The United States Supreme Court case, UNITED STATES et al. v. ANCHOR COAL CO. et al., 1928, involved a dispute over coal mining rights in the Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. The U.S government sued Anchor Coal Company and others for illegally extracting coal from these lands without proper leasing agreements or paying royalties to the tribe as required by law. The defendants argued that they had obtained valid leases from individual tribal members who owned allotments of land within the reservation and were therefore entitled to mine there. However, under federal law at that time, all mineral resources on Native American reservations were considered collectively owned by the tribe rather than individually by its members; thus any lease agreement needed approval from both tribal authorities and federal officials before it could be legally binding. The court ruled in favor of the U.S government stating that only Congress has authority to regulate commerce with Native American tribes including their natural resources such as minerals found on their lands; hence private companies cannot bypass this process through direct deals with individual tribal members.

The dissenting opinion in the case of United States v. Anchor Coal Co., argued that the government had not overstepped its bounds by imposing a tax on coal mined on leased federal lands. The dissenters believed that this was within the government's rights as owner of these lands, and they disagreed with the majority's interpretation of previous court decisions regarding similar issues. They also pointed out that Congress had clearly intended for such taxes to be levied when it passed relevant legislation, and suggested that disregarding this intent could have serious implications for future cases involving governmental authority over public resources. Furthermore, they contended that if private companies were allowed to profit from mining activities without paying any form of compensation or tax to the government, it would essentially amount to a giveaway of valuable public assets.