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34 the majority seems to do for purposes of these cases), nothing in those precedents supports ICWA. To be sure, this Court has repeatedly used loose language concerning a “plenary power” and “trust relationship” with Indians, and that language has been taken by some to displace the normal constitutional rules. See ante, at 10–15. But, even taken to their new limits, the Court’s precedents have upheld only a variety of laws that either regulate commerce with Indians or deal with Indian tribes and their lands. Despite citing a veritable avalanche of precedents, respondents have failed to identify a single case where this Court upheld a federal statute comparable to ICWA.

As noted above, Kagama was careful to note that the Major Crimes Act at issue was “confined to the acts of an Indian of some tribe, of a criminal character, committed within the limits of the reservation.” 118 U. S., at 383. In that vein, the opinion cited cases arising from congressional regulations of Indian lands located within Federal Territories. See id., at 380 (citing Rogers, 4 How., at 572; citing Murphy, 114 U. S., at 44, and 356 Bales of Cotton, 1 Pet., at 542). In other words, it is possible that Kagama viewed Congress as having the power to regulate crimes by Indians on Indian lands because those lands remained in a sense “external” to the Nation’s normal affairs and akin to quasi-federal lands.

Again, that would be a non sequitur. Nevertheless, at a high level, it is possible to see how Kagama was rooted in the same foreign-affairs and territorial powers that authorized much of the early Trade and Intercourse Acts (and which Congress may have relied upon when passing the 1817 Act). See Cohen §5.01[4], at 390, and nn. 47, 48 (linking Kagama with Curtiss-Wright, 299 U. S., at 318); United States v. Wheeler, 435 U. S. 313, 323 (1978) (describing Indian tribes as possessing a pre-existing sovereignty, apart from the United States). And, viewed in that light, it would