Cite as: 524 U. S. 103 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
In 1992, we held in County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, supra, that a county could assess ad valorem taxes on reservation land owned in fee by individual Indians or the tribe and originally made alienable when patented in fee simple under the GAA.
In 1993, Cass County began assessing ad valorem taxes on 21 parcels of reservation land that had been alienated from tribal control under the various provisions of the Nelson Act and later reacquired by the Leech Lake Band. Thirteen of the parcels had been allotted to individual Indians under § 3; seven had been sold to non-Indians as pine lands under §§ 4 and 5 for commercial timber harvest; and one parcel had been distributed to a non-Indian under § 6 as a homestead plot. Under protest and to avoid foreclosure, the Leech Lake Band paid more than $64,000 in taxes, interest, and penalties.
In 1995, the Band filed suit in federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that Cass County could not tax the 21 parcels.1 The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Cass County, holding that all of the land that had been alienated from tribal ownership under the Nelson Act was taxable. 908 F. Supp. 689 (Minn. 1995). The District Court interpreted our decision in Yakima to mean that "if Congress has made Indian land freely alienable, states may tax the land"—that is, "alienability equals taxability." 908 F. Supp., at 693.
A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part. 108 F. 3d 820 (1997). Noting that Yakima reaffirmed prior statements by this Court indicating that Congress must make "unmistakably clear" its intent to subject reservation lands to state or local taxation, 108 F. 3d, at 826, the panel
1 Also in 1995, the Band successfully applied, pursuant to § 465 of the Indian Reorganization Act, 25 U. S. C. § 465, to restore 11 of the parcels to federal trust status. See infra, at 114-115; App. to Pet. for Cert. 56; Tr. of Oral Arg. 9.
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