Cite as: 515 U. S. 450 (1995)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
falls on the side of the line that the Treaty's language and purpose seek to prohibit. To decide that the Treaty prohibits the law here is not to decide whether or not it would prohibit a law with a weaker link to tribal government or a stronger impact outside Indian country.
One final legal consideration strengthens the conclusion I reach. The law requires courts to construe ambiguous treaties in favor of the Indians. County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y., 470 U. S. 226, 247 (1985). The majority believes that even a "liberal construction cannot save the Tribe's claim," ante, at 466, because the Treaty says that the United States is "obliged to secure to the said [Chickasaw] Nation . . . the jurisdiction and government of all the persons and property that may be within their limits west." Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 7 Stat. 333-334 (emphasis added). This language, when viewed in its historical context, however, seems primarily designed to point out that the Treaty operates only in respect to Chickasaw lands west of the Mississippi—i. e., that the Chickasaws would receive no protection unless they moved there. Regardless, the Oklahoma tax in question does affect "persons," namely, tribal members, and "property," namely, their wages, which members work and which wages are paid well "within" the Nation's "limits," i. e., in Indian country. Admittedly, the quoted language, by itself, does not say for certain that such effects are sufficient to bring the state law within the Treaty's prohibition, but neither does it clearly make residency (rather than, say, place of employment) an absolute prerequisite. In these circumstances, the law requires us to give the Tribe the benefit of the doubt.
Thus, in my view, whether we construe the Treaty's language liberally or literally, Oklahoma's tax falls within its scope. For these reasons, I believe the Treaty bars the tax. And, although I join the remainder of the Court's opinion, I respectfully dissent on this point.
471
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