Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government

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Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued December 10, 1997
Decided February 25, 1998


Full case name:	Alaska, Petitioner v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, et al.

Citations:	522 U.S. 520; 118 S. Ct. 948; 140 L. Ed. 2d 30; 1998 U.S. LEXIS 1449; 66 U.S.L.W. 4145; 98 Cal. Daily Op. Service 1335; 98 Daily Journal DAR 1839; 11 Fla. L. Weekly S 337; 1998 Colo. J. C.A.R. 891; 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 337

Prior history:	101 F.3d 1286 (9th Cir. 1996), reversed

Subsequent history:	None

Holding

Court membership

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer

Case opinions

Majority by: Thomas
Joined by: unanimous

Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U.S. 520 (1998), was a United States Supreme Court on appeal from the Ninth Circuit case involving tribal land located in Venetie, Alaska. The local tribal council wanted to collect tax from non-tribal members doing business on that land. The Supreme Court decided unanimously that the land was not the tribe’s land subject to the tribal tax even though it was owned by the tribe because it was not part of a reservation. Because all but one Indian reservation in Alaska had been eliminated by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, this decision has the practical effect of making almost all Indian tribes in Alaska no longer able to collect taxes on tribal land. The one exception was the Tsimshian tribe, who still has a reservation.