Abstract
Land is a critical asset of Indian tribes. As tribes wrestle with how to create sustainable economies to support their sovereignty, the use and management of tribal land is integral. Taxation is a key component of economic development. This Article is about taxation of land within Indian country. It considers existing law that allows for state taxation of some land within Indian country. It makes a normative claim as to who the proper taxing sovereign should be based on tax policy principles and principles that support tribal self-governance and tribal sovereignty.
In Part II, this Article provides the background for the analysis. It starts with explaining ad valorem property taxes, describing the key features and highlighting the importance such taxes serve in funding sub-federal level governments. Next, the Article provides the history of the relationships between Tribal Nations and the federal and state governments, specifically on Allotment and the legacy of Allotment policies that shaped the law limiting a tribal government’s ability to tax and expanding a state government’s ability to tax real property in Indian country. Part III of this Article analyzes the legal and policy arguments that could be made to dismantle the expansion of state power to tax real property owned by tribes and/or their members in Indian country. The analysis critiques the jurisprudence expanding state taxation of real property in Indian country and analyzes the negative impact on tribal sovereignty. It sets forth the alternative to expanding state power based on both territorial jurisdiction and tax policy principles. Part IV concludes.
Repository Citation
Pippa Browde,
#TaxBack? Prohibiting State Real Property Taxes on Land in Indian Country,
108 Marq. L. Rev. 877
(2025).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol108/iss4/3
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