Cite as: 532 U. S. 645 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Highway 89 and Arizona Highway 64 traversing the reservation; that the Navajo Tribal Police and the Navajo Tribal Emergency Medical Services Department will respond to an emergency call from the Cameron Trading Post; and that local Arizona Fire Departments and the Navajo Tribal Fire Department provide fire protection to the area.7 Although we do not question the Navajo Nation's ability to charge an appropriate fee for a particular service actually rendered,8 we think the generalized availability of tribal services patently insufficient to sustain the Tribe's civil authority over nonmembers on non-Indian fee land.
The consensual relationship must stem from "commercial dealing, contracts, leases, or other arrangements," Montana, 450 U. S., at 565, and a nonmember's actual or potential receipt of tribal police, fire, and medical services does not create the requisite connection. If it did, the exception would swallow the rule: All non-Indian fee lands within a reservation benefit, to some extent, from the "advantages of a civilized society" offered by the Indian tribe. Merrion, supra, at 137-138 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Such a result does not square with our precedents; indeed, we implicitly rejected this argument in Strate,9 where we held that the nonmembers had not consented to the Tribes' adjudicatory authority by availing themselves of the benefit of tribal police protection while traveling within the reservation. See 520 U. S., at 456-457, and n. 11. We therefore reject respondents' broad reading of Montana's first exception, which ignores the dependent status of Indian tribes and subverts the territorial restriction upon tribal power.
7 The Navajo Tribal Fire Department has responded to a fire at the Cameron Trading Post. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 57a.
8 The Navajo Nation charges for its emergency medical services (a flat call-out fee of $300 and a mileage fee of $6.25 per mile). See App. 127-129.
9 See Reply Brief for Petitioners 13-14 and Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 29 in Strate v. A-1 Contractors, O. T. 1996, No. 95-1872.
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