AGO 85-12.

CourtNorth Dakota
North Dakota Attorney General Opinions 1985. AGO 85-12. Office of the Attorney General State of North Dakota Opinion No. 85-12Date Issued: April 11, 1985Requested by: Robert W. Holte Mountrial County State's Attorney--QUESTION PRESENTED-- Whether real property owned in fee patent by an Indian tribe and located within the boundaries of the tribe's reservation is subject to county real property taxation.--ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION-- It is my opinion that real property owned in fee patent by an Indian tribe and located within the boundaries of the tribe's reservation is not subject to county real property taxation. --ANALYSIS-- There is no federal court decision which has directly answered this question. However, the United States Supreme Court has held that income, certain activities and personal property of reservation Indians, earned or located within an Indian reservation, are not subject to state taxation. McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm', 411 U.S. 164 (1973); Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U.S. 145 (1973); Moe v. Salish & Kootenai Tribes, etc., 425 U.S. 463 (1976); White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U.S. 136 (1980). The North Dakota Supreme Court followed the rationale of McClanahan, supra, when it held that North Dakota could not impose an individual income tax upon income earned on an Indian reservation by an Indian person residing on that reservation. White Eagle v. Dorgan, 209 N.W.2d 621, 623 (N.D. 1973). In Mescalero, supra, the United States Supreme Court summarized the import of its companion case, McClanahan, supra:
. . . in the special area of state taxation, absent cession of jurisdiction or other federal statutes permitting it, there has been no satisfactory authority for taxing Indian reservation lands or Indian income from activities carried on within the boundaries of the reservation, and McClanahan v. State Tax Commission of Arizona, supra, lays to rest any doubt in this respect by holding
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