State v. Gurnoe

192 N.W.2d 892, 53 Wis. 2d 390, 1972 Wisc. LEXIS 1146
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 6, 1972
DocketState 92, 95
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 192 N.W.2d 892 (State v. Gurnoe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gurnoe, 192 N.W.2d 892, 53 Wis. 2d 390, 1972 Wisc. LEXIS 1146 (Wis. 1972).

Opinions

Wilkie, J.

A brief history of the Lake Superior Chippewa is necessary to our consideration of the important issues presented by these cases.1

[396]*396 History of the Lake Swperior Chippewa.

The Chippewa originally lived on the northeast coast of the United States. They were gradually driven westward by the powerful Iroquois and Six Nations tribes of New York and Canada. The tribe settled in the northern part of what is now the state of Wisconsin, on the Apostle Islands. While living on the islands the tribe subsisted by fishing and agriculture. As the Sioux moved further west from Wisconsin in the mid-seventeenth century the Chippewa gradually left the islands, settling around Lake Superior and the Mississippi, and dividing into several bands, of which the Lake Superior Chippewa is but one.

The Lake Superior band, also known as the Ke-che-gum-me-win-in-e-wug, or Great Lake men, settled in what now is northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They lived primarily on the fish in Lake Superior. The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1850 concludes:

“The Lake Shore Chippewas have an inexhaustible resource in the fish, which plentifully abounds in the waters of the lake. They are naturally well disposed towards the whites, docile and harmless.” 2

By the treaties of St. Peters 3 in 1837, and La Pointe 4 in 1842, the Indians ceded their Wisconsin lands to the United States government. In exchange, Article 5 of the 1837 treaty guaranteed the Chippewa hunting and fishing rights on ceded lands “during the pleasure of the President of the United States.” The provisions of the 1842 treaty gave the Chippewa their hunting rights on ceded lands “until required to remove by the President of the United States.”

[397]*397On February 6, 1850, President Zachary Taylor invoked the power granted by the 1842 treaty and by executive order directed all of the Chippewa to remove themselves to unceded lands. Despite this order the Chippewa continued to reside in the northernmost part of the State of Wisconsin and to fish in Lake Superior.

Then, on February 27, 1854, in response to the presidential order of 1850, the Wisconsin legislature memorialized Congress as follows: 5

“Memorial to the President and Congress of the United States, relative to the Chippewa Indians of Lake Superior.
“To His Excellency the President of the United States, and to the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled:
“The Memorial of the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin respectfully represents:
“That the inhabitants of the counties of La Pointe and Douglass have nearly unanimously signed a petition showing to your memorialists, that the Chippewa Indians in the region of Lake Superior are a peaceable, quiet, and inoffensive people, rapidly improving in the arts and sciences: that they acquire their living by hunting, fishing, manufacturing maple sugar, and agricultural pursuits: that many of them have intermarried with the white inhabitants, and are becoming generally anxious to become educated and adopt the habits of the ‘white man.’
“Your memorialists would therefore pray His Excellency, the President of the United States, to rescind the orders heretofore given for the removal of said Indians, and that such orders may be given in the premises, as shall secure the payment to said Indians, of their annuities at La Pointe, in La Pointe county on Lake Superior, that being the most feasible point therefor.
“And your memorialists also pray that the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled will pass such laws as may be requisite to carry into effect such design and orders; and to encourage the permanent settlement of those Indians as shall adopt the habits of the citizens of the United States.
[398]*398“And your memorialists firmly believing that justice and humanity require that such action should be had in the premises, will ever pray, etc.
“Approved, February 27,1854.”

On September 30, 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the treaty under which appellants presently claim their rights.6 Article 2 of this treaty established reservations for the La Pointe (Bad Eiver) band and Ontonagon (Red Cliff) band. The 1854 treaty represents a fundamental change in federal policy toward the Chippewa inasmuch as it sanctioned their remaining in Wisconsin instead of removal to the unceded lands.

Issues.

Several issues must be considered on this appeal:

1. Does state law or federal treaty govern whether the Indians are granted fishing rights?

2. Does the 1854 treaty between the United States and the Lake Superior Chippewa grant any fishing rights?

3. Did the presidential order of 1850 revoke the Indians’ fishing rights so that they could not be granted in the 1854 treaty?

4. If there are any fishing rights, do such rights include the right to fish Lake Superior?

5. If there are any fishing rights granted by the treaty, what is the state’s power to regulate fishing activities by the Indians ?

Provisions of the treaty gove/rn.

Prior to 1953 the states had no jurisdiction over crimes occurring on Indian lands. In that year Congress enacted Public Law 280, codified as 18 U. S. C., sec. 1162, entitled “State Jurisdiction over offenses committed by or against Indians in the Indian country.” This statute [399]*399generally gives the state jurisdiction over crimes committed on Indian reservations. Par. (b) of this statute, however, provides:

“ (b) Nothing in this section shall authorize the alienation, encumbrance, or taxation of any real or personal property, including water rights, belonging to any Indian or any Indian tribe, band, or community that is held in trust by the United States or is subject to a restriction against alienation imposed by the United States; or shall authorize regulation of the use of such property in a manner inconsistent with any Federal treaty, agreement, or statute or with any regulation made pursuant thereto ; or shall deprive any Indian or any Indian tribe, band, or community of any right, privilege, or immunity afforded under Federal treaty, agreement, or statute with respect to hunting, trapping, or fishing or the control, licensing, or regulation thereof.”

Therefore, it is clear that this statute does not affect any treaty rights.

Even before the statute, however, the Supreme Court of the United States made clear in Missouri v. Holland 7 that under the supremacy clause of the constitution, federal treaty law prevails over state law. Thus an interpretation of the 1854 treaty is required on these appeals.

Does the 1851¡. treaty grant fishing rights at all?

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Bluebook (online)
192 N.W.2d 892, 53 Wis. 2d 390, 1972 Wisc. LEXIS 1146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gurnoe-wis-1972.