White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
449 federal appellate · 141 district · 475 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,445 later decisions (76 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably United States v. Mitchell (1983), National Farmers Union Insurance Companies 27 v. Crow Tribe of Indians (1985)
449 federal appellate · 141 district · 475 state decisions — followed in 25 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 25 U.S.C. § 1451 · 25 U.S.C. § 196 · 25 U.S.C. § 406 · 25 U.S.C. § 407 · 25 U.S.C. § 450 (§ 2 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975) · 25 U.S.C. § 461 · 25 U.S.C. § 466 · 25 U.S.C. § 476
Relies on United States v. Mitchell · Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez · United States v. Wheeler · United States v. Mazurie · Williams v. Lee
Cited together with Washington v. Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation · McClanahan v. State Tax Commission of Arizona · Williams v. Lee · Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones · New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache Tribe
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 1,445 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“on the right of reservation Indians to make their own laws and be ruled by them.”
81 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a particularized inquiry into the nature of the state, federal, and tribal interests at stake, an inquiry designed to determine whether, in the specific context, the exercise of state authority would violate federal law.”
57 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“general federal policy of encouraging tribes 'to revitalize their self-government' and to assume control over their 'business and economic affairs'”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.