Atkinson Trading Co. v. Shirley, 532 U.S. 645, 8 (2001)

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652

ATKINSON TRADING CO. v. SHIRLEY

Opinion of the Court

"assert a landowner's right to occupy and exclude," id., at 456. Recognizing that Montana "immediately involved regulatory authority," 2 we nonetheless concluded that its reasoning had "delineated—in a main rule and exceptions—the bounds of the power tribes retain to exercise 'forms of civil jurisdiction over non-Indians.' " 520 U. S., at 453 (quoting Montana, supra, at 565). We accordingly held that Montana governed tribal assertions of adjudicatory authority over non-Indian fee land within a reservation. See 520 U. S., at 453 ("Subject to controlling provisions in treaties and statutes, and the two exceptions identified in Montana, the civil authority of Indian tribes and their courts with respect to non-Indian fee lands generally 'do[es] not extend to the activities of nonmembers of the tribe' " (emphasis added) (quoting Montana, supra, at 565)).

Citing our decision in Merrion, respondents submit that Montana and Strate do not restrict an Indian tribe's power to impose revenue-raising taxes.3 In Merrion, just one year after our decision in Montana, we upheld a severance tax imposed by the Jicarilla Apache Tribe upon non-Indian les-sees authorized to extract oil and gas from tribal land. In so doing, we noted that the power to tax derives not solely from an Indian tribe's power to exclude non-Indians from tribal land, but also from an Indian tribe's "general authority, as sovereign, to control economic activity within its jurisdiction." 455 U. S., at 137. Such authority, we held, was incident to the benefits conferred upon nonmembers: "They benefit from the provision of police protection and other governmental services, as well as from ' "the advantages of a civilized society" ' that are assured by the existence of tribal

2 See also South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U. S. 679 (1993); Brendale v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation, 492 U. S. 408 (1989).

3 Respondents concede that regulatory taxes fall under the Montana framework. See 450 U. S., at 565 ("A tribe may regulate, through taxation, . . . the activities of nonmembers").

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