether the county might possess concurrent zoning jurisdiction over the closed area. The possibility that the county might have jurisdiction to prohibit certain land uses in the closed area does not suggest that the Tribe lacks similar authority. This sort of concurrent jurisdiction, if it does exist, is simply a product of the unique overlapping of governmental authority that characterizes much of our Indian-law jurisprudence. See, e. g., Cotton Petroleum Corp. v. New Mexico, 490 U. S. 163 (1989). Moreover, overlapping land-use regulations are not inherently suspect. The developer of land in the vicinity of an airport, for example, must comply with local zoning laws and federal limitations on the height of buildings that may obstruct air travel. Likewise, federal and state environmental protection requirements may be superimposed on county or tribal zoning ordinances. Although the potential for conflict between a county’s rules and a tribe’s rules is certainly substantial, it is neither inevitable nor incapable of resolution by a tolerant and cooperative approach to the prob*441lems that are generated by the continuing growth and complexity of our diverse society.

 According to the 1980 Census, the total population of the portion of the Yakima Reservation within Yakima County is 24,750, of whom 4,908 are Indians. U. S. Dept, of Commerce, Bureau of Census, 1980 Census of Population 49 — 460 (Table 192) (1983).