430
Blackmun, J., dissenting
be irrelevant under the majority's own analysis, since the character of the lands as "part of the public domain" would be "inconsistent" with their continued reservation status. Ante, at 413, 416. Under the majority's present interpretation, the opened lands could not have been both part of the public domain and part of the reservation. Solem, however, concluded precisely the opposite.9
In light of this Court's unanimous reasoning in Solem and our common interpretation of the public domain as lands "subject to sale . . . under general laws," Kindred, 225 U. S., at 596, therefore, I cannot conclude that the isolated phrase "restored to the public domain" is an "[e]xplicit reference to cession or other language evidencing the present and total surrender of all tribal interests," Solem, 465 U. S., at 470. This language bears no relation to the "plain and unambiguous" language that our precedents require or that we found controlling in DeCoteau and Rosebud. Restoration to the public domain simply allowed Indian lands to be sold, something we repeatedly have said is never sufficient to establish an intent to diminish.
B
Although the Court relies on the negotiation history of the 1902 Act and that of the Act of Mar. 3, 1903, ch. 994, 32 Stat. 998, to support its conclusion, nothing in the negotiations with the Ute Indian Tribe "unequivocally reveal[s] a widely held, contemporaneous understanding" that the Uintah Res-9 The Court never before has held that an isolated reference to the public domain is sufficient to support a finding of diminishment. In every case relied upon by the majority for this contention, the relevant public domain language was accompanied by express additional language demonstrating such intent. See DeCoteau, 420 U. S., at 446 ("returned to the public domain, stripped of reservation status") (emphasis added). Three of the cases cited by the majority, in fact, discuss the same statute, 27 Stat. 62. See Seymour, 368 U. S., at 354 (" 'vacated and restored to the public domain' ") (emphasis added); Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S. 481, 504, n. 22 (1973) (same); United States v. Pelican, 232 U. S. 442, 445 (1914) (same).
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