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Minnesota, et al., Petitioners, v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians et al.

Country/Territory
United States of America
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Mar 24, 1999
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
Supreme Court of the United States
Seat of court
Washington D.C.
Judge
OConnor
Stevens
Souter
Ginsburg
Breyer
Rehnquist
Scalia
Kennedy
Thomas
Reference number
526 U.S. 172 (1999)
Language
English
Subject
Environment gen.
Keyword
Indigenous peoples Right of use
Abstract
In 1837, the United States entered into a Treaty with several Bands of Chippewa Indians. Under the terms of this Treaty, the Indians ceded land in present-day Wisconsin and Minnesota to the United States, and the United States guaranteed to the Indians certain hunting, fishing, and gathering rights on the ceded land. The Supreme Court had to decide whether the Chippewa Indians retained these usufructuary rights today. The State of Minnesota argued that the Indians lost these rights through an Executive Order in 1850, an 1855 Treaty, and the admission of Minnesota into the Union in 1858. After an examination of the historical record, the Supreme Court concluded that the Chippewa retained the usufructuary rights guaranteed to them under the 1837 Treaty. It emphasized, among others, that the Chippewa’s usufructuary rights were not extinguished when Minnesota was admitted to the Union. Congress had to clearly express intent to abrogate Indian treaty rights, and there was no clear evidence of such intent here. The Treaty rights also did not conflict irreconcilably with state natural resources regulation such that they could not survive the admission to the Union. The Court made clear that a tribe’s treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on state land could coexist with state natural resources management.
Full text
97-1337.ZO.html