Opinion ID: 759493
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claims Based on Aboriginal Possession and Use of Lands

Text: 62 The Tribe asserts a continuing right to fish in Lake Winnebago, Lake Michigan, and the Wisconsin River. The Menominee contend that, because they have used the resources of these waters from time immemorial and because none of the treaties expressly extinguished their aboriginal rights or fishing rights in those waters, the Tribe retains its aboriginal right to use those bodies of water free from state regulation. We disagree. 63 Extinguishment of Indian title based on aboriginal possession .... [can] be done by treaty, by the sword, by purchase, by the exercise of complete dominion adverse to the right of occupancy, or otherwise, [and] its justness is not open to inquiry in the courts. United States v. Santa Fe Pacific R.R. Co., 314 U.S. 339, 347, 62 S.Ct. 248, 86 L.Ed. 260 (1941). Abrogation of aboriginal title occurs without any legal responsibility in the sovereign [United States] to compensate the Indian for his loss. Northwestern Bands of Shoshone Indians, 324 U.S. at 339, 65 S.Ct. 690; see also Lac Courte Oreilles, 700 F.2d at 351 (citing Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States, 348 U.S. 272, 288-89, 75 S.Ct. 313, 99 L.Ed. 314 (1955)). Furthermore, the creation and acceptance of an Indian reservation by treaty constitutes a relinquishment of aboriginal rights to lands outside the reservation. Santa Fe Pacific R.R., 314 U.S. at 357-58, 62 S.Ct. 248; Lac Courte Oreilles, 700 F.2d at 352. The Tribe signed the 1854 Treaty which created the Wolf River reservation and extinguished any aboriginal rights the Menominee possessed, including aboriginal rights in land or water not specifically mentioned in any treaty. It is irrelevant whether members of the Tribe continued to use these off-reservation resources. Santa Fe Pacific R.R., 314 U.S. at 357, 62 S.Ct. 248. Because the Menominee can prove no set of facts under which they would be entitled to exercise aboriginal rights, this claim was properly dismissed as well.