Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-532_q86b.pdf
Page Number: 6.0

Cite as:  587 U. S. ____ (2019) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

the Tribe’s land.  Ibid.  Taylor emphasized that the Tribe
would  have  “the  right  to  hunt  upon”  the  land  it  ceded  to
the Federal Government “as long as the game lasts.”  Ibid. 
At  the  convening,  Tribe  leaders  stressed  the  vital  im-
portance of preserving their hunting traditions.  See id., at 
88 (Black Foot: “You speak of putting us on a reservation 
and teaching us to farm. . . . That talk does not please us. 
We  want  horses  to  run  after  the  game,  and  guns  and 
ammunition  to  kill  it.    I  would  like  to  live  just  as  I  have 
been raised”); id., at 89 (Wolf Bow: “You want me to go on 
a  reservation  and  farm.    I  do  not  want  to  do  that.    I  was 
not  raised  so”).  Although  Taylor  responded  that  “[t]he 
game  w[ould]  soon  entirely  disappear,”  he  also  reassured 
tribal  leaders  that  they  would  “still  be  free  to  hunt”  as 
they did at the time even after the reservation was created. 
Id., at 90. 

The  following  spring,  the  Crow  Tribe  and  the  United 
States  entered  into  the  treaty  at  issue  in  this  case:  the 
1868 Treaty.  15 Stat. 649.  Pursuant to the 1868 Treaty,
the Crow Tribe ceded over 30 million acres of territory  to 
the  United  States.    See  Montana,  450  U. S.,  at  547–548; 
Art. II,  15  Stat.  650.  The  Tribe  promised  to  make  its 
“permanent  home”  a  reservation  of  about  8  million  acres 
in  what  is  now  Montana  and  to  make  “no  permanent
settlement elsewhere.”  Art. IV, 15 Stat. 650.  In exchange,
the  United  States  made  certain  promises  to  the  Tribe, 
such as agreeing to construct buildings on the reservation,
to provide the Tribe members with seeds and implements
for  farming,  and  to  furnish  the  Tribe  with  clothing  and 
other  goods.  1868  Treaty,  Arts. III–XII,  id.,  at  650–652. 
Article IV of the 1868 Treaty memorialized Commissioner 
Taylor’s  pledge  to  preserve  the  Tribe’s  right  to  hunt  off-
reservation, stating: 

“The  Indians  . . .  shall  have  the  right  to  hunt  on  the 
unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game