656
Opinion of the Court
Respondents and their principal amicus, the United States, also argue that petitioner consented to the tax by becoming an "Indian trader." Congress has authorized the Commissioner of Indian Affairs "to appoint traders to the Indian tribes and to make such rules and regulations as he may deem just and proper specifying the kind and quantity of goods and the prices at which such goods shall be sold to the Indians." 25 U. S. C. § 261. Petitioner has acquired the requisite license to transact business with the Navajo Nation and therefore is subject to the regulatory strictures promulgated by the Indian Affairs Commissioner. See 25 CFR pt. 141 (2000).10 But whether or not the Navajo Nation could impose a tax on activities arising out of this relationship, an issue not before us, it is clear that petitioner's "Indian trader" status by itself cannot support the imposition of the hotel occupancy tax.
Montana's consensual relationship exception requires that the tax or regulation imposed by the Indian tribe have a nexus to the consensual relationship itself. In Strate, for example, even though respondent A-1 Contractors was on the reservation to perform landscaping work for the Three Affiliated Tribes at the time of the accident, we nonetheless held that the Tribes lacked adjudicatory authority because the other nonmember "was not a party to the subcontract, and the [T]ribes were strangers to the accident." 520 U. S., at 457 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). A nonmember's consensual relationship in one area thus does not trigger tribal civil authority in another—it is not "in for a penny, in for a Pound." E. Ravenscroft, The Canterbury Guests; Or A Bargain Broken, act v, sc. 1. The hotel occupancy tax at issue here is grounded in petitioner's relationship with its nonmember hotel guests, who can reach the Cameron Trading Post on United States Highway 89 and
10 Although the regulations do not "preclude" the Navajo Nation from imposing upon "Indian traders" such "fees or taxes [it] may deem appropriate," the regulations do not contemplate or authorize the hotel occupancy tax at issue here. 25 CFR § 141.11 (2000).
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