Opinion ID: 1592875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The effect of the presidential order of 1850.

Text: The state argues that when President Taylor invoked the power given him under the 1837 and 1842 treaties to order the Chippewa removed from the ceded lands, this abrogated whatever fishing rights the Indians might have had. This assertion fails for several reasons. First, the provision in the 1854 treaty granting fishing rights and establishing reservations conflicts directly with the provisions of the earlier treaties providing for removal of the Chippewa to unceded lands from their land in Wisconsin. It is a standard rule of construction that when two statutes are manifestly in conflict the earlier statutes will be repealed by implication and the last one enacted will be controlling. [26] It seems reasonable that this rule should be applied to the present treaties, especially here when the treaty of 1854 represents a fundamental change in the government's policy toward the Lake Superior Chippewa. Prior to this treaty the policy was to remove the Indians to their unceded land; by this treaty the policy is reversed and directly states a policy of establishing reservations. Thus the policy of removal and the accompanying presidential power of removal were terminated by the 1854 treaty. The 1854 treaty governs the present relationship between the parties. As a second, related proposition, the president's power to issue the executive order relied upon by respondent must stem either from an Act of Congress or from the constitution. [27] Here the authorization was extended by the 1837 and 1842 treaties, but was revoked by the 1854 treaty establishing the reservations and granting fishing rights on Lake Superior. Thus, in 1854 the Congress was free to allow the Chippewa to fish in Lake Superior without violating the executive order of 1850. A third, and what is unquestionably a more basic response to the state's argument, is that the executive order does not revoke the fishing rights because it was never effective. This is not a situation in which the Indians stopped fishing in Lake Superior, moved from the area, and then returned under the protection of a new treaty. In the case of the Lake Superior Chippewa, they have been fishing in Lake Superior continually since the sixteenth or seventeenth century. While President Taylor ordered the Indians removed, the Chippewa continued to fish in Lake Superior and reside in the northernmost part of the state of Wisconsin. The Memorial passed by the Wisconsin legislature in 1854 recognizes the Chippewa as a people who acquired their living by hunting, fishing, and agriculture. [28] There is no indication that the executive order of 1850 had any effect whatsoever, except to motivate the people of Wisconsin to pass the Memorial referred to above. In view of the fundamental change in policy marked by the 1854 treaty, the rights granted in that treaty, and the fact that the order of 1850 did not result in an actual revocation of fishing rights, we conclude that the 1850 executive order has no effect upon the rights granted by the 1854 treaty.