Opinion ID: 414037
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The State's Cross-Appeal

Text: 33 In its opinion, the district court expressly found that the outer boundaries of the Band's reservation encompass navigable lakes. 524 F.Supp. at 734-735 n. 2; id. at 732-733, Findings Nos. 86, 87. That finding is also implicit in the reference to navigable waters lying within the outer boundaries of the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation in the district court's final judgment. App. 74a. In its cross-appeal, the State contends that this finding is erroneous. It argues that the Band had no understanding in 1854 about whether the boundaries of its reservation would be drawn so as to include navigable lakes, that when the Band selected parcels of land in 1873 to be included among the 69,120 acres of land comprising its reservation, it excluded meandered waters in order to maximize its acreage of dry land, that the acreage of dry land within the reservation equals 69,120 and that any exclusive rights in navigable waters that the Band enjoys, it enjoys by reason of its ownership of riparian lands, not by reason of any conveyance by the United States of such rights. 34 We need not decide in this case whether the outer boundaries of the Band's reservation encompass navigable lakes because regardless of whether they do, defendants lack jurisdiction to restrict public fishing and hunting in them. 13 We therefore vacate the district court's finding on that issue, and order that the district court's appended judgment be modified by substituting lakes adjacent to the dry lands of the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation for that part of the first sentence of the judgment after navigable and by substituting the same phrase for that part of the third sentence of the judgment after navigable through October 23, 1981. 35 Affirmed as modified.