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Opinion of the Court
fee rendered them nontaxable once again. We reject this contention. As explained, once Congress has demonstrated (as it has here) a clear intent to subject the land to taxation by making it alienable, Congress must make an unmistakably clear statement in order to render it nontaxable. See County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, 502 U. S., at 263 (citing Goudy v. Meath, supra, at 149). The subsequent repurchase of reservation land by a tribe does not manifest any congressional intent to reassume federal protection of that land and to oust state taxing authority—particularly when Congress explicitly relinquished such protection many years before.
Further, if we were to accept the Leech Lake Band's argument, it would render partially superfluous § 465 of the Indian Reorganization Act. That section grants the Secretary of the Interior authority to place land in trust, to be held by the Federal Government for the benefit of the Indians and to be exempt from state and local taxation after assuming such status:
"The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to acquire, through purchase, relinquishment, gift, exchange, or assignment, and interest in lands . . . within or without existing reservations . . . for the purpose of providing land for Indians. . . .
"Title to any lands . . . shall be taken in the name of the United States in trust for the Indian tribe or individual Indian for which the land is acquired, and such lands . . . shall be exempt from State and local taxation." 25 U. S. C. § 465.
In § 465, therefore, Congress has explicitly set forth a procedure by which lands held by Indian tribes may become tax exempt. It would render this procedure unnecessary, as far as exemption from taxation is concerned, if we held that tax-exempt status automatically attaches when a tribe acquires reservation land. The Leech Lake Band apparently realizes
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