Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-532_q86b.pdf
Page Number: 27

2 

HERRERA v. WYOMING 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

to  assert  the  hunting  right  that  the  Court  addresses. 
Thus,  the  Court’s  decision  to  plow  ahead  on  the  treaty-
interpretation  issue  is  hard  to  understand,  and  its  dis-
course  on  that  issue  is  likely,  in  the  end,  to  be  so  much 
wasted ink. 

I 
A 
As the Court notes, the Crow Indians eventually settled
in  what  is  now  Montana,  where  they  subsequently  came
into  contact  with  early  white  explorers  and  trappers.  F. 
Hoxie, The Crow 26–28, 33 (1989).  In an effort to promote
peace between Indians and white settlers and to mitigate
conflicts between different tribes, the United States nego-
tiated treaties that marked out a territory for each tribe to
use as a hunting district.  See 2 C. Kappler, Indian Affairs:
Laws and Treaties 594 (2d ed. 1904) (Kappler).  The Treaty 
of  Fort  Laramie  of  1851  (1851  Treaty),  11  Stat.  749, 
created such a hunting district for the Crow.

As  white  settlement  increased,  the  United  States  en-
tered into a series of treaties establishing reservations for 
the Crow and neighboring tribes, and the 1868 Treaty was
one such treaty.  15 Stat. 649; Kappler 1008.  It set out an 
8-million-acre reservation for the Crow Tribe but required 
the Tribe to cede ownership of all land outside this reser-
vation,  including  30  million  acres  that  lay  within  the
hunting  district  defined  by  the  1851  Treaty.    Under  this 
treaty, however, the Crow kept certain enumerated rights 
with  respect  to  the  use  of  those  lands,  and  among  these 
was  “the  right  to  hunt  on  the  unoccupied  lands  of  the 
United States so long as game may be found thereon, and 
as long as peace subsists among the whites and Indians on
the borders of the hunting districts.”  1868 Treaty, Art. IV,
15 Stat. 650. 

Shortly  after  the  signing  of  the  1868  Treaty,  Congress
created the Wyoming Territory, which was adjacent to and