504
Opinion of the Court
States for alleged mismanagement of forests located on lands allotted to tribal members. The GAA authorized the President of the United States to allot agricultural or grazing land to individual tribal members residing on a reservation, § 331, and provided that "the United States does and will hold the land thus allotted . . . in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made," § 348.
We held that the GAA did not create private rights enforceable in a suit for money damages under the Indian Tucker Act. After examining the GAA's language, history, and purpose, we concluded that it "created only a limited trust relationship between the United States and the allottee that does not impose any duty upon the Government to manage timber resources." Mitchell I, 445 U. S., at 542. In particular, we stressed that §§ 1 and 2 of the GAA removed a standard element of a trust relationship by making "the Indian allottee, and not a representative of the United States, . . . responsible for using the land for agricultural or grazing purposes." Id., at 542-543; see id., at 543 ("Under this scheme, . . . the allottee, and not the United States, was to manage the land."). We also determined that Congress decided to have "the United States 'hold the land . . . in trust' not because it wished the Government to control use of the land . . . , but simply because it wished to prevent alienation of the land and to ensure that allottees would be immune from state taxation." Id., at 544. Because "the Act [did] not . . . authoriz[e], much less requir[e], the Government to manage timber resources for the benefit of Indian allottees," id., at 545, we held that the GAA established no right to recover money damages for mismanagement of such resources. We left open, however, the possibility that other sources of law might support the plaintiffs' claims for damages. Id., at 546, and n. 7.
In Mitchell II, we held that a network of other statutes and regulations did impose judicially enforceable fiduciary
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