Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife et al. v. Klamath Indian Tribe (473 U.S. 753)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided July 2, 1985 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 473 U.S. 753 · 105 S. Ct. 3420
- Decided
- July 2, 1985
- Term
- October Term 1984
- Vote
- 6–2
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. In 1901 the Klamath Indian Tribe ceded 621,824 acres of reservation land to the United States. The question presented in this case is whether the Tribe thereafter retained a special right to hunt and fish on the ceded lands free of state regulation. In answering that question we consider not only the terms of the 1901 Cession Agreement but also the predecessor 1864 Treaty that established the Tribe’s original reservation and certain other events in the history of the Tribe. I In the early 19th century, the Klamath and Modoc Tribes and the Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians claimed aboriginal title to approximately 22 million acres of land extending east from the Cascade Mountains in southern Oregon. In 1864 these Tribes (now collectively known as the Klamath Indian Tribe) entered into a Treaty with the United States, ceding “all their right, title and claim to all the country claimed by them” and providing that a described tract of approximately 1.9 million acres “within the country ceded” would be set apart for them, to be “held and regarded as an Indian reservation.” 16 Stat. 707, 708. The 1864 Treaty also provided that the Tribes would have “secured” to them “the exclusive right of taking fish in the streams and lakes, included in said reservation, and of gathering edible roots, seeds, and berries within its limits.” Ibid.…
Excerpt of a 71,126-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.