Seufert Bros Co v. United States United States v. Seufert Bros Co

• Decision Date: 03 March 1919
• Docket Number: 188,Nos. 187,s. 187
• Citation: 39 S.Ct. 203,63 L.Ed. 555,249 U.S. 194
• Parties: SEUFERT BROS. CO. v. UNITED STATES. UNITED STATES et al. v. SEUFERT BROS. CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

249 U.S. 194

39 S.Ct. 203

63 L.Ed. 555

SEUFERT BROS. CO.

v UNITED STATES.

UNITED STATES et al.

v. SEUFERT BROS. CO.

Nos. 187, 188.

Argued Jan. 29 and 30, 1919.

Decided March 3, 1919.

Messrs. H. S. Wilson, of Portland, Or., and A. S. Bennett, of Salem, Or., for Seufert Bros. Co.

Mr. Assistant Attorney General Brown, for the United States and another.

Mr. Justice CLARKE delivered the opinion of the Court.

As trustee and guardian of the Yakima Indians, the government of the United States instituted this suit in the federal District Court for the District of Oregon to restrain defendant, a corporation, its officers, agents, and employes, from interfering with the fishing rights in a described locality on the south side and bank of the Columbia river, which it was alleged were secured to the Indians by article 3 of the treaty between them and the United States, concluded June 9, 1855, and ratified by the Senate on March 8, 1859 (12 Stat. 951).

The District Court granted in part the relief prayed for and found as follows:

That the 'following described portion of the south bank of the Columbia river in the county of Wasco, state and district of Oregon, was at the time of the treaty, always has been, and now is, one of the usual and accustomed fishing places belonging to and possessed by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of Indians known as the Yakima Nation. * * *'

And the court further decreed that the rights and privileges to fish in common with citizens of the United States reserved by said Yakima Nation and guaranteed by the United States to it in the treaty of June 9, 1855, applied to all the usual and accustomed fishing places on the south bank or shore of the Columbia river, in the decree described.

An appeal from the decree granting an injunction brings the case here for review.

As stated by counsel for the appellant the most important question in the case is this: Did the treaty with the Yakima Tribes of Indians ceding to the United States lands occupied by them, on the north side of the Columbia river in the territory of Washington and reserving to the Indians 'the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places in common with citizens of the territory' give them the right to fish in the country of another tribe on the south or Oregon side of the river? The appeal requires the construction of the language quoted in this question, and the circumstances incident to the making of the treaty are important.

Fourteen tribes or bands of confederated Indians, which, for the purposes of the treaty were considered as one nation under the name of Yakima Nation, at the time of the making of the treaty occupied an extensive area in the territory, now state, of Washington, which is described in the treaty, and was bounded on the south by the Columbia river. By this treaty the government secured the relinquishment by the Indians of all their rights in an extensive region, and in consideration therefor a described part of the lands claimed by them was set apart for their exclusive use and benefit as an Indian reservation, and in addition fishing privileges were reserved to them by the following provision in article 3:

'The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams, where running through or bordering said reservation, is further secured to said confederated tribes and bands of Indians, as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with citizens of the territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing them.'

This treaty was one of a group of eleven treaties negotiated with the Indian tribes of the northwest between December 26, 1854, and July 16, 1855, inclusive. Six of these were concluded between June 9th and July 16th, inclusive, and one of these last, dated June 25th, was with the Walla-Walla and Wasco Tribes, 'residing in Middle Oregon,' and occupying a large area, bounded on the north by that part of the Columbia river in which the fishing places in controversy are located (12 Stat. 963). This treaty contains a provision for an Indian reservation and one saving fishing...