Cite as: 520 U. S. 438 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
reservation owned in fee simple by non-Indians. Id., at 564-567.6
Petitioners and the United States as amicus curiae urge that Montana does not control this case. They maintain that the guiding precedents are National Farmers and Iowa Mutual, and that those decisions establish a rule converse to Montana's. Whatever Montana may instruct regarding regulatory authority, they insist, tribal courts retain adjudicatory authority in disputes over occurrences inside a reservation, even when the episode-in-suit involves nonmembers, unless a treaty or federal statute directs otherwise. Petitioners, further supported by the United States, argue, alternately, that Montana does not cover lands owned by, or held
6 Montana's statement of the governing law figured prominently in Brendale v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, 492 U. S. 408 (1989), and in South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U. S. 679 (1993). The Court held in Brendale, 6 to 3, that the Yakima Indian Nation lacked authority to zone nonmembers' land within an area of the Tribe's reservation open to the general public; almost half the land in the area was owned in fee by nonmembers. The Court also held, 5 to 4, that the Tribe retained authority to zone fee land in an area of the reservation closed to the general public. No opinion garnered a majority. Justice White, writing for four Members of the Court, concluded that, under Montana, the Tribe lacked authority to zone fee land in both the open and closed areas of the reservation. 492 U. S., at 422-432. Justice Stevens, writing for two Justices, concluded that the Tribe retained zoning authority over non-member land only in the closed area. Id., at 443-444. Justice Blackmun, writing for three Justices, concluded that, under Montana's second exception, the Tribe retained authority to zone fee land in both the open and the closed areas. Id., at 456-459.
In Bourland, the Court considered whether the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe could regulate hunting and fishing by non-Indians in an area within the Tribe's reservation, but acquired by the United States for the operation of a dam and a reservoir. We determined, dominantly, that no treaty or statute reserved to the Tribe regulatory authority over the area, see 508 U. S., at 697, and we left for resolution on remand the question whether either Montana exception applied, see 508 U. S., at 695-696; see also 39 F. 3d 868, 869-870 (CA8 1994) (decision of divided panel on remand that neither Montana exception justified regulation by the Tribe).
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