Crow Tribe of Indians v. State of Mont.

• Decision Date: 13 July 1981
• Docket Number: No. 79-4321,79-4321
• Citation: 650 F.2d 1104
• Parties: CROW TRIBE OF INDIANS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE OF MONTANA, and Ramon Dore, Director, Montana Department of Revenue, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1104

650 F.2d 1104

CROW TRIBE OF INDIANS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE OF MONTANA, and Ramon Dore, Director, Montana

Department of Revenue, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 79-4321.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Jan. 14, 1980.

Decided July 13, 1981.

Richard A. Baenen, Wilkinson, Cragun & Barker, Washington, D. C., argued, for plaintiff-appellant; Thomas J. Lynaugh, Lynaugh, Fitzgerald, Schoppert & Skaggs, Billings, Mont., Edward M. Fogarty, Wilkinson Cragun & Barker, Washington, D. C., on brief.

Helena S. Maclay, Missoula, Mont., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court For the District of Montana.

Before TANG, FLETCHER and ALARCON, Circuit Judges.

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

In 1975, Montana imposed severance and gross proceeds taxes on all coal mined and sold in Montana, including coal mined by non-Indians from the Crow Indian Reservation and from deposits held in trust for the Crow Tribe of Indians (Tribe). The Tribe sought injunctive and declaratory relief against the imposition of taxes on the production of non-Indian mineral lessees. The district court, 469 F.Supp. 154, dismissed the complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and the Tribe now appeals. Our jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

We hold that even though the incidence of these taxes falls upon non-Indian lessees, the Tribe has alleged facts that, if proved, would establish that the taxes are preempted by the Mineral Leasing Act of 1938, 25 U.S.C. §§ 396a-396g (1976), and that the taxes infringe upon the Tribe's right to govern itself. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

I.

Vast deposits of coal underlie both the Crow Reservation proper and an adjacent area known as the "ceded strip." The ceded strip consists of about 1,137,500 acres that were originally part of the reservation. The Crow Tribe ceded its interest in the surface estate of the area to the United States in 1904 in order to open the area to non-Indian entry and settlement, pursuant to the Act of April 27, 1904, ch. 1624, 33 Stat. 352. Although surface interests were thereafter conveyed to non-Indians, see Cady v. Morton, 527 F.2d 786, 789 (9th Cir. 1975), rights to minerals underlying the ceded strip were in large part retained by the United States for the benefit of the Tribe. We held recently that the ceded area is not a part of the reservation. Little Light v. Crist, 649 F.2d 683, 685 (9th Cir. 1981). Regardless of the status of the ceded strip, however, the underlying minerals are held by the United States Government in trust for the Tribe.

Since 1967, the Secretary of the Interior has actively encouraged the Tribe to develop its coal resources through the granting of prospecting permits and mining leases. The leasing activity has taken place under the aegis of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1938, 25 U.S.C. §§ 396a-396g (1976), and the regulations promulgated under the Act, 25 C.F.R. §§ 171.1-.30 (1980).

In 1972, Westmoreland Resources, a non-Indian company, entered into two mining leases with the Crow Tribe that embraced coal underlying about 31,000 acres of the ceded strip. The Tribe has also granted prospecting permits to and entered into leases with other non-Indian companies. To date, only Westmoreland Resources has actually mined coal under the leases.

In 1975, Montana enacted statutes that impose on coal mine operators a severance tax on each ton of coal produced in the state and a gross proceeds tax on the sale of each ton of coal produced in the state. 4 Mont. Code Ann. §§ 15-35-101 through 15-35-111 and §§ 15-23-701 through 15-23-704 (1979) (formerly Mont.Rev. Code Ann. §§ 84-1312 through 84-1325 (1947)). Westmoreland Resources has been paying Montana's severance and gross proceeds taxes since 1975. Because Westmoreland Resources falls into the highest statutory classification, that of one who surface mines high-quality coal, it is required to pay a severance tax equal to 30 per cent of the value of the coal mined. Since 1975, Westmoreland has paid $27 million in severance taxes and $3 million in gross proceeds taxes. During the same period, Westmoreland has paid about $8 million in royalties to the Tribe under the terms of its leases.

On January 31, 1976, the Tribe enacted its own coal tax code which provides for a severance tax of 25 per cent of the value of coal mined by the Tribe's lessees. At present, the tribal severance tax applies only to coal mined on the reservation, and not to coal mined on the ceded strip. ¹

II

The Montana Coal Severance Tax, Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-103, is "imposed on each ton of coal produced in the state." "Produced" means "severed from the earth." Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-102. The tax is measured by the value of the "contract sales price" of the coal, which is defined as "the price of coal extracted and prepared for shipment f.o.b. mine, excluding that amount charged by the seller to pay taxes paid on production." Id. The rate of tax varies from 3 to 30 per cent of the value of the coal, depending upon the quality of the coal and whether the mine is a surface or an underground mine. Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-103. The tax is paid quarterly directly to the Montana Department of Revenue by each coal mine operator. Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-104.

Montana has made elaborate provision for the disposition of funds gained through the coal severance tax. The major recipient is a special trust fund created by the Montana Constitution. Mont. Const. art. IX, § 5. The fund contains only monies collected pursuant to the severance tax. The principal of the fund may only be invaded on a three-fourths vote of the Montana legislature. The legislature may, however, appropriate the interest and income earned by the fund. Twenty-five per cent of the coal severance tax monies collected prior to December 31, 1979 were to go directly to the trust fund; 50 per cent of the collections after that date go into the fund.

The remaining severance tax monies are allocated to a variety of uses. The largest single use is a "local impact and education trust fund account," which is to receive between 26 and 37 1/2 per cent of revenues. The remaining revenues go to state equalization aid to public schools, a coal area highway improvement fund, archeological preservation, various cultural projects, park acquisition and management, an alternative energy research fund, the general funds of the counties where the coal is mined, county land planning, and a sinking fund servicing renewable resource development bond accounts. Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-108.

The Gross Proceeds from Coal Tax is imposed on "each person engaged in mining coal." Mont. Code Ann. § 15-23-701. Each person mining coal must file with the State Department of Revenue an annual report that must include, inter alia, a statement of the number of "tons of coal extracted, treated, and sold from the mine during the taxable period" and "the gross yield or value in dollars and cents derived from the contract sales price." Id. The Department of Revenue transmits to the county assessor of each county in which the coal mines are located the valuation of the gross proceeds of the mine. Mont. Code Ann. § 15-23-702. The county assessor then enters the value on an assessment roll, id., and transmits a tax assessment to the county treasurer, who collects the taxes due from the coal operator. Mont. Code Ann. § 15-23-703.

III

The litigants ask us to make difficult determinations concerning the limits of state power to tax Indians and Indian-related activities. Although the issue before the Supreme Court in McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm'n, 411 U.S. 164, 93 S.Ct. 1257, 36 L.Ed.2d 129 (1973), was the narrow one of whether a state may tax reservation Indians for income earned on the reservation, the Court used the occasion to describe the analytical context in which such questions are to be viewed.

The Court in McClanahan stated that, in recent years, "the trend has been away from the idea of inherent Indian sovereignty as a bar to state jurisdiction and toward reliance on federal pre-emption." 411 U.S. at 172, 93 S.Ct. at 1262. The Court noted, however, that it would be a vast oversimplification to say that nothing is left of the doctrine of Indian sovereignty. Id. at 170, 93 S.Ct. at 1261. The doctrine remains relevant as a "backdrop against which the applicable treaties and federal statutes must be read." Id. at 172, 93 S.Ct. at 1262. The Court made the further observation that because the federal treaties and statutes in almost all cases do define the boundaries of federal and state jurisdiction, the extent of federal preemption and residual Indian sovereignty in the absence of federal legislation or treaty is essentially moot. Id. at 172 n.8, 93 S.Ct. at 1262 n.8. Finally, the Court in McClanahan stated that, if the state action is not preempted by federal legislation or treaty, the state need only satisfy the test laid down in Williams v. Lee, 358 U.S. 217, 79 S.Ct. 269, 3 L.Ed.2d 251 (1958), that state action must not infringe on the rights of reservation Indians to govern themselves. Id. at 171-72, 93 S.Ct. at 1261-1262.

Although the Court in McClanahan stated that tribal immunity from state taxation does not rest primarily on any inherent tribal sovereignty, we note that remnants of the sovereignty rationale are implicit in the holding of McClanahan in the form of certain presumptions. Direct state taxation of tribal property or the income of reservation Indians is presumed to be preempted, absent express congressional authorization. Bryan v. Itasca County, 426 U.S. 373, 376-77, 96 S.Ct. 2102, 2105-2106, 48 L.Ed.2d 710 (1976); Moe v. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 425 U.S. 463, 475-81, 96 S.Ct. 1634, 1642-1645, 48 L.Ed.2d 96 (1976); Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U.S. 145, 148, 93 S.Ct. 1267, 1270, 36 L.Ed.2d 114 (1973). In contrast, state taxation of...