Chairman Nathan Small, Council member Lee Juan Tyler and Public Affairs Manager Randy’L Teton, Crow Tribal member Samuel Enemy Hunter in the back with feather head dress.
Submitted by TRIBAL PUBLIC AFFAIRS
WASHINGTON D.C. — On January 8, Fort Hall Business Council Chairman Nathan Small and member Lee Juan Tyler from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, along with tribal attorneys Bill Bacon, Monte Gray and Randy’L Teton, public affairs attended the U.S. Supreme Court hearing in Washington, D.C., to support the filing of the Tribes amicus brief.
Also to fight for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ right to exercise treaty rights to hunt and fish outside reservation boundaries. The case of Herrera v Wyoming is highly watched in Indian Country, which addresses whether hunting and fishing treaty rights continue to exist even after Wyoming became a state, and whether the creation of a national forest diminished those rights.
Tribal Chairman Nathan Small said in his opinion, “We prevailed at the court hearing and solidified our treaty rights to hunt and fish under Article 4. Our Treaty is the upmost importance to our people. If we didn’t have the Treaty it would be a huge loss to our way of life. We have hunted in these lands for thousands of years and will continue to hunt. Our presence at the Supreme Court was very important and wish we had more Council in attendance to defend our Treaty.”
The case Herrera v Wyoming presents the question of whether a Crow Indian was permitted to hunt and fish off his reservation, within the Bighorn National Forest located in the state of Wyoming pursuant to a treaty provision between the United States and the Crow Tribe. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are closely watching the case because the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ and Crow Tribe’s Treaties of 1868 have identical off-reservation hunting and fishing language, which states “ . . . they shall have the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon . . .” Council member Lee Juan Tyler emphasized how important the Herrera case is to us, “I wish we had the ability to argue the case at the Supreme Court as our Tribe and the Tinno case were brought up numerous times throughout the arguments. But I’m glad to see they understood the importance of our Treaty.”
The case has far reaching effects since the Wyoming State Courts maintained a position that hunting and fishing rights of Indian Tribes outside their reservation were terminated upon Wyoming becoming a state. Wyoming relied on an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which determined that the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes lost their right to hunt and fish outside their reservation when Wyoming became a state. Wyoming also argued that by the United States designating the area as a National Forest it also prohibited the hunting treaty right, because it made the land no longer “unoccupied” which was a requirement in the treaty.
However, numerous tribes and interested parties provided arguments to support Herrera. Those include the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, the Crow Tribe, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, the Southern Ute Tribes, the Ute Mountain Tribe, the federal government, Indian law professors and defendant Herrera, all submitted written arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court which stated that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized substantial changes in the law and that in more recent decisions involving the state of Minnesota versus the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians the U.S. Supreme Court decided the reasoning of the earlier cases were flawed.
As early as 1972, the State of Idaho’s Supreme Court has recognized the change in the law when it ruled that the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes still maintained their off reservation hunting and fishing rights in the case of State v. Tinno.
Tribes’ General Counsel Bill Bacon has been working on the Tinno case for many years and states, “I think this (Herrera) case is to overturn the Racehorse case and today’s arguments were favorable to the Tribes. The court decision should be made no sooner than March no later than June 2019.”
After the hearing Clayvin Herrera said in a short interview with the Office of Public Affairs, “We can’t stop fighting for our Treaty Rights. We have to stand strong together and I hope for a good decision for a positive victory. I thank the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes for their support in appearing in today’s court hearing, aho (thank you).”
The Tribes would like to thank those other groups which also submitted briefs in support of honoring treaty promises made to tribes by the United States. The Tribes also wish to thank the State of Idaho and those other states that chose not to support the position of the State of Wyoming in this matter.