Opinion ID: 1565977
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Tlingits' Right of Occupancy Extends to the Tidelands.

Text: The appellee insists that the fact that the area in question consists in tidelands further militates against the appellants' compensable right of occupancy therein. This Court, in the oft-quoted Heckman v. Sutter cases, 119 F. 83, 88, and 128 F. 393, 395, has held otherwise. In the first of these decisions, it was said: The prohibition contained in the act of 1884 against the disturbance of the use or possession of any Indian or other person of any land in Alaska claimed by them is sufficiently general and comprehensive to include tide lands as well as lands above high-water mark. Nor is it surprising that congress, in first dealing with the then sparsely settled country, was disposed to protect its few inhabitants in the possession of lands, of whatever character, by means of which they eked out their hard and precarious existence. In his second opinion, Judge Ross elaborated the point further: It is true that it has never been the policy of the United States to dispose of its tide lands, but, on the contrary, that its policy has always been to retain them for the benefit of the future state in which they might lie. But it is thoroughly settled that the United States has all the power of national and municipal government over its territories, and may, if it sees fit to do so, grant rights in or titles to the tide lands of its territories as well as the public lands therein situated above high-water mark. Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 14 S.Ct. 548, 38 L. Ed. 331, and the numerous cases there cited.