The University of Alabama School of Law’s Professor Grant Christensen, a nationally recognized expert in federal Indian law, has published a new essay in the Yale Law Journal Forum, the online publication of the Yale Law Journal.
In “State Tax Exemptions for Tribal Cultural Property,” 136 Yale L.J.F. 1 (2026), Christensen and co-author Andrew Appleby examine the state and local taxes imposed when land transfers to tribal governments. Those taxes, the authors argue, raise the financial cost of reacquiring ancestral land and reinforce the historic erosion of tribal landholding, limiting tribes’ ability to protect sacred sites and sustain community life.
The essay reframes transfer tax exemptions as a state’s recognition of inherent tribal sovereignty and as a response to the colonial foundations of state land ownership. Christensen and Appleby conclude that state tax reform can give states a practical tool to help rebuild reservation communities and strengthen tribal-state relations.
Christensen is a frequently published voice in national legal scholarship and commentary. His work in federal Indian law has appeared in the University of Chicago Law Review, and last month he examined Justice Kagan’s first solo dissent in the Washington Post.
Read the full essay in the Yale Law Journal Forum.