112
Opinion of the Court
ation may be conceded. . . . But while Congress may make such provision, its intent to do so should be clearly manifested." Id, at 149.
The Goudy Court concluded that it would "seem strange [for Congress] to withdraw [federal] protection and permit the Indian to dispose of his lands as he pleases, while at the same time releasing [the lands] from taxation." Ibid. Indeed, because such congressional purpose would be unreasonable, Congress would have to "clearly manifest" such a contrary purpose in order to counteract the consequence of taxability that ordinarily flows from alienability. Ibid.
In Yakima, we considered whether the GAA manifested an unmistakably clear intent to allow state and local taxation of reservation lands allotted under the GAA and owned in fee by either the Yakima Indian Nation or individual Indians.3 In holding that the lands could be taxed, we noted that the Burke Act proviso clearly manifested such an intent by expressly addressing the taxability of fee-patented land. 502 U. S., at 259. We also indicated that the alienability of allotted lands itself, as provided by § 5 of the GAA, similarly manifested an unmistakably clear intent to allow taxation.4 We reasoned that Goudy, "without even mentioning the
3 We are concerned here only with Yakima's holding with respect to ad valorem taxes such as those at issue in this case. Yakima also held that the GAA did not authorize the county to impose an excise tax on the sale of land held by individual Indians or by the tribe, because such a tax did not constitute the "taxation of land." See County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, 502 U. S. 251, 268-269 (1992). That holding, however, is not relevant to this case, which involves only an ad valorem tax on land itself, rather than an excise tax on a transaction.
4 The Burke Act proviso, as noted, see supra, at 107, did not itself authorize taxation of fee-patented land; it merely altered the result of In re Heff, 197 U. S. 488 (1905), as to when parcels allotted to the Indians could be alienated and taxed. In re Heff had held this occurred as soon as allotted lands were patented to the Indians in trust (during which the land would still be under the protection of the Federal Government); the Burke Act proviso stated that this did not occur until the lands were patented in fee.
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