Cite as: 537 U. S. 488 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
garding royalties, for example, specified procedures applicable to oil and gas leases, including criteria for the Secretary to employ in setting royalty rates. §§ 211.13, 211.16, 211.17. As to coal royalties, in contrast, the regulations required only that the rate be "not less than 10 cents per ton." § 211.15(c). No other limitation was placed on the Tribe's negotiating capacity or the Secretary's approval authority.1
B
The Tribe involved in this case occupies the largest Indian reservation in the United States. Over the past century, large deposits of coal have been discovered on the Tribe's reservation lands, which are held for it in trust by the United States. Each year, the Tribe receives millions of dollars in royalty payments pursuant to mineral leases with private companies.
Peabody mines coal on the Tribe's lands pursuant to leases covered by the IMLA. This case principally concerns Lease 8580 (Lease or Lease 8580), which took effect upon approval by the Secretary in 1964. App. 188-220. The Lease established a maximum royalty rate of 37.5 cents per ton of coal, id., at 191, but made that figure "subject to reasonable adjustment by the Secretary of the Interior or his authorized representative" on the 20-year anniversary of the Lease and every ten years thereafter, id., at 194.
As the 20-year anniversary of Lease 8580 approached, its royalty rate of 37.5 cents per ton yielded for the Tribe only "about 2% of gross proceeds." 263 F. 3d 1325, 1327 (CA Fed. 2001). This return was higher than the ten cents per ton minimum established by the then-applicable IMLA regula-1 In 1996, well after the events at issue here, the minimum rate on new coal leases was increased to "121/2 percent of the value of production produced and sold from the lease." 61 Fed. Reg. 35658 (1996); 25 CFR § 211.43(a)(2) (1997). The amended regulations further state, however, that "[a] lower royalty rate shall be allowed if it is determined to be in the best interest of the Indian mineral owner." § 211.43(b).
495
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