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Opinion of the Court
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari in this case to resolve whether state and local governments may tax reservation land that was made alienable by Congress and sold to non-Indians by the Federal Government, but was later repurchased by a tribe. We hold that ad valorem taxes may be imposed upon such land because, under the test established by our precedents, Congress has made "unmistakably clear" its intent to allow such taxation.
I
The Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians is a federally recognized Indian tribe. The Leech Lake Reservation, which today encompasses 588,684 acres within the northern Minnesota counties of Cass, Itasca, and Beltrami, was established by federal treaty in 1855 and was augmented by subsequent treaties and Executive Orders.
During the late 19th century, the Federal Government changed its policy of setting aside reservation lands exclusively for Indian tribes under federal supervision. The new "allotment" policy removed significant portions of reservation land from tribal ownership and federal protection, allotting some parcels to individual Indians and providing for other parcels to be sold to non-Indians. See County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, 502 U. S. 251, 253-254 (1992); F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law 127-138 (1982). The purpose of the policy was to assimilate Indians into American society and to open reservation lands to ownership by non-Indians. Id., at 128.
Most of the allotments made by the Federal Government were implemented pursuant to the General Allotment Act of
McGaw; and for the National Congress of American Indians by Tracy A. Labin and Kim Jerome Gottschalk.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance by Douglas Y. Freeman; for the Oneida Indian Nation of New York by William W. Taylor III and Michael R. Smith; and for the Tribes of Forest County Potawatomi Community et al. by Carol Brown Biermeier.
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