Opinion ID: 412102
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Subsequent executive action.

Text: 34 The non-Indian permittees assert that an act of Congress of 1891, 16 U.S.C. Sec. 471 (repealed 1976), empowering the President to withdraw public lands from settlement in order to establish public reservations or national forests, also gave him the power to extinguish Indian treaty rights in those lands. We reject that reading of the 1891 Act. 35 It is well settled that congressional intent to abrogate rights reserved in Indian treaties and agreements must be expressed clearly and unequivocally. E.g., Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n, 443 U.S. at 690, 99 S.Ct. at 3077 ([a]bsent explicit statutory language, we have been extremely reluctant to find congressional abrogation of treaty rights); Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. at 413, 88 S.Ct. at 1711 ([w]e find it difficult to believe that Congress, without explicit statement, would subject the United States to a claim for compensation by destroying property rights conferred by treaty (footnote omitted)); United States v. Washington, 520 F.2d 676 (9th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1086, 96 S.Ct. 877, 47 L.Ed.2d 97 (1976). 36 We also reject the non-Indian permittees' argument that, since the 1868 Treaty was effectuated by presidential proclamation, the lands set aside for the Reservation were executive order lands rather than congressional lands. Relying upon that argument, they contend that unilateral executive action could terminate any rights in those lands without creating a cause of action for compensation. See Hynes v. Grimes Packing Co., 337 U.S. 86, 69 S.Ct. 968, 93 L.Ed. 1231 (1949); Confederated Bands of Ute Indians v. United States, 330 U.S. 169, 67 S.Ct. 650, 91 L.Ed. 823 (1947). Even if we accept the premise that the Reservation was originally created by executive order, in 1900 Congress ratified the 1898 Agreement, which reserved grazing rights to the Tribes. Subsequent congressional action would therefore be necessary to modify or abrogate its terms. The permittees have not pointed to any congressional enactment which purports to abrogate the Tribes' treaty rights, nor do they cite any post-Agreement delegation by Congress to the President of authority to abrogate Indian treaty rights without congressional consent. We agree with the district court's finding that the grazing rights reserved to the Tribes by the 1898 Agreement were not extinguishable by executive action and were not extinguished by subsequent congressional action. 37