Cite as: 515 U. S. 450 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
earned from work performed for the Tribe itself when the employee does not reside in Indian country").14
Instead, the Tribe relies on the argument that Oklahoma's levy impairs rights granted or reserved by federal law. See Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U. S., at 148-149 ("[E]xpress federal law to the contrary" overrides the general rule that "Indians going beyond reservation boundaries have generally been held subject to nondiscriminatory state law otherwise applicable to all citizens of the State."). The Tribe invokes the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, Sept. 27, 1830, Art. IV, 7 Stat. 333-334, which provides in pertinent part:
"The Government and people of the United States are hereby obliged to secure to the said [Chickasaw 15] Nation of Red People the jurisdiction and government of all the persons and property that may be within their limits west, so that no Territory or State shall ever have a right to pass laws for the government of the [Chickasaw] Nation of Red People and their descendants . . . but the U. S. shall forever secure said [Chickasaw] Nation from, and against, all [such] laws . . . ."
According to the Tribe, the State's income tax, when imposed on tribal members employed by the Tribe, is a law "for the government of the [Chickasaw] Nation of Red People and their descendants," and it is immaterial that these "descendants" live outside Indian country.
In evaluating this argument, we are mindful that "treaties should be construed liberally in favor of the Indians."
14 The United States suggests, as a potential disposition, that we remand on the "self-governance" question. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 30, n. 18. But an interference-with-self-governance plea was neither made in the lower courts nor presented here, and is therefore foreclosed in this case.
15 This treaty, first concluded between the United States and the Choctaw Nation in 1830, became applicable to the Chickasaw Nation in 1837. See Treaty of Jan. 17, 1837, Art. I, 11 Stat. 573.
465
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