Grant Christensen (Alabama) and Andrew Appleby (Tennessee) have posted Taxing Indigenous Cultural Property, 52 BYU L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026). Here is the abstract:

What is the value of something that cannot legally be sold?  This question lies at the heart of a growing tension between federal tax policy and Indigenous rights.  Although federal law prohibits the sale of eagle feathers, the IRS recently sought to collect a $29.2 million estate tax assessment on artwork incorporating a bald eagle—even while acknowledging the beneficiary could not legally sell the artwork to satisfy the tax liability.  Though the parties ultimately settled, this case exposes a dangerous precedent demanding a comprehensive response.

This Article argues that Indigenous cultural property should be exempt from federal and state taxation and subject only to regulation imposed by Native communities themselves.  Imposing a “tribal only” regulatory scheme for cultural property is both consistent with the underlying purposes of tax law and the federal government’s broad commitment to support tribal self-government and protect tribal sovereignty.

We build our normative claim upon two centuries of precedent and practice.  Drawing upon the underlying purposes of tax law, tribal law, and federal Indian law, this Article constructs a robust defense for Indigenous cultural property’s exclusion from federal regulation.  Our argument rests on two foundational premises.  First, inherent tribal sovereignty reserves to tribal governments the authority to govern the cultural and internal values of their communities.  Second, federal tax law has no overriding interest in interfering with the inheritance of cultural property between tribal members or in collecting revenue on property that cannot legally be sold.  From these premises, a natural consequence emerges: non-tribal regulation of this patrimony should be broadly prohibited.

The implications are profound.  If adopted, our proposal would free tribal members from the burdens associated with transferring cultural property under non-tribal law and would ensure Native Nations that the property forming the basis of their identity is free from federal and state encumbrance.