Cite as: 534 U. S. 84 (2001)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
clearly expressed. But we have in the past construed language far more ambiguous than this as providing a tax exemption for Indians." Id., at 176 (citing Squire, supra, at 100).
As the purpose behind the Indian canon is the same regardless of the form of enactment, supra, at 99, there is no reason to alter the Indian canon's relative strength where a statute rather than a treaty is involved. Cf. ante, at 95. The primacy of the Indian canon over the taxation principle should not be surprising, as this Court has also held that the general presumption supporting the legality of executive action must yield to the Indian canon, a "counterpresumption specific" to Indians. Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians, 526 U. S. 172, 194, n. 5 (1999).
This Court has failed to apply the Indian canon to extend tax exemptions to the Nations only when nothing in the language of the underlying statute or treaty suggests the Nations should be exempted. The Cherokee Tobacco, 11 Wall. 616, 618, 620 (1871) (finding no exemption for the Nations from language imposing taxes on certain " 'articles produced anywhere within the exterior boundaries of the United States' "); Choteau v. Burnet, 283 U. S. 691, 693-694 (1931) (finding no exemption in provisions "subject[ing] the income of 'every individual' to tax," including "income 'from any source whatever' "); Superintendent of Five Civilized Tribes v. Commissioner, 295 U. S. 418 (1935) (same); Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U. S. 145, 155 (1973) (refusing to exempt the Nations from taxes on land use income based on language that "[o]n its face . . . exempts land and rights in land, not income derived from its use"). Mescalero also went further, suggesting that because of the taxation principle, the Court would refuse to find such an exemption absent "clear statutory guidance." Id., at 156. Mescalero's formulation is admittedly in tension with the Court's precedents giving the Indian canon primacy over the taxation principle where statutory language is ambiguous. As Mescalero was
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