Moe v. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation

We are called upon in these appeals to resolve several questions arising out of a conflict between the asserted taxing power of the State of Montana and the immunity claimed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (Tribe) and its members living on the tribal reservation. Convened as a three-judge court, 1 the District Court for the District of Montana considered separate attacks on the State’s cigarette sales and personal property taxes as applied to reservation Indians. After finding that the suits were not barred by the prohibition of 28 U. S. C. § 1341, 2 the District Court entered…