260
Opinion of the Court
is a dead letter, at least within the confines of an Indian reservation. The Tribe argues that, by terminating the allotment program and restoring tribal integrity through the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, Congress impliedly repealed § 6's jurisdictional grant and returned the law to its pre-General Allotment Act foundations. Congress' subsequent actions, according to the Tribe, confirm this implication. In 1948, for instance, Congress defined "Indian country" to include all fee land within the boundaries of an existing reservation, whether or not held by an Indian, and pre-empted state criminal laws within "Indian country" insofar as offenses by and against Indians were concerned. See Act of June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 757-758, as amended, 18 U. S. C. §§ 1151-1153; Seymour v. Superintendent of Washington State Penitentiary, 368 U. S. 351 (1962). And in 1953, Congress once again signaled its belief in the dormition of § 6 by enacting Pub. L. 280, which authorized States to assume criminal and civil jurisdiction over Indians within Indian country in certain circumstances. See Act of Aug. 15, 1953, 67 Stat. 588. Though generally in agreement with the Tribe, the United States takes a slightly different tack. It claims that the General Allotment Act removed only those barriers to state jurisdiction that existed at the time of its enactment, e. g., those associated with tribal sovereignty and the trust status of allotted land. The General Allotment Act did not remove—indeed, the argument goes, could not have removed—a jurisdictional bar arising after the Act's passage. For just such an after-arising jurisdictional bar, the United States points to the same statutes on which the Tribe rests its position. In the United States' view, these enactments must be construed to pre-empt the application "of state laws (especially state tax laws) to Indians and their property within a reservation." Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 14.
Page: Index Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007