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2 

HERRERA v. WYOMING 

Opinion of the Court 

I 
A 
The  Crow  Tribe  first  inhabited  modern-day  Montana
more than three centuries ago.  Montana v. United States, 
450 U. S. 544, 547 (1981).  The Tribe was nomadic, and its 
members hunted game for subsistence.  J. Medicine Crow, 
From  the  Heart  of  the  Crow  Country  4–5,  8  (1992).    The 
Bighorn  Mountains  of  southern  Montana  and  northern 
Wyoming  “historically  made  up  both  the  geographic  and
the spiritual heart” of the Tribe’s territory.  Brief for Crow 
Tribe of Indians as Amicus Curiae 5. 

The  westward  migration  of  non-Indians  began  a  new 
chapter in the Tribe’s history.  In 1825, the Tribe signed a
treaty  of  friendship  with  the  United  States.    Treaty  With
the  Crow  Tribe,  Aug.  4,  1825,  7  Stat.  266.    In  1851,  the 
Federal  Government  and  tribal  representatives  entered
into the Treaty of Fort Laramie, in which the Crow Tribe 
and  other  area  tribes  demarcated  their  respective  lands. 
Montana,  450  U. S.,  at  547–548.    The  Treaty  of  Fort
Laramie  specified  that  “the  tribes  did  not  ‘surrender  the
privilege  of  hunting,  fishing,  or  passing  over’  any  of  the
lands in dispute” by entering the treaty.  Id., at 548. 

After  prospectors  struck  gold  in  Idaho  and  western 
Montana, a new wave of settlement prompted Congress to 
initiate  further  negotiations.  See  F.  Hoxie,  Parading 
Through  History  88–90  (1995).    Federal  negotiators,  in-
cluding  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  Nathaniel  G. 
Taylor,  met  with  Crow  Tribe  leaders  for  this  purpose  in 
1867.  Taylor  acknowledged  that  “settlements  ha[d]  been
made”  upon  the  Crow  Tribe’s  lands  and  that  their  “game
[was]  being  driven  away.”  Institute  for  the  Development
of  Indian  Law,  Proceedings  of  the  Great  Peace  Commis-
sion  of  1867–1868,  p. 86  (1975)  (hereinafter  Proceedings). 
He  told  the  assembled  tribal  leaders  that  the  United 
States wished to “set apart a tract of [Crow Tribe] country 
as  a  home”  for  the  Tribe  “forever”  and  to  buy  the  rest  of