US appeals court rules in favor of Native American tribe’s hunting rights on ceded lands News
Wilson44691, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US appeals court rules in favor of Native American tribe’s hunting rights on ceded lands

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation’s dispute with the state of Idaho regarding the tribe’s hunting rights on US land. The court found that an 1868 treaty between the Shoshone and the US allows tribe members to hunt on ceded lands without having to permanently reside on a Native American reservation.

Circuit Judge Jennifer Sung authored the three-judge panel decision. Sung ruled that the 1868 Treaty of Fort Bridger does not require the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation to permanently reside on a reservation to retain its hunting rights on ceded US lands. Currently, the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation does not have a designated reservation. Rather, they reside in northern Utah and southern Idaho.

Sung noted that the court must interpret treaties in the context that the parties would naturally understand. Reading the treaty consistent with that understanding, Sung concluded that the treaty does not make the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation’s hunting rights contingent on relocating to a reservation permanently. Rather, Sung found that the treaty’s only conditions on the Shoshone hunting rights are that (1) the land must belong to the US, (2) the land must be unoccupied, (3)”game” may be found on the land, and (4) peace continues to subsist “among the whites and Indians.”

One thing Sung’s Tuesday ruling did not address was the issue that the other Native American tribes that signed the treaty, including members of the Fort Hall and Wind River Reservations, are not parties to the lawsuit. Therefore, the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation members may still not be able to hunt on lands they ceded to the US in 1868 without state-issued permits.

The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation sued the state of Idaho back in June 2021 after Idaho officials cited tribe members for hunting without state-issued hunting tags. Originally, the district court in this case dismissed the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation’s claims against the state of Idaho for failing to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). That same court also found that the US Constitution’s Eleventh Amendment barred the Shoshone’s claims against the state of Idaho. The Eleventh Amendment provides that, generally, states are immune from lawsuits brought by citizens in federal court unless the state waives sovereign immunity. Upon de novo review, however, the Ninth Circuit found that the district court erred in its ruling and remanded the case back to the district court for further proceedings.

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