454
Opinion of the Court
B
We consider next the argument that Montana does not govern this case because the land underlying the scene of the accident is held in trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes and their members. Petitioners and the United States point out that in Montana, as in later cases following Montana's instruction—Brendale v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, 492 U. S. 408 (1989), and South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U. S. 679 (1993), described supra, at 447, n. 6—the challenged tribal authority related to nonmember activity on alienated, non-Indian reservation land. We "can readily agree," in accord with Montana, 450 U. S., at 557, that tribes retain considerable control over nonmember conduct on tribal land.8 On the particular matter before us, however, we agree with respondents: The right-of-way North Dakota acquired for the State's highway renders the 6.59-mile stretch equivalent, for nonmember governance purposes,9 to alienated, non-Indian land.
Congress authorized grants of rights-of-way over Indian lands in 1948 legislation. Act of Feb. 5, 1948, ch. 45, 62 Stat. 17, 25 U. S. C. §§ 323-328. A grant over land belonging to a tribe requires "consent of the proper tribal officials," § 324,
8 Petitioners note in this regard the Court's unqualified recognition in Montana that "the Tribe may prohibit nonmembers from hunting or fishing on land belonging to the Tribe or held by the United States in trust for the Tribe." 450 U. S., at 557. The question addressed was "the power of the Tribe to regulate non-Indian fishing and hunting on reservation land owned in fee by nonmembers of the Tribe." Ibid.; see Brief for Petitioners 15-16.
9 For contextual treatment of rights-of-way over Indian land, compare 18 U. S. C. § 1151 (defining "Indian country" in criminal law chapter generally to include "rights-of-way running through [a] reservation") with §§ 1154(c) and 1156 (term "Indian country," as used in sections on dispensation and possession of intoxicants, "does not include . . . rights-of-way through Indian reservations").
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