[1] The Mescalero Apache Tribe, doing business as the Sierra Blanca Ski Enterprises, run a ski resort in New Mexico, outside of the boundaries of the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

The New Mexico Supreme Court declined to hear the case and the tribe appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which granted certiorari to hear the case.

White found that if the tribe conducted off-reservation business they were liable for the corporate income taxes of New Mexico.

§ 465, land acquired for tribes is to be held in trust for the tribe by the United States Department of the Interior and is exempt from state property taxes, including those that New Mexico sought for improvements to the land.

He would have held that the tribal ski resort was a federal instrumentality and that the state had no authority to impose a corporate income tax.