Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U.S. 520, 11 (1998)

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530

ALASKA v. NATIVE VILLAGE OF VENETIE TRIBAL GOVERNMENT

Opinion of the Court

States. Id., at 538 (quoting United States v. Sandoval, supra, at 46) (emphasis deleted).

In each of these cases, therefore, we relied upon a finding of both a federal set-aside and federal superintendence in concluding that the Indian lands in question constituted Indian country and that it was permissible for the Federal Government to exercise jurisdiction over them. Section 1151 does not purport to alter this definition of Indian country, but merely lists the three different categories of Indian country mentioned in our prior cases: Indian reservations, see Donnelly v. United States, 228 U. S. 243, 269 (1913); dependent Indian communities, see United States v. McGowan, supra, at 538-539; United States v. Sandoval, supra, at 46; and allotments, see United States v. Pelican, supra, at 449. The entire text of § 1151(b), and not just the term "dependent Indian communities," is taken virtually verbatim from Sandoval, which language we later quoted in McGowan. See United States v. Sandoval, supra, at 46; United States v. McGowan, supra, at 538. Moreover, the Historical and Revision Notes to the statute that enacted § 1151 state that § 1151's definition of Indian country is based "on [the] latest construction of the term by the United States Supreme Court in U. S. v. McGowan . . . following U. S. v. Sandoval. (See also Donnelly v. U. S.) . . . . Indian allotments were included in the definition on authority of the case of U. S. v. Pelican." See Notes to 1948 Act, following 18 U. S. C. § 1151, p. 276 (citations omitted).

We therefore must conclude that in enacting § 1151(b), Congress indicated that a federal set-aside and a federal superintendence requirement must be satisfied for a finding of a "dependent Indian community"--just as those requirements had to be met for a finding of Indian country before 18 U. S. C. § 1151 was enacted.5 These requirements are re-5 In attempting to defend the Court of Appeals' judgment, the Tribe asks us to adopt a different conception of the term "dependent Indian communities." Borrowing from Chief Justice Marshall's seminal opinions

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