JL's Link
U.S. Supreme Court sides with Native American elk hunter [Reuters] By Lawrence Hurley ,Reuters•May 20, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of a Native American elk hunter, citing an 1868 treaty between his tribe and the U.S. government as it revived his legal challenge to a conviction for hunting out of season in Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming.
In a 5-4 ruling, the high court sided with Crow Tribe member Clayvin Herrera. It found that the treaty, which gave tribe members hunting rights on "unoccupied" lands, is still in force even though it was signed before Wyoming became a U.S. state in 1890.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has a record of backing tribal rights, sided with the court's four liberals, with the other four conservative justices in dissent. The same lineup voted in favor of tribal rights in a previous case this term, ruling that members of the Yakima Nation did not have to pay taxes for importing fuel into Washington state.
Monday's ruling does not immediately void Herrera's conviction because the state can still argue that the Bighorn National Forest location where he and others hunted bull elk in 2014 is not "unoccupied," meaning he would not have been able to legally hunt there.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court, said treaty rights do not automatically disappear when a territory becomes a state. Sotomayor cited historical evidence that the Crow Tribe made a high priority of hunting rights during its treaty negotiations with the government.
"Yet despite the apparent importance of the hunting right to the negotiations, Wyoming points to no evidence that federal negotiators ever proposed that the right would end at statehood," Sotomayor wrote. "This silence is especially telling."
Herrera, who is from Montana, was charged with hunting elk off-season or without a state hunting license. He was convicted and received a suspended prison sentence, a fine and a three-year hunting ban. An intermediate Wyoming appeals court upheld the conviction in 2017 and the state's Supreme Court left that ruling in place.
"We are gratified that the Supreme Court held that the treaty hunting right guaranteed to the Crow Tribe and Mr. Herrera was not abrogated by Wyoming's admission to the union or the creation of the Bighorn National Forest," Herrera's lawyer, George Hicks, said in a statement.
It marked the court's second ruling in favor of a hunter in the past two months. The court ruled in March that the federal government could not prevent an Alaskan man from riding his hovercraft on a river through territory overseen by the National Park Service to reach remote moose-hunting grounds in the northernmost U.S. state.
Yes, it opens the door to compromise your hunting opportunities on public land now...
A treaty is between two parties which agree upon the conditions therein.
Unless the treaty addressed the issue of possible statehood, the tribe wins.
bigeasygator's Link
I agree with Trax we took away their national pride. I should know being Italian! (LOL Rocky!) It's been said many times, we keep pointing out our differences instead of celebrating our commonalities. That's the real problem.
My father's side did not arrive here until shortly after the turn of the last century. I understand atrocities occurred against both NA and Africans, but we did not participate. I feel no responsibility other than making sure they have a fair opportunity to take advantage of everything any other citizen can. I will not apologize if that offends anyone because that is not my intent.
Disagree. The interpretation of equal opportunity is what has lead to abuse. Notice, I used the word 'fair', intentionally so. And that is a subjective term, and can create problems.
Term native was used by Europeans because they existed here prior to them.
At what point and time will the children no longer have to pay for the sins of their fathers? Took their national pride away? Any conquered people has had that done. Not my fault some dingbat, fat, big bearded "white man" in the 1880's mistreated them. Why should I have to pay for his stupidity?
The only reason the treaties today were never nullified is because there was no real cost. Today, that cost is staggering...
Bam!! I have long said that. That is the exact reason why I do not like Federal ethnic observances. When someone says we need to celebrate our diversity....I want to backhand them and tell them the only thing that matters is they are Americans and US citizens....that is what we need to celebrate. IMO...diversity is PC-speak for lack of a back bone and often used as a crutch.
It's hard to negotiate a reasonable deal when the other side is holding a loaded gun to your head.
If you want to see how awesome Socialism is, just visit an Indian Reservation in the West,
How interesting to condemn the tribalism of Afghanistan and Middle East and yet America flounders in the antiquity of tribalism itself .
Immigrates need assimilate tell that to the 500 some tribes the federal government currently recognizes. For crying out loud let’s move into the 21st century .
It’s one government for all the peoples not 501.
