Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-532_q86b.pdf
Page Number: 18.0

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

15 

Opinion of the Court 

Lacs, 526 U. S., at 207. 

Just as in Mille Lacs, there is no suggestion in the text
of  the  1868  Treaty  with  the  Crow  Tribe  that  the  parties
intended  the  hunting  right  to  expire  at  statehood.    The 
treaty  identifies  four  situations  that  would  terminate  the 
right:  (1)  the  lands  are  no  longer  “unoccupied”;  (2)  the 
lands no longer belong to the United States; (3) game can
no  longer  “be  found  thereon”;  and  (4)  the  Tribe  and  non-
Indians  are  no  longer  at  “peace  . . .  on  the  borders  of  the 
hunting  districts.”    Art.  IV,  15  Stat.  650.  Wyoming’s
statehood  does  not  appear  in  this  list.    Nor  is  there  any
hint in the treaty that any of these conditions would nec-
essarily  be  satisfied  at  statehood.  See  Mille  Lacs,  526 
U. S., at 207. 

The  historical  record  likewise  does  not  support  the 
State’s position.  See Choctaw Nation v. United States, 318 
U. S.  423,  431–432  (1943)  (explaining  that  courts  “may
look beyond the written words to the history of the treaty, 
the negotiations, and the practical construction adopted by
the parties” to determine a treaty’s meaning).  Crow Tribe 
leaders emphasized the importance of the hunting right in 
the 1867 negotiations, see, e.g., Proceedings 88, and Com-
missioner Taylor assured them that the Tribe would have
“the  right  to  hunt  upon  [the  ceded  land]  as  long  as  the 
game  lasts,”  id.,  at  86.    Yet  despite  the  apparent  im-
portance  of  the  hunting  right  to  the  negotiations,  Wyo-
ming  points  to  no  evidence  that  federal  negotiators  ever
proposed  that  the  right  would  end  at  statehood.    This 
silence is especially telling because five States encompass-
ing lands west of the Mississippi River—Nebraska, Nevada,
Kansas, Oregon, and Minnesota—had been admitted to the 
Union  in  just  the  preceding  decade.  See  ch.  36,  14  Stat. 
391  (Nebraska,  Feb.  9,  1867);  Presidential  Proclamation 
No.  22,  13  Stat.  749  (Nevada,  Oct.  31,  1864);  ch.  20,  12 
Stat.  126  (Kansas,  Jan.  29,  1861);  ch.  33,  11  Stat.  383 
(Oregon,  Feb.  14,  1859);  ch.  31,  11  Stat.  285  (Minnesota,