762
Stevens, J., dissenting
at 512 (emphasis added). At most, the holding extends only to federal cases in which the United States is litigating on behalf of a tribe. Moreover, both Turner and USF&G arose out of conduct that occurred on Indian reservations.
In subsequent cases, we have made it clear that the States have legislative jurisdiction over the off-reservation conduct of Indian tribes, and even over some on-reservation activities.2 Thus, in litigation that consumed more than a decade and included three decisions by this Court, we rejected a Tribe's claim that the doctrine of sovereign immunity precluded the State of Washington from regulating fishing activities on the Puyallup Reservation. Puyallup Tribe, Inc. v. Department of Game of Wash., 433 U. S. 165, 175-176 (1977). It is true that as an incident to that important holding, we vacated the portions of the state-court decree that were directed against the Tribe itself. Id., at 172-173. That action, however, had little practical effect because we upheld the portions of the decree granting relief against the entire class of Indians that was represented by the Tribe. Although Justice Blackmun, one of the "strongest supporters of Indian rights on the Court," 3 wrote separately to express his "doubts . . . about the continuing vitality in this day of the doctrine of tribal immunity as it was enunciated in United States v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.," id., at 178, our opinion did not purport to extend or to explain the doctrine. Moreover, as the Tribe's predominant argument was that "the state courts of Washington are without
2 "The general notion drawn from Chief Justice Marshall's opinion in Worcester v. Georgia, 6 Pet. 515, 561; The Kansas Indians, 5 Wall. 737, 755-757; and The New York Indians, 5 Wall. 761, that an Indian reservation is a distinct nation within whose boundaries state law cannot penetrate, has yielded to closer analysis when confronted, in the course of subsequent developments, with diverse concrete situations." Organized Village of Kake v. Egan, 369 U. S. 60, 72 (1962).
3 Dussias, Heeding the Demands of Justice: Justice Blackmun's Indian Law Opinions, 71 N. D. L. Rev. 41, 43 (1995).
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