Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Wisconsin

668 F. Supp. 1233, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7638
District Court, W.D. Wisconsin·Decided August 21, 1987·No. 74-C-313-C·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

CRABB, Chief Judge.

This lawsuit, concerning the scope and extent of the plaintiff tribes’ usufructuary rights in the territory ceded by the Chippewa treaties of 1837 and 1842, is now in the “regulatory phase” of the litigation. Prefatory to the regulatory phase trial scheduled for the spring of 1988,1 have requested the parties to brief the issue of what legal standards this court should apply in determining the permissible bounds of state regulation of the tribes’ off-reservation rights.

Five broad issues have emerged from the briefs: 1) the appropriate legal standard to apply to state regulation for the purpose of conservation; 2) whether the state may regulate for any legitimate purpose or whether it may regulate only for conservation; 3) more specifically, whether the state may regulate for health and safety purposes and, if so, the appropriate legal standard to apply; 4) whether the state may regulate to enforce the moderate living standard apportioned to the tribes; and 5) whether tribal self-regulation will preempt or preclude concurrent state regulation.

1. Regulation for Conservation

The parties do not dispute that under certain circumstances the state may regulate in the interests of conservation. Their disagreement occurs in defining the circumstances.

The tribes argue that the state first must show necessity, irreparable harm, and the absence of effective tribal self-regulation before it may regulate a specific usufructuary activity, relying on United States v. Michigan, 653 F.2d 277, 279 (6th Cir.1981). The tribes assert further that once the state meets this initial test, it must then show that the regulation is necessary for conservation, is the least restrictive alternative, and does not discriminate against the Indian harvest. The state agrees that its regulations must be reasonable and necessary for conservation and must not discriminate against the Indians, but rejects the concepts of irreparable harm and tribal self-regulation. Whether tribal regulation precludes state regulation will be discussed in section five.

Aside from the tribal self-regulation issue, I do not perceive any serious disagreement between the parties as to the basic standard for conservation regulations. The state may regulate the off-reservation treaty usufructuary rights of the plaintiff tribes so long as the regulations are reasonable and necessary to the conservation of a particular species or resource in a particular area and do not discriminate against the Indians. Puyallup Tribe v. Dept. of Game of Washington, 391 U.S. 392, 398-401, 88 S.Ct. 1725, 1728-30, 20 L.Ed.2d 689 (1968) (hereafter Puyallup I); Antoine v. Washington, 420 U.S. 194, 207, 95 S.Ct. 944, 951, 43 L.Ed.2d 129 (1975); Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. State of Wisconsin, 653 F.Supp. 1420, 1434 (W.D.Wis.1987) (hereafter LCO III).

The first prong of the legal standard is that a regulation must be reasonable and necessary for conservation. Conservation in the context of treaty usufructuary rights includes the perpetuation of a *1236 species or resource as well as measures designed to ensure a reasonable margin of safety against extinction. United States v. State of Oregon, 718 F.2d 299, 305 (9th Cir.1983); Sohappy v. Smith, 302 F.Supp. 899, 908 (D.Ore.1969). A conservation regulation is reasonable if it is “appropriate to its purpose.” United States v. State of Washington, 384 F.Supp. 312, 342 (W.D.Wash.1974), aff' d, 520 F.2d 676 (9th Cir.1975), ce rt. denied, 423 U.S. 1086, 96 S.Ct. 877, 47 L.Ed.2d 97 (1976). A conservation measure is necessary if it is “essential to conservation.” Id. The essential nature of the regulation depends upon a showing that there is a need to limit the taking of the particular species or resource in the particular geographic area, and that the particular regulation is necessary to accomplish that limitation. Sohappy, 302 F.Supp. at 908. In addition, the state must demonstrate not only that the regulation is a reasonable and necessary conservation measure, but also that its application to the tribes is “necessary in the interest of conservation.” Antoine, 420 U.S. at 207, 95 S.Ct. at 952.

In their initial brief, the tribes propose irreparable harm as an element of the standard distinct from necessity. See United States v. State of Michigan, 653 F.2d 277, 279 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1124, 102 S.Ct. 971, 71 L.Ed.2d 110 (1981) (“The state bears the burden of persuasion to show ... that it is highly probable that irreparable harm will occur”). In their reply brief, however, the tribes contend that they are not advocating an “endangered species” approach to state regulation, but rather that they chose irreparable harm as a term familiar to lawyers and courts as well as being the language used by the other federal court that has considered the issue of treaty hunting and fishing in the Midwest. Since the plaintiff tribes do not appear now to assert that irreparable harm should be a separate showing from necessity, any perceived conflict between the parties’ positions is purely nominal.

The tribes propose also that the state regulations must be the least restrictive alternative available. See United States v. State of Oregon, 769 F.2d 1410, 1416 (D.Ore.1985); Michigan, 653 F.2d at 279. The state does not appear to contest this standard, and the least restrictive alternative does not appear incompatible with the reasonable and necessary test. Indeed, if in order to regulate treaty usufructuary activities the state must show that it is necessary to limit the harvest of a particular species or resource, and that the proposed regulation is necessary to effectuate that limitation, and that application of the proposed regulation to the tribes is necessary, it is doubtful that any regulation that is not the least restrictive alternative would survive. However, the tribes have proposed the explicit addition of a least restrictive alternative component to the test for state regulation. The late Judge James E. Doyle found that neither the Chippewa nor the government, at the time of the treaties of 1837 and 1842, contemplated governmental regulation of the natural resources in the ceded territory. LCO III, 653 F.Supp. at 1434. I find that it would accord with the tribes’ understanding at the time of the treaties to confine the state now to the least restrictive alternative available to accomplish its conservation purposes.

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Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Wisconsin, 668 F. Supp. 1233, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7638 (W.D. Wis. 1987).

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