United States v. Navajo Nation, 537 U.S. 488, 19 (2003)

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506

UNITED STATES v. NAVAJO NATION

Opinion of the Court

clearly require that the Secretary manage Indian resources so as to generate proceeds for the Indians." Id., at 226-227.

To state a claim cognizable under the Indian Tucker Act, Mitchell I and Mitchell II thus instruct, a Tribe must identify a substantive source of law that establishes specific fiduciary or other duties, and allege that the Government has failed faithfully to perform those duties. See 463 U. S., at 216-217, 219. If that threshold is passed, the court must then determine whether the relevant source of substantive law "can fairly be interpreted as mandating compensation for damages sustained as a result of a breach of the duties [the governing law] impose[s]." Id., at 219. Although "the un-disputed existence of a general trust relationship between the United States and the Indian people" can "reinforc[e]" the conclusion that the relevant statute or regulation imposes fiduciary duties, id., at 225, that relationship alone is insufficient to support jurisdiction under the Indian Tucker Act. Instead, the analysis must train on specific rights-creating or duty-imposing statutory or regulatory prescriptions. Those prescriptions need not, however, expressly provide for money damages; the availability of such damages may be inferred. See id., at 217, n. 16 ("[T]he substantive source of law may grant the claimant a right to recover damages either expressly or by implication." (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)).

C

We now consider whether the IMLA and its implementing regulations can fairly be interpreted as mandating compensation for the Government's alleged breach of trust in this case. We conclude that they cannot.

1

The Tribe's principal contention is that the IMLA's statutory and regulatory scheme, viewed in its entirety, attaches

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