Cite as: 537 U. S. 488 (2003)
Syllabus
resources . . . for the benefit of the Indians," id., at 224. The Secretary is neither assigned a comprehensive managerial role nor, at the time relevant here, expressly invested with responsibility to secure "the needs and best interests of the Indian owner and his heirs." Ibid. Instead, the Secretary's involvement in coal leasing under the IMLA more closely resembles the role provided for the Government by the GAA regarding allotted forest lands. See Mitchell I, 445 U. S., at 540-544. Although the GAA required the Government to hold allotted land in trust for allottees, that Act did not "authoriz[e], much less requir[e], the Government to manage timber resources for the benefit of Indian allottees." Id., at 545. Similarly here, the IMLA and its regulations do not assign to the Secretary managerial control over coal leasing. Nor do they even establish the "limited trust relationship," id., at 542, existing under the GAA; no provision of the IMLA or its regulations contains any trust language with respect to coal leasing. Moreover, as in Mitchell I, imposing fiduciary duties on the Government here would be out of line with one of the statute's principal purposes, enhancing tribal self-determination. See id., at 543. Pp. 506-508.
(2) The Court rejects the Tribe's arguments that the Secretary's actions in this case violated discrete statutory and regulatory provisions whose breach is redressable in a damages action. The Tribe misplaces reliance on 25 U. S. C. § 399, which is not part of the IMLA and does not govern Lease 8580. Enacted almost 20 years before the IMLA, § 399 authorizes the Secretary to lease certain unallotted Indian lands for mining purposes on terms she sets, and does not provide for input from the Tribes concerned. That authorization does not bear on the Secretary's more limited approval role under the IMLA. Similarly unavailing is the Tribe's reliance on the Indian Mineral Development Act of 1982 (IMDA), 25 U. S. C. § 2101 et seq. The IMDA governs the Secretary's approval of agreements for the development of certain Indian mineral resources through exploration and like activities. It does not establish standards governing her approval of mining leases negotiated by a Tribe and a third party, such as Lease 8580. The Tribe's vigorously pressed arguments headlining § 396a, the IMLA's general prescription, fare no better. Asserting that Secretary Hodel violated a § 396a duty to review and approve proposed coal leases only to the extent they are in the Tribe's best interests, the Tribe points to various Government reports identifying 20 percent as the appropriate royalty, and to the Secretary's decision, made after receiving ex parte communications from Peabody, to withhold departmental action. In the circumstances presented, the Tribe maintains, Hodel's eventual approval of the 121/2 percent royalty rate violated § 396a in two ways: (1) It was improvident because it allowed conveyance of the Tribe's coal for what Hodel knew
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