Opinion ID: 412102
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Grazing rights were reserved by the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty.

Text: 16 Article II of the Treaty secured the Fort Hall Reservation for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. The district court correctly concluded that this language clearly encompasses the exclusive right to graze cattle on Reservation lands. The absence of explicit language detailing the specific rights encompassed by the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation does not diminish the scope of the rights reserved to the Tribes. In United States v. Shoshone Tribe, 304 U.S. 111, 116-18, 58 S.Ct. 794, 797-98, 82 L.Ed. 1213 (1938), the Supreme Court found that the Fort Bridger Treaty reserved to the Eastern Band of Shoshone Indians the timber and mineral rights on lands within the Wind River Reservation, even though the Treaty was silent as to timber and mineral rights. For all practical purposes, the tribe owned the land. Id. at 116, 58 S.Ct. at 797. Similarly, grazing rights are within the rights reserved to the Tribes and the absence of specific language to that effect is of no consequence. 17 Further, we are bound to construe the Treaty to reserve to the Tribes all rights necessary to effectuate the purpose of the Treaty. Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404, 406, 88 S.Ct. 1705, 1707, 20 L.Ed.2d 697 (1968); Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564, 575-77, 28 S.Ct. 207, 211, 52 L.Ed. 340 (1908). The trial court found that the parties to the Treaty agreed and understood that the purpose of the Reservation was to enable the Tribes to transform themselves from a nomadic to an agrarian society and that grazing rights were essential to help effectuate this transformation. That finding has support in the record. We agree that both parties to the Treaty understood that the reservation of grazing rights was essential to achieving the purpose of the Treaty. See Skeem v. United States, 273 F. 93, 95 (9th Cir.1921). 18