In the Green v. Menominee Tribe case of 1913, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Menominee Indian tribe, asserting their right to tax non-tribal members who were leasing tribal lands for logging purposes. The plaintiff, William H. Green was a lumberman who had leased land from the tribe and refused to pay taxes imposed by them on his operations arguing that as a federal entity, they did not have taxing authority over him. However, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., writing for a unanimous court held that while tribes are indeed "domestic dependent nations" under federal guardianship; this does not preclude them from exercising inherent sovereign powers such as taxation within their territories unless explicitly prohibited by Congress.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Green v. Menominee Tribe argued that the treaty rights of the tribe were not extinguished by Congress's act to dissolve their tribal organization and allot lands individually to its members. The justice contended that there was no explicit language in the congressional act indicating an intention to terminate hunting and fishing rights, which had been guaranteed under previous treaties. They further asserted that such a significant change should not be inferred without clear evidence of Congressional intent, especially given longstanding legal principles favoring Native American tribes in cases where treaty language is ambiguous or unclear. The dissent also pointed out inconsistencies between this ruling and prior Supreme Court decisions affirming tribal treaty rights even after changes in land ownership or governance structure.