In Bay Mills Indian Cmty. v. State, 244 Mich. App. 739, 626 N.W.2d 169 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001), cert. denied, 122 S. Ct. 1303 (2002), land which had previously been held in trust for the tribe by the federal government was fee patented to a non-Indian, creating fee simple private ownership. Id. at 172. The land was subsequently deeded to the Governor of Michigan for the use and benefit of the tribe. When property taxes on the land became delinquent the county sued for nonpayment of taxes, and the land was sold at a tax sale to private individuals. The tribe subsequently sued for damages for loss of use of the land, claiming the transfer of Indian land by tax sale violated the Nonintercourse Act. The court disagreed: "As previously discussed, once the United States removed the restraint on alienation of the land by patenting it in fee simple to a private party, the property was subject to taxation. Nothing in the Indian trade and intercourse act suggests that its protections precluded taxation or that it acted to revive the federal government's interest in the property sufficiently to require its consent for transfer by tax sale. Furthermore, "courts have said that once Congress removes restraints on alienation of land, the protections of the Nonintercourse Act no longer apply." Lummi, 5 F.3d at 1359. We therefore conclude that the Governor's acquisition of the land in trust for plaintiff's predecessors did not trigger the protections of the act and that the state's transfer of the property at tax sale did not violate the act." (Bay Mills, 626 N.W.2d at 174.)