United States v. Minnesota

466 F. Supp. 1382, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13439
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedMarch 28, 1979
DocketCiv. No. 6-76-465
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 466 F. Supp. 1382 (United States v. Minnesota) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Minnesota, 466 F. Supp. 1382, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13439 (mnd 1979).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DEVITT, Chief Judge.

Introduction

The Red Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa Indians, represented by the United States government, seeks a declaratory judgment that its members retain hunting, fishing, trapping, and wild ricing rights in an area the Band ceded to the federal government in 1889 and 1904. That area encompasses about 2.6 million acres in northwestern Minnesota adjacent to the present diminished Red Lake Reservation. The position of the Indians basically is that those rights were guaranteed them in an 1863 treaty and were not abrogated by the subsequent 1889 and 1904 land cessions. Defendant State of Minnesota and intervening defendant counties disagree. They assert that in 1889 and 1904 the Red Lake Indians expressly relinquished all their right, title, and interest in the ceded area, which of necessity must include hunting, fishing, trapping, and wild ricing rights. The parties have submitted the issue on exhibits, briefs, and oral arguments. The court concludes that the Red Lake Band did not retain hunting, fishing, trapping, or wild ricing rights in the area ceded in 1889 and 1904.

Summary of Facts

Prior to the influx of white settlers, the Red Lake Band inhabited a large area of northwestern Minnesota encompassing about 13 million acres. In 1863, the Band, in its first significant treaty with the federal government, ceded about 10 million acres of their land to the United States. This cession, known as the 1863 Treaty at the Old Crossing of the Red Lake River, was negotiated by Alexander Ramsey. The treaty contains no mention of hunting and fishing rights, but the transcript of Ramsey’s negotiations with the Band makes clear that the Indians were promised they could continue to hunt and fish on the ceded land until it was settled. See Journal of Proceedings Connected with the 1863 Treaty at the Old Crossing of the Red Lake River, at pp. 8, 15, 27, 37-38, 47, 54 (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 53). After the 1863 Treaty at the Old Crossing, the Red Lake Reservation consisted of about 3.2 million acres. It is in this area, not the entire original 13 million [1384]*1384acres, that the Band now claims it has retained hunting, fishing, trapping, and wild ricing rights.

The second land cession by the Red Lake Band occurred in 1889. In that year Congress passed the Nelson Act, which authorized negotiations for the purchase of land from the Red Lake Band. A three member commission, which became known as the Rice Commission, was appointed to conduct negotiations. The commission was instructed by Congress to obtain an agreement with the Band “for the cession and relinquishment in writing of all their title and interest in and to” the lands the Band agreed to sell. Any such agreement, upon approval of the President, was to “operate as a complete extinguishment of the Indian title” to the ceded land. See Nelson Act of January 14, 1889, c. 24, 25 Stat. 642 (Amicus’ Exhibit M). Pursuant to the Nelson Act the Rice Commission negotiated an agreement with the Red Lake Band for the cession of about 2.4 million acres of the Band’s land. In that agreement the Band agreed to “grant, cede, relinquish, and convey to the United States all our right, title, and interest in and to all” of the 2.4 million ceded acres. Neither the Nelson Act, the agreement, nor the transcript of the negotiations contain any reference to reserved hunting, fishing, trapping, or wild ricing rights in the ceded area.

The final land cession by the Red Lake Band occurred in 1904. Congress authorized negotiations by the Act of March 3,1901, 31 Stat. 1077, and Inspector James McLaughlin negotiated an agreement with the Band in 1902. The agreement contained language of conveyance similar to the Nelson Act, and, like in the Nelson Act, no mention was made of reserved hunting, fishing, trapping, or wild ricing rights. The agreement was not ratified by Congress because of disagreement over method of payment, but Congress in 1904 did consummate the cession on terms substantially identical to the 1902 agreement, except for method of payment. See Act of Feb. 20, 1904, 33 Stat. 46. As a result, the size of the Red Lake Reservation was reduced to about 543,000 acres. The reservation was increased to its present size when approximately 160,000 acres were restored to tribal ownership pursuant to the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, 48 Stat. 984.

Subsequent to the 1904 cession, the State of Minnesota has consistently enforced its gaming laws against Band members who hunt and fish in the area ceded in 1889 and 1904, except for the area later restored to tribal ownership. Both the state and the federal government have taken the position, up until 1976, that Band members have no unique hunting, fishing, trapping, or wild ricing rights in the ceded area. Moreover, while Band members have often violated State gaming laws over the years in the area at issue, there is virtually no evidence that, up until commencement of this litigation, the Band seriously contended that the state had no jurisdiction over its hunting, fishing, trapping, and wild ricing activities in the ceded area.

DISCUSSION

Principles of Treaty Construction

In numerous opinions over the years the United States Supreme Court has established certain basic principles of treaty and statutory construction when Indian land cessions are at issue. The Court has recognized on many occasions that treaties and agreements with the Indians cannot be considered as exercises in ordinary conveyancing, because of the dependent status of the Indians and the nonconsensual nature of the cessions. Rather, cession treaties and agreements must be interpreted as the Indians understood them, and doubtful expressions must be resolved in their favor. See, e. g., Choctaw Nation v. Oklahoma, 397 U.S. 620, 630-31, 90 S.Ct. 1328, 25 L.Ed.2d 615 (1970); Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564, 576, 28 S.Ct. 207, 52 L.Ed. 340 (1908). Similar principles apply when construing congressional enactments, such as the Nelson Act, which purportedly alter property rights of Indians. The Supreme Court has ruled that Congressional intent to abrogate Indian property rights must be clear from the face of the Act or surround[1385]*1385ing circumstances, and that doubtful expressions in the Act must be resolved in favor of the Indians. See, e. g., DeCoteau v. District County Court, 420 U.S. 425, 444, 95 S.Ct. 1082, 43 L.Ed.2d 300 (1975); McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm’n, 411 U.S. 164, 174, 93 S.Ct. 1257, 36 L.Ed.2d 129 (1973); Pigeon River Improvement, Slide & Boom Co. v. Charles W. Cox, Ltd, 291 U.S. 138, 160, 54 S.Ct. 361, 78 L.Ed. 695 (1934).

The above principles require the court to take a sympathetic view toward the. position of the Red Lake Band, ■ but those principles do not permit us to ignore the clear wording of a treaty, agreement, or enactment, or to disregard the intent of Congress.

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United States v. State of Minn.
466 F. Supp. 1382 (D. Minnesota, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
466 F. Supp. 1382, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-minnesota-mnd-1979.